The prisoners, when they approached the bar (after kneeling), bowed to his grace the Lord High Steward, and to the House of Peers, which compliment was returned to them both by his grace and by the House of Peers. The Lord High Steward then ordered the articles of impeachment to be read; after which, he asked them severally what they had to say for themselves why judgment should not pass upon them according to law? Lord Derwentwater spoke at some length; and after him the Earl of Nithsdale, and the Viscount Kenmure. They all pleaded guilty; but expressed their hope that the assurances of clemency held out to them at Preston would not prove fallacious. Lord Nithsdale concluded with professing, what his wife well knew he spoke in sincerity and truth, that if mercy were extended towards him, "he should, during the remainder of his life, pay the utmost duty and gratitude to his most gracious majesty, and the highest veneration and respect to their lordships and the honourable House of Commons." The Lord High Steward, who did not hear distinctly, inquired whether the Earl of Nithsdale had pleaded anything in arrest of judgment; to which the earl replied in a clear sonorous voice, whose mellow tones seemed to thrill through the whole assembly, "No, my lords, I have not!" The Lord High Steward then stood up. Every breathing was hushed! Such stillness reigned throughout the dense mass of living creatures congregated within the spacious hall, that each rain-drop might be heard as it pattered against the windows. But there came a singing, rushing sound in Lady Nithsdale's ears: at first she could scarcely distinguish the awful words which were slowly, clearly, solemnly pronounced.