supported by the enemies of the king, for the false plot against whose life he was now to die. It was a memorial to all time of the ignorance of the principles of evidence and the nature of true justice which characterised their age. Sentence as usual in cases of high treason was pronounced on the condemned man, but at the request of the peers the king commuted the penalty to beheading alone. Efforts were made to obtain a pardon, but without avail. Charles was determined to let the law take its course that he might not be said to balk the ends of justice.[764] The sheriffs disputed the validity of the warrant for Stafford’s decapitation and requested the advice of the House of Commons on the following questions: “Can the king, being neither party nor judge, order the execution? Can the lords award the execution? Can the king dispense with any part of the execution? If he can dispense with a part, why not with all?” To the ingenuity of Sir William Jones was due the studied insult offered to Charles in the answer of the House: “The house is content that the sheriffs should execute William, late Viscount Stafford, by severing his head from his body.”[765] The excitement which prevailed in London was intense. Throughout the trial Stafford had been hooted in the streets on his way to and from the Tower. Angry brawls arose between the witnesses and the crowd at the doors of Westminster Hall. When Dugdale swore that the prisoner had offered him £500 to kill the king, a savage hum arose in the precincts of the court itself and drew a severe rebuke from the Lord High Steward.[766] On December 29, 1680 Stafford was led to the scaffold. From the place of execution he read a lengthy speech, which was published in print on the same afternoon, asserting his innocence and vindicating his religion.[767] His words fell on deaf ears. A vast crowd was assembled to witness his death. Almost all historians have repeated the assertion that the spectators were touched and answered with cries of, “We believe you, my Lord; God bless you, my Lord.”[768] The story is a mere fable. Lord Stafford died with howls of execration of the bigoted London mob ringing in his ears. The cries with which he was met testify relentlessly that the belief in his guilt was firmly fixed in the mind of the nation.[769] The Popish Plot was not yet a thing of the past. But the result of Lord Stafford’s trial was not altogether what was expected. Shaftesbury and his party indeed gained a temporary victory, but the ultimate triumph was to the king. His steadiness, restraint, and readiness for compromise contrasted favourably with the intolerance and unconciliating attitude of the Whigs. Their game was played for the crown and, when their rejection of all offers short of that made their motive plain to the nation, Charles had the nation at his back. The violence with which they attempted to force the king’s hand alienated public feeling. He was able to dissolve