Such was the substance
of his discourse, delivered on three different days, and amidst innumerable
interruptions from the president, who would not suffer the jurisdiction of
the court to be questioned, and at last ordered the "default and contempt
of the prisoner" to be recorded.
The two following days the court sat in private, to receive evidence that
the king had commanded in several engagements, and to deliberate on the
form of judgment to be pronounced.[a] On the third Bradshaw took his seat,
dressed in scarlet; and Charles immediately demanded to be heard. He did
not mean, he said, on this occasion either to acknowledge or deny the
authority of the court; his object was to ask a favour, which would
spare them the commission of a great crime, and restore the blessing of
tranquillity to his people. He asked permission to confer with a joint
committee of the Lords and Commons. The president replied that the proposal
was not altogether new, though it was now made for the first time by
the king himself; that it pre-supposed the existence of an authority
co-ordinate with that of the Commons, which could not be admitted; that
its object could only be to delay the proceedings of the court, now that
judgment was to be pronounced.
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