Within a few days
he received an order to wait on the protector in London in company with
Colonel White, who had secretly accused him; but both were lost[a] on the
Goodwin Sands, through the ignorance or the stupidity of the captain.[1]
At home the public attention was absorbed by a new and most interesting
spectacle. The parliament met on the day to which it had been adjourned,
but it was now divided according to the ancient form into two houses.
Sixty-two individuals had been summoned[b] to the upper house, and the
writs, as they were copies of those formerly issued by the sovereign, were
held to confer in like manner the privileges of an hereditary peerage,
subject to certain exceptions specified in the "petition and advice."[2]
The Commons, at the call of the usher of the black rod, proceeded to the
House of Lords, where they found his highness seated under a canopy of
state. His speech began with the ancient address: "My lords and gentlemen
of the House of Commons." It was short, but its brevity was compensated by
its piety, and after an exposition of the eighty-fifth psalm, he referred
his two houses for other particulars to Fiennes, the lord-keeper, who, in a
long and tedious
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 231, 287, 426, 512, 538, 542, 580, 637, 665, 676,
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