Volume I Part 10 (2/2)
On the next day Thomas Harrison[36] was put up to plead.
CLERK--Thomas Harrison, How sayest thou? Art thou Guilty of the treason whereof thou standest indicted, and art now arraigned?
Or not Guilty?
HARRISON--My Lords, have I liberty to speak?
COURT--No more (at this time) than Guilty or Not Guilty. Mr.
Harrison, you have heard the direction before. We can but give you the same rule. If you plead Guilty you shall be heard at large; if Not Guilty, you know what remains.
HARRISON--Will you give me leave to give you my answer in my own words?
LORD CHIEF-BARON--There is no answer but what the law directs; it is the same with you as with all others, or as I would desire if I was in your condition. You must plead Not Guilty, or if you confess Guilty, there must be judgment on your confession.
HARRISON--You express your rule very fair, as well to me as to this gentleman (pointing to sir H. Waller, who had just pleaded guilty); but I have something to say, which concerns your Lords.h.i.+ps as well as myself.
COURT--You must hold, and plead Guilty or Not Guilty.
HARRISON--My Lord, I have been kept close prisoner near these three months, that n.o.body might have access to me. Do you call me to give you a legal answer, not knowing of my trial till nine of the clock last night, and brought away from the Tower to this place at six of the clock this morning?
COURT--You must give your direct answer, Guilty, or Not Guilty.
You cannot say it is sudden or unprovided. You spend your time in vain. You trouble the Court. You must plead Guilty, or Not Guilty. We must not suffer you to make discourses here. You must plead either Guilty or Not Guilty.
CLERK--Are you Guilty, or Not Guilty?
After objecting to plead in this way for a little more time, Harrison was at last persuaded to plead Not Guilty. He then objected to complete the usual formula by saying that he would be tried by G.o.d and his Country, saying that they were vain words; but eventually--
HARRISON--I do offer myself to be tried in your own way by G.o.d and my Country.
CLERK--G.o.d send you a good deliverance.
On the next day, the 11th, at seven o'clock in the morning, Harrison's trial began by the calling of the jury, of whom Harrison challenged thirty-five, his maximum number.
The case was then opened by Finch, the Solicitor-General, who, after explaining the law of treason by quotations from the Bible and c.o.ke, charged the prisoner more particularly with having brought the King up to London; with having signed the warrant const.i.tuting the Court which tried him; with having sat as a member of the Court; and with having signed the death-warrant.
All the witnesses were then sworn, six in all.
_Masterson_ proved that he saw Harrison sitting 'in that which they called the High Court of Justice' on the 27th of January 1649, the day when the King was sentenced; and that when the sentence was read he, with others, stood up as a.s.senting to it. _Clark_, _Kirk_, and _Nutley_ also gave evidence to the same effect; the latter adding that some few days before the 20th there was a Committee in the Exchequer Chamber of which the prisoner was a member.
I do remember well it was in the evening; they were lighting of candles, they were somewhat private. This gentleman was there, I saw him; for through the kindness of Mr. Phelps, who was then Clerk to that Committee, I was admitted, pretending first to speak with the said Mr. Phelps, and that I had some business with him; and so (as I said before) I was admitted into the Committee Chamber. Being there I did observe some pa.s.sages fall from the prisoner at the bar; the words were to this purpose; he was making a narrative of some discourse that pa.s.sed between his late majesty and himself in coming between Windsor and London, or Hurst Castle, I know not well which. My Lord, that pa.s.sage that I observed to fall from him in that discourse was this; he said that the King as he sat in the coach with him was importunate to know what they intended to do with him. The King asked, What do they intend to do with me; Whether to murder me or no? 'and I said to him, There was no such intent on as to kill him, we have no such thoughts.' But (said he) the Lord has reserved you for a public example of justice. There is one word more, my Lords, and that is this, which I heard from the prisoner at the bar. The reason and end of their meeting together at that Committee was concerning the charge. So much I observed. It was concerning the contracting of the impeachment.
I observed that some found fault with the length of that as it was drawn. They were offering some reasons to contract it, and I heard this prisoner at the bar vent this expression; 'Gentlemen, it will be good for us to blacken him what we can; pray let us blacken him,' or words to that purpose. I am sure 'blacken' was his word.
_Lord Newburgh_,[37] when he was living at Bagshot, saw Harrison conducting the King in custody from Hurst Castle to London. The two warrants, one for the trial, the other for the execution of the King, were produced, and Harrison's signatures to them were proved to be in his handwriting. The Court pointed out that they were not produced as records, but as evidence of overt acts of const.i.tuting a compa.s.sing of the King's death on his part.
HARRISON--I do not come to be denying anything that in my own judgment and conscience I have done or committed, but rather to be bringing it forth to the light.
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