Read Online Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis - Free Book Online

uneasily crept back. That night, rumours grew that Parliament intended to impeach the Queen, in response to the constant reports that she was involving herself in plots. The King became alarmed. Charles then took an unprecedented step: he went to the House of Commons in person, intending to arrest five particular troublemakers himself. He took four hundred soldiers, armed with halberds, swords and pistols. They shoved aside the doorkeepers, jostled members and their servants, and filled the corridors, making ominous threats about their marksmanship as they pointed their weapons into the chamber through its open doors. Bursting in uninvited, the King haughtily demanded the Five Members. The Speaker refused to reply. Forewarned, the five men had disappeared through a back door. The furious King stared around and accepted that ‘the birds have flown’. He retreated ignominiously pursued by angry cries of ‘Privilege!’ His armed guard waited around for orders to fall upon the members and cut all their throats, but then dispersed in disappointment.
    The House of Commons declared the King’s act to be a high breach of the rights and privilege of Parliament. Once again they adjourned to the Guildhall.
    The Five Members, John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Arthur Hazlerigg and William Strode, had also fled to the City. Gideon and his partner had a new apprentice, Amyas, who came running in excitedly. ‘The Five Members are in Coleman Street!’
    At the Star Tavern?’ Gideon guessed.
    ‘That will be a secret then!’ Robert reproved. Amyas, say nothing to anyone.’
    ‘There could be spies,’ the boy acknowledged, fired up by this exciting idea.
    ‘Only if they are very stupid,’ murmured Robert. An informant for the Duke of Buckingham was once chased out of Coleman Street and stoned to death.’
    Theirs was one of the rumbling presses that worked through the night to give out news. Rumours flared of plots against members of Parliament, armed forces from the north gathering to attack London, dangerous new weapons that would stick in the body and could not be pulled out, sinister lists of citizens who would soon be rounded up …
    Next morning tension remained high. City businesses stayed closed for safety. The King ventured in procession from Whitehall to Guildhall, where the Commons were sitting in committee. It was only two minutes from their shop. Gideon joined the mutinous crowd outside. Again King Charles demanded the Five Members; after a turbulent meeting, again he was refused. He had to leave Guildhall empty-handed and depart from the City, accompanied as was traditional by the Lord Mayor and aldermen. Now the crowds who had welcomed him home from Edinburgh were more sullen. When the ornate royal coach reached Temple Bar, obstreperous citizens banged on the King’s coach, rocked it, peered rudely through the windows and even thrust copies of radical pamphlets inside.
    Gideon had run though the streets, chasing after the King’s coach. He followed it all the way beyond St Paul’s, out of the city gates and as far as Temple Bar. Borne along by curiosity, he was among the angry crowd who surged forward and tried to rock the coach; he even stepped on the footboard, and pulled himself up. He looked in at the window. At the masque in the Banqueting House all those years before, Gideon had barely glimpsed the King and Queen. Now, for just a second, Gideon Jukes stared King Charles in his long face. They were barely two feet apart. Ignoring the apparition at the window, the King looked calm and aloof; it was the bravery of ignorance. He was convinced of a safe return to his palace, despite this noise and inconvenience. The wild appearance of his indignant young subject made no impression at all. Gideon was the more disturbed by the moment.
    The carriage lurched. Gideon fell into the road, swinging by one hand for an instant, then landing on his back in the dust — from that moment a convinced republican.
    The Lord