Note 326 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
"Unhappy Stuart! harshly though that name Grates on my ear, I should have died with shame, To see my King before his subjects stand, And at their bar hold up his royal hand; At their command to hear the monarch plead, By their decrees to see that monarch bleed. What though thy faults were many, and were great— What though they shook the fabric of the state? In royalty secure thy person stood, And sacred was the fountain of thy blood. Vile ministers, who dared abuse their trust, Who dared seduce a king to be unjust, Vengeance, with justice leagued, with power made strong, Had nobly crush'd—The King can do no wrong." Gotham.—S.