The buzz of conversation in the House impedes its usual business no more than the dust raised by a troop impedes its march.  The judges—­who in the Upper House were mere assistants, without the privilege of speaking, except when questioned—­had taken their places on the second woolsack; and the three Secretaries of State theirs on the third.

The heirs to peerages flowed into their compartment, at once without and within the House, at the back of the throne.

The peers in their minority were on their own benches.  In 1705 the number of these little lords amounted to no less than a dozen—­Huntingdon, Lincoln, Dorset, Warwick, Bath, Barlington, Derwentwater—­destined to a tragical death—­Longueville, Lonsdale, Dudley, Ward, and Carteret:  a troop of brats made up of eight earls, two viscounts, and two barons.

In the centre, on the three stages of benches, each lord had taken his seat.  Almost all the bishops were there.  The dukes mustered strong, beginning with Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset; and ending with George Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and Duke of Cambridge, junior in date of creation, and consequently junior in rank.  All were in order, according to right of precedence:  Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, whose grandfather had sheltered Hobbes, at Hardwicke, when he was ninety-two; Lennox, Duke of Richmond; the three Fitzroys, the Duke of Southampton, the Duke of Grafton, and the Duke of Northumberland; Butler, Duke of Ormond; Somerset, Duke of Beaufort; Beauclerk, Duke of St. Albans; Paulet, Duke of Bolton; Osborne, Duke of Leeds; Wrottesley Russell, Duke of Bedford, whose motto and device was Che sara sara, which expresses a determination to take things as they come; Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; Manners, Duke of Rutland; and others.  Neither Howard, Duke of Norfolk, nor Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, was present, being Catholics; nor Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the French Malbrouck, who was at that time fighting the French and beating them.  There were no Scotch dukes then—­Queensberry, Montrose, and Roxburgh not being admitted till 1707.

CHAPTER VI.

THE HIGH AND THE LOW.

All at once a bright light broke upon the House.  Four doorkeepers brought and placed on each side of the throne four high candelabra filled with wax-lights.  The throne, thus illuminated, shone in a kind of purple light.  It was empty but august.  The presence of the queen herself could not have added much majesty to it.

The Usher of the Black Rod entered with his wand and announced,—­

“The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty.”

The hum of conversation immediately subsided.

A clerk, in a wig and gown, appeared at the great door, holding a cushion worked with fleurs de lis, on which lay parchment documents.  These documents were bills.  From each hung the bille, or bulle, by a silken string, from which laws are called bills in England and bulls at Rome.  Behind the clerk walked three men in peers’ robes, and wearing plumed hats.