His ability enabled Blake to cope with Holland on the sea.
[Illustration: SIR HENRY VANE.] After the restoration, parliament had excepted Sir Henry Vane from the indemnity, on the king's promise that he should not suffer death.

It was resolved to bring him to trial, and he turned his trial into a triumph.
Though he had always been supposed to be a timid man, he appeared before his judges with animated fearlessness.

Instead of offering apologies for his career, he denied the imputation of treason with scorn, defended the right of Englishmen to be governed by successive representatives, and took glory to himself for actions which promoted the good of England and were sanctioned by parliament as the virtual sovereign of the realm.

"He spoke not for his life and estate, but for the honor of the martyrs to liberty that were in their graves, for the liberties of England, for the interest of all posterity to come." When he asked for counsel, the solicitor said: "Who will dare speak for you, unless you can call down from the gibbet the heads of your fellow-traitors ?" "I stand single," Vane defiantly answered.

"Yet, being thus left alone, I am not afraid, in this great presence, to bear my witness to the glorious cause, nor to seal it with my blood." Stimulated by the magnanimity of this noble spirit, his enemies clamored for his life.