Life and Death when there was never an Accuser but suborned by the Party accused so as a Man might well think it not the Trial of a Cause in a Court but the playing of an Enterlude upon a Stage In all this fearlesness of all things yet behold I pray you of what force is the Testimony of Conscience on either side Suddenly unlooked for there starteth up a young Man of the Earl of Lenox's House in whom the Respect of Duty vanquished the Fear of Danger This young Man made an open Protestation That the same Assembly of Judges was not lawful because in their Proceeding there was nothing done according to Law nor Order At this Saying the Judges were all stricken in such a fear that they all by and by with one accord made Protestation with proviso That it should not hereafter be prejudicial to them in that they acquitted a Prisoner whom no Man accused and that they had acquitted him of a Murder alledged to be committed the Ninth day of February when the King was slain the Tenth day This is that same noble Trial and Judgment whereby Bothwel was not cleansed of the Crime but as it were washed with Sowters Blacking and so more comely prepared to go a Wooing to wed the Queen and so to become a Husband to her greater shame than when he was before an Adulterer To make up yet the full perfection and encrease of this jolly Acquittal there was set up a Writing in the most notorious Place of the Court that though Bothwel had by just Trial and Judgment been lawfully cleared and acquitted of the Murder whereof he had been falsly accused yet for more manifest declaration of his Innocency to the whole World he was ready to try it in Combat if any Man of good Fame and a Gentleman born would charge him with the Murder of the King. The next day after there was one that set up a Bill in open place and offered to accept the Combat so that there might for the Battle be such a place appointed wherein the party might safely without fear disclose his Name While Matters and Mens Affections were in this stir the Parliament assembled there after they had for eight days together in manner done nothing but treated of reversing the Judgment whereby the Earl of Huntley's Father had been attainted of Treason and for restoring the Son to his Father's Possessions and Honours There were also certain plausible things granted to please the People and especially for the Church namely the repealing of certain Laws of Popish Tyranny made for punishing of such as durst once mutter against the Decrees of the See of Rome Though these things were acceptable among the Commonalty yet there remained one thing which no less vexed the Queen than offended the People that is to say her companying with Bothwel not altogether so openly as she would fain have had it and yet not so secretly but that the People perceived it for that all Mens eyes were gazing upon them For whereas Bothwel had a Wife of his own and to tarry for a Divorce was thought an overlong delay and in the mean time the Queen could neither openly avow to have him nor secretly enjoy him and yet in no wise could be without him some shift though not an honest one yet a shift forsooth must be devised And when they could not think upon a better it seemed to them a marvellous sine invention god wot that Bothwel should ravish and take away the Queen by force and so save her Honour So within a few days after as the Queen was returning from Sterline Bothwel forceably took her by the way and carried her to Dunbar whether with her Will or against her Will every Man may easily perceive by her own Letters that she wrote to him by the way as she was in her Journey But howsoever it were that the wrong of the Ravishment might be defaced with honest colour of Marriage Bothwel's Wife was compelled in two Courts to sue a Divorce against her Husband Before Judges delegate appointed by the Queen's Authority to have Jurisdiction in such Causes the Wife accuseth the Husband of Adultery which with them was a just cause of Divorce before Popish Judges who indeed by Law were forbidden yet by special Dispensation of the Bishop of St. Andrews were for the hearing of this Cause only permitted Bothwel was accused that before his Marriage with his Wife he had committed Fornication with his Wife 's near Kinswoman howbeit all this while they kept close the Pope's Bull by which the same offence was dispensed with The Divorce was posted forward without any slackness either in the Witnesses or in the Judges Within the space of ten days the matter was taken in hand began and intended joined unto tried and judged before both the Companies of Judges When the Sentence of Divorce was given and sent to Dunbar Bothwel by and by assembled together from all parts all his Friends his Servants and Retainers to convey to Edinburgh the Queen who would then needs take upon her to be a Prisoner When that they were thus gathered together the most part of them in Armour by the way as they were conducting the Queen many of them were suddenly stricken in some fear lest in time to come they might be charged for holding the Queen as Prisoner and although there were no other evidence yet this one thing would be proof enough against them That in time of Peace they were found about her While they were in this doubt in the midst of their Journey they all threw away their Launces and in more peaceable array at least in shew they conveyed her to the Castle of Edinburgh which Castle was also at that time at Bothwel's Commandment there she tarried with Bothwel while the Banes were publishing Then she came down out of the Castle into the Town to the common Assembly of the Judges and there pronounced her self to be free at her own liberty And so at length within eight days she finished that unmatrimonial Matrimony all good Men so far detesting or at least grudgingly fore-judging the unlucky end thereof that Monsieur de Croc the French King's Ambassadour a Man very well affectioned to the Queen one of the Faction of the House of Guise and sojourning very near to the place though he were earnestly required yet he thought he could not with his Honour be present at the Feast These things were done about the Twenty fifth of May in the year of our Lord 1597. The Twenty fifth day of Iune following Bothwel being either dismaid with a guilty Conscience of the vile Fact or sent away by the Queen she came her self to the Lords of the Realm who earnestly required the publick King-Murderer to be brought forth to due execution What hath been done since pertaineth not much to this present matter and though my Speech have been perhaps longer than you looked for yet I plainly perceive in my self that while I
seek to make an end of my Tale I have omitted and many things for haste I have but lightly touched and nothing have I according to the heinousness of the Offence fully expressed An Oration with a Declaration of the Evidence against MARY the Scottish Queen wherein is by necessary Arguments plainly proved That she was guilty and privy of the said Murder SEeing these things are by Writings and Witnesses so probable and stick so fast imprinted in the knowledge of all the People that such as would have them most hidden cannot deny them What place is here left for cunning or what need can be of diligence to prove or reprove a thing so plain and evident For all things are so clear so manifest and so mutually knit together each part to strengthen other that there is named of foreign Probations and all things so fully witnessed that there is no necessity of other Arguments For if any will ask me as in other matters is used to be asked the Causes of so foul a fact I might also likewise ask of him sith the Time the Place the Deed and the Author is sufficiently known to what purpose is it to stand upon searching the Causes or to enquire by what Means it was atchieved Again when there be extent so many Causes of Hatred and so many Tokens thereof which do offer themselves to knowledge as may well be able to bring even things uncertain to be believed surely so far-fetch'd an explication of the Act committed may right well seem superfluous Nevertheless forasmuch as so great is the Impudence of the vile Offenders in denying and so confident the Boldness of impudent Persons in lying let us assay to see with what Weapons Truth is able to defend Innocency against those wicked Monsters If then they demand the cause of so heinous a Deed I answer It was unappeasable Hatred I demand of them again If they can deny that such Hatred was or that the same Hatred was so great as without Blood could not be satisfied If they deny that such Hatred was then let them answer me Why she a young Woman Rich Noble and finally a Queen thrust away from her in a manner the young Gentleman into exile he being beautiful near of her kin of the Blood Royal and that which is greatest entirely loving her in the deep of sharp Winter into places neither fruitful of things necessary nor replenished with Inhabitants and commonly perillous being haunted with Thieves Why sent she him away into desart and craggy Mountains without provision into open perils and in a manner without any Company What could she more have done if she had most deadly hated him and covenanted to have him dispatched But I trow she feared no such thing but that voidness of Fear I construe to be a note of most obstinate Hatred especially sith she both knew the places and was not ignorant of the dangers That Husband therefore to whom she was but lately married against the Liking of her Subjects against the Will of their Friends on both sides without whom she could not endure whom she scarcely durst suffer out of her sight him I say she thrusteth forth to uncertain death and most certain perils Will ye ask of me the Causes of the change of her Affection What if I say I knew them not It sufficeth for my purpose to prove that she hated him What if I ask again why she so extreamly loved the young Man whom she never saw before why she so hastily married him and so unmeasurable honoured him Such are the natures of some Women especially such as cannot brook the Greatness of their own good Fortune They have vehement Affections both ways they love with excess and hate without measure and to what side soever they bend they are not governed by advised Reason but carried by violent Motion I could out of the Monuments of Antiquity rehearse innumerable Examples but of her self I had rather believe her self Call to mind that part of her Letters to Bothwel wherein she maketh her self Medea that is a Woman that neither in love nor hatred can keep any mean. I could also alledge other Causes of her hatred although indeed not reasonable Causes yet such as are able to shove forward and to push headlong an outrageous Heart which is not able to govern it self But herein I will forbear And if her self will suffer me howsover she hath deserved of her Subjects yet so much as the common Cause will permit I will spare her Honour yea I will spare it more than the Cause will allow me Therefore I omit her other Causes of Hatred and return to this that she hated and not meanly hated him Will you see also another Proof of her Hatred The tender Wife forsooth so loving and fond of him when she could not do him the Duty of a Wife offereth to do him the Service of a Bawd She made choice of her own Brother's Wife to put to him in her place What shall we think to be the Cause of this so suddain Change She that of late gapingly sought for every small Breath of Suspicion against her Husband and where true Causes were not to be found she invented such as were manifestly false And this she curiously did not when she loved him but when she had begun to hate him And while she was fishing for Occasions to be divorced from him even she I say of her own accord offereth him a Lover declareth her own Contentation therewith and promiseth her Furtherance What can we imagine to be the Cause hereof Was it to please her Husband No for she hated him And although she loved him yet such manner of doing in a Woman is uncredible Was it that he knowing himself likewise guilty of Adultery on his part might the more willingly bear with a Partner in use of his Wife No for he bare with all per-force against his Will. Was it to find Cause of Divorce and so to drive him to leave his Bed empty for Bothwel Yea that was it indeed that she sought for but yet not that alone for in this Woman you must imagine no single Mischief She hated the Earl Murray's Wife even with such Hatred as all unhonest Persons hate the honest The differences of their two Fames much vexed her and therewithal also she coveted to set the good Lady's Husband and the King together by the Ears and so rid her self of two Troubles at once Thus you see how many and how great things she practised to dispatch with one Labour Her Paramour's Enemy the Bridler of her Licentiousness and her own hated Husband she hopeth to rid all at once while by such sundry sorts of wicked Doings she maketh haste to her most wicked Wedding To what end tended that fearful hasty Calling for the Earl Murray at Mid-night Could she not tarry till Day-light What was the Occasion of so suddain Fear The good Woman God wot careful for the Concord of the Nobility dearly loving
by Writing were assembled to judge of the Pictures and Books that had been set out And if any Painter had not of his own Accord confessed that it was he of whose Work they enquired another that was not guilty thereof but touched a little with a slight Suspicion had suffered for it There was published a Proclamation agreeable with the manner of the Inquisition wherein it was made Death not only to set out any such Matter but also to read it being set out by another But these Persons that with threatning of Death practised to stop the Speech of the People yet not satisfied with the most cruel Murder of the King ceased not their Hatred against him when he was dead All his Goods Armour Horses Apparel and other Furniture of his House the Queen divided some to them that slew him and some to his Father's ancient deadly Foes as if they had upon Attainder come to her by Forfeiture and his Father's Tenants as though they had been also Part of her conquered Booty she so scraped till she brought them in a manner to extream Beggary But this was a strange Example of Cruelty and such as never was heard of before that as she had satisfied her Heart with his Slaughter so she would needs feed her Eyes with the Sight of his Body slain For she long beheld not only without Grief but also with greedy Eyes his dead Corps the goodliest Corps of any Gentleman that ever lived in this Age And then suddenly without any Funeral Honour in the Night time by common Carriers of dead Bodies upon a vile Bier she caused him to be buried hard by David Rizo When these doings were known abroad and that the Indignation of the People had overcome the Threatnings of Penalties and the Frankness of Sorrow surmounted Fear by little and little she began to set her Face and with counterfeiting of Mourning she laboured to appease the Hearts of the grudging People For where the ancient manner hath been for Queens after the Death of their Husbands by the space of forty Days not only to forbear the Company of Men but also from looking on the open Light she attempted a disguised manner of Mourning But the Mirth of Heart far passing the feigned Sorrow she shut the Doors indeed but she set open the Windows and within four days she threw away her wailing Weed and began to behold both Sun and open Sky again But this one thing fell very overthwartly For when Henry Killegree was come from the Queen of England to comfort her as the manner is this Gentleman Strangers hap was to marr the Play and unvizor all the disguising For when he was by the Queen's Commandment come to the Court though he being an old Courtier and a good discreet Gentleman did nothing hastily yet he came in so unseasonably e'er the Stage was prepared and furnished that he found the Windows open the Candles not yet lighted and all the Provision for the Play out of Order When of the forty Days that are appointed for the Mourning scarce twelve were yet fully past and the counterfeiting would not frame half handsomly and to disclose her true Affections so soon she was somewhat ashamed at length taking Heart of Grace unto her and neglecting such Trifles she cometh to her own Biass and openly sheweth her own natural Conditions She posteth to Seton's House with a very few and those not all of the saddest Company There Bothwel though it seemed that for the great Favour he then had in Court and for the Nobility of his Birth and other respects of Honour he should have been next after the Queen most honourably received yet was lodged in a Chamber hard by the Kitchin. Howbeit the same was a Place not altogether unfit to asswage their Sorrows for it was directly under the Queen's Chamber And if any sudden qualm of Grief should have happened to come over her Heart there was a pair of Stairs though somewhat narrow yet wide enough for Bothwel to get up to comfort her In the mean time after the Rumour hereof was spread into France Mounsieur de Croc who had often before been Ambassador in Scotland came in suddenly upon them God wot full unseasonably By his Advice she returned to Edinburgh out of that Den which even as far as France was infamous But in Seton's House were so many commodious Opportunities for her Purpose that howsoever her good Name were thereby impaired needs she must go thither again There were Counsels holden of the great Affairs of the Realm The end of the Consultation was that Bothwel should be arraigned of the Murder and acquitted by Judges thereto chosen for the Purpose and constrained It was concluded That the meaner sort of the Judges might with Favour and fair Promises be led and the rest of the greater and graver sort whom for Fashions Sake they were driven to call to the Matter might be drawn with Fear to acquit him For beside Libels thereof commonly thrown abroad the King's Father the Earl of Lenox did openly accuse Author of the Murder The Assembly of the States in Parliament was at hand which was to be holden the thirteenth of April before which Day they would needs have the Arraignment dispatched That great haste was the Cause why in that Proceeding and Trial nothing has been done according to the Form of Law nothing in Order nothing after the ancient Usage There ought to have been publick Summons of the Accusers the next of the Kin the Wife the Father and the Son either to be present themselves or to send their Proctors The Law also gave them time of forty Days But here the Father was commanded to come within thirteen Days and that without any Assembly of his Friends with his own Houshold Retinue only which by Reason of his great Poverty was now brought to a few While in the mean time Bothwel with great Bands of Men daily mustered about the Town And because he verily believed that in so assured Peril no Man would take upon him to be his Accuser he grew to such a Negligence and such Contempt of Law and judicial Proceedings that the Indictment was framed of a Murder supposed to be done the ninth Day of February when indeed the King was slain the tenth Day In chusing and refusing of the Judges the like Severity was used for the Murderers themselves made the Choice of the Judges when there was no Man to take Exception against them The Earl of Cassiles willing rather to pay his Amercement as the manner is than to be a Judge in the Matter when he had stood in it a while and would not appear at the Queen's Request and Menacing yea though she sent her Ring for Credit both of her earnest Prayer and Threatning at length constrained with Fear of Exile and Punishment he yielded There sate the Judges not chosen to judge but picked out to acquit The Cause proceeded without any Adversary A Trial in a Matter of
had never seen with her Eyes heard with her Ears nor considered in her Heart the form of a Kingdom governed by Law and thereto was furnished with the untemperate Counsels of her Kinsmen who themselves practised to set up a Tyrannous Rule in France endeavoured to draw Right Equity Laws and Customs of Ancestors to her only beck and pleasure Of this immoderate desire there burst out from her many times many words disclosing it this she studied day and night But against this Desire there withstood the Custom of the Country the Laws and Statutes and principally the Consent of the Nobility who remaining safe she could never attain it To the end therefore that she might be able violently to atchieve it she determined by force to remove all that stood in her way but she wist not well by what means or by whose help to attempt it Fraud was the way to work it for otherwise it was not possible to be obtained For this purpose therefore Bothwel only seemed the fittest Man a Man in extream poverty doubtful whether he were more vile or wicked and who between factions of sundry Religions despising both sides counterfeited a love of them both He when he had once before offered the Hamilton's his service to murder the Earl Murray gave thereby a likelihood that upon hope of greater gain he would not stick to adventure some greater Enterprize being one whom the Ruine of his own decayed Family prick'd forward headlong to mischief and whom no respect of Godliness or Honesty restrained from ungracious Actions As for excessive and immoderate use of Lechery be therein no less sought to be famous than other Men do shun Dishonour and Infamy She therefore a Woman greedily coveting untempered Authority who esteemed the Laws her Prison and the Bridle of Justice her Bondage when she saw in her Husband not mettle enough to trouble the State she pick'd out a Man for her purpose who neither had Wealth to lose nor Fame to be stained even such an one as she might easily overthrow again if she should once grow weary of him such a one as she might easily snare his Incontinence with wanton Allurements satisfie his need with Money and bind his Assuredness to her with a guilty Conscience and Confederate in Mischiefs These be the Fountains of that same not unmeasurable but mad Love in famous Adultery and vile Parricide wherewith as with a Pledge that bloody Marriage was plighted These therefore were the causes of enterprizing that heinous Act to wit unappeasable Hatred of her Husband and intemperate Love of her Adulterer There was moreover a hope that the Crime might be diverted from them to other and the execution for it might be laid upon the poor Lives of their Enemies and that Men most guiltless of the fault might be thrust in their place as Sacrifices to appease the Peoples displeasure if not to what end then served that Battel which was almost begun to be fought between the King and the Lord Robert her Brother To what end tended those Seeds of Discord that were scattered between the King and the Nobility Wherefore did she so curiously intreat the Earl Murray to stay with her the day before the Murther was committed or what cause was there to send for him There was an Ambassadour come out of Savoy For what cause surely it must needs be a great Cause and such as could not be ended without the assembly of the Nobility no god wot the Ambassadour of Savoy being bidden too late to the Christening came when all was ended not for Ambassadour to the Christening but as one sent to excuse the neglecting of doing that Kindness when both he liked not to send so far for so small a matter and he was somewhat ashamed to have failed in presence when the French-men and English-men had already done it For the more honourable dismissing of him the Earl Murray was sent for and that with sundry Messengers to come from his Wife that lay a dying What need was there then of his presence To draw him to be a party in Conspiracy of the Slaughter Why was it never attempted before Thought they it best at the last point at the very instant when the Murder should be committed to join him to their Fellowship as a light Man inconstant and shifting his Purposes at every moment of time infamous in his former Life and not well assured in his present Estate No there is none of these things that they yet dare say of him Seeing then they cannot imagine a false Cause to stay him what was the true cause indeed every Man may easily gather even the same that caused first the Earl of Athole and afterwards him to depart from the Court the same that so brought him in danger of Death the same that had slandered him with false Rumours scattered in England the same that persecuted him with infamous Libels of the Murderers themselves the same that made him to chuse rather to go into Banishment than to remain in Court among Ruffians Weapons with great peril of his Life But what availeth this Equity of the Cause before Hearers either utterly ignorant of the matter how it was done or of themselves disfavouring this part are envious or apt to be carried away with feigned Rumours which esteem the Slanders of most lewd light Persons for true Testimonies and give credit to these Men who boasting at home that they are able to do what they list yet neither dare commit their Cause to the Sentence of the Judges nor were able to defend themselves in Battel And as by a guilty Conscience of Offences they feared Judgment so by Rage grown of their Guiltiness they run headlong to Battel and from Battel run cowardly away And now again when standing upon the Advantage that they have both in number and wealth they scorn the Wisdom of their Adversaries and despise their Power in comparison of their own yet distrusting to prevail by true Manhood they fall to Robbery and turn their ungracious Minds to Slandering Cavelling and Lying whom but yet for the good will that I bear to my Country-men I would advise to cease from this folly or fury or disease of evil speaking lest in time to come when Truth shall shine out they shut up and stop with hatred of them those Persons Ears to their Petitions whom now they fill and load with false Rumours for there will not always be place for forgiveness but as Darkness at the Sun shining so Lyes at the Light of Truth must vanish away As for the commodious means for committing that vile fact and the hope of hiding it I need not to pursue the declaring of them in many words sith both the easiness to do it the opportunities of places and all advancements of occasions and seasons were in their own power And to hide the Fact what needed they when they feared no punishment although it were published For what Punishment could they fear in so strong
nothing by it for what the Examiners would have had kept secret that the People cried out openly that which they suppressed burst forth and that which they cloaked in secret it breaketh out into broad light But there was a Proclamation set forth with pardon of the Fact and promise of Reward to him that would utter it Why who had been so mad that he durst in so manifest peril of his Life bear Witness or give Information against the Judges themselves in whose power lay his Life and Death It was likely forsooth that they which had murdered a King would spare him that should disclose the Murderer especially when all Men saw that the Enquiry of the King's Slaughter was quite omitted and the other Enquiry severely pursued concerning Books accusing the Slaughter What manner of Judgment it was whereby Bothwel was quitted you have heard forsooth by himself procured the Judges by himself chosen the Accusers by himself suborned lawful Accusers forbidden to be present unless they would yield their Throats to their Enemies Weapons the Assize appointed neither to a day according to the Law of the Land nor after the manner of the Country nor to enquire of the Murder of the King but of such a Murder as was alledged to be committed the day before that the King was slain Here when Bothwel by his Friendship and Power and the Queen by Prayer and Threatning travailed with the Judges do you now expect what Sentence Men chosen against Law and against the Custom of the Land have pronounced In their Judgment they touched the matter nothing at all only this they have declared That it was no lawful Judgment in this that with a special Protestation they provided That it should not be prejudicial to them in time to come Then that all Men might understand what it was that they sought by Sword Fire and Poison they jumble up Marriages one is Divorced another is Coupled and that in such posting speed as they might scant have hasted to furnish a Triumph of some Noble Victory Yet that in these unlawful Weddings some shew of lawful Order might be observed the goodly Banes were openly proclaimed for publishing whereof though the Minister of the Church was threatned with Death if he did it not yet at the time of his publishing himself openly protested That he knew Cause of Exception why that Marriage was not lawful But in such a Multitude assembled how few were they that knew it not Sith all could remember well that Bothwel had then alive two Wives already not yet Divorced and the third neither lawfully Married nor orderly Divorced But that was not it that was intended to observe the Ceremonies of lawful Order but as they do use in Interludes they provided a certain shew or disguised counterfeiting of common usage For he that hath oft brokeâ— all Humane Laws and hath cast away all Conscience and Religion could easily neglect the Course of God's Law. Now I suppose I have briefly declared in respect of the greatness of the matter and yet perhaps in more words than needed the plainness of the profes considered of what purpose by what counsel and upon what hope that heinous murder was attempted with what cruelty it was executed by what tokens advertisements testimonies and letters of the Queen her self the whole matter is proved and so plainly proved that it may be as openly seen as if it lay before your eyes yet will I shew forth the testimony of the whole people which I think worthy not to be neglected For several men do commonly deceive and are deceived by others but no man deceiveth all men nor is deceived by all This testimony of the people is this When at the Queens going abroad among the people the greatest part of the Commons were wont to make Acclamations wishing her well and happily with such Speeches as either Love enforceth or Flattery inventeth now at her going after the Kings slaughter to the Castle through the chief and most populous Street of the Town there was all the way a sad glooming silence And when any woman alone of the multitude had cryed God save the Queen another by and by so cryed out as all men might hear her So be it to every one as they have deserved Albeit these things were thus done as I have declared yet there are some that stick not to say that the Queen was not onely hardly but also cruelly dealt with that after so detestable a fact she was removed from her Regency and when they could not deny the fact they complained of the punishment I do not think there will be any man so shameless to think that so horrible a fact ought to have no punishment at all But if they complain of the grievousness of the penalty I fear lest to all good men we may seem not to have done so gently and temperately as loosly and negligently that have laid so light a penalty upon an offence so heinous and such as was never heard of before For what can be bone cruelly against the authour of so outragious a deed wherein all laws of God and man are violated despised and in a manner wholly extinguished Every several offence hath his punishment both by God and man appointed and as there be certain degrees of evil deeds so are there also encreases in the quantities of punishments If one have killed a man it is a deed of it self very heinous What if he have killed his familiar friend what if his father what if in one soul fact he hath joyned all these offences together surely of such a one neither can his life suffice for imposing nor his body for bearing nor the Judges policy for inventing pain enough for him Which of these faults is not comprised in this offence I omit the mean common matters the murdering of a young gentleman an innocent her countrey-man her kinsman her familiar her Cousin-german Let us also excuse the fact if it be possible She unadvisedly a young Woman angry offended and one of great innocency of life till this time hath slain a lewd young man an adulterer an unkind husband and a cruel King. If not any one but all these respects together were in this matter they ought not to avail to shift off all punishment but to raise some pity of the case But what say you that none of these things can so much as be falsly pretended The fact it self of it self is odious in a woman it is monstrous in a wife not onely excessively loved but also most zealously honoured it is uncredible and being commited against him whose age craved pardon whose hearty affection required love whose nighness of kindred asked reverence whose innocency might have deserved favour upon that young man I say in whom there is not so much as alledged any just cause of offence thus to execute and spend yea to exceed all torments due to all offences in what degree of cruelty shall we account it But let these