and Allegiance His Majesty might justly claim from him upon many more Obligations besides that of being his Subject But it was one of the first and principal Artifices of the Earl of Shaftsbury's Malice after his own disgrace at Court to be reveng'd on the King by afflicting him in so tender a part and by sly Insinuations to wrest from his Bosom a Person who he knew had so great a share in His Majesties Affections This was indeed a Talent peculiar to the Earl of Shaftsbury That of all Men living he could most easily turn himself into all shapes and comply with all Dispositions positions having by long practice got the skill to cover his Hooks with Baits fitting every Humour The Covetous who are no small Number of the pretended Godly Party those he was wont to feed and deceive with hopes of Wealth and new Sequestrations The Ambitious with Praise and Vain-Glory The Nonconformist Zealots with Promises of Liberty in Religion sometimes not refusing to stoop lower and even to serve and assist the Pleasures and Debauches of Men that way inclin'd if he found them any way useful for his purpose Wherefore the said Earl observing in the Duke of Monmouth a Mind rash unsteady and ambitious soon made him an easie Prey to his wicked Subtilty disguised under fair and plausible Colours On the one side puffing up his Youthful Thoughts with a vain Ostentation of Honour and the Temptation of Fame to be gotten by Asserting and Defending his Countries Liberties and Religion always pretended by him to be in imminent danger whilst He was out of place On the other inflaming him with imaginary Suspicions of the Duke of York's irreconcilable Hatred to his Person Which was so far from having any real Foundation that on the contrary His Majesty who best knows does freely here testifie for his dearest Brother in this particular That the Duke of Monmouth till he made himself uncapable of his Friendship never had a more entire or fast Friend about His Majesty and there was scarce ever any Honour or Benefit conferr'd on him but it was obtain'd of His Majesty by his Royal Highnesses Intercession However by such groundless Jealousies and empty Conceits was the Duke of Monmouth insensibly drawn to desert his only true Interest and to give himself over to the Delusions of His Majesties mortal Enemies This the King apparently perceiving and foreseeing how in the Event it would tend to the said Dukes inevitable Ruine His Majesty tryed by all imaginable ways of Kindness to cast forth the Evil Spirit in him and to rescue him out of their Hands At length when no milder course would serve His Majesty required him on his Allegiance to go beyond the Seas and there to remain till his farther pleasure was signified His Majesty still hoping that at so great a distance the Poyson would be lest effectual and that by his absence the said Duke would be kept Innocent of the Treasonable designs which his New Associates were furiously carrying on against the Government But in that expectation His Majesty was unfortunately disappointed The Duke of Monmouth presently shew'd how much his False Friends and Treacherous Flatterers had prevailed over his unwary Youth and how different they had taught him to be from the Obedience which at the same time was practised by his Royal Highness For the said Duke of Monmouth soon return'd into England contrary to His Majesties express Command The discontented Party having thus got him again and made him surer to themselves by this new Affront to His Majesty began now to take new Life and Vigor by his presence With insufferable Boldness and Contempt of Authority shewed him every where to the Rabble Leading him about with insolent Pomp through many Countries openly owning and crying him up as the Head of their Cause the unhappy Young-Man all the white not understanding that he was only a Property By these fatal steps he was was at last brought into the most pernicious Counsels and Undertakings And whilst nothing less was intended by his Tempters but the subversion of all that is well-settled and sacred in Church and State they deluded him into the very same Designs by popular Shews and empty Names of the Protestant Duke the great Champion and Protector of the Privileges of the Subject and the Reformed Religon Which under His Majesty can never want any other Protector nor can ever stand in need of such Champions as many of late have vaunted themselves to be of whole Religion there can be given no better Account than of their Loyalty Such then was the state of things when upon the first breaking forth of this Horrid Conspiracy His Majesty with inexpressible Surprize and Grief Found by undoubted Evidence the Duke of Monmouth very deeply engaged and therefore had but too just reason to put him into a Proclamation among the other Conspirators After that the said Duke had withdrawn himself from His Majesties Justice and so long was become incapable of his Forgiveness In this obstinate defiance the Duke of Monmouth continued till the Outlawry against him and other his Complices began to draw to an Issue Then His Majesty receiv'd from him the first Letter In which His Majesty fancy'd he saw a greater Spirit of Ingenuity than afterwards proved However finding in it so clear and full expressions of the said Dukes remorse for his former Disloyalty to His Majesty and Ingratitude to the Duke of York and so frank Professions of his Resolutions to amend for the future joyn'd with the greatest Imprecations on himself if he should wilfully violate his Promises therein made His Majesty did thereupon immediately return this Answer written with his own Hand that His Majesty might not be wanting on his part to lay hold on any good and probable Opportunity of reducing him to Reason and saving him from utter Ruine If the Duke of Monmouth desires to make himself capable of my Mercy he must render himself to the Secretary and resolve to tell me all he knows resigning himself entirely to my Pleasure This determinate Declaration of His Majesties Will drew from the Duke of Monmouth a second Letter wherein with vehement and pathetick Words he aggravates his Distraction and Torment for having offended His Majesty Confesses Himself in fault betray'd into fatal Mistakes misled into Mischiefs whereof he did not at first in the least suspect the Consequences declares That his Crime appear'd to him in so terrifying a shape that he preferr'd even Death before his present sense of it implores His Majesties Pardon no otherwise but if he may receive it by his Royal Highnesses Mediation professes To speak this not only in outward Form but with the greatest Sincerity in the World resigns Himself to His Majesties Disposal not only now but for the remainder of his Life engages Absolutely to put his very Will into His Majesties Hands for the future which he acknowledges had been so ill a Guide to him in times past concluding That
to address himself to the Lord Dartmouth one of His Majesties Privy Council who remitted him to Sir Leolyn Jenkins Principal Secretary of State before whom he gave his first Information upon Oath and in due form of Law on the Twelfth of June in that Year But the intended Assassination upon the first disclosing of it appear'd to be so prodigious a Barbarity that His Majesty for some time gave but very little Ear and slow Credit to this Information as little suspecting as deserving such usage from the worst of his Subjects Which generous Caution that His Majesty took not to be impos'd on by New Rumours of Plots and his Gracious Tenderness not to believe so ill of his very Enemies but upon certain Demonstration was one of the chief Occasions that divers of the principal Agitators and Managers of the whole business took the Alarm and got time to scatter and withdraw beyond the Seas However by Gods Providence continually watching over His Majesties and these Nations safety so many of the Traytors soon after fell into the Hands of Justice who did either voluntarily acknowledge their being Partakers of the Treason or were Convicted of it by Evident Proof that henceforth whoever shall pretend not to believe the Truth of the whole they must either be such as were Parties in the Design or so monstrously unreasonable as to believe there never can be a Real Plot against any Prince or State but what does actually succeed and take effect Thus much is certain of this Conspiracy and it is so remarkable and extraordinary that perhaps the like cannot be affirm'd of any other mention'd in all History that there was scarce a Man Attainted or Executed for it who did not more or less add some new Light to the several parts of the dark Contrivance either by a plain Confession of it or by their very manner of denying it and by the weakness of the Subterfuges whereby they endeavour'd to palliate their Crimes Upon the whole Matter though His Majesty doubts not but the Treasonable Infection was in some degree or other spread into most Quarters of these Kingdoms amongst the Ringleaders of the Republican Clubs and lawless Conventicles in Town and Country there being no reason for any Man to think otherwise since it was the usual boast of their principal Factors That more than Twenty Thousand Persons were made privy to the very beginnings of it before the late Earl of Shaftsbury's Flight Yet His Majesty utterly abhorring that bare Suspicions though never so probably grounded should prevail to conclude any Man Guilty has resolved no Reflection shall be made on the Fame of any but only such whose part in it was made out by positive Testimony And in the Kingdom of England besides the Earl of Shaftsbury who during his time was the Prime Engineer in contriving and directing all the several Motions and Parts of the whole Conspiracy next under him the Persons who are already Judicially found to have been deeply concern'd as Actors some in the Insurrection part others in the Assassination divers of them in both together are these The Duke of Monmouth whom the Factious Party had long Corrupted and Alienated from his Duty and Gratitude to the King and his Royal Highness by suggesting and increasing in him groundless Fears and poys'ning his Mind with unjust and forbidden Hopes The Lord Gray of Wark who for some Years had been ingaged in the most furious Designs of the Faction of late especially after he found that the Wickedness of his private Life could neither be so well hidden or go unpunish'd in a quiet State as in publick Disturbances The late Earl of Essex whose dark and turbulent Spirit and insatiable Ambition had carry'd him on to be one of the Principal Authors of all the late Destractions in Publick Councils and Popular Heats against the Government Till after many such ill Practices unworthy the Son of such a Father God left him at last to fall into this Precipice and permitted him to punish himself for it more severely than the King could ever have found in his Heart to do had he but given His Majesty time to make use of the excellent Goodness of his Nature The Lord Howard of Escrick who had always been a busie Promoter of Fanatical and Republican in Projects for Alterations in Church and State and was therefore for a time the second Favourite of the Disaffected whilst he was Imprison'd with the Earl of Shaftsbury Nor did they ever make any Objections against the Honesty of his private Life till he came to the honestest part of it The Lord Rassel a Person carried away beyond his Duty and Allegiance into this Traiterous Enterprise by a vain Air of Popularity and a wild Suspicion of losing a great Estate by an imaginary return of Popery whereby he was the more casily seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions and was so conformable to his Presbyterian Education That it is lawful to Resist and Rise against Soveraign Princes for preserving Religion Colonel Algernoon Sidney who from his Youth had profest himself an Enemy to the Government of his Country and had acted accordingly As he lived so he died a Stubborn Assertor of the Good Old Cause Mr. John Hambden the Younger who has renew'd and continued the Hereditary Malignity of his House against the Royal Family his Grandfather having been the most Active Instrument to widen the Breach between the late Blessed KING and the seduced part of his People The Usurper Cromwel of en own'd That Mr. Hambden was the very Man who advised him to oppose the Justice and Honour of His Majesties Cause with an affected Zeal of Conscience and pure Religion Sir Thomas Armstrong a Debauch'd Atheistical Bravo one of those who with an Hypocrisie peculiar to this Age would have pass'd for the most forward Reformers of Church and State whilst they themselves both in their Practise and Opinions were the greatest Corrupters of Virtue and all Good Manners Lieutenant Colonel Walcot an Old Officer in Cromwel's Army who after Pardon and Indemnity receiv'd and a plentiful Estate secured to him by His Majesties moll Happy Return yet was actually ingaged in all the Plots against the Government ever since Particularly in that of Ireland some Years ago to surprize the Castle of Dublin He was Introduced by the Lord Howard under the Character of a Stout and Able Officer into a strict Familiarity with the Earl of Shaftsbury from whom he never after parted till his Death accompanying him in his Flight into Holland and returning thence with his Corps he and Ferguson having this peculiar Mark of his Kindness to be named Legatees in his Last Will and Testament as his special Friends Colonel John Romzey who had gotten Credit abroad in Portugal by his Courage and Skill in Military Affairs He was recommended to the Earl of Shaftsbury as a Soldier of Fortune resolute and fit
the most obstinate of his misguided Subjects would see their Errour and return at length to a sense of the Duty they owe him by all the strongest Bands of Nature and Laws Religion and Gratitude that can possibly oblige Subjects towards a Soveraign But when His Majesty was abundantly convinc'd that all those dark Consultations and open Tumults of unruly Men were but so many infallible Signs and Forerunners of Rebellion or some extraordinary Commotions Then at last in a tender respect to his Peoples Safety more than to his own was His Majesty constrain'd to awaken his Authority to try what good Effect the Vigour of his Laws would have on those Offenders with whom all his repeated Mercy and Indulgence had so little prevail'd Yet such was then His Majesties hard Fortune so firmly combined were the Disaffected especially by their Prevalent Interest in packing the Juries of London and Middlesex that whilst His Majesty carefully endeavour'd to distribute Impartial Justice to all his Subjects he could not obtain the same Right Himself his Enemies still becoming more numerous and united in those very places where their desperate Enterprises against the Government were likely to be most sudden and pernicious Amongst divers other infamous Examples of this Nature was that of Colledge the Joyner For though the Criminal was so mean a Man and no other ways considerable but for his audacious Forwardness in affronting the Government yet His Majesty with all His Royal Authority could hardly prevail to have him brought to a Fair and Legal Tryal Nor had His Majesty been able at last to procure so much Justice to be done had not the Process been removed into another County where the Rulers of the Faction being less powerful that new and damnable Opinion and Practice of the Lawfulness of Equivocating and even of Perjury for the Good Old Cause had not prevailed over the old and honest English Principles of Truth and Honour However though in the end His Majesties Justice got the better at that time yet it was defeated in a greater and more important Instance that of the late Earl of Shaftsbury who had been long and reasonably suspected and in the issue was manifestly discovered to be the chief Author and supreme Manager of all these Traiterous Contrivances against his Majesties Crowns and Life The said Earl His Majesty had formerly pardon'd inrich'd enobled and advanc'd to one of the highest Stations in the Kingdom by a long Succession of manifold Bounties endeavouring to render his Abilities and Experience in Business serviceable to his King and beneficial to his Country Yet so treacherous and undermining was his Genius so unmeasurable his Ambition so impatient of quiet and moderate Courses so much fitter he was to be the Instrument of a Tyrant than the Servant of a Just and Good Prince that after many hainous Infidelities and Offences committed by him and forgiven by his Majesty he was at length necessitated to discharge him his Service yet so as to leave him one of the most considerable Peers in the Kingdom for Title and Estate But his aspiring and revengeful Spirit could not brook so gentle a disgrace Wherefore having deservedly been dismiss'd the Court he presently attempted to set the Country directly against it Immediately he profess'd himself the most zealous true Protestant and the greatest Patriot Thereby slily insinuating his designs into the Heads of all Sects and Divisions in Church and State To them betraying some vilifying others maliciously interpreting all His Majesties Counsels Making those very Consultations and resolutions of State whereof he had been the chief Adviser when he was in Power to be the principal Objections against the Government when he was displaced Thus he and his party went boldly on to disturb the Publick Quiet and to affront His Majesties Authority with the highest Insolence In Words and Writings defaming it as Arbitrary and Tyrannical whilst in Deeds he insulted over it as believing it to be weak and resolving to make it despicable And all this with a secure confidence not only of Indemnity but Success Knowing himself to be under the protection of Juries of his own appointment or approbation And therefore presuming he was far out of the reach of His Majesties just Indignation And so for a time it unhappily proved For being legally indicted of Crimes of the highest Nature though the Evidence against him was cleer and positive some of the Witnesses being the very same Men whose Testimony had been approv'd of in the prosecution of Oats's Plot And the very Original draught of a treasonable Association having been actually found in his Custody yet he could not be brought to a Lawful Trial by his Peers the Indictment being stifled by a shameful Ignoramus and that accompanied with so much Insolence that the very Ministers of His Majesties Justice were in much more danger than the Criminal and hardly escap'd the rude Assaults of his Confederates and Party However from so great a Violation of Common Right and of the Royal Dignity His Majesty gain'd this very considerable Advantage That thenceforth he plainly perceived the main Strength of all his Enemies Arrogance lay in their Extravagant Power to pack the City-Juries For what Treason might not the Earl of Shatftsbury securely Project or Ferguson Write or an Association Act against the Government whilst Goodenough and a setled Club was at hand with their Corrupt Pannels to Indemnifie and if need were to second and applaud their most Villanous Practices Wherefore His Majesty foreseeing how destructive in time the Effects of so great and growing a Mischief would be resolved at length after a many Intolerable Provocations to strike at that which he had now found to be the very Root of the Faction This His Majesty and all wise and good Men perceiv'd could be no other ways done than first by reducing the Elections of the Sheriffs of London to their Antient Order and Rules that of late were become only a Business of Clamour and Violence And then to make Inquiry into the Validity of the City-Charter it self which an ill Party of Men had abused to the Danger and would have done it to the Destruction of the Government had they been suffer'd to go on never lb little farther uncontroul'd In both these most just and necessary Undertakings the Righteousness of His Majesties Cause met with an answerable Success First notwithstanding all the Tumultuous Riots the Factious Party committed to disturb the peaceable Issue of that Affair yet the undoubted Right of the Lord Mayor's Nominating the eldest Sheriff was restored and established And so the Administration of Justice once more put in a way of being cleared from Partiality and Corruption And then a due Judgment was obtain'd by an equal Process of Law against the Charter it self and its Franchises declared forfeited to his Majesty But though this happy Event of His Majesties Controversie with the disaffected part of the City of London was in all Humane probability the only
being thus calmly pass'd and the New Sheriffs having taken a peaceable Possession of that Power whose influence on the whole Nation the said Earl of Shaftsbury well understood no Man better Then he began on a sudden to have a quicker and sharper sense of the urgent State of their common Affairs especially of his own Imminent Peril and to accuse the rest of the Confederates of backwardness if not of Treachery in the Publick Cause First communicating his Suspicions and Jealousies to the Lord Howard who had been so lately the Companion of his restraint and Gaol-Delivery The Lord Howard was retir'd some Days before into Essex waiting the result of that great Day in the City whence he receiv'd frequent intimations from his Friends of the Faction in a Style obscure but by him well understood and concerted between them That now the business which had been Transacting so long amongst his Correspondents was coming to good Issue and call'd for his speedy presence That occasioned his return on the same Michaelmas-Day and presently after Walcot came to him from the Earl of Shaftsbury with a Message expressing his earnest desire to speak with him in his Concealment at one Watson's in Wood-street Accordingly the Lord Howard giving him a Visit the substance of the said Earl's first discourse with him was That finding the Due Elections as lie call'd them of the City frustrated and the Pseudo-Sheriffs establish'd he could no longer think any honest Man safe and had therefore hid himself there having first made what Preparations were needful for a sudden Rising That many Thousands were ready in the City to Master the Gates and attack Whitehal That they within were to be assisted from the Countries adjacent with 1000 or 1200 Horse under good Officers Only he complained of the Duke of Monmouth's and the other great Mens backwardness who had promised by Rising in other remote Counties at the same time to give a Diversion to the standing Forces The Sum of this the Lord Howard the next day Communicated to the said Duke who also on his part complain'd of the Earl of Shaftsbury's acting of late on a separate Bottom and that his present Fears had blinded his usual Prudence and therefore he required a speedy Meeting with him to re-establish a better Understanding and Union of Counsels between them all for the future This discourse being reported back to the said Earl he replied His People were impatient of longer delays having advanc'd so far that there was no retreat the Design being imparted to so many that it was impossible but it would quickly take Air. Upon this he proceeded to declare his vehement suspicion of the Duke of Monmouth That his Dilatoriness proceeded from some private Correspondence between him and his Majesty That it was to be fear'd the said Duke acted with a prospect very different from theirs only minding the advancement of himstelf whereas his own Resolutions were that since it was now manifest their Liberties were no more to be secur'd but under a Commonwealth he alone with his Interest would attempt the Deliverance of his Country If the rest of the Lords would concur with him they might share in the Glory else he hoped he should be able to effect the Work without them by the help of an honest brisk Party in the City Upon this Answer the Duke of Monmouth suspecting that before their People could be ready in the Country the Earl of Shaftsbury's unseasonable Anxiety for his own Safety might put him on attempting some rash Action in London which would be easily quell'd by the form'd and disciplin'd Guards and so the whole Design might be stifled in a moment he did therefore the more earnestly press the Lord Howard to make another essay to procure an Interview The Lord Howard did so and got from the said Earl a promise of meeting the Confederate Lords the next Day in the Evening which yet when the time came he put off with an excuse by Colonel Romzey However some Days after they did meet their Differences were in some measure piec'd up and they began to act joyntly again towards a speedy Insurrection To this purpose several Days were proposed One about the latter end of October but it was delay'd a little longer till the concurrence of the several Counties could be signified up Then that of Queen Elizabeth being Novemb. 17. was named but rejected because all His Majesties Guards were commonly in Arms to watch and suppress the wonted Tumults of the Rabble on that Day At last the Nineteenth of November was fixt on which happening that Year to be on a Sunday whilst some excepted against it for that reason Ferguson with his usual impious Virulency reply'd That the Sanctity of the Day was suitable to the Sanctity of the Work The Day being thus determin'd they all presently fell to prepare as their several parts were allotted Especially the great Managers held Assemblies to receive Accounts how the Counties were dispos'd and to consult upon surprizing the Guards for which end the Duke of Monmouth the Lord Gray and Sir Thomas Armstrong undertook to view the posture of their Quarters and reported back to their Principals That the seizing them was a thing very feasible which very particular the Duke of Monmouth afterwards confess'd in so many words to His Majesty when he rendred himself In the mean time the Earl of Shaftsbury was very uneasie and weary of lurking in Holes where every sound and breath of Air began to frighten him Wherefore with repeated and importunate Messages he press'd the other Lords to keep to their Day expostulating with them upon their former slowness whereby they had lost so many advantageous Opportunities The case being now so much alter'd that he who once presum'd his driving out the King would prove but a leisurely walk to him when the danger drew near himself was become so apprehensive and rash as not to afford his own wicked Counsels leisure enough to come to any tolerable Maturity At length one Day when their great Council about London was assembled at Shepard's House in Abchurch-Lane the said Earl sent Colonel Romzey to quicken their Debates and once for all to learn the result of their final Determinations But they having just before received several Advices out of the West that their Friends there especially in Taunton and Devonshire could not possibly be ready on so short a warning presently sent him back such word concluding it could not be helpt but he and they must be content to respite the time of Execution to a longer day This positive Answer broke all his Measures and made him instantly resolve to leave England Wherefore first he removed his lodging into Wapping Then the very Night that place was Burnt being also the Night of the same 19th Day of November on which he had expected to set the whole Nation in a Flame he privately sculk'd down the River Attended only by the two chief Complices and Witnesses of his
Romzey also upon notice of Armstrong's being taken made Oath in these very words Sir Thomas Armstrong did come to me the Sunday-night after the Fire at New-market and told me That he just came from Ferguson and that notwithstanding the King and Duke were to return so soon yet Ferguson did not doubt to have Men ready by that time to do the Business and desired me to go with him to Ferguson's Lodging in his Coach which I did When I came there Ferguson told me the same but that they wanted Money Upon which Sir Thomas desired me to Lend some and he would see me Repaid and added That if he had been in Stock he would have done it himself After this the King could not think himself in the least bound to go out of the way of the Law for shewing any distinguishing Act of Grace to Sir Thomas Armstrong especially when it is manifest there was scarce a Man living who had more Personal obligations to His Majesty than he had and yet no Man had made more ungrateful returns for them than he had done Nor could His Majesty forget how many other Persons and some very near his Majesty Sir Thomas Armstrong had been the Chief Instrument of perverting Upon which account His Majesty had reason to look on him as the Author of many more Treasons besides his own There is now scarce any thing material left unmention'd relating to the Proof either of the Assassination or Insurrection but what may be readily supplied by any intelligent Reader out of the Original Records of Informations and Confessions whereof by His Majesties Command there are Copies an next to this Narration for an Authentick Confirmation of its Truth Only the King is pleas'd that a more particular account should be given than has been hitherto made Publick of the Duke of Monmouth's rendring himself of the Reasons then moving His Majesty to grant him his Pardon and of what 's toriety of the Fact and all the Circum what happen'd immediately upon it which occasion'd the said Dukes final Disgrace and Banishment from His Majesties presence As to the late Earl of Essex's Murdering himself in the Tower some few days after his Imprisonment there His Majesty cannot think it becomes Him to descend to any particular Justification of his own or his Ministers Innocency in that Calamitous Accident Though His Majesty is not ignorant that divers most Malicious Pamphlets have been lately spread abroad in English and other Languages which with an unparallell'd Impudence have accus'd several Persons of eminent Virtue and Honour about His Majesty not sparing even his Royal Highness nay scarce freeing the King himself from being Personally Conscious of so Base and Barbarous an Action But after the Truth of the whole Matter has been carefully examin'd and asserted by the Coroners Inquest whose proper Business it was and after Braddon has suffer'd the Punishment of the Law for Suborning even Children to bear false Witness in the Case and after the Notoriety of the Fact and all the Circumstances of it have been so clearly made out that there is not a Man in all England of an honest Mind or sound Sense who does in the least doubt it His Majesty disdains to enter into dispute with every Petulant Scribler or to answer the villanous Suggestions and horrid Calumnies contain'd particularly in the Libel call'd The Detection and in the Epitome of it the one written by Ferguson the other by Danvers both infamous Men and mortal Enemies to His Majesties Government and Person Yet His Majesty cannot but think it deserves Observation That when the late Earl of Essex had so many considerable Relations and Alliances with divers the greatest Families in the Kingdom and when neither his Lady nor Brother nor any one of all his Numerous Friends and Noble Kindred who were most nearly concern'd did ever express the least Jealousie of foul dealing or ill practise upon the said unfortunate Earl and when all Mens Eyes are open'd and scarce a Man of their own Party has any scruple in his Thoughts about that Business yet that now at last their old Advocate of Treason Ferguson should come forth in Print to out-face so clear a Demonstration of Truth and should try still to turn the Envy of that unhappy Stroak on the Court and the King and his dearest Brother It cannot but seem a prodigious Confidence and Presumption that Ferguson should be their chosen Champion in this Cause The Man who by so many Depositions stands Outlaw'd and Convict of having had the greatest share in the blackest part of the Conspiracy The Man in accusing whom almost every Witness both Scotch and English consented so that his Crimes have been proved by more than Twenty plain Evidences particularly the Duke of Monmouth himself having confess'd to His Majesty That in all their Debates Ferguson was always for Cutting of Throats saying That was the most Compendious Way That this very Ferguson should so far make good his own words at parting when he vow'd He would never be out of a Plot as long as he lived That now in his Banishment under the load of so many undeniable Treasons he should still appear as the great Patron of the Old Cause and should presume he can impose on the World in a matter of Fact so fully try'd so clearly prov'd and determined mined What can be a greater Impudence than that Ferguson should still expect that he could make any Man living believe the King himself or the Duke of York could ever be induced to practice his Compendious Way on the Earl of Essex However from this one instance the King hopes the World will judge how most Injuriously and Barbarously he has been used by his Adversaries in their other Libels against him in most of which it is well known the same venemous Pen was employ'd As for the deplorable end of the said Earl His Majesty freely owns there was no Man in his Dominions more deeply afflicted with it than himself His Majesty having been thereby deprived of an extraordinary Opportunity to exercise his Royal Clemency and to testifie to all his Loyal Subjects and Old Friends how highly he valued the Memory and Sufferings of the Lord Capel Next himself His Majesty thinks he is also bound in common Justice to declare That his entirely beloved Brother was most tenderly concern'd and griev'd at that lamentable Effect of the Earl of Essex's Despair His Majesty being best able upon his own knowledge to vouch for the Duke of York That he never deserv'd ill of the said Earl and was always most readily inclined for both their Fathers sakes to have forgiven whatever ill the Earl of Essex had done to him Now touching His Majesties Pardoning the Duke of Monmouth and what followed upon it the King is pleased this Account shall be given The World needs not be told with what extraordinary regret to His Majesty the said Duke was of late Years perverted from that sense of his Duty