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 who ever 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 Distractions 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 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 Russel 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 easily 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 often 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 most 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 Shaftsbnry 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 for his turn in any desperate Attempt By his Majesties Favour upon his Royal Highnesses Intercession he got possess'd of a very considerable Office in the Customs of Bristol which having sold he afterwards most ungratefully became the said Earls entire Creature and Dependant Nor was he ever a profess'd Papist as since his Confession the Party has given out that he was according to their wonted Impudence of Lying Thomas Shepard
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 annext 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 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 unparellell'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 liv'd 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 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 practise 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 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 fly 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 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 Trayterous 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 Indempnity 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 approved 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 Shaftsbury 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 Indempnifie 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 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 so little farther uncontroul'd In both these most just and necessary Undertakings the Righteousâ—â—â—â— of his Majesties Cause met with an answerabâ—â—â—uccess First notwithstanding all the Tuâ—â—â—â—uous Riots the Factious Party committed 〈◊〉 â—isturb the peaceable Issue of that Affair y 〈…〉 undoubted Right of the Lord Mayor's Nâ—â—â—â—ating the eldest Sheriff was restored and estabâ—â—â—â—ed 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 effectual Course to provide for the future Peace and Stability of the Government yet it had like to have proved a present Occasion of its utter Ruine For when so many guilty Persons found that the great Point of the Sheriffs was resetled on its Antient Bottom and the City-Charter it self in hazard of being speedily vacated so that now there would be no farther evasion for them by any pretence of
their Fidelity to his Majesty the Surplusage being intended entirely to return and descend to his Family yet the said Earl abusing the great Freedom indulg'd him in Prison which he enjoy'd as largely after his Condemnation as before fled from his Majesties Mercy the knowledge of his own Guilt not suffering him to venture on that Clemency whereof he had before participated so plentifully when he was under the like Sentence of Condemnation The King however notwithstanding this new Provocation still retain'd the same benign thoughts of favouring his Wife and Children And before it was known that the said Earl had more Debt on his Estate than the full value of it amounted to which really was his Case his Majesty was graciously pleas'd in one Royal Largess to give thrice more of the Inheritance to his Posterity than their Father could lawfully have done had it never been forfeited But how ill he deserved or requited so many Acts of Grace and Bounty will appear by the sequel of his Behaviour after his Escape For in stead of doing what his Complices and Dependants gave out he intended that he would humbly cast himself at his Majesties Feet and implore his Pardon which he of all Men living had no reason to think desperate he is no where to be found but associating with his Majesties implacable Enemies in the Head of new Machinations of Treason employs his Liberty abroad in maintaining Traiterous Correspondences at Home with restless Malice exciting the wicked Conspirators of both Kingdoms to a fatal Union against the Life Government and Family of his Liege Soveraign and Benefactor And all this is to be proved upon him by Arguments as clear as the Sun by the Credit of his own Authentick Letters and by the plain Depositions of his principal Messengers and Agents in the whole Villany By this brief Recollection of the troubled State of Affairs and the Tumultuous Temper of ill Mens Minds in his Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland about the time when this treasonable Conspiracy was in agitation the impartial World may perceive from what destructive seeds of Sedition private Passions and Animosities under the disguise of Religion and the publick Interest so Monstrous a Birth was produced In the wonderful Discovery of which detestable Confederacy and in the happy Prevention of its dire Effects as all who have heard of it must acknowledge that a signal care of Gods Providence has appear'd for his Majesties and these Nations Preservation So his Majesty gives the Sacred Word and Protestation of a King that nothing has been done on his part but what was agreeable to that Royal Benignity and Natural Candor of his whole Life whereof all the World even his Enemies have had such undoubted Experience The Evidence was most of it deliver'd in his Majesties own presence The Examinations were taken by Men of unquestionable Reputation and Honour The whole Proceeding has been managed with all imaginable Integrity There has been no straining or extorting of Accusations to blemish the Fame of the Innocent No Temtation of Rewards proposed No Pardon assured before-hand for discovering or aggravating the Crimes of the Guilty Some Witnesses who offer'd themselves of whom there might have been any colourable Suspicion his Majesty wholly rejected Lest it should once again happen that the blasted Credit or needy Condition or profligate Lives of the Persons deposing should derogate from the strength of their Depositions and administer any the least doubt of Subornation Those Witnesses his Majesty admitted had been generally Men strongly prepossess'd in Conscience Zeal and Interest for that Party Men whose former avow'd Hatred of the Government was reason sufficient to gain them an absolute trust with any who studied to overthrow it They were not of desperate Fortunes Nor despicable Men. For the most part they separately and singly brought in their Discoveries Divers of them had little or no Conversation or Familiarity one with another There was no shadow or possibility of a combination between them all to discover yet such is the prevalence of Self-conviction and so great the Power of Truth that all their several Discoveries did perfectly agree with themselves and with each other in all material parts and circumstances It was therefore in the Summer of the Year 1683 a time when all his Majesties Dominions injoyed a settled Peace and profound security whilst the greatest part of the Neighbouring World was involved in Wars and Combustions that his Majesty and his Council were suddenly awaken'd with the surprizing Knowledge of this dreadful Conspiracy which had been laying very deep and broad for many Months before The Man whom God chose to make the first Discoverer was Josiah Keeling Citizen and Salter of London A Person of good Credit in the common Business of his Calling but otherwise a most perverse Fanatick so fiercely addicted to their Cause that he had been one of the busiest Sticklers in all the late Publick Oppositions against the Government Particularly he was the very Man who undertook and perform'd the most insolent Assault upon Authority that perhaps the Party ever attempted in full Peace which was the Arresting the Lord Mayor in open Day in the midst of the City of London for refusing to admit the pretended Sheriffs who had been chosen by those Meetings of the Factious in and about the City that the Law has since condemn'd as Unlawful and Riotous However by so eminent and bold a piece of Service together with his former approved Activity and Violence for the discontented Interest was Keeling judg'd by the chief Conspirators fitly qualifi'd to be admitted into their most private Consultations And accordingly thereafter they trusted him as one of their surest Confidents In so much that he was invited to make one of the Forty Miscreants whose proper part it was to Assassinate his Majesties and his Royal Highnesses Persons Of which Number after he had freely consented to be and had met and acted jointly with the rest for some time to prepare the cursed Work for a speedy Execution it pleased the Divine Goodness so to touch his Soul with the Horrour of so amazing a Crime that he could not rest Day nor Night till after much conflict in his Mind he had fully determin'd to discharge his Conscience of the Hellish Secret Wherefore having first Communicated some part of his burden to one Mr. Peckam his private Friend who had often before warn'd him in general of the dangerous course he was in by so deeply ingaging in all the former Seditious Intrigues he was by him directed 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