and loved after it Having now shown the end unto which the murder of this incomparable Earl was designed and adapted and the improvement which was made of it not only through endeavouring to establish thereby the belief of a Protestant Plot in general but to compass and facilitate the ruine of that religious and noble person my Lord Russel in particular we shall as a further inducement to perswade and convince the inquisitive part of mankind that some about St. James's and Whitehall where the contrivers and authorisers of that barbarous assassination lay open and unfold the motive and pique upon which it was done and what it was which gave the original rise to some mens implacable malice against that loyal as well as virtuous person And as it cannot be denied but this late Nobl ' Earl had received Titles of honor and places of Trust interest and advantage from his Majesty so it will be acknowledged that not only his Father but himself had laid all the obligations upon the Crown which it was possibl ' for Subjects in way of Acting or Suffering to do Nor is it less evident that notwithstanding both the Father my Lord Capel's Laying down his life for Charles the First and the English Monarchy and his Son Essex's manifold sufferings and services for Charles the Second and the Royal Family yet this honorable Person instead of quietly possessing any longer the just rewards of his own and Fathers merits or enjoying any more the wonted signs of his Princes favour was not onely debarred from and deprived of the respect and confidence which his Majesty had used to show him but was become the object of a great mans implacable hatred and boundless malice For though the Earl of Essex was a person whom nothing could corrupt from his loyalty to the King and the Established Government yet he was also a sincere and zealous Patriot of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and a couragious Defender as well as owner of the Protestant Religion And as he was none of those mercinary base and timorous Lords who would either connive at or concur in the introduction of Slavery and Popery so he was one of the principal of those heroick and generous Peers who had been active in detecting the Popish Conspiracy and who had laboured with the greatest industry to prevent the effects of that hellish conjuration of the Valican Louvre and St. James's for the extirpation of the Reformed Worship and the subversion of the ancient Laws and Priviledges of England And as he was known to understand more of the nature and extent of the Popish Conspiracy and who were concerned in it and to what degree than most persons in the Kingdom either were or ever had oportunities for so nothing can be more certain than that as hereby he became the most dangerous man in the whole Nation to the Papists but that he must consequently be the most special object of their jealousie fear and hatred 〈◊〉 as his publick Station in Ireland as well as his having been long a Member of His Majesty's Privy Council in England furnished him with manifold advantages which others wanted of knowing the tendency and penetrating into the bottom of all the Designs and Counsels which have been carrying on against our Religion and Legal Government so his scorning and abhorring to sacrifice his Conscience and Honour by either falling in with the Conspirators or by avoiding to withstand and oppose them in their attempts for the introduction and establishment of Popery and Arbitrariness made them to think of all ways and means how to destroy him And besides these forementioned advantages which he had above other men of knowing all the dimensions of the Popish Plot he received no small accession of light in that affair by having been always a Member of those Secret Committees which had the Examination of Persons and Inspection of Papers concerning that devilish Conspiracy Nor was the Earl insensible of the danger he was in upon this account and accordingly was wont sometimes to say to his intimate friends that as generally all the Papists and more particularly such of them as make the greatest figure in the Kingdom dreaded him by reason of the detection he was able to make of their horrid Machinations so he could not be without apprehension but that they would seek to destroy him in order to prevent it Alas poor Essex thy respect to some whom I forbear to name made thee wanting to save the Nation and thy self by revealing that while we had ParlJaments the knowledge whereof would have been a means to have prevented our ruine and as thou art now ill rewarded for thy tenderness to those ungratefull men so we are at once unhappily robb'd of the great Instrument that could have unmasked persons and things and denied ParlJaments from whose legal Authority as well as united Counsels and Wisdom we can only under God hope for the preservation of England from becoming the Seat of Popery and the Theatre of Tyranny Nor ought it to seem strange that the malic◠of the Papists and of those who have conspired against our Rights and Priviledges should transport them to that measure and degree of rage against a person who had not only faithfully served his Majesty and the Crown but from whom they could expect no opposition but what was founded in the authority of our Laws and promoted in a ParlJamentary-way and which the King himself is bound by his Oath as well as the duty and trust reposed in him to second and give countenance unto For besides diverse Gentlemen of that temper and character whom they have destroyed or condemned by and under a Form of Law but indeed contrary to all the Laws of the Land and against the worst presidents even in the most absolute and despotical times there may be several Gentlemen mentioned whom they have cut off without the Form of any Process meerly because they either thought themselves prejudiced and withstood by them in their designs or were afraid of them by reason of the discovery which they were able to give of their conjurations against the Kingdom and of the villanies they had committed in subserviency to the establishment of Popery and Tyranny For not to mention either the Condemnation of that most Honourable Person the Earl of Argyle nor the Condemnation and Execution of that gallant Gentleman Collonel Sydney nor the late Barbarity used against their ancient Servant Sir Thomas Armestrong all which were directly repugnant to the Laws of the respective Kingdoms and contrary to all proceedings in other criminal and capital Cases were not my Lord Lucas Sir Robert Brook◠and Sir Edmondbury Godfrey without being so much as arraigned or accused murthered by them only because they either found them opposite to their Romish and Arbitrary designs or knew them capable of revealing their hellish Counsels and Actions against the Nation the established Government and the Reformed Religion What Family in England had
Death I would not be thought to acknowledge that it was a Razor wherewith the mortal and deplorable Wound was given him being well assured that it was with an Instrument much more proper for the purpose than that would have been but that which I intend by the proof hereof is partly the overthrow and subversion of Bomeny's and Russel's Informations upon which the inquisition and verdict of the Coroner's Inquest was built and partly to establish and evidence that antecedently to the noise and report of my Lord's death there were some persons in the Chamber where he was kill'd Which last if once obtained it will I suppose be thence readily granted that they were not there to be idle Spectators of my Lords cutting his own Throat but that their business was to perpetrate themselves that barbarous Fact upon him tho' for the concealing their guilt and avoiding the justice and severity of the Law they have endeavoured to cast the reproach and infamy of it upon that innocent and injured person The first who reported and divulged the Story of a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of the E. of Essex's Window before there was any news of my Lord's death was one William Edwards a Youth between thirteen and fourteen years of age who having heard as he was going to School that the King and Duke were in the Tower went in to see them and continuing there sometimes in one place and sometimes in another all that morning came home about ten of the Clock to his Mother and told the Earl of Essex was killed and that while he the said Edwards stood near the Earl's Lodgings looking up towards his Chamber-window he saw a Hand cast out a bloody Razor which being going to take up there came a short Maid or Woman with a white hood on her head cut of Captain Hawley 's House where the Earl lay and took up the Razor which she immediately carried into the Captain's Hâ—use and run up stairs and that soon after he heard one cry out murder All this the Bâ—y hath frequently repeated and averred to his Father Mother Sister and to one Mrs. Burt as well as to Mr. Braddon as those four persons deposed upon Oath at Mr. Braddon's Tryal yea the very Bâ—y himself did confess and acknowledge in Court that he had said and reported it 'T is true that after he had often affirmed it he was at last by the flatteries of some and the menaces of others brought to say he saw no such thing as a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window but that the whole which he had reported relating thereunto was seigned and invented by himself For having been told by his Sister that through persevering in his first Report he would not only ruine his Father and the Family but that he would bring both himself and his Father to be hanged he thereupon under the influence of dread and fear retracted what he had before affirmed But whether there ought not more credit to be given to his Affirmation than to his Denial I dare refer it to the judgment of all impartial men who have either heard of the Methods used towards the Boy at the Council Board or who have read the carriage and behaviour of my Lord Chief Justice and the Court of Kings Bench in this matter at the Tryal of Mr. Braddon And as I was amazed my self on the perusal of the Tryal to observe with what impudence and barefacedness they not only discovered the means used by others to influence the Boy to forswear himself but the arts and tricks in hussing on the one side and cajoling on the other whereby the very Bench drew him into and cherished him in perjury to I never had the fortune to speak with a man that was wise or honest but he was forced to acknowledge that the Boy 's first Report in saying he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window seem'd natural plain candid and true whilst his denying what he had so often affirmed to have seen appeared evidently to be wheedled out of him or by reason of the dread and fear wherewith they had possess'd him wrested and extorted from him How gross as well as unbecoming was it for my L. Chief Justice when old Mr. Edwards had upon his Childs being sworn charged him in the presence of Almighty God to speak the Truth and nothing but the Truth I say for my L. C. Justice to bid the Child turn about and say Father be sure you say nothing but the Truth For as the Father's command to his Son does plainly intimate the jealousie he was under concerning the Boy 's being wrought upon to perjure himself so the Reply which my Lord Chief Justice advised the Child to make to his Father did besides the irreverence towards a Parent whereof it savoured directly insinuate the apprehensions he had lest the Father's Christian Counsel should fortifie the Child to assert the Truth How palpably as well as shamefully did my Lord Chief Justice betray and reveal their entangling the Boy to swear a lie by the rage as well as superciliousness wherewith he treated Mr. Wallop a person not only to whose age honour is due but who in all the qualifications of a Gentleman and the accomplishments of a Scholar in all other Learning as well as the Law infinitely transcends and exceeds his Lordship and for no other reason but because Mr. Wallop would have ask'd young Mrs. Edwards whether she had not told her Brother that the King would hang his Father if he did not deny what he had so often affirmed to have seen And tho' it was a Question the answering whereof would have unfolded and laid open the means by which the Boy was wrought to retract what he had formerly declared and would have confirmed the truth of his first Report yet my L. C. Justice instead of suffering any Answer to be given to it not only upbraided that ancient learned and worthy Gentleman as if he had intended to have charged the King with a design of hanging men or else of making them deny the Truth both which were far from his thoughts and the intention of the Question but having huff'd and hectored him did threaten him with the animadversion and correction of the Court for reflecting upon and aspersing the Government Nor is young Edwards the only one who hath declared that he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window before any noise or rumor of his death but there is also a Girl one Jane Lodeman of about thirteen years of age who being in the Tower that Morning the Earl of Essex was killed and standing over against his Lodgings came home and told both her Aunt and others about ten of the Clock that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cutt his Throat and that she had seen a hand cast a bloody Razor out of the window where the people said that
eyes of the people and confirm the belief of the conspiracy There was Digitus Dei in it say's my Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes and enough to satisfie all the world of the Truth of the conspiracy that the Earl of Essex being conscious of the great guilt he had contracted in being concerned in it did rather than abide his Trial and for the avoiding the methods of justice in his own particular case destroy himself The improvement of the Murder of that noble Peer to the establishing the belief of a plot gives no small ground to suspect who were the contrivers of his death and upon what design they did first assassinate and then endeavour to cast and divert the infamy and guilt of it upon himself But I hope they will from their own way 's of argumentation allow us the liberty of inferring that in case my Lord of Essex was not Felo de se that then there was no such Protestant plot as they have filled the world with the noise of seeing the only motives upon which they suppose and alledg ' his having committed that unnatural fact upon himself were the reproach and horror of that conspiracy Nay we doubt not but that all the honest and disinterested part of mankind will upon conviction of their having destroyed that innocent Gentleman become fully satisfied that there hath been no such Treasonable combination as his Majesties Ministers have endeavoured to impose the belief of upon the Nation but that all his Court and Popish Sham and only devised and fram'd for subverting our liberties and Religion by cutting off those that had the integrity and courage to espouse the protection and defence of them And as the end whereunto the unnatural death of my Lord Essex is applied and improved shows by whom it was contrived and effected so the Tim'ing of that murder does further evidence and demonstrate where the guilt of it ought to be charged and what service it was calculated for the promoting of For as if it had not been enough to murder one innocent person in a way of the most barbarous violence imaginable they resolved to adjust it to such a juncture of time as that it might serve to facilitate and compass the ruine of an other Noble Person in the way of their Legal Form's And therefore no sooner was my Lord Russel entred on his Trial for life upon an indictment of being guilt of that pretended conspiracy for which the Earl of Essex stood committed but they assassinated the one in the Tower and immediately dispatched away the news of his having murdered himself to the Old Bayly thereby to amuse and prepossess the jury and byaz them to convict that other virtuous noble and innocent person And with what satisfaction in themselves as well as malice and artifice against the prisoner at the Barr did his Majesties Councel lay hold on the tyd'ings and apply them towards the begetting a belief of the guilt of that admirable person who stood then arraigned and whom they were at that very time harrangu'ing and pleading out of his life As if it had not been enough to impress the minds of a jury sufficiently prejudiced and which to all mens knowledge was grosly partial for the Attorney General to say That my Lord Russel was one of the Council for carrying on the Plot with the Earl of Essex who had that morning prevented the hand of justice upon himself Sir George Jefferys comes after him and adds in the winding up the evidence to the jury just before they went from the Bar and without all doubt the better to mould and determine them to find the arrained person guilty That there was nothing could be said in favour of my Lord Russel's innocency as to what he was accused of but what might be more strongly alledged in behalf of the Earl of Essex who nevertheless from a conciousness of being guilty of that desperate conspiracy had brought himself to an untimely end to avoid the methods of publick justice Yea so evident was it to all impartial persons who were then present at the Tryal that the Murder of the Earl of Essex was not perpetrated by himself but by others and that it was time'd and adjusted to that season in order to influencing the jury to give up my Lord Russel with the more ease as a sacrifice and victime to the rage of the Court that a very noble Lord who was always in the interests of Whitehall and who was then very zealous in the prosecution of those accused for the Plot being at that time on the Bench did upon the hearing of my Lord of Essex's death and who were then walking in the Tower when it fatally fell out and upon observing with what diligence care and artifice the news was brought into Court as my Lord Russel was at the Bar and how the Kings Council thereupon acted their parts rise up in great consternation from the Bench where he sat and pulling his hat over his eyes press out of Court saying he plainly saw the bottom of the business and all the Mysteries wrapt up in it And indeed such influence and success had the news of the Earl of Essex's having murder'd himself from the shame and horror he was under for being concerned in the Conspiracy whereof my Lord Russel stood then arraigned that diverse of the Inquest have confessed and acknowledged that the Report of the Earl's death especially as improved and managed by the Kings Council had greater power over their minds for the convicting him than all the other evidence which was given and that they do really believe they should never have sound him guilty without the intervention of that fatal stroke and the crafty application which the Kings Council at Law made of it But so far was the Earl of Essex from entertaining any foregoing thoughts of murdering himself or from calculating the perpetration of it to that unhappy season that the very day before my Lord Russel's Trial being also the day before his own Throat was cut he gave private directions to his Steward to place himself with all the conveniency in Court which he could at the said Trial the better to take the evidence in short hand instructing him withall how he might afterwards convey it to him for his perusal and to be made use of as he should have occasion And as the Earl of Essex was a person of that sedateness honor and vertue that no rational or good man can believe he would commit so horrid a crime upon himself so such was the entire friendship between him and my Lord Russel that we must renounce common sense and reason before we can admit that the Earl of Essex would be guilty of so heinous an injury to his dearest and best Friend as to calculate and adjust the murdering himself to such a season which he must needs know would be too probable a means to derive the destruction of a person whom he infinitely valued
surprised with the expression she related it to her Sister that evening when she came home And upon hearing the next day that the Earl of Essex was murdered and how it was reported That he should have cut his own Throat the poor Lady thô strangely alarmed with the News could not but immediately make this reflexion That what she had look't upon overnight as a Parable and Mystery was then deciphered and unriddled and that the Earl must needs have come to that untimely end by the Treachery and Villany of others To this we shall subjoin what Mrs. Mewx a Gentlewoman who also lives in London was ready to Depose upon Oath relating to a previous report of this nature at Mr. Braddon's Trial. For being on Thursday the 12th of July which was the day before my Lord of Essex death travelling with her Daughter in a Coach from the City down to Berkshire she is ready to swear that her Daughter then told her how she had heard it reported That one of the Lords committed for the late Plot had cut his Throat in the Tower Which fully evidenceth That there was a discourse not only of his death but the manner of it antecedently to his Fatal and Tragical end But the Daughter being with Child and near her time and therefore not daring to venture abroad much less into the Court at Mr. Braddon's Trial my Lord Chief Justice would not suffer the Mother thô she was there and sworn to be examined alledging That because she could not Depose on her own knowledge but only on the report of her Daughter it was no evidence and therefore against all judicial forms to admit it But as Mr. Wallop well replied It was evidence there was such a talk previous to my Lord of Essex's death so I may add That by consequence he did not murder himself but was assassinated by others Nor was it only in and about the Town that my Lord of Essex was reported to have cut his Throat at least a day if not more before he came to his untimely end but the same was discoursed of at a considerable distance in the Country and related after the same manner and with the same circumstances For one Mr. Fielder a Shopkeeper in Andover a Town removed from London above fifty Miles positively swears that it was talk't there the 11th and 12th of July That the Eaâ—l of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower whereas he was not killed till the 13th nor could the news arrive so far in the ordinary way of conveying Intelligence before the 14th And the said Mr. Fielder further avers That this was to commonly discoursed of from Wednesday night till Friday noon that he fully expected the confirmation of it by the Post-Letters which were to arrive that day But finding no mention in those Letters of any such thing tho they all agreed in the relation of the Earl of Essex's commitment to the Tower he concluded there could be no truth in the report but withal wondred how such a thing came to be talk'd of And therefore when the certain news of my Lord's death was brought to Andover about Saturday noon by some Cloathiers that came out of London on Friday at twelve of the Clock he could not but be amased at the report which had been current among them two days before But my Lord Chief Justice was pleased to ridicule all this when it was deposed at Mr. Braddon's Trial as a contrivance to deceive the King's Subjects and to set us together by the ears stiling it stuff rak'd out of Dunghills and pick'd up on purpose to kindle a fire and set us all into a flame But can his Lordship think that his blustering his impudence and the huffing the World with foaming wrathful speeches are enough to take off the positive testimony of an honest and credible person and who had spoken of this report long before he thought any improvement would be made of it Nor is it sufficient to blast the reputation of the Man or detract from the Truth of what he swore that he could not particularly name the persons that had reported it because as he never expected to be called into question about it so he had no occasion to recollect it till he was served with a sub poena to appear at Mr. Braddon's Trial which was above five Months after the time of the said talk and discourse And besides how many things are there which a publick Skopkeeper as this person is may hear his Customers speak of which he would be nonplust to give an account of the Authors of at a weeks end Nay by how much a Report is common as he says this was at Andover by so much are we apt to neglect by whom it hath been particularly related And the more our understandings are struck with the horror of a matter declared to us the less do we advert by whom it is spoken and the more unprepared are our memories to treasure up the names of the reporters Nor was it at Andover only that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat the day before he was killed but the same story and cloathed with the same circumstances was discoursed of before his death in divers other places For I am not only credibly informed That the Earl of Essex's having cut his Throat was reported on Thursday being the day before his death at Warmister in Wiltshire which is distant from London about eighty Miles but there is one Thomas Cox who lives near Bruningham that did positively declare That the same was told him in that Town the 12th of July whereas my Lord was not killed in the Tower till the 13. And besides all this to evidence a Report of that Noble Person 's being Murthered previous to the commission of the 〈◊〉 there are two Informations more delivered upon Oath Mr. Braddon's Trial 〈◊〉 〈…〉 miah Burgâ—s that lives at Marlborrough who swears that he heard it at Frome a place 90. Miles from London the very day that the Earl of Essex died and another by one Lewes that lives at Marleborrough who deposeth That being riding on the Road within three or four Miles of Andover on Friday in the Afternoon the same day that the Earl of Essex was murdered he was told by a person whom he fell in with on the way That the said Earl had cut his Throat in the Tower And notwithstanding all the affronts and discouragements put upon those two Witnesses whilest they were giving their Testimony and notwithstanding all the scorn and contempt wherewith Sir George Jeffery's endeavoured to expose and ridicule what they Deposed yet I dare venture their Informations upon the Faith of all indifferent and ingenuous Men whether they do not abundantly prove that there was such a Report spread abroad antecedently to my Lord of Essex's death or at least before the tidings of it could reach so far as that he had cut his Throat in the Tower
Only I shall crave liberty to make two or three reflexions on these Depositions and they shall not only be natural and easie and far from being wrested and exported out of what was said but they shall be such as must necessarily beget and strengthen a belief that my Lord of Essex did not murder himself but was through the contrivance and malice of others barbarously assassinated by the hands of Russians and execrable Villains And the first is That it ought to be reckoned as a wonder and ascribed only to the over-ruling Providence of God that will not suffer a Crime so hateful to Heaven and so ruinous to Humane Society to fall out without leaving some prints and footsteps by which it may be traced and detected that a Crime so enormous in it self so provoking and exasperating to Mankind and which the Authors of and Actors in would be loth to bear the ignominy and undergo the punishment that so horrid a guilt subjects them unto should be communicated to so many and so commonly talkt of before the Fact But by how much Revenge is one of the sweetest passions and most grateful to depraved nature by so much hath it a power and vertue in it to cause Men to open and unbosome themselves from the satisfaction which it yields and the delightful gust that it affords them And thô the Papists were at that time exceedingly transported with joy partly through their having shamm'd a Plot upon the Protestants which they supposed would extinguish the remembrance of their own and partly from the hopes they had of appeasing the Ghosts of their Tyburn Martyrs with the Blood of English Hereticks yet they could not but be uneasie in their minds to think that the Earl of Essex whom they so peculiarly hated and whose ability to unmaâ—k their designs as well as interest in the Nation and resentment for being committed they so much apprehended and feared should be able to escape their hands through want of evidence against him which made it needful for the heads of the Romish Faction to let their little clamours and talkative votaries know how they had resolved to use and employ force and violence for the destruction of that so much dreaded Enemy whom mercenary Judges and suborned and pickâ—t Juries would not serve to cut off in the way of Legal and judicial Forms Nor is it improbable but that the Contrivers of this Noble Man's death might have resolved the execution and commission of the Fact sooner and that the reason of adjourning it was to adjust it to the season of my Lord Russels's Trial thereby to make the murder of the one subservient and useful to the death of the other but that those acquainted with the first Resolution had from a forwardness of obliging their friends too hastily given them intelligence of the thing as already done when it was not as yet perpetrated nor committed by reason of the later Resolution The second observation I would make upon the forementioned reports is That tho' they were vented by several persons yet they not only agreed in the matter of the Earl of Essex's death but they accorded also in the way and manner of it namely that he had cut his Throat Which plainly shows that it was not vulgar Tattle vented at random but that it had its foundation in a previous and fixed resolution that he should undergo that unhappy fate Nothing but a steddy and determinate cause can produce a steddy and determinate effect Had the report taken its rise in the jealousies of his friends or owed its birth to the fearful apprehensions of the common people they would have rather dream'd of his being poyson'd as being more safe for the Actors to perpetrate and requiring the accession of sewer hands than have ever imagined that his throat should be cut It is impossible to conceive that the Reports of so many several persons should not only agree in the matter of his death but all harmonise and center in the very circumstance of the manner of it unless it had originally proceeded from such as had contrived and determined both the murder it self and the way wherein it should be committed For when reports have their foundation only in mens fancies they will always vary according to the different tempers passions and complexions of the Reporters The third deduction which I would infer from the premised Reports is That they could not be fictions and forgeries of Lyers and People Romantickly disposed For how could so many persons and at such distances from one another and betwixt whom there was never any correspondence agree and combine together to impose upon the World and to abuse the Faith of Mankind And as they all seem to be persons who abhor tricks and who would not be guilty of spreading much less of raising a false Report so it is beyond the wit of man to declare how it should come to be the interest of Gentlewomen and Country Tradesmen to be the Authors of such a Story that my Lord of Essex had cut his throat before it was done And for any to imagine that the Fanaticks were the framers of it is to represent them not only wicked but foolish and to suppose they would disserve themselves as well as slander and reproach their noblest and best friend And what clearer evidence or greater confirmation can there be of the Earl of Essex's not having been Felo de se but treacherously murdered by others and that they who were the Authorisers of that horrid assassination are persons of great power and interest at Court than that there have been Letters sent and proposals made to some noble Lords near the King that his Majesty will but grant a pardon to two or three men who shall be named when that grace is indulged and that then the whole intrigue and mysterie of that hellish contrivance shall be discovered and the contrivers as well as perpetrators of it particularly detected with a full account of all the circumstances of its execution 'T is true I dare not affirm that those Letters have been shown to his Majesty or any intercession used with him in pursuance of that overture and proposal but this I may justly say that if they have neglected it they must needs either know or suspect that there are persons of too great power as well as quality interested and concerned in that execrable villany For we can suppose no other motive upon which men of honour would decline a service so acceptable to God and whereby they might avert wrath not only from the Throne and Kingdom but from their own persons and families through bringing enormous offenders and execrable assassinates to punishment But alass that apprehension they are under of deriving trouble and destruction upon themselves instead of being able to expose the Malefactors to justice frightens them from the discharge of that duty which they owe both to God and Men. The having heard what a Great Man should
say in reference to Mr. Braddon namely that he was ravelling into such a business but that he was resolved to ruine him if all the Law of England would do it makes every man affraid as well as sensible what he may encounter if he have the boldness to interest himself in this affair O degenerate off spring of brave and heroick ancestors were it not much more eligible to run hazard by acquitting your selves as persons of honour in discharge of your duty than to seek for safety by involving your persons and posterity under the guilt of that abominable and villanous Fact And besides can they otherwise hope than that through conniving at so horrid a murder committed upon another person and one who was of a rank and condition equal to themselves they shall at last undergo the same or the like fate whensoever they have the unhappiness and misfortune to fall under the wrath of a certain Gentleman at St. James's But over and above the two Letters that were sent to noble persons very near the King to be communicated to his Majesty there was another Letter addressed to the Countess of Essex and in order to the being conveyed to her Ladyship directed to be left with one Mr. Cadman a Bookseller in the New Exchange in the Strand the Tenor whereof was that if her Honour would prevail with the King for a pardon to one that would discover how my Lord came by his death or obtain of his Majesty a proclamation assuring forgiveness to any who should come in and detect by whom and after what manner my Lord was murder'd that upon either of those securities the way of the Earl of Essex's assassination should be revealed and laid open with all its circumstances This Letter was in August last brought by a young woman to Mr. Cadman's Shop who finding him sleeping on the inside of his Counter told him that she had brought him a Letter directed to my Lady Essex concerning my Lords death which she desired he would read being to that end left open and unsealed But Cadman being drowsie and still inclined to sleep instead of taking notice what she said thrust her from the Counter as an officious and troublesome person and commanded her to goabout her business Yet having after his being throughly awake both perused the Letter and considered the importance and consequence of it he judged himself in prudence obliged to carry it to a Magistrate which accordingly he did to one Hinton a Justice of Peace in Covent Garden who as I have been credibly informed went with it to one of the Secretaries of State This Letter as is most justly conceived was written by Bomeny forasmuch as he not only seemed about that time to be under some Remorse in reference to the death of my Lord but because some of Bomeny's handwriting being shewed to Mr. Cadman it appeared to him according to the best of his remembrance and judgment to be the same hand or at least very much like unto that which the letter was written in This much is plainly evident that it must have been written by one that was willing to be known seeing it was both sent open and by a person that was able to declare of whom she had received it For had the writing of this Letter been only a contrivance to avert the infamy of my Lord's death from himself and deliver those Gentlemen accused for the Plot from the consequences unto which the Earls imagined murdering himself was improved against them it would never have been left unsealed for Mr. Cadman to read nor seat by a person that was acquainted with the contents of it as it plainly appears the bearer was but would both have been sealed to prevent Cadman's looking into it and conveyed by a porter or some such hand that would have been less lyable to be questioned either about the contents or the Author of it Nor does any thing more amaze and astonish thinking people than that notwithstanding the many Reports as well as Universal jealousies of my Lord of Essex being murder'd in the Tower yet all this time his Majesty hath not published one word to encourage an inquisition into the manner of his death or to secure a pardon to such as shall be able to discover whether he was assassinated and by whom and after what manner he was brought to an untimely End For considering the obligations which the King and the Royal Family lay under to the late Earl of Essex as well as to his Father my Lord Capel and considering the many aspersions thrown upon the Court in relation to the death of the said Earl it hath been expected that his Majesty as well in justice to the Family of the Capels as in vindication of his own honour from the infamy of having a person of my Lord Essex's merit and figure assassinated in his Majesties prison and Palace would have issued out a proclamation ascertaining forgiveness to any that should be able to prove his being murdered by others and that he did not destroy himself as some people have been industrious to give out And that which encreaseth the surprise and wonder is the consideration of the forwardness which the King hath expressed in some other cases for the detection of murders of this nature For besides the tender of a pardon there was the promise of 500. l. to any who should discover the murder of Sr. Edmondbury Godfrey and reveal the miscreants by whom he was assassinated And I would be loth to think that his Majesties proceeding so differently in that case from what he hath done in this was rather to be ascribed to his apprehensions of a ParlJament which was then in Being than to his love of justice or the desire of delivering the Nation from the guilt of innocent blood But I am willing to believe that the reason why the King doth not encourage the discovery of this late murder of my L. of Essex ariseth from the fear he is in of the persons that were accessory to it For in case he would authorise the detection of the Assassinates of this Noble Earl he will find himself obliged not only to bring the Earl of S. and my Lord F. but his Royal and dearly beloved Brother I D. of Y. to punishment And who knows but that he dreads left in calling these Gentlemen to account for cutting the E. of Essex's throat He too much hazard and expose his own Nor is it at all surprizing that the King who had not courage to resent the poysoning his own Sister by her husband the Duke of Orleans at a juncture when He might have made France feel the effects of his justice and displeasure should not have the boldness to question his Brother and other principal persons of the Popish Faction for the assassination of Essex especially at a time that he hath divested himself of all power to hurt them and by seeming offended may only stir up their wrath against himself
For I remember that when the late Sr. Thomas Armstrong had come post from Paris to give his Majesty an account how Orleans had poisoned the Princess Henrietta that he only replyed Orleans is a Rascal but pray thee Tom do not speak of what he hath done Yet that his Majesty may not excuse himself hereafter from causing further inquisition to be made after my Lord of Essex's death by saying he never heard otherwise but that he murder'd himself I do therefore tell his Majesty and publish to all the World that if he will grant an indemnity and protection to three or four persons we shall fully and evidently prove a Great Man the Earl of S. my Lord F. c. to have been the contrivers and Authorisers of it and shall name the Ruffians in particular who were employed to perpetrate the hellish and execrable Fact with an account of the several sums of money which they had for the execution of it Nor ought his Majesty to be displeased that I arraign his Brother and principal Ministers of so enormous and bloody a crime for as I write nothing but what I can fully justify so I take the boldness further to tell both him and them that if ever there come a ParlJament in England this matter shall be laid fully open and justice demanded against these impudent and enormous Offenders And as if it were not enough to evidence the E. of Essex did not murder himself but was barbarously assassinated by others that no encouragement hath been given for the discovery of the Authors of that villanous Fact notwithstanding all the rumours and Reports which have run to and fro both of the Manner of his death and the Actors in it it receives both a further and a very convincing accession of proof from this that all means have been used to deterr men from enquiring into that matter and to prevent their detecting what they may know of it The passages to this purpose would fill a volume meerly to relate them and therefore I shall confine my self to two particulars which I shall endeavour to deduce and represent with all the brevity as well as clearness I can Nor can it in the first place but astonish the world to find the Judges with whom the administration of law and justice between the King and his people is trusted I say to find them contrary both to the nature and End of their office and the Oaths they have taken of acting impartially to brand the medling in the matter of the E. of Essex's death as a Reflection upon his Majesty an Affront to the Government and a design to involve and embroil the Nation in trouble For not only the Attorney General stigmatiseth the report and belief of the Earl's being murdered by villanous hands as the throwing that ill thing upon the Government which he had committed upon himself but my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies is pleased to stile it a libelling of it and to have been forged in order to beget heart burnings and jealousies in the Kings Subjects against the Government and to raise Sedition Whereas the Government would never have been charged with this horrid Guilt tho some at the head of affairs might possibly have been accused of it had not these Gown-men involved the Government under the infamy and aspersion of it and done all they can to teach others to lay the barbarous Fact at that Door For as it is not the first time that a Prisoner hath been murdered in the Tower so it was never till now called a Reflection on the Government to endeavour to prove that such or such a person was destroyed by â—iolâ—nt and bloody hands even of whose death the Coroners Inquest had upon their inquisition given an other verdict Nay when the chief Favourites of our Princes and first Ministers of State have been accused as guilty of murdering a Gentleman imprisoned in the Tower whom the Coroners Jury had on their Inquisition declared to have died a natural death yet it was not thought to be an impeachment of the Government or a devolving the guilt of that bloody crime upon the King Of this we have a famous instance in Sr. Thomas Overbury who being committed Prisoner to the Tower in the Reign of King James and there poisoned by the contrivance and instigation of the Earl of Sommerset c. that was then chief Minister as well as principal Favourite was brought in by the Coroners inquisition to have died a natural death And yet it was thought no dishonour to the Government to have the death of that Gentleman afterwards enquired into and to find it proved contrary to the Coroners Inquisition that instead of dying a natural death he was basely and treacherously murdered by Villanous hands through the accession and contrivance of him whom he had faithfully served and with the consent of those to whose care trust and custody he was committed Nay was it not a great Vindication of the honor of the Government and an eminent Declaration of the Justice of the Nation to have the Lieutenant of the Tower and four or five meaner persons executed and the Earl of Sommerset and his Countess convicted and condemned for that bloody and barbarous Fact which the Coroners Inquest had acquitted and absolved all the world from the suspition as well as the guilt of And what an injury will the Judges of the Kings Bench and his Majesties Councel at Law be found to have done the King and the Government by their foolish as well as wicked expressions if at any time hereafter it come to be proved as certainly it will that the Earl of Essex did not murder himself but was assassinated by a company of hired Russians We should be loath in that case to claim the right of their way of Argumentation and to inferr that because my Lord of Essex was murdered in the Tower and at a time when the King was walking there that therefore not only the Government ought to be charged with it but that the King himself had a hand in and had designed it Tho I must say that according to their method of reasoning it will be impossible in that case to avoid such a deduction However it is a convincing proof that the ignominy and guilt of this Noblemans death ought to be ascribed to others than himself that the Judges and the men of the long Robe can find no other way to stifle the suspition and silence the clamor of the People but by interposing the Government as a Skreen to shelter Malefactors from Accusation and abusing the Authority of the Kingdom to deter men from the duty which they owe to God and his Majesty in discovering so execrable a murder Nor is this the only way and method they have taken to frighten and discourage Persons from discoursing of the Earl of Essex's being destroy'd by others without any accession or contribution of his own to his death but they have laid their
commands and injunctions upon such as they have power and authority over and whom they thought conscious either to the manner of that Noble Peers fatal End or capable of detecting any circumstances which might let in light upon that affair And therefore knowing that the Soldiers who were upon Duty in the Tower that morning when the Earl of Essex was killed had not only taken notice of several Persons and made Observation of diverse things from which both the murder of that vertuous Lord might be inferred and concluded as well as by whose hands it was perpetrated but that divers of them had talkt too freely and lavishly of it abroad as well as among themselves accordingly on the Saturday morning being that which immediately succeeded to the day of the Earls death did a Military Officer after They and other Soldiers were called together charge them with the highest threats and menaces that they should not dare to speak of what they had seen or heard the day before adding that whosoever should be known to divulge what had passed in the Tower on the Friday in the forenoon should severely suffer for it This divers of the Soldiers have confessed and related to their friends who are willing to testifie it when occasion serves And among others one Robert Meak of whom I shall afterwards have occasion to say somewhat more declared the whole of this passage to two men that are ready to swear it whensoever their Depositions may be of advantage to the publick and can be made without exposing themselves to ruin It will not be denied by rational men but that the Souldiers who were then upon Duty in the Tower had advantages of knowing more in reference to the Earl of Essex death than most other persons can pretend unto seeing that as some were so posted as both to see all that went into his Lodgings and to hear the noise and bustle which was made in his Chamber upon his resistance and the force and violence which the miscreants used towards him so others were placed in that manner as to observe whence and from whom they came and whither and to whom they returned that were employed to commit the Hellish and Tragical deed Nor can any suspect that men who march under the Ensigns of his Majesty should forge a story so much tending to the dishonor of a great man and the Kings Ministers and so likely to displease persons that had power to cashier and otherwise punish them as this of my Lord Essex not cutting his own Throat but being Assassinated by others was adapted unto and would infallibly do Yea I do affirm with all the Sacredness which becomes a Man and a Christian in a matter of this weight and importance that this is no Calumny imposed on the Souldiers and their Commander in order to traduce the Government and enflame the Kingdom but that whatsoever is here affirmed is built upon the greatest moral certainty that an Affair of this nature is capable of And all I do desire in order to the justifying what I have now related and declared is only that his Majesty would cause order a writ of Revieu or melius Inquirendum to be issued out with an assurance of pardon to such as shall be willing to come in and be able to testifie by whom and after what manner this Noble Lord was Assassinated and Murdered Nor can his Majesties Ministers escape this Dilemma either of lying under the infamy of being conscious of and accessary unto the assassination of that Honorable person or of being obliged to obtain a Revieu of this matter with a promise of indemnity to those who shall appear witnesses and be able to give evidence in the case And I shall take the liberty further to say that it is not only the duty but the interest of those very Ministers who may not be directly concerned in the Guilt of my Lord of Essex blood to promote and second this overture and proposal and that not only for the Honor of the Government but for their own Vindication from being accessary to so enormous and detestable a Crime For the time may possibly come that their meer connivance at the concealment of this murder may rise in judgment against them and render them more lyable to punishment than they seem at present to apprehend Our Laws which expressly requires the least Officers in the Common-wealth to pursue Robbers Fellons and Murderers with Hue and Cry or otherwise makes them obnoxious to penalties never intended that privy 〈◊〉 whoâ— by the duty of their place are to watch and advise for the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of the Subject as well as the preservation and honer of the King should be esteemed Innocent and not be liable to any punishment by Law tho they be found to connive at the destruction of his Me 〈…〉 people and at the involving his Person and Government under an indeâ—â—ble reproach and infamy And therefore tho it cannot be supposed that those of his Majesties Ministers who are directly criminal by contriving and câ—mmanding this Murder should countenance or encourage an inquiry into and a detection of it yet it may not only be exspected but ought to be claimed of the Marquis of Hallisax the Earl of Radnar my Lord Fal 〈…〉 ridg and some others who have still the priviledge of being in the publick manage of Affairs and admitted to sit in his Majesties Councel that they would not both to their own danger and dishonor as well as the prejudice of the King in his reputation and safety continue to connive at this Excrable and Barbarous Murder but that they would apply themselves as becomes the duty of their places and the regard they ought to have for their own honor to obtain of his Majesty what is here desired in order to the detection of the assaâ—â—ination of my Lord Essex and the bringing the Maleâ—actors to undergo that severity which the Justice of the Law subjects them unto But as if the precedeing Tâ—pick did not administer sufficient Evidence that the E. of Essex was assassinated by others howsoever his memory comes to be branded for cutting his own Throat there is a further proof ariseth in confirmation of it from this that they have not only discouraged and frighted such as might be willing to lay open the whole Mystery of that divelish work of darkness but they have beyond all law and president persecuted and â—ppressed those who were either found inclined to inquire into the manner of that honorable persons death or to have vented what they had heard which might give suspition of his being brought to his End by the treache 〈…〉 villaâ—y of bloody misereants Nor shall I here enlarge on the proceedings against old Mr. Edwards the Custom-house Officer who besides his â—â—ing shamefully upbraided and standered by my Lord Chief Justice at the Trial of Mr. Bradden was afterwards turned out of his place where he had served for 39 years and for no other
crime but affiring his Boy had said he sawâ—a blâ—â—â—â— Razâ—â— thrown â—ut of â—he E. of E 〈…〉 ex 's Window immediately before the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 s Death But that which I shall more largely insist upon is the course and method that hath been 〈…〉 red towards Mr. Braddon himself which as it is without all president so it hath been extravagant and arbitrary in the highest degree All who understand any thing of the Law of England know that in all Cases and Indictments of Murder except upon Appeals the Charge and Accusation not only runs in the Kings Name but he is according to and in the sense of the Law the proper Plantiff And there is this reason for it because as others through the death of the person destroy'd may have lost a Relation Acquaintance or Friend so the King alway's loseth a Subject from whom he was to have Allegiance and Service and whom by vertue of his Office he was trusted with the care and protection of and in the Sense and esteem of the Law made responsible for It was upon this account that the Conspirators against the life and Authorisers of the Assassination of this late Peer and to prevent the advantage and benefit which Mr. Braddon would have had in bringing an Indiâ—â—ment of Felony and Murder against Bâ—meny and others took the start of him and caused an Information to be preferred against him of subornation and spreading false Reports whereby to bring the Government of the King into hatred disgrace and contempt And by this means they did not only obstruct the Kings being made Plantif and party against the murderers which he must have been in case way had been given to Mr. Braddons getting any of them Indicted but they commence an Action against that poor Gentleman wherein they make the King party and Plantiff against him and in effect no less than Advocate und Voucher for the Innocency of those that were to have been Indicted for a most execrable and barbarous Assassination Which as it was a most divelish Artifice for the oppressing an honest Gentleman who had done nothing but what he was bound unto in Conscience to God and duty to his Majesty so it was a most villanous and enormous crime against the King through making him to be the Skreeâ— and Patron of those of whom he should have been the prosecutor and puâ—isher and at the same time to be the pursuer and ruiner of a wâ—rthy person whom he was bound to have countenanced encouraged and protected It would fill a whole Volumn to relate the severities which Mr. Bradden hath encountred and upon no other score but because he was willing in order to delivering the Throne and Kingdom from the Guilt of Innocent Blood to gather up such Informations as might have served to convince the King of the murder committed upon the E. of Essex while he was in a special manner under the protection of his Majesty and the Law being not only a Prisoner but standing committed to the Tâ—wer of London where-with respect to the quality of the place Captives ought to be supposed more safe from violence than in other Prisons But as it is not yet a season to present the world with a History of the Sufferings of this Honest and Ingenious Gentleman so it were but to en-tangle and perplex the affair I am upon to interweave it with a large narrative of another mans troubles tho they all sp 〈…〉 ng from his being concerned in enquiring and discovering how and by what hands and means this noble Man was brought to so fatal and untimely an End I shall therefore only briefly intimate some few things which may serve to enlighten and confirm the Tâ—pick and Head which I am now discoâ—â—ing from And whatsoever proves the ill treatment of those who keeping themselves within the bonds of loyalty and modesty have endevoured to detect the Assassination of that honorable person does by consequence demonstrate that he was not Felo de se but that he was Murdered by the malice and violence of other men The first unexpected entertainment which this Gentlemen Mr. Braddon met with was his being taken into Custody and carried before the Council on his having gone to White-hall to wait upon my Lord S. in order to inform his Lordship what a certain Boy whom he took thither along with him had reported concerning a Razor which he saw thrown out of the Earl of Essex Window immediately before the noise and report of his Death And not to mention what other Treatment he met with there which some of the Honorable Menbers of that Board themselves have declared to have been very unbecoming his Majesties presence and no way 's agreeable to the gravity wisdom and honor of such an assembly he was required to give 2000 l. Bail to answer an Information for having suborned the Boy a thing very unsuitable to the service he had been performing for the Honor of his Majesty and the Government and very surprising to all indifferent persons that heard of it And tho this poor Gentleman was discharged at that time and restored to his liberty upon giving the forementioned 2000 l. Bail to answer the said Information yet his troubles did not end and terminate here but this was rather only a commencement and beginning of the hardships and oppressions which he was to meet with for having had the honesty and courage to appear in a business which so neerly affected a great man and so many of his Majesties principal Ministers of State For though they had laid him under a necessity of making all the provisions he could for Vindicating himself from being the Author and Forger of that Report concerning a Razor 's being thrown out of the E. of Essex window just before the cry and noise of his death being that which gave the suspition of my Lords being murdered by violent treacherous and bloody hands and that he did not destroy himself as was endeavoured to be obtruded and imposed upon his Memory and the Faith of the Nation yet Mr. Braddon was no sooner gone into the Country to enquire into the truth of an other Story which very much strengthened and confirmed the suspition and jealousie that my Lord was not Felo de Se but this poor Gentleman fell into new troubles and found persecution and oppression awaiting him whithersoever he went For having received intelligence from a friend that on the very day on which the Earl died it was reported at Marleborough that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower he judged it very useful and subservient both to the acquitting himself from the Slander of being the first Author of the Report that my Lord was murdered by others and also to the evidencing and clearing up that he really was so to search into the truth of that Information which his Friend had given him and to learn out the persons to whom that News had been told and
withheld from him and positively denied to give up the 10000 l. Bonds which he and his Sureties had entred into for his being a true Prisoner nor would they so much as restore him the Fees he had payd upon the sealing of them And it being now the long Vacation and there remaining no way of helping and relieving himself till the Term he was forced both to continue a close Prisoner under no less Expence than two l. Sterl per week and to lie under the Weight and Terror of the 12000l Bayl which they had wrested from him But tho he was denied the Succour and Benefit of the Law and sound neither Justice nor Mercy in Men yet he could not be rob'd of the Comforts of a good Conscience nor deprived of the Refreshments and Supports which the Knowledg of his own Integrity and Innocency administred unto him And I have been fully informed by credible Hands that neither the troubles and oppressions which he lay then under nor the further Persecutions and Sufferings he was in prospect of were able to give him any Discomposure or create him any vexation Grief in himself nor yet to transport him to a behaviour in word or deed that could furnish his Enemies with an advantage against or yield them matter of insulting over him In this state and Condition he continâ—â—d till Michaelmass Term which being come and the Westminster Courts begun to fit he caused move the Court of Kings Bench the very first day for a Rule to the Marshal to bring him up the next morning in order to discharge the Bayl he had given by Appointment of the Council Board about the answering an Information of pretended Subornation Which Rule being granted by the Court and obeyed by the Marshal his Appearance was recorded and his Bayl discharged Now having succeeded in this which my Lord K. had refused in the time of the Vacation to grant him the next step he took was for the obtaining his own Liberty in order to which he did on the fifth day of the Term move the Court for a Habeas Corpus to be brought up and bailed Which being also immediately granted he was after a few days and a little delay which I shall not complain of the occasion of brought up to the Court of the Kings Bench and there discharged from his Imprisonment upon he giving 3000 l. Bayl whereof himself stood â—ound in a Bond of a 1000 l. and his four Sureties in 500 l. a Man From all which we may not only collect the Hardships and Oppressions which this honest and worthy Gentleman met wit meerly for enquiring into the Truth of some Reports which if admitted do clearly prove that the Earl of Essex was assassinated by others and did not murder himself but we may also observe and infer after what an arbitrary and illegal manner his Majesties Subjects are treated by some of his judicial Officers as well as prime Ministers for attempting to discover a most execrable and barbarous Murder wherein a great Man and the chief Heads of the Popish Faction would have been found deeply concerned and involved Nor did Mr. Braddons troubles upon this account issue here all these things being only Praeludiuars to what he was further to encounter from the Rage and Malice of St. James's and therefore the next Scene that opened was the bringing him to a Trial for endeavouring in the Earl of Essex's Death to cast Aspersiens upon the Government and defame the King And all I would desire of any unprejudiced and impartial Person is only to read the said Trial being fully confident that he will thereupon not only acquit the Gentleman from the Guilt of any such thing but that he will find himself obliged in conscience to acknowledge that there was barbarous villany used in bringing my Lord of Essex to that Fatal and untimely End And the first thing remarkable as an Introduction to that Trial is that my Lord Chief Justice was not only that morning for some time at Whitehall before he went to Westminster but was attended upon by Lord F. whom we have reason to accuse of being one of the Contrivers and Authorisers of the Earl of Essex murder at the lighting out of his Coach in Westminster and discoursed with both as he was conducted through the Hall and in a corner near unto the Court before his Lordship ascended to the Bench. Which hath given many men ground to suspect that his business at the first place was to receive such Instructions as he was to follow and attend unto in the work of the day and that the reason of the others according and discoursing him where he did was to impress him with a fresh sense of the business that was to be before him and to represent the dreadful consequences which would ensue to a great Man and His Majesties Ministers in case Mr. Braddon should come to be acquitted And whosoever did either observe the behaviour of the Bench at that time or hath since read the Trial where tho what was said on all sides may be related yet the Gesture Countenance Passion Heat and Air with which many things were spoken cannot be represented must be forced to acknowledge that my Lord Chief Justice and his Brethren were rather sworn parties against the Defendant than equal Judges in a Cause betwixt the King and him I should be obliged to transcribe most of the Trial did I undertake to give an account of the ungentile slanderous and malicious language vented against himself or the interrupting menacing and hectoring of his Counsel or the imposing upon prescribing unto as well as byassing the Jury against him and therefore instead of that I entreat and desire the world to do both themselves and Mr. Braddon that right as to peruse the Trial and if in their hearts they subscribe not to what I say I am contented to undergo the character both of a person that understands nothing of the Rules and Measures which ought to be observed in Courts of Judicature and of one who is not sufficiently regardful of his Credit and Fame in the things which he delivers And if I be not wonderfully mistaken there is nothing more needful but an impartial reading and weighing of that Trial for the vindication of Mr. Braddon's enquiring into the Reports which seem'd to imply that the Earl of Essex had not killed himself nor to justify his innocency as to the crime whereof he was accused namely of maliciously conspiring and endeavouring to defame the Government and as Justice Withins was pleased to express it of charging the King with taking away an innocent mans blood and of murdering an innocent man and as it was layd in the Indictment of his procuring and suborning false Witnesses to prove that the Earl of Essex was not a Felon of himself but was killed and murdered by unknown persons For admit that all which was sworn concerning a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of my Lord Essex's
Officers of Justice and partly not to expose men to that hazard which they must necessarily run by engaging in this affair affords us a new proof of my Lord's innocency from being Felo de se and that the infamy and guilt of his death ought to be devolved upon others There are cases wherein suspition of guilt may so wait on some men that others tho never so well perswaded of their innocency cannot without forfeiture of discretion and becoming Sharers in the reproach and dishonour which attends them give them either the least countenance or yield them any Testimonies of Favour and Kindness till they have vindicated and acquitted themselves from that whereof they are suspected and which common Fame accuseth them of And as all persons pretending to wisdom or who are regardful of their reputation will account themselves obliged to act under the conduct and guidance of this Rule and principle so of all men those in Authority are most concerned not to take upon them the sheltring of those that are aspersed with infamous crimes nor to countenance and advance such whom the cry of a Kingdom chargeth with a barbarous enormous and execrable Fact But to that impudence in Villany as well as contempt of honour and credit are the Gentlemen of the Popish Juncto and Cabal arrived that they not only cause secretly Murther such as would discover a great and heinous offence against God and Mankind but they dare openly and in the face of the Sun both protect and prefer the chief Miscreant and Ruffian whom all sober and impartial persons have in suspition for it It must necessarily be acknowledged that in case my Lord was assassinated by violent and and bloody hands his Valet de Chamber Romeny the only Servant who attended him in the Tower save a Footman must be acquainted with it and accessory to it And so many as well as weighty were the arguments of his being guilty of his Earl and Master's death that he was justly suspected for it both by the rest of my Lord's Servants and all the thinking impartial people about the Town And tho I shall have occasion hereafter to mention divers particulars and recount several circumstances which not only serve to lay him under a suspition but to convict him of being accessary to the death of his Lord yet I care not if I relate one at present namely the apprehension he was in and the trouble he expressed to one of the Lady Essex's Gentlewomen upon a Report which he had heard that my Lord's Murder was to come under a second Examination and that the Body was to be taken up in order to a review Nor was the Countess her self for all the impressions which some great men had endeavoured to possess her with of my Lord 's cutting his own Throat without strong apprehensions to the contrary nor void of jealousie of this French Fellow's being guilty of her Husband's death which made her discharge him her service and dismiss him out of the Family And as no Gentlemen in England would have after this done so foolish a thing or so unworthy of himself as to cherish and entertain such a Rascal so it least of all became the honour of the Court unless there were a further mystery in it than the world is aware of to take him both into their protection and to advance him to an employ and place Let us therefore a little observe and recount what favours this Rascal under all the suspition and infamy of being accessary to his Lord's death hath met with both from his Majesties Ministers of Justice and from the principal persons at Court and chiefest Officers of State Can it be less than a reflexion both upon the honour of the Government and an insinuation that great men were concerned in that horrid fact whereof Bomeny is so justly suspected that my Lord Chief Justice at Mr. Braddon's Trial after he had been affronting interrupting and hectoring all the Witnesses for the Defendant steps in not only to assist and rectifie Bomeny in his Deposition guiding him to say a Razor when the Rogue had said a Penknife but durst represent the Villain under the character of one whose integrity and fidelity to my Lord was confirmed by six years experience of his service and that he was not an upstart and wandering fellow Yea the esteem that this Ruffian was in with our Grandees and which by consequence proves that there is a Mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death which is not yet fully discovered seeing these who are deservedly suspected to have been accessary to it are favoured and befriended by them may be further enlightned and confirmed from the correspondence which Bomeny had with the Secretary of State when he lay concealed from others and the readiness he expressed to converse with any that pretended to enquire for him in Sir Lionel Jenkin's name when he was denied to every body besides For a certain person having occasion to call at his Lodging in order to Subpaena him to Mr. Braddon's Trial and being positively told that there was no such man there took the boldness to say he came from Sir Lionel upon which Bomeny immediately appeared and he who was said not to be there before stept forth with all imaginable readiness to receive the Secretaries Messenger and to know what his Honour's pleasure was And if these two passages which I have related be not enough to evidence the kindness which his Majesties Ministers had for this little and Infamous creature I shall subjoin a third importing the care which the greatest about the Court took of him and the respect they shew him For when he seemed to be abandoned by all others and knew not where to be admitted into a service by reason of the suspition he lay under of being either an instrument that murdered his Lord or who had consented to the doing of it behold a great man and the Officers of his Majesties Forces embrace him under all that ignominy and reproach and list him to ride in one of the Troops of Guards Nor is it possible for any man without renouncing his Reason to imagine that that Great Man as well as divers other persons of Figure and Quality should expose themselves to the censure of the world in entertaining a Fellow judged guilty of so enormous and abominable a crime unless they themselves had been accessory some way or other to that execrable wickedness and except they judged the Rascal to have merited by the Fact But to put it beyond all possibility of any rational contradiction that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but that he was massacred by others I shall demonstrate the impossibility of it as the manner of his death is represented in the Coroners Inquisition and declared in the Depositions of the Chyrurgions who view'd the Body and searched and examined the fatal wound And where there is a Natural Impossibility that a thing
should be so or so done all the Informations of the world to the contrary serve to no other end but to declare the perjury of the informers A matter that is naturally impracticable ought not to be credited tho never so many should have the impudence to swear they saw it done But as the rage of the Conspirators and Assassinates transported and hurried them to commit the barbarous Fact in such a manner that all who have not abjured common sense as well as Reason must acknowledg that it was not practicable in that way and manner or a thing that could be done by the Earl of Essâ—x himself so their malice corrupted and blinded their judgments to that measure and degree that the Instrument which they have chosen and pitched upon as the Tool Weapon and Mean by which it was done renders the doing it by my Lord impossible in it self and unworthy to be believed except by the grossest of Fools or the worst of knaves who never consider how far a matter either is or can be true but only what may conduce to their profit or gratifie their malice to take up and admit And how conspicuous is the Wisdom as well as Righteousness of God in infatuating villanous men so to accomplish and perpetrate their villanies as that their folly shall detect their guilt and the Marks and Characters of stupidity as well as rage left upon the Fact shall reveal the Authors of it let them do all they can to transfer and abdicate it from themselves and to charge and fassen it upon others Now the Coroners Inquest in their Inquisition made the 14th of July 1683 concerning the Earl of Essex death do upon their Oaths from the Depositions of such witnesses as they thought fit to examine give us this account of the way and manner of it That the Earl of Essex being the 13â—h day of July alone in his Chamber did with a Razor voluntarily and feloniously cut his own Throat giving unto himself one mortal wound cut from one Jugular to the other and by the Aspera Arteria and the Wind-pipe to the vertebres of the Neck both the Jugulars being throughly divided of which said mortal Wound the said Earl of Essex instantly died And to this account so far as relates to the Nature of the Wound do the Informations upon Oath of Robert Sherwood and Robert Andrews two Chyrurgions called to view the Body of the said Earl fully agree For Robert Sherwood swears That having viewed the Threat of the Earl of Essex he finds that there is a large wound and that the Aspera Arteria or Wind pipe and the Gullet with the Jugular Arteries are all divided And Robert Andrews deposeth to the same purpose namely That having viewed the Throat of the Lord of Essex he found that it was cut from one Jugular to the other and through the Wind-pipe and Gullet into the Vertebres of the Neck both Jugular Veins being also quite divided And as the first thing observable in the Coroners Inquest about my Lords death is that his Throat was cut with a Razor so it is needful the world should know that the Razor which Bomeny in his Deposition before the said Inquest swears to be the same wherewith he gave himself the fatal and mortal wound was a small French Razor of about four Inches and half long at most without any Spill or Tongue at the end of the Blade as all Razors of the English Form and Fashion have So that the Razor being of that make proportion and extent it is as evident as any demonstrated problem in Euclid that it could not be used but upon holding it by the Blade and that in order to the holding it with strength and steddiness requisite to the making such a wound the Fingers and Hand must grasp and fasten upon no less than two Inches of it The second thing remarkable from the Inquisition of the Coroner and the Depositions of the Cbyrurgions refers to the extent and dimension of this deplorable and deadly wound Which as they all acknowledg to have reached from Jugular to Jugular in length and to the vertebrae of the Neck in depth so a certain Gentleman who saw the wound before ever the Jury did affirms that it begun at the side of the Neck Bone behind the left jugular and extended to the Bone of the Neck beyond the right being betwixt eight and nine inches in dimension from one side to the other and that it so nearly approached unto and pierced into the vertebrae that had it light on a joint it would have cut off his Head instead of merely cutting his Throat And I may upon what is here confessed and sworn confidently say That no man could cut his own Throat after the rate and manner and to that measure and extent that the Earl of Essex's was cut Nor did I ever speak with Physician or Chyrurgeon who was so far above the dread of the Court and St. James's as to dare venture the giving his opinion but he would readily acknowledg and confirm it with unanswerable reasons that it was impossible the Earl of Essex should have given himself that mortal wound or cut his Throat in the manner it appears to have been done For the Razor being in the whole length but four inches and a half and two inches of these being necessary at the least to be held and grasped in the hand in order to the using and managing of it it is not imaginable how with the other two Inches and a half both the Jugulars could be divided at one stroke and a gash made which extended no less than Eight Inches from one side to the other There is no man that is versed in Chyrurgery or the Anatomy of the humane Body but will find himself obliged to own that it is altogether impossible that after the cutting the one Jugular there should remain life and strength for carrying forward the wound to the dividing the other Nor can there be any thing more certain in Nature than that there would have been such an effusion of Spirits and Blood upon dividing the first Jugular that all life and motion would have immediately ceased and that there would have been no strength left to push forward the instrument to the second so as to dissect it Besides there being no more of the Razor beyond the hand which held the Razor than about two inches and a half of the blade that could be used and applied to the making the incision in the Throat How is it possible that a Gash or Wound of four Inches deep for of that dimension it was from the outside of the Gullet where the hand must lye to the Vertebrae of the Neck where the incision terminated could be made by an Instrument of two inches and a half long These being plain and direct impossibilities it necessarily follows that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself but that this hellish Murder was committed upon him by the hands
of bloody and hired Ruffians Nor indeed was a Razor the Instrument which they made use of upon this villanous occasion but it was done by one of another kind as well as form and figure and which as they had prepared and provided on purpose so it was much more convenient for the perpetration of the Fact But it would have too palpably betrayed the Actors to have suffered that to have lain by the massacred Body or to have let it be seen by any honest and indifferent persons who might throng in among others to view and look upon the bleeding Corps And of all the Instruments which they could have thought upon a Razor especially of the fashion which that was that they threw down by my Lord's Body after they had Murdered him was the most unfit for an incision in the Throat of those dimensions as the wound whereby they treacherously killed him evidently appears to have been A certain Gunner in the Tower who may be supposed not altogether a stranger to this affair pitched upon a more convenient and proper Instrument for the doing of it when about Nine of the Clock that morning he reported the death of my Lord in a place not-far distant from thence saying the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat with a Case Knife wherewith he had been carving a Pidgeon for his Breakfast And had they not been infatuated they would have rather ordered such an Instrument to have been laid by the Body in order to blind and deceive the World about the manner of his death than the small French Razâ—r which I have described and by which they have endeavoured to make men believe the gastful and fatal wound was made But if a ParlJament come to sit again in England or if His Majesty will grant a Pardon to such Witnesses as we are ready to produce and allow a Writ of Melius Inquirendum concerning the death of this Noble Peer before equal and imparâ—â—al Judges we shall both describe the Instrument he was killed by and prove the truth of what we say by persons who saw the whole Bloody and Tragical transaction and are as Accessories too far concerned in that horrid Murder Nor want there proofs of my Lords being treacherously Assassinated by others and that he was not a Felon of himself from the Testimonies of these very Witnesses which were produced both before the Coroners Inquest and at Mr. Bradden's Trial to Swear that the Earl of Essex had cut his own Throat And tho it may be pardonable in the Coroner upon the Inquisition into the manner of my Lord's death to have admitted the Depositions of Bomeny and Russel there being not then so just suspitions of their guilt in this matter as afterwards there were yet for my Lord Chief Justice to allow them as competent Witnesses in that affair when the presumptions of their being accessory to that Murder were so strong as they plainly appeared from the whole scope and tendency of that which was sworn said and alledged in Mr. Braddon's behalf at the foresaid Trial was the greatest affront imaginable to Justice and argued a most criminal partiality For with what equity could Bomeny's Testimony be admitted to destroy either the Truth or probability of my Lord 's being assassinated by others seeing it must be granted that in case the Earl of Essex was treacherously Murdered Bomeny being the only Servant who then waited upon him must be an Actor in or at least an Accessory to it And what is this but to admit a fellow under the highest presumptions of guilt to be a witness in his own Cause and to allow his Testimony as a sufficient vindication from the most perfidious as well as barbarous Crime that could be committed and which to have acknowledged would have derived upon him the severest punishment And the same may be said of my Lord Chief Justice's partiality and unreasonableness in suffering Russel's Testimony to pass for good and legal evidence in the matter and case that we are discoursing of For Russel being the Person who that morning my Lord was murdered attended upon him as his Warder must likewise have been either an Actor in or Accessory to the cruelty that was committed on him Nor can it be otherwise thought than that he who contrary to the Duty of his Place and the trust reposed in him instead of assisting and defending my Lord when forcibly assaulted would consent unto or at least connive at the Violence committed upon him should also for the saâ—ing himself as well as others from the Punishment of the said Crime transfer thâ— Murder from himself and charge it upon my Lord. For as Russel was set â—t my Lords door to prevent any endeavours which might have been used by himself or others for an escape so one main end of his being posted ther 〈…〉 was to see that no Violence should be committed upon the Prisoner B 〈…〉 to dismiss this without further enlarging upon it I shall in proof that my â—ord of Essex did not Murder himself but was assâ—ssinated by others observe the Contradictions that are in the Informations of the Witnesses about the manner of his Death and the Circumstances relating to it and how they disagree not only one with another but gainsay themselves in their Testimonies It hath always been admitted as a sufficient ground of disbelieving Winesses and of judging them to Swear falsely when their Testimonies instead of being either harmonious and coherent in themselves or consonant and agreeable one to another do both interfere with and contradict themselves and each other For as Truth is always uniform and consistent so Falshood is contradictious and various Now that this may the better appear and that all Men may see I do neither impose upon the Witnesses nor endeavour to deceive the world I shall transcribe the two Informations which were Sworn by Bomeny and Russel before the Coroner and the Inquest when they sat on my Lords Body upon an Inquisition after the manner of his Death and by what means he came to his fatal End Paul Bomeny in his Deposition made upon Oath the 14 of July 1683. saith That when my Lord came to Captain Hawley 's which was the eleventh of that month my Lord ask'd him for a Penknife to pare his Nails as he was wont to do to which the Informant answered being come in hast he had not brought it but he will send for one and accordingly sent the Footman with a Noâ—e for several things for my Lord amongst which the Penknife was inserted and that the Footm 〈…〉 went and gave the Bill to my L 〈…〉 ds Steward who sent the Provisions but not the Peâ—knife only told the Footman he would get one the next day That when the Footman was come my Lord ask'd if the Penknife was câ—me to which the Informant answered he should have it the next day and accordingly on the â—2 in the Morning before my Lord of Essex was up the Informant
sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward in which amongst other things he ask'd for a Penknife for my Lord and when the Footman was gone about a little after 8. of the Clock my Lord sent one Mr. Russel his Warder to the Informant who came and ask'd him if the Pen-knife was come to which the Informant said no my Lord but I shall have it by and by to which my Lord said that he should bring him one of his Razors it would do as well and then the Informant went and fetched one and gave it my Lord who went then to pare his Nails and then the Informant went out of the Room into the Passage by the door on Friday the 13 and begun to talk with the Warder and a little while after he went down Stairs and soon after came the Footman with the Provisions and brought also a Penknife which the Informant put upon his Bed and thought my Lord had no more need of it because he thought he had paired his Nails and then the Informant came up to my Lords Chamber about 8 or 9 in the Forenoon on Friday the 13 of July with a little Note from the Steward but not finding his Lord in the Chamber went to the Close-Stool Closet-door and found it shut and he thinking his Lord was busy there went down and staid a little and came up again thinking his Lord had been come out of the Closet and finding him not in the Chamber he knock'd at the Door with his Finger thrice and said my Lord but no body answering he took up the Hanging and looking through the chink he saw Blood and a part of the Razor whereupon he called the Warder Russel and went down to call for help and the said Russel pushed the Door open and there they saw my Lord of Essex all along on the Floor without a Periwig and all full of Blood and the Razor by him and the Deponent further deposeth that the Razor now shewed to him at the time of his Examination is the same Razor which he did bring to my Lord and which did lye on the Ground in the Closet by my Lord. To this Information I shall subjoyn that of Thomas Russel one of the Warders of the Tower who being examined the 14. of July 1683. saith That on the 13. of the said July about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon he was present when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Mr. Bomeny for a Penknife to pare his Nails and then for a Razor which Mr. Bomeny brought him and then my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nails with the Razor and shut the outward Door Mr. Bomeny half a quarter of an Hour afterwards not finding my Lord in his Bed-Chamber went down Stairs again believing that my Lord was then private in his Closet Bomeny came up about a quarter of an hour afterwards and knock'd at the door and then called My Lord My Lord but he not answering peep'd through a chink of the door and did see the Earl of Essex lying on the Ground in the Closet whereupon he did cry out that my Lord was fallen down Sick and then the Informant went to the Closet-door and opened it the key being on the outside and then did see my Lord lye down on the ground in his blood his Throat being cutt These are all the informations which the Inquest charged and sworn to enquire when by what means and how Arthur E. of Essex came to his death thought fit to take and upon the Depositions of these two Fellows who in case any violence were offered to my Lord must have been accessory to it they bring in and do say upon their oaths that the sayd Arthur Earl of Essex did voluntarily and feloniously cut his Throat It may indeed seem strange that there being other persons at that time in the house besides Bomeny and Russel particularly the Maid servant that they should neither be examined nor so much as called to know whether they could say any thing in that affair But it is not improbable that the contradictions in the Testimonies of the two Witnesses whom they had examined to one an other might discourage them from examining any more least they in what they might swear should contradict what both the former had said Now what I have to observe concerning the contradictions in the forego'ing Depositions they are either such wherein these Informations are directly contrary to the reports which themselves made to others about my Lords death or they are such wherein the Testimony of the one contradicts that of the other or lastly wherein the Information of one and the same person gainsay's and overthrow's it self For the first whereas both Bomeny and Russel do positively swear that it was not above a quarter of an houre and half from the time that Bomeny left my Lord in his Chamber pareing his Nailes to the time that they found him dead in the Closet yet this very Bomeny being ask'd the Question by one of my Lords Family soon after his death how long my Lord might have lyen dead before either he or the Warder discovered it replyed that he believed he must have lyen so above two hours for that when they first found him the Body was cold and stiff And whereas Russel deposeth that the Razor was given by Bomeny to my Lord after he was up and about eight or nine of the clock in the forenoon and that both he and Bomeny inform how they saw his Lordship upon the delivery of the Razor to him apply to the pareing of his Nailes yet this Rogue Bomeny having the property of lyars namely the want of a good memory affirmed to a person of good credit and who is ready to depose it upon Oath that from the time of his sending away the Footman with a Note to the Steward which was about or before six that morning on which the Earl died he did not see my Lord till the time that he found him killed and wallowing in his blood in the Closet And whereas there is not one word in Bomenies Information concerning my Lords being used to be taken with sudden Frensical passions and fitts or that he was particularly taken with one that morning before his death but the contrary plainly insinuated in the whole Information and also acknowledged at Mr. Braddon's Trial where tho he says that my Lord was melancholy yet he adds they took no notice of it nor had reason to suspect any thing more than ordinary all which directly contradicts what the Villain told an Eminent Dr. of the Church of England namely that his Lord was frequently taken with sudden Frensical passions and in particular with one that morning just before his death For said the perjured Rascal when the Earl of Essex saw my Lord Russel carried out of the Tower to be Tryed he struck his Breast and said himself was the cause of my Lord
Russel 's misery seeing had it not been for him my Lord Russel would never have admitted my Lord Howard into his company And that thereupon seeing my Lord Russel like to be ruined by the Testimony of that person for whose integrity he had engaged his Honour he fell destracted Now as this is directly repugnant to the Testimony which his own Lady and all other persons who had the advantage of being known to his Lordship do justly give him affirming that he was the most sedate best composed and freest from passions of all men they ever knew so there is not one word of it in his information to the Coroners Inquest tho' it would have been a stronger evidence of my Lords murdering himself than all that he deposed or swore besides Truth being ever the same whosoever is called to testifie a Truth that falls within his knowledg can give the same account of it a thousand times over without the least variation from it or from himself but a Lie having no foundation save what it has in the invention of the Author easily escapes the memory and lay's the Reporter as often as he is called to repeat and declare it under a continual liableness of inventing either some thing new that was not or which is different to what was in his former report so that by the last Fiction he both detects and discredits the first But secondly as the Informations of these two Witnesses interfere with the Reports which themselves gave concerning my Lords Death to other persons so the Testimony of the one does directly contradict and supplant the Testimony of the other For whereas Bomeny positively swears that on the 12. of July in the morning before my Lord of Essex was up be sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward in which among other things he ask'd for a Penknife for my Lord and that when the Footman was gone about or a little after eight of the Clock my Lord sent Russel the Warder to the said Bomeny who came and ask'd him if the Penknife was come to which Bomeny replyed no my Lord but I shall have it by and by and that thereupon my Lord bid him bring him one of his Razors which he went and fetched and gave to his Lordship who applyed himself there with to pair his Nailes Russel in a direct contradiction to this swears that on the 13. of July about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon he was present when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Bomeny for a Penknife to pare his Nailes and then for a Razor which Bomeny brought him and that thereupon my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nailes with the Razor So that whil'st Bomeny deposed upon Oath that my Lord called for the Razor and had it delivered to him on the 12 of July being Thursday and the day before my Lords death Russel comes and swears that it was on the 13 of July being Friday and the day on which my Lord was killed that he ask'd for the Razor and received it from his man We may with the same ease bring the Time Past to be the Time present or Future as make the 12 of July upon which Bomenie swears he gave my Lord the Razor to be the 13 of July on which Russel swears it was delivered to him And tho this be such a dissagreement in their Testimonies that no wise and unbiaz'd person can give credit to what either of them sayes but is in justice obliged to believe that both of them swore falsely yet it is not the only thing wherein their Depositions contradict one another there being a second thing and as important as the former wherein the Information of the on lyes in a full contrariety to the Information of the other For whereas Bomeny swears that Russel push'd the closet door open where my Lord lay which implyes his using violence and force to get in Russel comes and deposeth that being called by Bomenie he went to the Closet door and opend it the Key being on the outside Nor it is possibl ' to reconcile what the one sayes in this particular to what is declared by the other unless we can make the unlocking the door with the key to be the same with the bursting it open in a forcibl ' way Yea as if it were not sufficient to demonstrate the falsehood of both their Testimonies that they do expressly contradict one another in two important and weighty particulars there is yet a third wherein their Informations do plainly cross and thwart each other For whereas Bomeny swears that upon looking through the Chink of the Closet door he saw blood and a part of the Razor without making mention of his seeing my Lords Body or any part of it Russel comes and deposeth that Bomenie upon peeping through a Chink of the door saw the Earl of Essex lying on the ground in the Closet without adding any thing of his having seen blood and a part of the Razor Now besides that Russel swears a thing positively which at most he could only swear upon Bomenie's Infoâ—mation here is also a dissagreement between the account of what Bomenie say's he saw and that which Russel affirm's him to have seen The two Elders who in the Apocryphal History are reported to have sworn falsely a gainst Susanna did not more evidently nor in so many particulars interfere with and contradict one another as these two Fellows Bomeny and Russel appear to have don'in their Testimonies concerning the Earl of Essex death But alaz we have not been hitherto so happy as to have this pretended crime of my Lord Essex's cutting his Throat to fall under the examination and cognisance of persons of that integrity and uprightness as well as wisdom which the calumnious accusation of uncleanness fastned upon Susanna had the fortune to do And as the Informations of these two Rascals do plainly contradict each other so in the last place we shall observe how one and the same Witness does in his Deposition thwart and gainsay himself For whereas Bomenie swears that on Thursday the 12. of Iu'y he gave the Razor to my Lord who thereupon went to pare his Nailes with it he immediately adds without the least congrnity either to Sense or Grammer that he the said Bomenie having given my Lord the Razor went out of the room into the passage by the door on Fryday the 13. Nothing can be more aparent then that the for'go'ing part of the Information relates wholly to Thursday but at last without any regard in himself to what he said or relation in the next words to those which preceded Friday is brought in contrary both to all Rules of Syntax and the for'going words of his own Testimony For what was antecedently deposed referring to what had fallen out and was transacted on Thursday his immediately subjoyning that Then he went out of the Room into the passage by the door ought by
all the Rules of Speech and the Measures of Sence to relate to Thursday also But Friday being the day on which the Earl of Essex was killed and which as both Bomenie and Russel swear was soon after his having received the Razor it was therefore needful that in order to the giving some glose to that part of their Information wherein they swear my Lord cutt his own Throat that Friday should be mentioned tho with never so much incongruity and absurdness How conspicuous is the righteousness of God in suffering a villain who had first consented to the murdering his Master if not assisted in it and then undertaken to transferr ' the crime and infamy from the Assassinates and charge it upon his innocent Lord so evidently to contradict himself in what he swears as thereby to affoord the world an uncontroulabl ' demonstration both of the falshood of his own Deposition and of his Masters being guiltless of what he accused him And as the many contradictions of one kind and another which occurr ' in the informations of the Witnesses do as so many prints and Footsteps lead and conduct us to other Authors and Instruments of my Lords death than himself so the many irregularities which were committed about the â—ody by those who had the oversight and custody of it before the Coroner's Inquest had sat upon it administer unto us new proofs that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se but that he was treacherously and barbarously murdered by the hands of bloody and suborned Ruffians By the custome of all Nations which is equivalent to a common and Universal Law but most especially by the known and alwaise practiced Custom of England the Body of a person found dead and supposed to have come to an untimely End ought if it be possibl ' to lye in the place and posture that it is found till the Coroners Jury have sat upon the Body and inquired into the manner of the persons death Nor can we think that those in the House where my Lord was killed and found dead could be ignorant of this custom ' seeing it is so well and universally known to the meanest and most ignorant people of the Nation Neither is there any thing more adapted and proper as well as needful towards a discovery whether a person have fallen by his own hands or the hands of others than this received custome and practice is upon many frequent and repeated experiences found to have been For how many circumstances not only may but do often occurr ' from an observation of the Site and posture wherein the Body is found from an inspection of the marks tokens and impressions left upon the Cloaths which the party destroyed wore and from a view of the Footsteps Symtom's and Signes which the place where the Fact was committed and the Body fell may yield and afford all which may have their usefulness and tendency to give light unto the Jury that is to sit upon the Body and whose Du'ty and Office it is to make inquiry into the manner of the persons death But least the Earl of Essex should have been found to have come to his End after an other manner and by other way 's and means than was safe or convenient for some people to have known and believed therefor ' were all things otherwise carried and the custom ' of the Nation in cases of this Nature not only neglected and despised but with the greatest impudence imaginabl ' violated and acted contrary unto For besides their taking my Lords Body out of the Closet where it was found and by consequence ought to have lyen they did not only uncloath stripp and wash it but also wash both the Closet where it was found and the lodging chamber into and through which we must suppose the persons to have come if any assassination was by the violent hands of others committed upon him Yea and as if all this had not been too daring in it self and enough to administer a just suspition to all mankind of some villany perpetrated upon the person of this Nobl ' Lord they proceeded further even to the carrying away the very Cloaths which they would not so much as allow the Jury to see tho some of the Coroners Inquest had the wit and seeming ingenuity as to call for them I do not affirm nor would I have it thought that all these irregularities were committed before the Coroner himself saw the Body for I have been well informed and am fully satisfied to the contrary and have reason to believe that he was prevailed upon to consent and give way to the do'ing of these absurd and illegal things But that which I assert and which will be proved if occasion be both by the several members of the Jury it self and by diverse other persons who saw the Body before the time of the Coroners inquisition is that these irregularities were committed and done ere ever the Jury who were to be the judges of the manner of my Lord Essex's death were admitted or indeed could be to the sight of the Corps For as the Coroners Inquest neither sat upon nor saw the Body till the 14 of July in the forenoon so all these irregular things had been don ' the 13 being the same day on which my Lord was killed Now besides many other circumstances which the Jury might have observed detective of and serving to discover the manner of my Lord Essex's death had all things been suffered to remain as they were at the moment when his Body was found and as they ought according to the custome of the Kingdom and the practice in all cases of that Nature to have done there would have appeared three remarkabl ' things to them which had served to convince all men who had a spark of Reason or degree of honesty that this great and honorabl ' Peer did not destroy himself but was Massacred by hired and suborned Ruffians The first whereof would have been the print of a bloody foot upon one of my Lords Stockins which seeing it could not be an impression made by himself must necessarily have been the effect of a most perfidious cruelty exercised upon him by others Nor is this a fiction of mine raised to vindicate the memory of the E. of Essex from the guilt and infamy of so base and enormous a Crime nor given out to baffle and discredit the belief of the late Plot and deliver the Conspirators from the reproach and danger which that pretended Combination had derived upon them much less is it invented to defame the King cast an aspersion upon the Government and enflame the Nation but there are ey ' Witnesses ready to swear it and one as remote from all likelihood of being the Author of a groundless and Romantick Fabl ' as any man affirmed it before the Coroner and Jury when they sat upon an Inquisition into the manner of my Lords death For Samuel Peck a Servant of the Earl
of Essex's and who had just brought the provisions which Bomeny by my Lords Order had written to the Steward for as the perfidious Rascal was running down Stairs crying out that my Lord had killed himself and that he had found his Body dead in the Closet did thereupon being surprised by Bomenies report run up into the Chamber where he saw his Master lying in the Closet with a great part of his Leggs reaching out of the Closet door and the print of a bloody foot upon one of his Stockins which so far convinced this honest and unbiaz'd man of violence committed upon the Earl of Essex's person that he immediately cryed out they have murdered my Lord. Nor is Peck the only Witness whom we can produce to testifie this but there are others also ready to confirm it upon Oath whensoever his Majesty will be pleased to take them into his protection and indemnifie them from the accession they are guilty of to that horrid and bloody murder But before I dimiss Peck there is one thing further observabl ' namely that having among other things brought wine for my Lords own drinking Russel and others of that fellow's stamp and complexion who stood by fell a jeering the poor man telling him the wine came too late for my Lord to drink but that he had brought it very seasonably for his Funeral Nor is this the only circumstance which would have affoorded the Coroners Jury matter of evidence and light as to the manner of the Earl of Essex death had not the Body been medled with but suffered to continue in the place and posture as it fell but there would have appeared a second circumstance of as great importance and signification in it self and as serviceabl ' as the former to have discovered the barbarous violence committed upon this innocent and excellent person For not only Mary Johnson the woman who was then Servant in the Warders house where my Lord was a prisoner and who affirms that she saw my Lords Body as soon as either Bomeny or Russel did but several other persons besides her have confessed that the Neck or midd'l of my Lords Cravat was cut in four pieces Surely if my Lord as Bomeny tells us had taken off his periwig and hung it up because as the Villain would have the world believe he could not so conveniently have cut his Throat with the Periwig on he would for the same reason have much rather laid aside his Cravat being no less than three times about his Neck and more apt to hinder the accomplishment of that unnatural Fact which the infidous and perjured Rascal hath endeavoured to father upon him than the Periwig was And therefor ' as it is unreasonabl ' to think other wise but that the Earl of Essex would have lay'd by his Cravat had he designed to commit that violence upon himself so it gives just suspition that he was assassinated by others that his Cravat was about his Neck and c 〈…〉 thorough in so many places And whensoever this affair ' of my Lord of Essex's death comes to be admitted to a fair and indifferent hearing and a pardon vouchsaf'd to such as shall give evidence it will be fully proved that the bloody Miscreants came provided and furnished with an Instrument which was able to conquer the resistance which a Cravat tho thrice rolled about the Neck was abl ' to give it And whereas one Webster Bayliff of the Tower liberty being a person who assisted Mary Johnson in stripping my Lords Body hath pretended to some that it was he who cutt the Cravat as not being abl ' readily to untye it this may be easily demonstrated to be a story purposely forged towards the avoiding the suspition which the circumstance of the Cravats being cutt by the same Instrument and stroke that gave my Lord the fatal and deadly wound would have both begotten and cherished in the Minds of unbiaz'd Men. For besides that Mary Johnson who in conjunction with Webster stripp'd the Body hath often asserted the contrary to this which Webster reports and gives out it was not possibl ' that the Cravat should be thrice about my Lords Neck when the wound and Gash was made from the Neck Bone behind the one jugular to the Neck Bone behind the other jugular and not at all cutt or touched by the Instrument wherewith that large and deadly wound was given And as my Lords Cravat could not be tyed harder than he tyed it himself without the intervention of some violent hand that had endeavoured to choak him with it to hinder and prevent his crying out so we cannot suppose that my Lord himself had tyed it so hard but that it might have been easily loosed and untyed without cutting of it And as it was impossibl ' that my Lords Neck should swell after the Gullet and both the jugulars were cutt which if it could have don ' might have been a means and occasion of the Cravats being more strait ' and closs about his Neck so no rational man can apprehend but that had it been never so strait ' they would have taken pains and found a way to untye it especially having a prospect of enjoying it themselves it being usual in England that they who stripp a dead Body are recompenced with the gift and possession of all the Cloaths which they find about it And therefor ' as Websters pretending to have cutt the Cravat when he assisted in stripping the Body is both a confirmation that it was about my Lords Neck when he was killed and that it was cutt into so many pieces as I have declared so the having made it evident that this pretence of Webster as to his cutting the Cravat at such a time is a forgery and fiction of his own I may from the whole very justifiably conclude that this Report was invented to suppress the evidence and light which this circumstance would have given into the manner of my Lord Essex's death and to prevent the questioning such as might thereupon have been suspected and apprehended for assassinating and murdering that vertuous and Nobl ' Peer But besides the two forego'ing circumstances which would have served to detect the manner of my Lords death and the violence which had been used to bring him to his untimely End there was a Third of as great weight and moment as either of them which had the Body been suffered to continue in the place posture and condition as it fell would have clearly discovered the perjury of Bomeny and Russel and wonderfully contributed to the unvailing and laying open the whole Mystery of this barbarous murder For whereas both Bomeny and Russel not only swear that the Closet door where my Lord fell was lock'd when they came up to it but that upon opening the door they found him lying all along on the Closet Floor Peck the Servant that had brought the provisions to my Lord just as Bomeny pretended to have found him
contrariety which had she been examined would have appeared in her Testimony to theirs might have served to convince the Jury and is sufficient to satisfie all mankind that things were not as they are declared by any of them but that the manner of my Lord's death and the posture wherein the Body was found being otherwise than was safe for them to disclose and reveal each of them in order to hide and conceal the Truth and for the sheltering both themselves and others from Justice fram'd a story of their own concerning that matter whence it came to pass that they so widely differed one from another in their several and respective Reports And as the carriage and behaviour of the Jury in their Inquisition after the manner of the Earl of Essex's death does plainly shew that there was a secret and hidden villany in that matter which some of them were either forbidden or afraid to ravel into so it serves to depress and take off the credit of that Verdict which they gave in concerning his having murdered himself But let us in the next place observe and consider the behaviour of other persons and those acting by no meaner Authority than of great men towards the Coroner's Inquest when they were met and sat upon the Body and we shall from thence also be furnished with new proofs and further evidence that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself but was brought to his unfortunate and untimely end by Instruments whom they would not have known and by means which they durst not admit to have narrowly searched into For whereas according to the saying of the Poet which my Lord Chancellor Finch was pleased to quote at the Tryal of my Lord Stafford Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est Juven Sat 6. That we can hardly proceed slowly nor search diligently enough in what concerns the life or death of a man so there were many singular and weighty reasons arising from the worth and quality of the person the place and condition my Lord of Essex was then in the benefit or prejudice which were likely to ensue to others as his death should be found to be compassed by this or that means which should have influenced the Jury to use all the utmost scrutiny and diligence imaginable in their Enquiry into the manner of that Noble Mans death But instead of this the Jury was little sooner met which by the way was at a publick house in the Tower whither the Coroner had adjourned them after they had seen the Body than a Message was sent them to make haste in their Inquisition because one waited to carry it to the King Not that I would perswade the World they had any Authority from His Majesty to use such an Expression or that the King was not willing they should take time to examine things throughly as well as with gravity and leisure but that there were some great men and very near his person who gave order to make use of his name in order to the preventing the reproach and publick guilt which a due calm impartial and leisurely Enquiry of the Jury into that matter would have subjected and made them obnoxious unto Nor can I believe that Hawly the Warder who was one of those that sent the forementioned Message to the Jury either would or durst have done it and much less have named the King but that he had express Command and Warrant from some in power for the doing of it and that there were some men of the first quality who for reasons well known to themselves were exceeding backward and averse to the having the manner of the Earl of Essex's death too critically searched into But besides the method which I have mentioned that was used towards the Jury to hinder a due Inquisition into the matter they were met about and to frighten and intimidate them from tracing things too far there was a second passage and much more astonishing than the former in the behaviour of some people towards the Coroner's Inquest while they were assembled and sitting about the Earl of Essex's death For one of the Jury having observed that tho' they had been admitted to view the Body yet they had not seen the Cloaths which my Lord wore when he was killed but that they had been taken off and were carried away did thereupon ask to see the Cloaths which my Lord had on when that unfortunate thing fell out and in which he was found dead One would think that a more modest just and necessary demand could not have been made and I take the confidence to say the Jury ought not to have proceeded to a Verdict till they had been complied with in it unless upon the denial of so righteous a Request and the refusal of a matter that was so necessary as well as useful to inform them they had proceeded as in duty and conscience they ought to acquit my Lord from having committed any violence upon himself and have cast this horrid Murder upon others For instead of being gratified in the demand of seeing the Cloaths the Coroner was immediately called into the next Room where some Gentlemen were attending and amongst others the person I have just now mention'd who having overheard what was ask'd for severely check'd and rebuk'd him for suffering such Questions to be proposed And this mercenary or at least cowardly Soul Farnham the Coroner if I may so call him being but the Coroner's Deputy returning back to the Jury after he had receiv'd the reprimand and rebuke told them they were called to sit on my Lord's Body and not on his Cloaths and that it was sufficient they had seen the Body and received an Account upon Oath how it was found O faithless and nonsensical Man as if because they were to sit upon the Body they might not be allowed a view of the Cloaths in which it was arrayed when this noble Person received his fatal and deadly Wound But stupid Fool whom if thy Place and Office had not made an Esquire thy honesty and wit never would didst thou think that it was meerly the Body of the Earl of Essex thou wast to sit upon whilst thy business man was to enquire by what means and after what manner my Lord himself came to that unnatural violent and untimely end And therefore as thou sat upon the Body meerly in order to the receiving light and information into the manner how my Lord's Person came to be destroyed so if thou hadst not renounced Conscience as well as Courage thou wouldst have desired a sight of the Cloaths in subservency and order to the same end Nor can any rational person otherwise judge why the Body was first stripp'd and the Cloaths afterwards with held from the view of the Jury when demanded by one of them to be seen but because something or other remarkable would have been found upon and about them which would have overthrown the Informations of Bomenie and
Russel and made appear my Lord's being murthered by others instead of perishing by his own hands To all that we have hitherto said in vindication of the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having been a Fâ—lon of himself and in proof that he was most treacherously as well as barbarously murdered by others we shall in the next place give an account of some remarkable passages which were observed in the Tower that Morning my Lord was kill'd which will not only inform us there was something requiring great secrecy then transacting but will conduct us home to the Authors and Authorizers of that villanous and ever to be abhorred Assassination The first thing then remarkable was That the Gate at the lower end of those Apartments in the Tower where the Earl of Essex and all the other Gentlemen committed for the late pretended Plot were lodged and secured and which always used to stand open from Morning to Evening was all that Morning kept shut till after my Lord of Essex was dead except that it was once opened to let out my Lord Russel to his Trial being immediately after he was gone lock'd up again And as this could not escape the sight of the persons who were then confin'd so it gave that surprise to some of them being a thing which had not fallen out before that one Gentleman in particular called to his Warder and ask'd him the meaning of it and receiv'd for answer That there was special Order given for it Nor is it difficult to guess the reason of the Order and upon what Motives and in reference to what end command was given for keeping the said Gate shut up all that Morning till after the Earl of Essex was kill'd For the Stage and Theater upon which the bloody Tragedy was to be acted being within that Gate it was needful to keep people out as much as they could to prevent the discovery of the Actors unless it were such as had their parts in some of the Scenes or would be sure to give their Plaudite to the whole A second passage very remarkable which was observed in the Tower that Morning and which speaks as loud to the matter we are upon as the former was that the King and Duke having been at the Lieutenant's house which is about the middle of the Alley where my Lord of Essex and the rest were imprisoned and having stood in a Balcony with a few attending them to see my Lord Russel pass by to his Trial the Duke did soon after with several waiting upon him withdraw from the King down into the Alley the Gate whereof was still kept shut Surely it could not be the pleasure of the walk that made the Duke leave his Majesty at that season but he had something to give Order about and to see the managing of which was of more moment than his Prince's company and which his heart was infinitely more set upon The Third and last thing which fell under the observation of divers then in the Tower was That the Duke having withdrawn from the King there were several persons immediately sent and dismissed from his very side towards the Earl of Essex's lodgings whâ— returned not till after the death of that Noble person that they came and gave an account of the obedience they had paid to his Highness's commands and that the Earl of Essex was kill'd pretending he had cut his own Throat thereby murdering his Memory after they had assassinated his Person It may be expected that I should here mention the Names of those that were sent upon that barbarous errand but there being some of them who may be improved and made serviceable to detect the villanous crime they were assisting to commit it is but Justice to our selves as well as to them to conceal their Names And to publish the Names of the rest were but to set a mark upon the former and expose them to the rage and power of St. James's by not proclaiming them in conjunction with the others But this offer I renew again both to his Majesty and his Ministers of Justice that if a melius inquirendum into the manner of my Lord Essex's death may be ordered and an Indemnity granted to such as shall be willing and able to detect by whom and how he was murdered then shall the Names not only of the Russians who committed the bloody Fact but the Names of the Conspirators who were the Contrivers Authors and Encouragers of it he both discovered to his Majesty and judicial Officers and published to all the World The only thing which remains to be discoursed of in confirmation of the Earl of Essex's being murdered by others and that he was not Felo de se is that of a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of his chamber Window before any noise of his Death or the least intimation that he was killed And indeed this of a bloody Razors being thrown out of his Window has already made a great clamor in the World and was the first thing which raised a suspicion that my Lord had not destroyed himself but that he was assassinated by others For as it was impossible that after his Throat was cut he should throw it out himself so it could not be cast forth by others before the body is pretended to be found or any declaration made that he was killed unless it was by such as were present in the Room when he was slain and who were instrumental in his Murder Nor can any account be given why they did it but that God infatuated them thereby to detect the villany they had committed And it seems they had no sooner recollected themselves but they were sensible it would not serve the end they had design'd it unto namely of making the world believe he had cut his own Throat and in revenge upon the Instrument wherewith it was done thrown it away after the deed was performed and therefore they immediately both caused it to be taken up and carried back into the Closet and have had the impudence ever since to deny that ever such a thing was done Nor can the Story which a certain Gentleman at Whitehal had formed for them stand them in any stead viz. That Bomeny finding my Lord dead in the Closet and the Razor which had been the Instrument of his Death lying by him and that thereupon being struck with Surprize and Astonishment at so unexpected and deplorable an Accident he took up the Razor being acted by Grief and Indignation and not minding what he did threw it out of the Window For besides that the Razor was thrown out of the Window before there was the least noise of my Lord's death this Gloss and Qualification was invented too late to serve the end it was designed unto seeing Bomeny's and Russel's Examinations with which it is inconsistent were publick before Now in proving that a Razor was thrown out of my Lord Essex's Window before the news and tidings of his
had said that it fell without them I do return this by way of Answer to it First that the Reports of the two Children are much more easie to be reconciled than the Observation of Mr. Justice Hâ—lloway upon this point is to be reconciled with that of my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys concerning the same For whereas Justice Hâ—lloway would have the contradiction between the Informations of the Children to lie in this That the Girl said the Razor fell within the Pales and the Boy said it fell without my Lord Chief Justice will have it to lie in the Girl 's saying the Razor was thrown on the outside while the Boy had said it was thrown on the inside I am sure one of these two Judges must be mistaken seeing it is impossible that two accounts of the same thing so clearly contradictory the one to the other can be true And indeed the mistake lies with my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys whom passion had transported to that degree that he neither duly minded what himself or others said in affirming that the Girl should say the Razor was thrown on the outside the Pales when she had expressly sworn that it was thrown on the inside of them But then 2. as to the inconsistency between what the Boy informed and that which the Girl deposed I say that young Edwards had both in words and by imitating the posture and motion of the hand out of which the Razor fell frequently declared that it was cast on the inside of the Pales His Father Mother and several others are ready to depose that when he first told the Story of the Razor he expressed it by saying that it dropt out of a hand from the E. of Essex's Window which did plainly signifie that he meant it fell on the inside of the Pales And whensoever he used to imitate the motion of the hand from which the Razor fell he did put it into such a downright posture as that all who observed his imitating what he saw done concluded that the Razor fell on the inside the Pales Nor was he ever heard to say that it fell on the outside of the Pales save only that time that Mr. Braddon took his information in writing when his Sister by endeavouring to threaten him into a denial of the whole matter he saw had put him into such a fright that either he could not remember or did not mind every little circumstance of what he as well saw as had often reported before And it is remarkable that neither himself at Mr. Braddon's Trial where he repeated and acknowledged what he had formerly reported nor any other Witnesses who appeared at the said Trial to testifie what they had heard him say did in the least mention his having at any time said that the Razor fell on the out-side of the Pales but on the contrary his Mother does so word her Deposition as serves to prove that she believed he always meant the in side of the Pales for she sweares that he said he saw a hand out of a Window and a Razor fall down And as the whole matter of a Razor 's being thrown or let fall out of the Earl of Essex his Window immediately before the noise of his death will be attested by several other persons when there is occasion so the Sentinel Meak whom we have formerly mentioned not only reported it to divers persons both that Morning my Lord was killed and afterwards but he added two or three remarkable Circumstances some whereof the Boy had not taken notice of nor the Girl observed others That which Meak then declared to three persons the very day my Lord was killed and which they are ready to swear when called thereunto is That just before the Earl's death was publickly known there was a bloody Razor thrown out of his Chamber-window which was seen by some of the Souldiers as well as by others and whilst a little Boy who had seen the Razor thrown out run towards it to take it up a short Maid or Woman that came out of the house where the Earl of Essex lodged was to quick for the Boy and snatched up the Razor and having run with it into the house Murder was soon after cryed out Thus we have not only a confirmation from a third person that there was a Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before any tidings of his death and that a Boy went to take it up but was prevented by a short Woman from Captain Hawley's house who took it up and run in with it the last passage of which the Girl had not observed but we have also a ratification of a passage the Girl swore which the Boy gave no account of namely that there were divers other persons standing by who saw this bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord of Essex's Chamber-window Nor is it strange that every little thing should not be equally minded by all but it is enough to set this business beyond the controul of all rational men that it hath been declared by two besides the Boy whereof as none of them can be supposed under any prevalent temptation to feign such a Story so it was impossible that three persons altogether Strangers to one another should at one and the same time and in three different places conspire and agree to report the same thing But to all these proofs drawn from the testimonies of several persons concerning a Razor 's being thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before the news of his death There is another evidence as convincing as any of them which may be derived from the Razor of it self And that is the several Gaps or Notches which were sound in it when the Jury saw it and had the account of its being found by my Lord's Body and of its being the Instrument wherewith as they said he had cut his Throat For besides one large Gap or Notch at the point into which a man might almost lay the end of his little Finger it was for about two inches towards the handle so gapp'd and notch'd that the edge was wholly broken off and yet all that part of the Razor which extended from the Notch at the point till within two inches of the handle was so far from being gapp'd that it remained very keen and sharp And this of the Notches in the Razor was so remarkable that some of the Jury not only observed it but asked one of the Chyrurgeons who was by Whether my Lord by cutting his Throat could have made these Notches in the Razor To which the Chyrurgeon answered he might but whether it was from his being Fool or Knave or both I leave others to judge For I am sure the reason he assigned from the Tremefaction that was in the hand by that time the Razor reached the Neck-bone is ridiculous in it self and can satisfie no rational man And had this ignorant or suborned fellow considered the position and site of the notches
my Lord lodged And as this Girl had no acquaintance with or knowledge of the former Boy and consequently they could not agree together to form and invent a Romantick and fabulous Story nor to concert the particulars which they were to report so it is observable that their Relations do harmonise and accord in all the main heads and only seem to differ in one thing which the Girls unacquaintedness with the several parts of the house where my Lord lodged led her into a mistake about For they both agree that there was a Razor thrown out of the Chamber window before Murder cryed out and that this Razor was bloody and that immediately there came a short Maid or Woman out of the house with a white hood upon her head who went towards the place where the Razor fell which as they are all the material things requisite to the confirmation of the Fact so being wholly strangers to one another they could not before-hand concert them nor agree the things they should report Had one said it was a Knife that was thrown out of the window while the other had affirmed that it was a Razor or had one denyed it to be bloody while the other had reported that it was so or had the one mentioned a Man as having come out of the house towards it while the other spake of a Woman there would have been then some reason for the Ridiculing it as a Fiction seeing the contradicting one another in the essential circumstances of the Report would have detected the falshood of the Reporters And it must argue great perverseness as well as strange prepossession of Mind to pretend to disbelieve the Story because the Children seem to vary one from another in a little and minute thing when in the mean time there is the greatest harmony imaginable between them in all that is of moment for the establishment and assurance of he realty of the Fact And therefore whereas towards invalidating the Girls Testimony it was objected by my L. Chief Justice Jeffreys that she should say the Razor was thrown out of the Closet window when the Boy had said that it was thrown out at the Chamber window this pretended inconsistency between the two may be easily removed to the satisfaction of all rational men and the eternal reproach and infamy of Sir George Jeffreys For indeed she said no such thing nor did she know the Closet window from the Chamber window nor so much as which was my Lord's Chamber but as she heard declared by the Standers by All that the Girl did affirm was that she saw a hand throw a bloody Razor out of a window which as the people discoursed belonged to the house where the E. of Essex lodged Nor did the objection arise from what the Child her self deposed in Court but it was started from the Deposition of one Glasbrook who informed of the Girls having told her Aunt that the E. of Essex had cut his Throat and that she was sure of it because she saw him throw the Razor out of the window and that it was all bloody Now because the Closet was the place where my Lord was found dead they would infer that she meant the Closet window and thereupon conclude the Story to be false both because of the impossibility that himself should throw the Razor out and the contrariety which they would have supposed to be in this expression to what the Boy had reported Whereas the phrase does only shew the simplicity of the Child but does no ways argue the falsity of the Report And the account which She gave of the place where She stood namely in that part of the Tower called the Mount plainly shews that she could not mean the Closet window but the window of the Chamber And had the Court of the Kings Bench had but the justice and integrity which became men in their places one Question of the Judges and the Childs Answer to it would have clearly decided whether she meant the Closet window or that of the Chamber For had they but ask'd her whether the window out of which the Razor was thrown stood towards the Forestreet or the Back yard the Objection would have immediately vanished seeing considering the place where the Child was then standing she must have answered that it look'd towards the Fore-street nor was it possible for her to see any thing thrown out of the Closet window unless she had stood in the Back-yard which she neither did nor was so much as ever there But by the asking such a question Sir George Jeffreys would have lost the advantage not only of ridiculing the whole matter about the Razor and of devolving the murder of the Earl of Essex upon himself but of skreening the Malefactors from Justice and possibly of ruining Mr. Braddon which were things of too great concernment to St. James's to let an occasion and pretence of compassing them escape him especially at the cost of a little Meekness Patience and Justice in his Lordship in receiving a Deposition and examining a Witness Now this Objection advanced by my Lord Chief Justice against the Truth of the Girls Testimony being fully and to the satisfaction of all impartial men removed and taken off all that absurd and nonsensical stuff which through his having wrested the Childs words he superstructs upon his own Dreams and Fictions does of its own accord and without its being needful for me to interpose any thing by way of remark upon it fall to the ground Nor will any man of common sense henceforth imagine that the Coach which the Child says she saw at the Door must therefore have been in the Back-yard and consequently been droven through the narrow Entry and Door of the House seeing it is evident from what hath been here discoursed that she meant the Fore-door and not the Back and to that there was no difficulty of access And with the same ease may all that Captain Hawley and my Lord Chief Justice declare about the height of the Pales and the impossibility of throwing any thing out of the Closet window over them and especially of seeing it when thrown over and lying upon the ground be dissipated and blown away because it was not the Pales encompassing the Back-yard which the Girl 's Testimony referred unto but those to which her Deposition related are the Pales which face and sence the forepart and front of the House O the Chicanery and fraudulency of a mercenary Lawyer instead of the uprightness and integrity of a just and impartial Judge Nor could my L. C. Justice have taken a more expeditious and effectual course to proclaim his own Villany than he hath done by endeavouring to ridicule and expose this poor Child's Testimony in the foregoing particular And whereas Mr. Justice Holloway was pleased to except against the Deâ—oâ—tion of the Girl in another particular namely that whilst she swore the Razor fell within the Pales the Boy