their Fidelity to his Majesty the Surplusage being intended entirely to return and descend to his Family yet the said Earl abusing the great Freedom indulg'd him in Prison which he enjoy'd as largely after his Condemnation as before fled from his Majesties Mercy the knowledge of his own Guilt not suffering him to venture on that Clemency whereof he had before participated so plentifully when he was under the like Sentence of Condemnation The King however notwithstanding this new Provocation still retain'd the same benign thoughts of favouring his Wife and Children And before it was known that the said Earl had more Debt on his Estate than the full value of it amounted to which really was his Case his Majesty was graciously pleas'd in one Royal Largess to give thrice more of the Inheritance to his Posterity than their Father could lawfully have done had it never been forfeited But how ill he deserved or requited so many Acts of Grace and Bounty will appear by the sequel of his Behaviour after his Escape For in stead of doing what his Complices and Dependants gave out he intended that he would humbly cast himself at his Majesties Feet and implore his Pardon which he of all Men living had no reason to think desperate he is no where to be found but associating with his Majesties implacable Enemies in the Head of new Machinations of Treason employs his Liberty abroad in maintaining Traiterous Correspondences at Home with restless Malice exciting the wicked Conspirators of both Kingdoms to a fatal Union against the Life Government and Family of his Liege Soveraign and Benefactor And all this is to be proved upon him by Arguments as clear as the Sun by the Credit of his own Authentick Letters and by the plain Depositions of his principal Messengers and Agents in the whole Villany By this brief Recollection of the troubled State of Affairs and the Tumultuous Temper of ill Mens Minds in his Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland about the time when this treasonable Conspiracy was in agitation the impartial World may perceive from what destructive seeds of Sedition private Passions and Animosities under the disguise of Religion and the publick Interest so Monstrous a Birth was produced In the wonderful Discovery of which detestable Confederacy and in the happy Prevention of its dire Effects as all who have heard of it must acknowledge that a signal care of Gods Providence has appear'd for his Majesties and these Nations Preservation So his Majesty gives the Sacred Word and Protestation of a King that nothing has been done on his part but what was agreeable to that Royal Benignity and Natural Candor of his whole Life whereof all the World even his Enemies have had such undoubted Experience The Evidence was most of it deliver'd in his Majesties own presence The Examinations were taken by Men of unquestionable Reputation and Honour The whole Proceeding has been managed with all imaginable Integrity There has been no straining or extorting of Accusations to blemish the Fame of the Innocent No Temtation of Rewards proposed No Pardon assured before-hand for discovering or aggravating the Crimes of the Guilty Some Witnesses who offer'd themselves of whom there might have been any colourable Suspicion his Majesty wholly rejected Lest it should once again happen that the blasted Credit or needy Condition or profligate Lives of the Persons deposing should derogate from the strength of their Depositions and administer any the least doubt of Subornation Those Witnesses his Majesty admitted had been generally Men strongly prepossess'd in Conscience Zeal and Interest for that Party Men whose former avow'd Hatred of the Government was reason sufficient to gain them an absolute trust with any who studied to overthrow it They were not of desperate Fortunes Nor despicable Men. For the most part they separately and singly brought in their Discoveries Divers of them had little or no Conversation or Familiarity one with another There was no shadow or possibility of a combination between them all to discover yet such is the prevalence of Self-conviction and so great the Power of Truth that all their several Discoveries did perfectly agree with themselves and with each other in all material parts and circumstances It was therefore in the Summer of the Year 1683 a time when all his Majesties Dominions injoyed a settled Peace and profound security whilst the greatest part of the Neighbouring World was involved in Wars and Combustions that his Majesty and his Council were suddenly awaken'd with the surprizing Knowledge of this dreadful Conspiracy which had been laying very deep and broad for many Months before The Man whom God chose to make the first Discoverer was Josiah Keeling Citizen and Salter of London A Person of good Credit in the common Business of his Calling but otherwise a most perverse Fanatick so fiercely addicted to their Cause that he had been one of the busiest Sticklers in all the late Publick Oppositions against the Government Particularly he was the very Man who undertook and perform'd the most insolent Assault upon Authority that perhaps the Party ever attempted in full Peace which was the Arresting the Lord Mayor in open Day in the midst of the City of London for refusing to admit the pretended Sheriffs who had been chosen by those Meetings of the Factious in and about the City that the Law has since condemn'd as Unlawful and Riotous However by so eminent and bold a piece of Service together with his former approved Activity and Violence for the discontented Interest was Keeling judg'd by the chief Conspirators fitly qualifi'd to be admitted into their most private Consultations And accordingly thereafter they trusted him as one of their surest Confidents In so much that he was invited to make one of the Forty Miscreants whose proper part it was to Assassinate his Majesties and his Royal Highnesses Persons Of which Number after he had freely consented to be and had met and acted jointly with the rest for some time to prepare the cursed Work for a speedy Execution it pleased the Divine Goodness so to touch his Soul with the Horrour of so amazing a Crime that he could not rest Day nor Night till after much conflict in his Mind he had fully determin'd to discharge his Conscience of the Hellish Secret Wherefore having first Communicated some part of his burden to one Mr. Peckam his private Friend who had often before warn'd him in general of the dangerous course he was in by so deeply ingaging in all the former Seditious Intrigues he was by him directed to address himself to the Lord Dartmouth one of his Majesties Privy Council who remitted him to Sir Leolyn Jenkins Principal Secretary of State before whom he gave his first Information upon Oath and in due form of Law on the Twelfth of June in that Year But the intended Assassination upon the first disclosing of it appear'd to be so prodigious a Barbarity that his Majesty for some time gave but very
little Ear and slow Credit to this Information as little suspecting as deserving such usage from the worst of his Subjects Which generous Caution that his Majesty took not to be impos'd on by New Rumours of Plots and his Gracious Tenderness not to believe so ill of his very Enemies but upon certain Demonstration was one of the chief Occasions that divers of the principal Agitators and Managers of the whole business took the Alarm and got time to scatter and withdraw beyond the Seas However by Gods Providence continually watching over his Majesties and these Nations safety so many of the Traytors soon after fell into the Hands of Justice who did either voluntarily acknowledge their being Partakers of the Treason or were Convicted of it by Evident Proof that henceforth who ever shall pretend not to believe the Truth of the whole they must either be such as were Parties in the Design or so monstrously unreasonable as to believe there never can be a Real Plot against any Prince or State but what does actually succeed and take effect Thus much is certain of this Conspiracy and it is so remarkable and extraordinary that perhaps the like cannot be affirm'd of any other mention'd in all History that there was scarce a Man Attainted or Executed for it who did not more or less add some new Light to the several parts of the dark Contrivance either by a plain Confession of it or by their very manner of denying it and by the weakness of the Subterfuges whereby they endeavour'd to palliate their Crimes Upon the whole Matter though his Majesty doubts not but the Treasonable Infection was in some degree or other spread into most Quarters of these Kingdoms amongst the Ringleaders of the Republican Clubs and lawless Conventicles in Town and Country there being no reason for any Man to think otherwise since it was the usual boast of their principal Factors That more than Twenty Thousand Persons were made privy to the very beginnings of it before the late Earl of Shaftsbury's Flight Yet his Majesty utterly abhorring that bare Suspicions though never so probably grounded should prevail to conclude any Man Guilty has resolved no Reflection shall be made on the Fame of any but only such whose part in it was made out by positive Testimony And in the Kingdom of England besides the Earl of Shaftsbury who during his time was the Prime Engineer in contriving and directing all the several Motions and Parts of the whole Conspiracy next under him the Persons who are already Judicially found to have been deeply concern'd as Actors some in the Insurrection part others in the Assassination divers of them in both together are these The Duke of Monmouth whom the Factious Party had long Corrupted and Alienated from his Duty and Gratitude to the King and his Royal Highness by suggesting and increasing in him groundless Fears and poys'ning his Mind with unjust and forbidden Hopes The Lord Gray of Wark who for some Years had been ingaged in the most furious Designs of the Faction of late especially after he found that the Wickedness of his private Life could neither be so well hidden or go unpunish'd in a quiet State as in publick Disturbances The late Earl of Essex whose dark and turbulent Spirit and insatiable Ambition had carry'd him on to be one of the Principal Authors of all the late Distractions in Publick Councils and Popular Heats against the Government Till after many such ill Practices unworthy the Son of such a Father God left him at last to fall into this Precipice and permitted him to punish himself for it more severely than the King could ever have found in his Heart to do had he but given his Majesty time to make use of the excellent Goodness of his Nature The Lord Howard of Escrick who had always been a busie Promoter of Fanatical and Republican Projects for Alterations in Church and State and was therefore for a time the second Favourite of the Disaffected whilst he was Imprison'd with the Earl of Shaftsbury Nor did they ever make any Objections against the Honesty of his private Life till he came to the honestest part of it The Lord Russel a Person carried away beyond his Duty and Allegiance into this Traiterous Enterprise by a vain Air of Popularity and a wild Suspicion of losing a great Estate by an imaginary return of Popery whereby he was the more easily seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions and was so conformable to his Presbyterian Education That it is lawful to Resist and Rise against Soveraign Princes for preserving Religion Colonel Algernoon Sidney who from his Youth had profest himself an Enemy to the Government of his Country and had acted accordingly As he lived so he died a Stubborn Assertor of the Good Old Cause Mr. John Hambden the Younger who has renew'd and continued the Hereditary Malignity of his House against the Royal Family his Grandfather having been the most Active Instrument to widen the Breach between the late Blessed KING and the seduced part of his People The Usurper Cromwel often own'd That Mr. Hambden was the very Man who advised him to oppose the Justice and Honour of his Majesties Cause with an affected Zeal of Conscience and pure Religion Sir Thomas Armstrong a Debauch'd Atheistical Bravo one of those who with an Hypocrisie peculiar to this Age would have pass'd for the most forward Reformers of Church and State whilst they themselves both in their Practise and Opinions were the greatest Corrupters of Virtue and all Good Manners Lieutenant Colonel Walcot an Old Officer in Cromwel's Army who after Pardon and Indemnity receiv'd and a plentiful Estate secured to him by his Majesties most Happy Return yet was actually ingaged in all the Plots against the Government ever since Particularly in that of Ireland some Years ago to surprize the Castle of Dublin He was Introduced by the Lord Howard under the Character of a Stout and Able Officer into a strict Familiarity with the Earl of Shaftsbnry from whom he never after parted till his Death accompanying him in his Flight into Holland and returning thence with his Corps he and Ferguson having this peculiar Mark of his Kindness to be named Legatees in his Last Will and Testament as his special Friends Colonel John Romzey who had gotten Credit abroad in Portugal by his Courage and Skill in Military Affairs He was recommended to the Earl of Shaftsbury as a Soldier of Fortune resolute and fit for his turn in any desperate Attempt By his Majesties Favour upon his Royal Highnesses Intercession he got possess'd of a very considerable Office in the Customs of Bristol which having sold he afterwards most ungratefully became the said Earls entire Creature and Dependant Nor was he ever a profess'd Papist as since his Confession the Party has given out that he was according to their wonted Impudence of Lying Thomas Shepard
way that Money might be collected without Administring Jealousie That after this the Deponent met no more with them but when he return'd out of the Country he was inform'd Aaron Smith was come back and that Sir John Cockran was also come to Town Then Attherbury the Kings Messenger deposed that the foresaid Cambel and his Son were taken in London making their escape out of a Window in a Woodmongers House four Days after they had been in Town during which space they confess'd they had chang'd their Lodgings three Times and that they and Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood came to Town together Against this Evidence the Lord Russel's defence besides some Objections in point of Law wherein he was over-ruled by the Opinion of all the Judges there present was to this purpose That the two times they met was upon no form'd Design only to talk of News and of things in general That the Lord Howard having a voluble Tongue they delighted to hear him discourse That he knew of no such Council of Six chosen for who should chuse them That the Witnesses against him swore to save their own Lives and therefore could not be credible That Romzey was notoriously known to have been highly obliged by the King and the Duke and it was strange he should be capable of such a Design as to Murder the King that no Body then could wonder if to save his own Life he should endeavour to take away anothers That the time by the 13th of the King was elapsed since the Prosecution was not made in the six Months That a Design of Levying War is no Treason except it appear by some Overt Act That there was but one Meeting at Shepard's House nor was he ever there but once That then he came late staid not above a quarter of an hour tasting Sherry with Shepard and that there ought to be two VVitnesses to one and the same thing at the same time Then he produced VVitnesses to prove that the Lord Howard before he was taken declar'd He believ'd the Lord Russel innocent and knew nothing against him The rest of his Justification consisted of the Testimony of several Persons concerning the Virtue and Sobriety of his former Life As to what concern'd the Lord Howard's saying He believed the Lord Russel not to be guilty it was answer'd by the Lord Howard himself That he confess'd he had said so being then himself not a cused so that he intended to out-face the thing both for himself and the Party but now his Duty to God the King and his Country requir'd it he must say the Truth and that though the Council of Six were not chosen by any Community yet they did erect themselves by mutual Agreement one with another into that Society The rest was answer'd by the Kings Learned Council at Law That he was not Try'd upon the 13th of the King but upon the 25th of Edward the Third That to Raise a Conspiracy within the Kingdom is what is call'd Levying War by that Statute That to design to seize on the King or to depose him or to raise the Subjects against him hath been setled by several Resolutions of the Judges to be within that Statute and Evidences of a Design to kill the King That in Cases of Treason it is not necessary there should be two VVitnesses to the same individual Fact at the same time but if there be two VVitnesses of things tending to the same Fact though at several times and upon several occasions it is sufficient That if there be one Witness of one Act of Treason another of a second another of a third they will be enough to Convict a Man of High Treason That so it was determin'd by the Opinion of all the Judges in England and by the Lords in Parliament in the Lord Stafford's Case It was farther urged That the VVitnesses against the Lord Russel were not profligate Persons nor Men who wanted Faith and Credit before that time but such against whom there had been no legal Exceptions made by himself That there was no Contradiction no Correspondence or Contrivance at all between them and that it cannot be imagined such Men should Damn their own Souls to take away the Life of a Gentleman against whom they had no Quarrel As for Romzey's being much obliged to the King and the Duke That it was apparent by many Instances that no such though the greatest Obligations had hinder'd ill Men from Conspiring against his Majesty For was not the Earl of Essex were not divers others of the Conspirators in like manner obliged and advanced in Estate and Honour by the King As to their coming only to Shepard's to taste VVine it was said That could not have been the end of their Meeting VVhy did they then come so privately VVhy then did they order none of the Servants to come up It was plain the Design they met on requir'd only such Persons to be present as had an Affection for the Cause It was also urg'd That it is not a good Objection against a Mans being Evidence in High Treason that he himself was engaged in it but that such Men are the most proper Persons to be Evidence none but they being able to detect such Counsels As for the several Divines and Men of Honour and Quality produced to testifie the Virtue and Sobriety of the Lord Russel's Conversation it was answer'd That an Affectation of Popularity has often proved a Snare strong enough to tempt many Men who have otherwise been of great Temperance and Virtue Nor indeed can there be any more dangerous Enemies to a State or Kingdom than such as come sober to endeavour its Destruction VVhich old and true Observation was signally exemplified in this particular Case of the Lord Russel For West deposed That the Underacters in the Treason most depended on the said Lord for this very reason because they look'd on him as a Man of great Sobriety Upon the whole Process he was found guilty of High Treason But in stead of Drawing Hanging and Quartering the usual and legal Penalty of that Crime the Execution was by his Majesties Clemency chang'd into that of Beheading Though it is well known this very Prerogative of the Kings having it in his Power to alter the Punishment of High Treason had been vehemently disputed by the Party and particularly by the Lord Russel himself in the Lord Stafford's Case The said Lord Russel at the time of his Death which was the 21st of that Month deliver'd a Paper to the Sheriffs and left other Copies of it with his Friends whereby it was immediately dispers'd amongst the People the general drift of it being to make odious Insinuations against the Government invidious Reflections on the Ministers of his Majesties Justice and undue Extenuations of his own Fault As to the whole Matter of it Time the best Discoverer and Light of Truth has since shewn it to be full of Enormous Falshoods And for the manner of its Composure