age, James Duke of Monmouth. "He died," says called his plundering and butchering soldiers “Kirk's Barillon, with sufficient firmness, as Englishmen lambs." Poetry and tradition have both exaggeragenerally do. . . . The people of London showed ted and invented facts, yet the authenticated horgreat dejection and grief at his death. The court rors committed by these lambs and their leader industriously circulates whatever can injure his were enormous. The chief service in which they memory in the mind of the church of England were engaged was to search for rebels, as well Protestants, by comparing his discourses to those of those that favored and assisted the combatants at the fanatics, and in the mind of the people by taxing Sedgemoor as those who had fought there. Their him with cowardice, and with having retired too search was directed by mercenary spies, and by soon from the battle of Sedgemoor. . . . There are personal enmities; for any man in the west that some people here who believe that Monmouth said wished to ruin another had but to denounce him to something to the king against the Prince of Orange; Kirk as a partisan of Monmouth, and the lambs did but I have not been able to penetrate this matter, the rest. Feversham was called up to court to reand, from all that I can learn, Monmouth said noth-ceive thanks and honors, no attention being paid to ing very important. He had made up his mind to do what he could to save his life, but as soon as he had spoken with the king, he had no longer any kind of hope, and he afterward showed a deal of firmness and resolution."

...

the remonstrance of Bishop Ken, who told his lordship that, the battle being over, he ought to have tried his prisoners before putting them to death. Kirk had, therefore, the field to himself. His love of money, however, somewhat balanced and controlled his love of blood; and, following the examples of ministers and magistrates, he sold pardons to many prisoners who were rich enough to buy them at a high price. His summary executions and all his illegal proceedings were notorious in London, and excited disgust and comment; yet the king, through Lord Sunderland, informed Kirk that he was very well satisfied with his proceed

It was expected by most men that the execution of Lord Grey would closely follow that of Monmouth; but Grey was respited for his natural life. As this was so marked an exception to James's general rule various reasons have been assigned for it. It is said, for example, that he had been given, as the phrase then went, to my Lord Rochester, one of the brothers of James's first wife, and that it was found his estate was so entailed, that no for-ings;" and, subsequently, this officer declared that feiture for treason could prevent its descending to Grey's brother; and that therefore his life was spared, that the grantee, Rochester, might have the benefit of it. That caitiff, moreover, obeyed the command of James, and wrote in the Tower "a Secret History," or "a Confession," in which he made disclosures, which, under the circumstances, are not entitled to the slightest credit, respecting the Rye-House plot, &c. The German officer who had been taken after Grey, and who had contributed to the taking of Monmouth, was let go. Of the rest who had accompanied the hapless expedition from Holland, some made their escape out of the country, and some remained to fall among the hecatombs offered up by Jeffreys, to glut the vengeance of an unforgiving court, who made no distinction between artifice and credulity, between ambition and delusion.

The French Lord Feversham, immediately after the battle of Sedgemoor, had hanged up, without any trial, twenty of his prisoners; and Colonel Kirk, upon entering Bridgewater and Taunton, had executed some nineteen in the same manner. This Kirk had served for a long time at Tangiers, and, according to Burnet, had become "savage by the neighborhood of the Moors there." His regiment carried the standard they had borne in the war against the infidels, which had upon it the figure of a lamb-the emblem of Christian meekness; and hence, in sad irony, the people of Somersetshire

1 Bishop Burnet says, "He had a great estate that by his death was to go over to his brother: so the court resolved to preserve him, till he should be brought to compound for his life. The Earl of Rochester had £16,000 of him: others had smaller shares. He was likewise obliged to tell all he knew, and to be a witness in order to the conviction of others, but with this assurance, that nobody should die upon his evidence."

his severities fell short of the orders which he had received. On the 10th of August, Kirk was summoned to court to give particular information on the state of the west; but the system of terror was not changed, and Colonel Trelawney, who succeeded him, illegally executed at Taunton, on the 1st of September, three persons for rebellion, and pillage and martial law continued to be exercised without compunction either in the government or in its savage instruments. Some allowance might be made for the passions, and habits, and ignorance of the soldiery; but it was soon found that lawyers like Jeffreys could commit far greater atrocities than the military.

Four other judges-Montague, the chief baron, Levinz, Watkins, and Wright—were joined in commission with the lord chief justice, who had recently been raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Jeffreys of Wem. An order was issued in the king's name and authority to all officers in the west, "to furnish such parties of horse and foot as might be required by the lord chief justice on his circuit, for securing prisoners, and to perform that service in such manner as he should direct."4 From thus having troops at his command, it was said that the lord chief justice had been made a lieutenant-general; and, from the whole character

1 Among the inventions, the story forming the subject of Pomfret's well-known poem of "Cruelty and Lust," which first appeared in print in 1699, is now universally classed, though the popular tradition still prevails at Taunton.

2 In other dispatches Sunderland censured Kirk for setting some rebels at liberty (alluding perhaps to those who had purchased their lives), but he never censured him for having put others to death. 3 He was sarcastically called Earl of Flint.-See Granger, and Sir Harris Nicholas's Synopsis of the Peerage.

4 Papers in the War Office, as quoted by Sir James Mackintosh, Hist. Rev. The order was dated on the 24th of August, 1685.

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of the circuit, it was nicknamed "Jeffreys's cam- deliberating upon their verdict as to provoke the paign"-a name which the king himself had the wrath of the chief justice. When they returned folly and brutality to give it in writing to the Prince into court they expressed a doubt whether the prisof Orange. The suffering people in the west still oner really knew that Hickes had been in Monmore correctly called the circuit "the bloody as- mouth's army. The chief justice assured them size." Jeffreys (the other judges were mere ci- that their doubt was unfounded and the proof comphers) took the field on the 27th of August, at Win- plete. They retired again, and again returned into chester, where his whole fury was directed against court with the doubt on their lips and with human an aged and infirm woman. This was Mrs. Alicia feelings in their hearts. Jeffreys again sent them Lisle, widow of Mr. Lisle, one of the Common- out in a fury; and a third time they returned still wealth judges of Charles I., whose murder in Swit- unsatisfied. At this critical moment the defensezerland by royalist assassins has been recorded. less prisoner made an effort to speak; but she was She was charged with having given shelter in her instantly silenced by Jeffreys, who at last bullied house, for one night, to Hickes and Nelthorpe, two and overawed the jury into a verdict of guilty fugitives from Sedgemoor-" an office of humanity," Gentlemen," exclaimed this bravo in law, had I says Sir James Mackintosh, "which then was and been among you on the jury, and had she been my still is treated as high treason by the law of Eng- own mother, I should have found her guilty." In land." She had no council to assist her; she was pronouncing sentence on the following morning so deaf that she could very imperfectly hear the he let loose all virulence and invective against the evidence, and so lethargic from advanced age as Presbyterians, to which sect he supposed Mrs. frequently to slumber at the bar where the rem- Lisle belonged; yet, mixing artifice with his fury, nant of her life was called for. A poor peasant he tried by ambiguous phrases to lure her into diswho had guided the fugitives to her house was the coveries. His atrocious sentence was, that, accordprincipal and unwilling witness against her. Jeff-ing to the old law relating to female traitors, she reys and three counsel bullied and terrified the should be burned alive on the afternoon of that confused rustic. It is infinite mercy," roared the very day. The clergy of the cathedral of Winlord chief justice, "that for those falsehoods of chester had the rare merit of interfering with this thine, God does not immediately strike thee into monster's decree; and they succeeded in obtaining hell." The poor fellow at last admitted some facts a respite for three days. During this interval powwhich afforded reason to suspect, though they did erful and touching applications were made to the not prove, that Mrs. Lisle knew that the sufferers king: the aged victim was obnoxious on account of to whom she had extended her charity and hospi- her husband, who had been sent to a bloody grave tality were fugitives from Monmouth's army. The twenty-one years ago; but testimony was borne to unfortunate lady said in her defense that she knew her own loyalty or exceeding humanity: the Lady Mr. Hickes to be a Presbyterian minister, and that St. John and the Lady Abergavenny testified "that she thought he was flying from the warrants that she had been a favorer of the king's friends in their were out against him and all Non-conformist min- greatest extremities during the late civil war," isters on account of their profession. Jeffreys de- among others, of these ladies themselves; and upon clared that all Presbyterians had had a hand in the these grounds, as well as for her general behavior, rebellion. The jury hesitated, and asked the chief they earnestly recommended her to pardon. Her justice whether it were as much treason to receive son, so far from taking arms for Monmouth, had Hickes before as after conviction? He told them served in the royal army against that invader; she that it was; and this, it appears, is literally true in herself had often declared that she shed more tears law; but he willfully concealed from the ill-inform- than any woman in England on the day of Charles ed jury that, by the law, such as it was, the receiver I.'s execution; and it was a fact notorious to all, of a traitor could not be brought to trial till the prin- that, after the Restoration and the attainder of cipal traitor had been convicted or outlawed. The Mr. Lisle, his estate had been granted to her, at four scoundrels in ermine, who sat by Jeffreys's side, the intercession of Chancellor Clarendon, for her exsaid not a word about this designed suppression of cellent conduct during the prevalence of her husthe truth. The jury retired, and remained so long band's party. As it was perfectly well known to the friends of the aged victim that money was more powerful at court than mercy, a thousand pounds were promised to Lord Feversham for a pardon, but the king declared to this favorite that he would not reprieve her for one day. A petition was then presented from Mrs. Lisle herself, praying that, in consideration of her ancient and honorable descent, she might be beheaded instead of being burned alive. A careful search was made for precedents, and the utmost extent of the royal mercy was to sign a warrant for the beheading, which was performed at Winchester on the 2d of September. the venerable matron laying her head on the block as serenely as if it had been her pillow, and pray

James gave it this name to the prince more than once. On the

10th of September he says, "I have now but little news to tell you, all things being very quiet at present here, though the Presbyterian and

republican party are still very busy, and have as much mind to rebel again as ever. Lord chief justice is making his campaign in the west, And when the parliament meets, some of the peers which are in custody will be tried." Again, on the 24th of September, after telling the prince that he had been "a-fox-hunting on Tuesday last," and "was this day at the same sport, the weather being now very proper for it and stag-hunting over," James says, "As for news, there is little stirring, but that lord chief justice has almost done his campaign; he has already condemned several hundreds, some of which are already exe

cuted, more are to be, and the others sent to the plantations."-Dalrym

ple, Appendix.

2 See ante, p. 672. a "A provision," says Sir James Mackintosh, "indeed so manifestly necessary to justice, that, without the observance of it, Hickes might

have been acquitted of treason after Mrs. Lisle had been executed for harboring him as a traitor."

ing with her last breath for the preservation of the Protestant religion and of the cold-blooded tyrant then on the throne.'

Hickes, the Presbyterian preacher, who had been the cause of these atrocities, but whose name was not in any proclamation when Mrs. Lisle received him into her house, and Nelthorpe, whom she did not know, and who had been involved in the Rye-House plot, were executed afterward in different places.

1

Those who had accepted the terms offered were not afterward permitted to plead. Any evidence was held to be sufficient; and to a constable of Chardstock, who objected to the witnesses-a prostitute and a papist-Jeffreys exclaimed, “ Villain! rebel! methinks I see thee already with a halter about thy neck;" and the prisoner was soon hanged. The judge had declared, in his facetious manner, that if any lawyer or parson came in his way they From Winchester, with a train of guards and should not escape him; and, accordingly, Matthew prisoners at his heels, Jeffreys proceeded on to Sal- Brag, an attorney, was executed without reprieve. isbury, and thence (having increased his train) he In all, eighty persons were hanged at Dorchester went to Dorchester, and there hoisted his bloody in the course of a very few days: the remainder flag. The fierce nature of the chief justice was were transported, severely whipped, or imprisoned. made fiercer by an agonizing disorder, which was Those transported were sold as slaves, and the bodprobably brought on and increased by excess of ies of those that were executed were quartered and drinking. In writing to Sunderland from Dorches- stuck upon gibbets. Jeffreys then proceeded to ter, on the 16th of September, he says, "I this day Exeter, where another red list of two hundred and began with the rebels, and have dispatched ninety- forty-three prisoners was laid before him. One eight; but am at this time so tortured with the man, upon pleading not guilty, was condemned and stone, that I must beg your lordship's intercession sent out to be hanged on the instant, which so territo his majesty for the incoherency of what I have fied the rest that they thought it advisable not to exadventured to give his majesty the trouble of.3 But asperate him by putting him to the trouble of doing if honors and promotions could have soothed the his duty; so all that he had to do was to consign pangs of disease, Jeffreys was not without those them in a body, on their own confessions, to the exlenitives. On the 5th of September, Lord Keeper ecutioner. But, as he was less fatigued with long North departed from life and office together; and hearings than he had been at Dorchester, he was three days after-that is, between the execution of not altogether so prodigal to the hangman. He then Mrs. Lisle, at Winchester, and his arrival at Dor- went into Somersetshire, the center of the late inchester he was raised by his applauding and grate-surrection, where, at Taunton and Wells, nearly ful sovereign to be lord chancellor. At Dorchester, eleven hundred prisoners were arraigned for high this chancellor and chief justice, to save time, began treason. One thousand and forty confessed themto declare that if any of the prisoners would repent selves guilty; only six ventured to put themselves and plead guilty, they should find him a merciful on their trial; and two hundred and thirty-nine, at judge; but that those who put themselves upon the very least,' were executed with astounding ratheir trials should, if found guilty, be led to imme- pidity. In order to spread the terror more widely diate execution. And the matter was afterward and to appal the neighbors, friends, and relatives of managed in this way: two officers were sent togeth- the victims, these executions took place in thirtyer to the accused with the alternative of mercy or six towns and villages. The dripping heads and certain death; and, as many were induced to accept limbs of the dead were affixed in the most conspicthe proffered mercy, these officers were employed uous places, in the streets, by the highways, over as witnesses of their confession, in case of their re- the town-halls, and over the very churches devoted tracting and at times without any retracting, but to a merciful God. "All the high roads of the counmerely to satisfy the thirst for blood.* try were no longer to be traveled, while the horrors of so many quarters of men and the offensive stench of them lasted." Sunderland apprised Jeffreys of the king's pleasure to bestow a thousand of the convicts on several of his courtiers, and one or two hundred on a favorite of the queen, upon condition that the persons receiving them thus as a gift should find

1 Mackintosh.-Ralph.-Roger Coke. Some of the reasoning of this last writer, who was living at the time, is superlatively pedantic. "She had sentence passed upon her," says Coke, "which in women is to be burned, but the execution was by beheading of her; so that, though the king may pardon or mitigate the punishment of any crime against him, as to pardon treason, or to mitigate the execution to be

whether the sentence was just or not, the execution was unjust; for

heading, which is part of the sentence, yet he can not alter the pun-
ishment into any other sentence than the law prescribes."
2 Ralph.

3 From the last clause of the sentence quoted in the text, and from several expressions in other letters, we are justified in giving credit to the assertion of Burnet, that the king had a particular account of these proceedings written to him every day. Jeffreys concludes this present epistle to Sunderland in a very characteristic manner. My dearest lord, may I ever be tortured with the stone if I forget to approve myself. my dearest lord, your most faithfully devoted servant,' &c. Sun derland, in reply, assured the chief justice that the king approved of all his proceedings.

4 According to a poem of the time called "Jeffreys's Elegy."

"He bid 'em to confess, if e'er they hope

To be reprieved from the fatal rope:

This seemed a favor, but he'd none forgive;
The favor was a day or two to live;

Which those had not that troubled him with trial-
His business blood, and would have no denial,
Two hundred he could sentence in an hour," &c.

1 The names of two hundred and thirty-nine are preserved; but as no judgments were entered it is not known how many more may have suffered. Three persons were executed in the village of Wrington, the birthplace of Mr. Locke, whose writings have tended to lessen the misery suffered by mankind from cruel laws and unjust judges.—Mackintosh.

2 Lord Lonsdale's Memoirs. Other writers, who were eye-witnesses, though violent men, and given to exaggeration, have left still more horrible pictures. Shirley, the author of "The Bloody Assizes," which was published after the Revolution, says, "Nothing could be liker hell than these parts: cauldrons hissing, carcasses boiling, pitch and tar sparkling and glowing, bloody limbs boiling, and tearing, and man gling."-" England was now an Aceldema; the country for sixty miles together, from Bristol to Exeter, had a new and terrible sort of sign posts and signs, gibbets, and heads and quarters of its slaughtered inhabitants. Every soul was sunk in anguish and terror, sighing by day and by night for deliverance, but shut out of all hope by despair."Oldmizon.