State Trials, Political and Social Volume I Part 22

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee, be ingenious, and let us have the truth on it.

DUNNE--My lord, I am ingenious and will be so.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I will a.s.sure you Nelthorp told me all the story before I came out of town.[59]

DUNNE--I think, my lord, he was called Nelthorp in the room, and there was some discourse about him.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, there was unquestionably, and I know thou wert by, and that made me the more concerned to press upon thee the danger of forswearing thyself.

DUNNE--My lady asked Hicks who that gentleman was, and he said it was Nelthorp, as I remember.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Very well, and upon that discourse with Nelthorp, which I had in town, did I give particular direction, that the outlawry of Nelthorp should be brought down hither, for he told me particularly of all the pa.s.sages and discourses of his being beyond sea: I would not mention any such thing as any piece of evidence to influence this case, but I could not but tremble to think, after what I knew, that any one should dare so much to prevaricate with G.o.d and man, as to tell such horrid lyes in the face of a Court.

DUNNE--What does your lordship ask me?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Come I will ask thee a plain question; was there no discourse there about the battle, and of their being in the army?

DUNNE--There was some such discourse, my lord.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, prithee now tell us what that discourse was.

DUNNE--My lord, I will tell you, when I have recollected it, if you will give me time till to-morrow morning.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Nay, but we cannot stay so long, our business must be dispatched now; but I would have all people consider, what a reason there is, that they should be pressed to join with me in hearty prayers to Almighty G.o.d, that this sin of lying and perjury may never be laid at thy door. What say'st thou? Prithee, tell us what the discourse was?

DUNNE--My lord, they did talk of fighting, but I cannot exactly tell what the discourse was.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And thou saidst thou didst eat and drink with them in the same room?

DUNNE--I did so, my lord, I confess it.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And it was not a little girl that lighted thee to bed, or conducted thee in?

DUNNE--It was not a little girl.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Who was it then?

DUNNE--It was Mr. Carpenter, my lord.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And why didst thou tell us so many lyes then? Jesu G.o.d! that we should live to see any such creatures among mankind, nay, and among us too, to the shame and reproach be it spoken of our nation and religion: is this that that is called the Protestant religion, a thing so much boasted of, and pretended to? we have heard a great deal of clamour against Popery and dispensations; what dispensations, pray, does the Protestant religion give for such practices as these? I pity thee with all my soul, and pray for thee, but it cannot but make all mankind to tremble, and be filled with horror, that such a wretched creature should live upon the earth: Prithee be free, and tell us what discourse there was.

DUNNE--My lord, they did talk of fighting but I cannot remember what it was.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Did you lie with them?

DUNNE--No, my lord, I did not.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Well I see thou wilt answer nothing ingenuously, therefore I will trouble myself no more with thee: go on with your evidence, gentlemen.

MR. JENNINGS--My lord, we have done, we have no more witnesses.

_Mrs. Lisle_ is then called upon for her defence, and proceeds to say that had she been tried in London Lady Abergavenny and other persons of quality could have testified with what detestation she had spoken of the rebellion, and that she had been in London till Monmouth was beheaded.

She had denied Nelthorp's being in the house because of her fear of the soldiers,

who were very rude and violent and could not be restrained by their officers from robbery and plundering my house. And I beseech your lordship to make that construction of it; and I humbly beg of your lordship not to harbour an ill opinion of me, because of those false reports that go about of me relating to my carriage towards the old king, that I was any ways consenting to the death of King Charles I., for, my lord, that is as false as G.o.d is true; my lord, I was not out of my chambers all the day in which that king was beheaded, and I believe I shed more tears for him than any woman then living did; and this the late Countess of Monmouth, and my lady Marlborough, and my lord chancellor Hyde, if they were alive, and twenty persons of the most eminent quality could hear witness for me.

She did not know Nelthorp, and only took Hicks because he was a nonconformist minister, and there being warrants out against all such, she was willing to shelter him from them.

She then called _Creed_, who said that he heard Nelthorp say that Lady Lisle did not know of his coming, and did not know his name, and that he did not tell his name till he was taken.

Lady Lisle then concluded her defence by fresh protestations of her loyalty to the King.

But though I could not fight for him myself, my son did, he was actually in arms on the King's side in this business. I instructed him always in loyalty, and sent him thither; it was I that bred him up to fight for the King.

_Jeffreys_ begins his summing up by reminding the jury of the terms of their oath and reminding them of their duty--

That not any thing can move you either to compa.s.sion of the prisoner on the one hand, or her allegations and protestations of innocence; nor, on the other hand, to be influenced by anything that comes from the court, or is insinuated by the learned counsel at the bar, but that you will entirely consider what evidence has been given to you, and being guided by that evidence alone, you that are judges of the fact will let us know the truth of that fact, by a sincere and upright verdict.

He goes on to dwell on the wickedness of Monmouth's rebellion, and the mercy of G.o.d as shown in the restoration of Charles II. and

the best of religions, the true Protestant reformed religion, the religion established by law, which now is, and I hope will ever remain established among us, as now professed and practised in the Church of England.

After dwelling on this and on the blessing of having asked so steadfast a supporter of the Church of England as James II., he proceeds to discuss the actual facts of the case.

This person, Mrs. Lisle, the prisoner at the bar, she is accused for receiving and harbouring this person: and gentlemen, I must tell you for law, of which we are the judges, and not you, That if any person be in actual rebellion against the King and another person (who really and actually was not in rebellion) does receive, harbour, comfort and conceal him that was such, a receiver is as much a traitor as he who indeed bore arms: We are bound by our oaths and consciences, to deliver and declare to you what is law; and you are bound by your oaths and consciences to deliver and declare to us, by your verdict, the truth of the fact.

Gentlemen, that he [Hicks] was there in rebellion, is undeniably and unquestionably proved: That there are sufficient testimonies to satisfy you that this woman did receive and harbour him, is that which is left to your consideration; and, for that the proofs lie thus: And truly I am sorry to have occasion for repeating the circ.u.mstances of the proof; I mean the great art that has been used to conceal it; how difficult a thing it was to come at it; what time has been spent in endeavouring to find out truth in a fellow, that in defiance of all admonition, threats and persuasion, would prevaricate and shuffle to conceal that truth; nay lie, and forswear himself to contradict it. But out of pure Christian charity, as I told him, so I tell you I do heartily pray, and all good Christians I hope will join with me in it, to the G.o.d of infinite mercy that He would have mercy upon his soul, upon which he hath contracted so great a guilt by the impudence of his behaviour and pertinacious obstinacy in those falsehoods which he hath made use of in this case.

Gentlemen, I would willingly forget all his prevarications, but I must take notice of them in short, to come to the truth. First he says, he came upon an errand from a man, he knows not whom, to my Lady Lisle's house; and thither he is brought by one Barter; and when he comes there he tells her, he comes in the name of one Hicks, who desired to be entertained there. Then she asks the question, whether Hicks had been in the army; and he told her he did not know; and he swears now he did not: But at last it came out that it was to entertain Hicks and another person; but it should seem that other persons were not named; and Barter tells you that Hicks and another person (who afterwards proved to be Nelthorp) are promised to be entertained, and ordered to come in the evening. But not to go backward and forward, as he has done in his evidence, denying what he afterwards acknowledged that he saw anybody besides a little girl; that he pulled down the hay out of the rack for his horse; that he eat anything but cake and cheese that he brought with him from home; that he was ever made to drink, or to eat or drink in the house, or ever meddled or made with any body in the house. At last we are told that Carpenter met with him; and came out with a lanthorn and candle, took care of his horse, carried him into the room where Hicks and Nelthorp were, and the prisoner at the bar, Mrs. Lisle; there they all supped together; there they fell into discourse; there Nelthorp's name was named, and they talked of being in the army, and of the fight; and so it is all come out, and makes a full and positive evidence.

But then suppose there was no more than the other evidence, and that the fellow remain in an hardhearted obstinacy, then you are to consider the circ.u.mstances even from his first evidence, that this was after the rebellion was all over; for it seems during the rebellion she was in London, and it was notoriously known that the King's forces were in pursuit of the rebels, and this without any positive proof would be in itself a sufficient testimony to convice any considerate person, that she was to conceal those she ought not to conceal; because she directed the particular time wherein they should come, and that was at night; and no prudent person would receive strangers in the night, and give such directions in such a season without some extraordinary ground for it. When they came there, she provided a supper for them; and you see what care is taken, that the woman only is permitted to bring that supper to the door, and the husband must set it on the table; n.o.body is permitted to attend there but he.

Works of darkness always desire to be in the dark; works of rebellion and such like, are never done in the light.

But then comes that honest fellow Barter (I call him so because he appears so to be, and he ought to be remembered with a great remark for his honesty), he tells you, he conducted him to the house, and what discourse pa.s.sed there in his hearing. The prisoner asked him what countryman he was, and whether he was a brick-maker, and promised him so many acres of land in Carolina. The fellow upon observation and consideration, found himself under a great load, could not eat or sleep quietly, as men that have honest minds are uneasy under such things; falshood and treason, and hypocrisy are a heavy load; and blessed be G.o.d, things were by this means discovered: for he goes and tells Col. Penruddock; and withal Dunne swears to Barter, it was the bravest job he had ever had in his life; whereas in the beginning of his story, he would have told you a strange story of a black beard and I do not know what, and that he got not one groat by it; that he gave the man 2s. 6d. out of his own pocket, and was so industrious as when he knew the way no farther, that he would hire one himself to shew him the way, and all for nothing but only for the kindness he had for a black beard.

Besides, gentlemen, I am sorry to remember something that dropped even from the gentlewoman herself; she pretends to religion and loyalty very much, how greatly she wept at the death of King Charles the Martyr, and owns her great obligations to the late King, and his royal brother; that she had not had a being, nor any thing to maintain it for twenty years last past but from their bounty, and yet no sooner is one in the grave, but she forgets all grat.i.tude and entertains those that were rebels against his royal successor; I will not say what hand her husband had in the death of that blessed martyr, she has enough to answer for of her own guilt; and I must confess it ought not one way or other to make any ingredient into this case what she was in former times, and I told a relation of hers, a Mr.

Tipping by name, that came to me, last night, to desire that she might not lie under some imputations that were gone abroad of her that she rejoiced at the death of King Charles I., nor that any false report of that nature might influence the Court or jury against her, that it should not;--be the thing true or false, it is of no weight one way or other in the trial of this case, nor is she to be accountable for it.

But I must remember you of one particular, that is plain upon this evidence, and is of very great moment in this case; that after all these private messages and directions given to come by night, and the kind reception they met with when they came, and after all this care to lodge them and feed them, when Col.

Penruddock, after the discovery made by Barter, came to search her house, then she had n.o.body in it truly, which is an aggravation of the offence testified by col. Penruddock himself, whose father likewise was a martyr, and died for his fidelity to the crown; and who was the judge of that father we all very well know.[60]

G.o.d Almighty is a just G.o.d, and it may be worth considering (especially by her) how G.o.d has been pleased to make use of him as the instrument in this business; and she would do likewise well to consider the finger of G.o.d in working upon the heart of that man Barter, who was employed in all this affair, and that all the truth has been told by Nelthorp,[61] that blackest of villains Nelthorp, that would have murdered the King and his royal brother; that he was one of those barbarous, malicious a.s.sa.s.sinates in that black conspiracy, and outlawed, should be harboured, by one that pretends a love for the royal family, and entertained and discoursed with at night about being in the army; yet that he and that other villain Hicks, who pretends to religion, and to be a preacher of the gospel, but is found in rebellion, and in the company of traitors, should be denied the next morning.

I hope they themselves are all by this time satisfied truth will come out, and I hope you will not be deceived by any specious pretences. Our forefathers have been deluded, but the deception I hope is now at an end. And I must needs say if all these witnesses that have freely discovered their knowledge, joined to that truth which is at length drawn from that Dunne, be worthy of any credit, it is as plain a proof as can be given, and as evident as the sun at noon day.

Gentlemen, upon your consciences be it; the preservation of the government, the life of the King, the safety and honour of our religion, and the discharge of our consciences as loyal men, good Christians, and faithful subjects, are at stake; neither her age or her s.e.x are to move you who have nothing else to consider but the evidence of the fact you are to try. I charge you therefore, as you will answer it at the bar of the last judgment, where you and we must all appear, deliver your verdict according to conscience and truth.

With that Great G.o.d the impartial judge there is no such thing as respect of persons, and in our discharge of our duty in courts of justice, he has enjoined us his creatures, that we must have no such thing as a friend in the administration of justice, all our friendship must be to truth, and our care to preserve that inviolate.