Page images
PDF
EPUB

partly owing to the influence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and other persons of rank and influence at the Papal Court, who took a deep interest in the issue of the trial. Dreading, however, that so slight a punishment might not have the effect of putting down the obnoxious doctrines, the Inquisition issued a decree denouncing the new opinions as false, and contrary to the sacred writings, and prohibiting the sale of every book in which they should be maintained.

THE TOURIST.

managed in such a manner that they were
more likely to confirm than overturn its doc-
trines, but that this error, which was not in-
tentional, arose from the natural desire of
making an ingenious defence of false propo-
sitions, and of opinions that had the semblance
of probability.

cornea.

afflicting dispensations of Providence began to fall thickly around him. No sooner had he returned to Arcetri than his favourite daughter, Maria, was seized with a dangerous illness, the heart, loss of appetite, and the most opwhich soon terminated in her death. He was himself attacked with hernia, palpitation of After receiving these confessions and ex-pressive melancholy; and though he solicited cuses, the Inquisition allowed Galileo a proper permission to repair to Florence for medical time for giving in his defence; but this seems assistance, yet this deed of mercy was denied to have consisted solely in bringing forward him. In 1638, however, the Pope permitted the company of an officer of the Inquisition. Thus liberated from his persecutors, Galileo the certificate of Cardinal Bellarmine, already him to pay a visit to Florence, and his friend, returned to Florence, where he pursued his mentioned, which made no allusion to the Father Castelli, was allowed to visit him in studies with his wonted diligence and ardour. promise under which Galileo had come never The court held this at the end of a few months he was remanded The recantation of his astronomical opinions to defend, nor teach in any way whatever, the But this indulgence was soon withdrawn, and was so formal and unreserved, that ordinary Copernican doctrines. In 1637 his left eye was attacked prudence, if not a sense of personal honour, defence to be an aggravation of the crime to Arcetri. The sight of his right eye had with the same complaint, so that in a few should have restrained him from unnecessarily rather than an excuse for it, and proceeded to begun to fail in 1636, from an opacity of the bringing them before the world. No anathema pronounce a sentence which will be ever mewas pronounced against his scientific discove-morable in the history of the human mind. months he was affected with total and incuraries; no interdict was laid upon the free exermenon of the moon's libration, in consequence cise of his genius. He was prohibited merely ble blindness. Before this calamity had suof which parts of her visible disk that are exfrom teaching a doctrine which the Church of pervened, he had noticed the curious phenoRome considered to be injurious to its faith. We might have expected, therefore, that a posed to view at one time are withdrawn at philosopher so conspicuous in the eyes of the world would have respected the prejudices, another. He succeeded in explaining two of however base, of an institution whose decrees the causes of this curious phenomenon-viz., the different distances of the observer from the formed part of the law of the land, and which possessed the power of life and death within line joining the centre of the earth and the the limits of its jurisdiction. Galileo, however, moon, which produces the diurnal libration, thought otherwise. A sense of degradation and the unequal motion of the moon in her tude. It was left, however, to Hevelius to seems to have urged him to retaliate, and beorbit, which produces the libration in longifore six years had elapsed he began to comdiscover the libration in latitude, which arises pose his Cosmical System, or Dialogues on the two greatest Systems of the World, the from the inclination of her axis being a little less than a right angle to the ecliptic; and to or that which arises from the action of the Ptolemean and the Copernican," the concealed object of which is to establish the opinions Lagrange to discover the spheroidal libration, which he had promised to abandon. In this work the subject is discussed by three speakearth upon the lunar spheroid. ers, Sagredo, Salviatus, and Simplicius, a peripatetic philosopher, who defends the system of Ptolemy, with much skill, against the overwhelming arguments of the rival disputants. Galileo hoped to escape notice by this indirect mode of propagating the new system, and he obtained permission to publish his work, which appeared at Florence in 1632.

The Inquisition did not, as might have been expected, immediately summon Galileo to their presence. Nearly a year elapsed before they gave any indication of their design; and, according to their own statement, they did not even take the subject under consideration till they saw that the obnoxious tenets were every day gaining ground in consequence of the publication of the Dialogues. They then submitted the work to a careful examination, and, having found it to be a direct violation of the injunction which had been formerly intimated to its author, they again cited him before their tribunal in 1633. The venerable sage, now in his seventieth year, was thus compelled to repair to Rome, and when he arrived he was committed to the apartments of the Fiscal of the Inquisition. The unchangeable friendship, however, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, obtained a remission of this severity, and Galileo was allowed to reside at the house of the Tuscan Ambassador during the two months which the trial occupied. When brought before the Inquisition, and examined upon oath, he acknowledged that the Dialogues were written by himself, and that he obtained permission to publish them without notifying to the person who gave it that he had been prohibited from holding, defending, or teaching the heretical opinions. He confessed, also, that the Dialogues were composed in such a manner that the arguments in favour of the Copernican system, though given as partly false, were yet

Invoking the name of our Saviour, they de-
clare that Galileo had made himself liable to
the suspicion of heresy, by believing the doc-
trine, contrary to Scripture, that the sun was
the centre of the earth's orbit, and did not
move from east to west; and by defending, as
probable, the opinion that the earth moved,
and was not the centre of the world; and that
he had thus incurred all the censures and pe-
nalties which were enacted by the church
against such offences; but that he should be
absolved from these penalties, provided he sin-
heresies contained in the formula of the
cerely abjured and cursed all the errors and
church, which should be submitted to him.
That so grave and pernicious a crime should
not pass altogether unpunished-that he might
become more cautious in future, and might be
an example to others to abstain from such of-
fences, they decreed that his Dialogues should
be prohibited by a formal edict-that he should
be condemned to the prison of the Inquisition
during pleasure-and that, during the three
following years, he should recite, once a-week,
the seven penitentiary psalms.

This sentence was subscribed by seven Car-
dinals; and on the 22nd of June, 1633, Galileo
signed an abjuration humiliating to himself,
and degrading to philosophy. At the age of
seventy, on his bended knees, and with his
right hand resting on the Holy Evangelists,
did this patriarch of science avow his present
and his past belief in all the dogmas of the
tical, the doctrine of the earth's motion, and
Romish church-abandon, as false and here-
of the sun's immobility, and pledge himself to
denounce to the Inquisition any other person
who was even suspected of heresy. He ab-
jured, cursed, and detested, those eternal and
immutable truths which the Almighty had
permitted him to be the first to establish.
What a mortifying picture of moral depravity
and intellectual weakness! If the unholy zeal
of the assembly of Cardinals has been branded
with infamy, what must we think of the vene-
rable sage whose grey hairs were entwined
with the chaplet of immortality, quailing under
the fear of man, and sacrificing the convictions
of his conscience, and the deductions of his
reason, at the altar of a base superstition?
Had Galileo but added the courage of the
martyr to the wisdom of the sage-had he
carried the glance of his indignant eye round
the circle of his judges-had he lifted his
hands to heaven, and called the living God to
witness the truth and immutability of his opi-
nions-the bigotry of his enemies would have
been disarmed, and science would have en-
joyed a memorable triumph.

[ocr errors]

The sorrows with which Galileo was now beset seem to have disarmed the severity of thronged around him to express their respect the Inquisition. He was freely permitted to enjoy the society of his friends, who now and their sympathy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany was his frequent visitor, and Gassendi, Deodati, and our countryman, Milton, went to Italy for the purpose of visiting him. He entertained his friends with the warmest hospitality; and though simple and abstemious in his diet, yet he was fond of good wine, and seems even in his last days to have paid cellar. particular attention to the excellence of his

Although Galileo had nearly lost his hearing as well as his sight, yet his intellectual faculties were unimpaired; and while his mind was occupied in considering the force of percussion, he was seized with fever and palpitation of the heart, which, after two months' illness, terminated his life on the 8th of January, 1642.-Brewster's Life of Sir Isaac Newton.

WAYCHTS, OR WAITS.

THIS noun formerly signified "hautboys," and, what is remarkable, has no singular number. From the instruments, its signification was, for a time, transferred to the performers occasioned the name to be applied generally themselves; who, being in the habit of parading the streets by night with their music, the approach of Christmas, salute us with their to all musicians who followed a similar pracnocturnal concerts, were, and are to this day, tice; hence those persons who annually, at Busby's Dictionary of Though Galileo was now, to a certain de- called wayghtes. gree, liberated from the power of man, yet the | Music.

APHORISMS.

Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. The vapours which gather round the rising sun, and follow him in his course, seldom fail, at the close of it, to form a magnificent theatre for his reception, and to invest with variegated tints, and with a softened effulgence, the luminary which they cannot hide.-ROBERT HALL.

Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another's prosperity, like the scorpion confined within a circle of fire, will sting itself to

death.-COLTON.

Love is the great instrument and engine of nature, the bond and cement of society, the spring and spirit of the universe.-DR. SOUTH.

The final view of all rational politics is to produce the greatest quantity of happiness in a given tract of country. The riches, strength, and glory of nations, the topics which history celebrates, and which alone must engage the praises and possess the admiration of mankind, have no farther value than as they contribute to this end. When they interfere with it, they are evils, and not the less real for the splendour that surrounds

them.-PALEY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST.

honour of religion and humanity," than proving myself to be "no enemy to the slavetrade and slavery:" crimes which I hold to be of the deepest dye, commencing in Africa, as they do, in fraud, conflagration, robbery, battle, and murder-followed on the voyage by plague, pestilence, and famine-and consummated, in the West Indies, in stripes, and groans, and blood, and death; and to crimes so heinous and deadly as these does William Naish so charitably assert his suspicion that I

functionaries and private individuals, both at SIR,-Not being in the slighest degree conhome and abroad, examinations, and affidaI HAVE known some men possessed of good qua-scious of any sinister motive in sending you vits, couched in all the technicalities pertaining lities which were very serviceable to others, but the extract from a despatch addressed by Lord to legal documents, &c.) were not in my hands useless to themselves: like a sun-dial on the front Goderich to the Governor of Sierra Leone, for a longer period than half an hour at the of a house, to inform the neighbours and passen- which you were so good as to insert, on my utmost-probably not quite so long; in hastily gers, but not the owner within.-SWIFT. suggestion, in No. XII. of The Tourist, I was turning over the leaves, my attention was parnot a little surprised at finding, in a subse- ticularly arrested by Lord Goderich's despatch, quent number (XVI.), a letter from a gentle- and which, so far as I could form a judgment man who signs himself William Naish (who, in the short time I have named, seemed to judging from his phraseology, I presume to take a fair review of the whole subject, and to be a Quaker), written, apparently, in very bad embody the substance of the preceding docutemper, accusing me of being "no enemy to ments; and, being particularly delighted by the slave-trade and slavery," and insinuating the sentiments expressed in the paragraph that I have "no concern for the honour of alluded to, I hastily extracted it, and sent it religion or humanity;"-suspicions founded, to you for the purpose I then mentioned, it must be allowed, on grounds somewhat thinking that, in giving a wider circulation to slight, viz. the defect of his own imagination such sentiments as his Lordship therein ex(to be judged so severely for want of imagina-pressed, I was doing something rather in tion in a Quaker is rather hard usage); he says that he " cannot imagine how any one concerned for the honour of religion or humanity could pass over all the appalling statements in the parliamentary paper alluded to without notice, and fix his attention only on one short statement at the end." I might, with equal justice, suspect William Naish of being an enemy to the gospel of Christ and of the missionary cause, and say, "how otherwise can it be, that he could read my Lord Goderich's despatch, and pass over unheeded the great benefits likely to result to the cause of religion and humanity, from the tone of feeling with regard to both, which is evidently shown, by this despatch, to exist in his Majesty's councils? How otherwise was it possible for him to suppress some expression of joy at the support thus openly and efficiently given by government to those missionaries on whose success so much depends?" But whatever my private opinions may be on this head, I scorn to raise suspicions which may possibly be false, because it may be that Mr. Naish is not an enemy to the conversion of the heathen; the fact may be simply this: Mr. Naish's zeal for the abolition of slavery may not only eat him up, but also every feeling of humanity or religion which does not appear to have emancipation as its immediate end; and perhaps this display of zeal may arise from his being a member of the Quaker body, who, as a body, have had the good fortune to take a conspicuous station as champions of the enslaved African (and much of the credit they, the Quakers, enjoy, have they gained from this circumstance), whilst, if they have not opposed, as a body, they have never supported the missionary cause; and thus there is a sort of esprit du corps shown by Mr. Naish on this subject, for which I am far from blaming him, if he could, whilst indulging himself in it, refrain from groundless attacks on others.

The crude admiration which can make no distinctions, never renders justice to what is really great.-FOSTER.

A BRIDAL SERENADE.

BY A WELSH HARPER.

WILT thou not waken, bride of May,
While the flowers are fresh, and the sweet bells
chime?

Listen and learn, from my roundelay,
How all Life's pilot-boats sailed one day
A match with Time.

Love sat on a lotos leaf afloat,
And saw old Time in his loaded boat,
Slowly he crossed Life's narrow tide,
While Love sat clapping his wings and cried-
"Who will pass Time?"

Patience came first, but soon was gone,
With helm and sail, to help Time on;
Care and Grief could not lend an oar;
And Prudence said (while he stay'd on shore),
"I wait for Time."

Hope filled with flowers her cork-tree bark,
And lighted its helm with a glow-worm's spark;
Then Love, when he saw her bark fly fast,
Said, "Lingering Time will soon be passed:
Hope outspeeds Time."

[ocr errors]

Wit went nearest old Time to pass,
With his diamond oar, and boat of glass;
A feathery dart from his store he drew,
And shouted, while far and swift it flew,

"Oh, mirth kills Time!"

But Time sent the feathery arrow back;
Hope's boat of amaranth lost its track;
Then Love bade his butterfly pilots move,
And laughing said, "They shall see how Love
Can conquer Time."

[ocr errors]

His gossamer sails he spread with speed,
But Time has wings when Time has need;
Swiftly he crossed Life's sparkling tide,
And only Memory stay'd to chide
Unpitying Time.

Wake and listen, then, bride of May,
Listen and heed thy minstrel's rhyme :
Still for thee some bright hours stay,
For it was a hand like thine, they say,

Gave wings to Time.

can be no enemy," with nothing better to found his insinuations upon than the barrenness of his own imagination. I sorely fear his charity is of a very different character to that charity described by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says, Charity suf fereth long, and is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.”*

66

I beg the insertion of this letter in "The Tourist," as a favour; I think I might take higher ground, and request it as a right from you as an impartial Editor.

I am, Sir,

Your very obedient Servant,
R. S.

P.S. I will enter into no discussion with Mr. Naish as to his opinion that vigorous measures (by which I suppose he means severe laws carried into strict execution) pursued by government would do more for the prevention of crime, than the general diffusion of Christian knowledge and Christian principles; I only flatter myself that the great majority of my fellow Christians are of a different opinion.

* 1 Corinthians, xiii.

CAUTION TO THE PUBLIC.

MORISON'S UNIVERSAL MEDICINES

having superseded the use of almost all the Patent Medicines which the wholesale venders have foisted upout But to return from this digression to the the credulity of the searchers after health, for so many more immediate cause of my present address years, the town druggists and chemists, not able to establish a fair fame on the invention of any plausible means of to you. To Mr. Naish, after the injurious sus- competition, have plunged into the mean expedient of puffpicions in which he has indulged himself, I ing up a "Dr. Morrison" (observe the subteringe of the double r), a being who never existed, as prescribing a think no explanation is due from me; but I "Vegetable Universal Pill, No. 1 and 2," for the express think it due to you, Sir, as Editor, and to the purpose (by means of this forged imposition upon the pubreaders of "The Tourist," to rescue the cha-lic), of deteriorating the estimation of the "UNIVERSAL MEDICINES" of the "BRITISH COLLEGE OF racter of your correspondent from the insinu- HEALTH." ations cast upon it by Mr. Naish. On this ground alone I will state shortly how it was that I confined my letter, and the extract I made from the parliamentary papers, to that part of the subject which related to the missionaries. The fact stands thus: The papers in question (which, as well as I can recollect, contain more than one hundred folio pages, a large portion of them printed in a small type, containing correspondence between public

KNOW ALL MEN, then, that this attempted delusion must fall under the fact, that (however specious the pretence), none can be held genuine by the College but those which have "Morison's Universal Medicines" impressed upon the Government Stamp attached to each box and packet, to counterfeit which is felony by the laws of the land.

Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communications for the Editor are to be addressed.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

PERHAPS there is no single spot in Europe, or in the world, so calculated to awaken impressive and profitable recollections, and so pregnant with interest to Englishmen, as the scene represented above. Within these venerable wallsthe precincts of a palace, a fortress, a prison-human nature has been exhibited in all its extremes; the pomp of royalty, the wretchedness of solitude, the horrors of murder and martyrdom-all

stand associated with the eventful history therefore, only attempt a very general
of this building. On the other hand, it notice of it, and offer some anecdotes, to
is enriched and hallowed by the recol-be found in its annals, which may not be
lections of More, Russell, Lady Jane unacceptable to our readers.
Grey-names which, as they stand on
the page of history, seem to mark the
boundaries of human excellence.

The history of the Tower is too intimately connected with English history in general to allow of our giving any separate or concise account of it. We will,

It seems probable, from its situation, that it was originally designed rather to defend the maritime approach to the capital than for the purposes to which it has been appropriated in after ages. The precise date of its foundation is a point which the silence of authentic history

کو

170

leaves to the conjectures of the antiquary. Dr. Stukely, in his account of Stonehenge, tells us that "the Tower of London was erected about the time of Constantine the Great." However this be, it seems to have always been a prevalent opinion that it owed its foundation to the Romans; and there seems, at all events, ground to believe that its site was once occupied by a Roman fortification. Indeed, Dr. Milles, Dean of Exeter, and President of the Society of Antiquaries in 1778, in describing to that body some antiquities which had been found within the walls of the Tower, stated that "the Tower of London was undoubtedly the capital fortress of the Romans; it was their treasury, as well as their mint; in that place, therefore, was deposited whatever was necessary for the support of their establishment, and the payment of their troops!"

Without laying claim to the degree of faith which the worthy president exhibits, we may state, on historical evidence, that the principal structure, now called the White Tower, was built at the command of King William the First, under the superintendence of that celebrated architect, Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester. Whether any other buildings than the great Tower were erected in the time of the Conqueror we are not informed. It seems probable that it would not have been left in a state so exposed and unprotected, but that other fortifications were also raised. We are informed, however, that the building was much increased by William Rufus, and also by

[ocr errors]

most of his immediate successors.

King Stephen was the first of our monarchs, as far as we know, who made this place a royal residence. From his time it was frequently appropriated to this use, until a comparatively recent period of our history. "In the year 1239," says Bayley, the historian of the Tower, "Henry III. secretly laid up a great mass of treasure in the Tower, and began to give a more formidable character to that fortress, by surrounding it with an additional line of fortifications, measures which were probably suggested by that spirit of turbulence which had begun to manifest itself among the barons. His design, however, was frustrated for a time by a series of extraordinary disasters which attended the undertaking; the works were scarcely completed when, on the night of St. George's in the following year, the foundations gave way, and the noble portal, with the walls and bulwarks, on which so much pains and expence had been bestowed, all fell down, as if by the effect of an earthquake; and, strange to relate, no sooner were these works restored than, in 1241, the whole again fell down on the same night; and, as we are told, at the self-same hour that it proved destruction to them in the year

preceding; this extraordinary circum-
stance, embellished with much of the su-
perstition of the times, is related by an
otherwise faithful historian, who informs
us, that its disastrous fate proved a source
of great joy to the Londoners, who would
fain have had it believed that their great
guardian saint, Thomas à Becket, in the
plenitude of his zeal for their preservation
and interest, had taken a nocturnal trip
from his tomb at Canterbury, and, by the
magic of his archiepiscopal staff, had

effected all this mischief."

her apartment with a pin, and is as
follows:-

"Non aliena putes homini quæ obtingere possunt
Sors hodierna mihi, cras erit illa tibi.
Jane Dudley."

Which has been thus translated :-
"To mortals' common fate thy mind resign,
My lot to-day-to-morrow may be thine."
JAMES II. AND JUDGE JEFFREYS.

THE following interesting anecdote is related by Dr. Calamy, in his history of his own life and times."

Spending a Lord's-day at Highgate (I think it was while Mr. Rathband was the minister there, though I have no conjecture in what year), in the evening I fell into the company of Mr. Story, of whom I had before no knowledge, who generally bore the character of an

honest man. His family was then at Highgate, and he with them, when business would allow it. But his usual residence was in the city, at the African house, where he was housekeeper.

The company, when he came in, were familiarly discoursing upon the providence of God, and the remarkableness of many steps of it towards particular persons and families, that well deserved to be regarded and recorded ; and some instances were given by several present. At length Mr. Story told us, if we had the patience to give him the hearing, he would acquaint us with some as remarkable passages relating to himself as we should ordinarily hear of, the impressions whereof he hoped would not wear out to his dying day.

We all listened with attention, and he, appearing considerably affected, gave us to understand that, in 1685, he was with Monmouth in the west, and pretty active in that company, and was afterwards shut up in a close prison, none having liberty to come to him, to administer any refreshment. His thoughts were in the meantime busily employed in contriving means to compass a deliverance. Among others whom he thought capable of doing him service, he pitched upon Mr. Robert Brough, a linen-draper, well known in Cheapside, who had often drank a cheerful glass with Jeffreys, when he was Common Sergeant and Recorder, Mr. Story himself being sometimes in their

It continued to be the occasional residence of our kings, until the accession of James II., when the usual ceremony of the monarch's keeping his court there, and proceeding thence through the city to Westminster preparatory to his coronation, was not observed, nor has it since been revived, in consequence of the enormous expence which it always occasioned the city, as well as the government; since that time it has been chiefly used as a state prison, and to contain some of our national curiosities, armoury, and insignia. It will, doubtless, be interesting to the reader to peruse some of the memorials left by the unfortunate persons confined in the Tower, on the walls of their prison. Two of these memorials have been left by one who signs himself Arthur Poole, in an apartment of the Beauchamp Tower. They are interesting, as evincing, in an extraordinary manner, the patience and resignation with which he submitted to his melancholy fate. The first of these is in the following words, "Deo servire, penitentiam inire, fato obedire, regnare est, A. Poole, 1564. J. H. S." To serve God, to experience repentance, to submit to destiny-this is to reign. The other appears to have been written four years after; the words are: "J. H. S. A passage perillus makethe a port pleasant. Anno 1568, Arthur Poole, Et. sue, 37. A. P." There are also two interesting He wrote letter upon letter to him, pressing inscriptions left upon the fire-place of his him, with the most moving arguments he could apartment, by the unfortunate Philip How-think of, to pity his great distress, and to make ard, Earl of Arundel, who was beheaded, use of his interest in Jeffreys (who, it was gein 1572, for aspiring to the hand of nerally said, was to go the Western Circuit as Lord Chief Justice), for his relief, if it could Mary, Queen of Scots. The first is as be obtained. Among other things he told him, follows: "Quanto plus afflictionis pro that if this were done he should be able and Christo in hoc sæculo, tanto plus gloriæ ready to pay him a considerable debt, of which cum Christo in futuro. Arundell, June he could otherwise have no hopes, by reason 22, 1587." "The greater our affliction for that what he had would be liable to be seized. Mr. Brough, to help him in his trouble, Christ in this world, the more our glory with him in the next." The other auto-waited on the Lord Chief Justice one morning graph is to this effect," Secut peccati causa at his levee, and stood in the hall among a good number of waiters, who were attending vinciri opprobrium est, ita e contra, pro there upon different accounts. At length a Christo custodia vincula sustinere, maxpair of folding doors flew open, and my Lord ima gloria est. Arundell, May 28, 1587." appeared, and took a general view of the wait"As it is a disgrace to be in bonds for our ing crowd, and soon spied Mr. Brough, who sins, so to suffer imprisonment for Christ's was taller than any near him, and was, by the sake is our highest glory." The last in- rest of the company, thought a much happier scription we shall quote from these walls man than they, in that, though he was at a is a memorial of that scarcely imitable considerable distance, he was yet singled out from among them, particularly called to, salumodel of female loveliness and innocence, ted with great familiarity, and taken into the the Lady Jane Grey. It is said to have drawing-room, upon which the folding-doors been scratched by her upon the wall of were again fast closed.

company.

They were no sooner alone than my Lord fell to questioning Mr. Brough, saying, "I prithee, Robin, to what is it that I must ascribe this morning's visit?" Mr. Brough made answer that he had business that way, and was willing to take the opportunity of inquiring after his lordship's welfare. No, no, Robin," said my Lord, "I am not to be put off with such flams as that. I'll venture an even wager thy business is with me, and thou art come to solicit on behalf of some snivelling Whig or fanatic that is got into Lob's pound youder in the west. But I can tell thee beforehand, for thy comfort, as I have done several others, that it will be to no purpose, and, therefore, thou mightest as well have spared thy labour." "But pray, why so, my Lord ?" said Mr. Brough."Supposing that should be the case, I hope, as they have not been all alike guilty, and some may have been drawn in by others, it is not designed that all shall fare alike." "Yes, yes, Robin," says my Lord, "they are all villains and rebels alike, all unfit for mercy, and they must be alike hanged up, that the nation may be clear of such vermin; or else," said he, "we should find now they are worsted and clapped up, that they were all drawn in, and we shall have none to make examples of justice to the terrifying of others. But, I prithee, Robin," said my Lord, "who art thou come to solicit for? Let me know in

a word."

Says he, "My Lord, it is an honest fellow, with whom I have been a considerable dealer; one with whom your Lordship and I have taken many a bottle when time was; and one that, besides, is so much in my debt, that if he is not somehow or other brought off, I am like to be several hundred pounds the worse. It is Story, my Lord, whom your Lordship cannot but remember."

"Ah, poor Story!" said my Lord, "he is caught in the field, and put in the pound. Right enough served: he should have kept farther off; and you should have taken care not to have dealt with such wretches. But he must have his due among the rest," said my Lord; "and you must thank yourself for the loss vou sustain."

"Well, but I hope your Lordship," said Mr. Brough, "will find some way to bring him off, and help him to a share in the royal clemency, for which there will doubtless be some scope, that so I mayn't suffer for his fault. I intend, my Lord," said he, "to go the circuit with you, and we'll drink a bottle and be merry together every night, if you'll be so good as to give me a little encouragement." "Nay, now, friend Robin," said my Lord, "I am sure thou art most woefully out in thy scheme, for that would spoil all. Shouldst thou take that method, thou shouldst certainly see thy friend Story hung upon a gibbet some feet higher than his neighbours, and there could be no room for showing mercy. But take my advice for once, and go thy ways home, and take not the least notice to any one of what has passed. Particularly take care to give no hint to Story himself, or to any one capable of conveying it to him, that there has been any application to me concerning him; and, though he should write never so often, give him no answer, either directly or indirectly. If any notice was given him, I should certainly find it out, and be forced to resent it; and the consequence would be, that I should be under a necessity of using him with more severity than I might of myself be inclined to. But keep counsel, say nothing to any one, and leave me to take my own way, and I'll see what can be done."

Mr. Brough followed orders, kept all that had passed entirely to himself, and never made Mr. Story any reply. He concluded either that his letters miscarried, and never came to hand, or that no mercy could be had, and, therefore, lived in expectation of the utmost severity. He dreaded the coming of the Lord Chief Justice, and the sight of him when he was come; and, when he appeared before him, he was treated with that peculiar roughness, that he was rather more dispirited than before.

When Jeffreys cast his eyes upon him from the bench, he knew him well enough; and he (poor wretch) stood bowing and cringing before him in so suppliant a manner as that he thought it might have moved any thing but a stone, and looked at him with a piercing earnestness, to try if he could meet with any thing that had the least appearance of remaining compassion; he was, as it were, thunderstruck to hear him, upon pointing to him, cry out in the sternest manner that could be conceived," "What forlorn creature is that that stands there? It is certainly the ugliest creature my eyes ever beheld! What for a monster art thou?" Poor Story, continuing his bows and cringes, cried out, "Forlorn enough, my Lord, I am very sensible. But my name is Štory, and I thought your Lordship had not been wholly ignorant of me." "Ay, Story," said my Lord; I confess I have heard enough of thee. Thou art a sanctified rogue! a double-dyed villain! Thou wert a Commissary, and must make speeches, forsooth; and now, who so humble and mortified as poor Story! The common punishment is not bad enough for thee! But a double and treble vengeance awaits thee! I'll give thee thy desert, I'll warrant thee; and thou shalt have thy bellyful of treason and rebellion before I have done with thee."

The poor man concluded the very worst against himself that could be, and became inconsolable. My Lord's carriage was much of the same kind upon his trial afterwards. He railed at him until he foamed at the mouth, and gave him the foulest language, called the hardest names, and used the most cutting reproaches that were observed in the case of any one that came before him in that place. Yet, when others were executed, he was respited, being, as was said, reserved for some severer vengeance. When my Lord left town, his chains were doubled and trebled by order, but his life was left him as a prey; and so great was the misery he endured that he could hardly think of any thing worse, or imagine what that was which was said to be reserved for him.

When he had continued thus for a great while, at length there came orders for the transferring him, with a good guard attending him, to another prison that was somewhat nearer London; and from thence he, after some time, was with great care transferred to another, and so to another, still all the while laden with irons, until at length he was brought up to, and lodged safe in, Newgate, where he continued for a great while, confined to a miserable dark hole, not being able to distinguish well between night and day, except towards noon, when, by a little crevice of light as he stood on a chest, with his hands extended to the utmost length that his eyes could reach to, he made a shift to read a few verses in an old Bible he had in his pocket, which was his greatest remaining comfort.

In this miserable plight his keeper came running to him one day, with abundance of eagerness, saying, " Mr. Story, I have just now gotten orders to bring you up immediately

before the King and Council." Mr. Story, being greatly surprised, begged with the ut most earnestness, that he would so far befriend him as to let him send to his relations for some suitable apparel, and have a barber to trim. him, that he might not appear in such a presence in so miserable a plight. The keeper declared that his orders were positive to bring him in all respects as he was, without any alteration, and that he durst not presume to disobey them. Wherefore he clapped him into a coach as he was, and drove to Whitehall.

As they were driving thither, and talking about the particulars of his case, the keeper told him he had only one hint to give him, which was this, that if he saw the King at the head of the table in Council, and he should think fit to put any questions to him, which it was not improbable might be his case, it would be his best and wisest way to return a plain and direct answer, without attempting to hide, conceal, or lessen any thing. He thanked him for the advice given, and promised to follow it.

When he was brought into the Council Chamber, he made so sad and sorrowful a figure, that all present were surprised and frightened; and he had so strong a smell, by being so long confined, that it was very offensive. When the King first cast his eyes upon him, he cried out, "Is that a man? or what else is it ?" Chancellor Jeffreys told his Majesty that that was Story, of whom he had given his Majesty so distinct an account. "Oh! Story," says the King; "I remember him. That is a rare fellow, indeed!" Then turning towards him, he talked to him very freely and familiarly.

66

"Pray, Mr. Story," says he, "you were in Monmouth's army in the west, were you not?" He, according to the advice given him, made answer presently, "Yes, an't please your Majesty." "And you," said he, were a commissary there, were you not?" And he again replied, "Yes, an't please your Majesty." "And you," said he, “made a speech before great crowds of people, did you not?" He again very readily answered, "Yes, an't please your Majesty." "Pray," says the King to him, "if you haven't forgot what you said, let us have some taste of your fine florid speech. Let us have a specimen of some of the flowers of your rhetoric, and a few of the main things on which you insisted."

Whereupon Mr. Story told us that he readily made answer, "I told them, and it please your Majesty, that it was you that fired the City of London." "A rare rogue, upon my word!" said the King. "And pray what else did you tell them ?" "I told them," said he, "and it please your Majesty, that you poisoned your brother." "Impudence in the utmost height of it!" said the King. "Pray let us have something farther, if your memory serves you." "I farther told them," said Mr. Story, "that your Majesty appeared to be fully determined to make the nation both Papists and slaves."

By this time the King seemed to have heard enough of the prisoner's speech; and, therefore, crying out, "A rogue with a witness!" and, cutting off short, he said, "To all this I doubt not but a thousand other villainous things were added; but what would you say, Story, if, after all this, I should grant you your life ?" To which he, without any demur, made answer, that he should pray heartily for his Majesty as long as he lived. "Why, then," says the King, "I freely pardon all that is past, and hope you will not, for the future, represent your King as inexorable."

« PreviousContinue »