Volume I Part 34 (2/2)

1719.]

[Footnote 429: Buccleuch MS.]

[Footnote 430: The name of Ketch was often a.s.sociated with that of Jeffreys in the lampoons of those days.

”While Jeffreys on the bench, Ketch on the gibbet sits,”

says one poet. In the year which followed Monmouth's execution Ketch was turned out of his office for insulting one of the Sheriffs, and was succeeded by a butcher named Rose. But in four months Rose himself was hanged at Tyburn, and Ketch was reinstated. Luttrell's Diary, January 20, and May 28, 1686. See a curious note by Dr. Grey, on Hudibras, part iii. canto ii. line 1534.]

[Footnote 431: Account of the execution of Monmouth, signed by the divines who attended him; Buccleuch MS; Burnet, i. 646; Van Citters, July 17-27,1685, Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, July 15; Barillon, July 19-29.]

[Footnote 432: I cannot refrain from expressing my disgust at the barbarous stupidity which has transformed this most interesting little church into the likeness of a meetinghouse in a manufacturing town.]

[Footnote 433: Observator, August 1, 1685; Gazette de France, Nov. 2, 1686; Letter from Humphrey Wanley, dated Aug. 25, 1698, in the Aubrey Collection; Voltaire, Dict. Phil. There are, in the Pepysian Collection, several ballads written after Monmouth's death which represent him as living, and predict his speedy return. I will give two specimens.

”Though this is a dismal story Of the fall of my design, Yet I'll come again in glory, If I live till eighty-nine: For I'll have a stronger army And of ammunition store.”

Again;

”Then shall Monmouth in his glories Unto his English friends appear, And will stifle all such stories As are vended everywhere.

”They'll see I was not so degraded, To be taken gathering pease, Or in a c.o.c.k of hay up braided.

What strange stories now are these!”]

[Footnote 434: London Gazette, August 3, 1685; the Battle of Sedgemoor, a Farce.]

[Footnote 435: Pepys's Diary, kept at Tangier; Historical Records of the Second or Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot.]

[Footnote 436: b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes, Burnet, i. 647; Luttrell's Diary, July 15, 1685; Locke's Western Rebellion; Toulmin's History of Taunton, edited by Savage.]

[Footnote 437: Luttrell's Diary, July 15, 1685; Toulmin's Hist. of Taunton.]

[Footnote 438: Oldmixon, 705; Life and Errors of John Dunton, chap.

vii.]

[Footnote 439: The silence of Whig writers so credulous and so malevolent as Oldmixon and the compilers of the Western Martyrology would alone seem to me to settle the question. It also deserves to be remarked that the story of Rhynsault is told by Steele in the Spectator, No. 491. Surely it is hardly possible to believe that, if a crime exactly resembling that of Rhynsault had been committed within living memory in England by an officer of James the Second, Steele, who was indiscreetly and unseasonably forward to display his Whiggism, would have made no allusion to that fact. For the case of Lebon, see the Moniteur, 4 Messidor, l'an 3.]

[Footnote 440: Sunderland to Kirke, July 14 and 28, 1685. ”His Majesty,”

says Sunderland, ”commands me to signify to you his dislike of these proceedings, and desires you to take care that no person concerned in the rebellion be at large.” It is but just to add that, in the same letter, Kirke is blamed for allowing his soldiers to live at free quarter.]

[Footnote 441: I should be very glad if I could give credit to the popular story that Ken, immediately after the battle of Sedgemoor, represented to the chiefs of the royal army the illegality of military executions. He would, I doubt not, have exerted all his influence on the side of law and of mercy, if he had been present. But there is no trustworthy evidence that he was then in the West at all. Indeed what we know about his proceedings at this time amounts very nearly to proof of an alibi. It is certain from the Journals of the House of Lords that, on the Thursday before the battle, he was at Westminster, it is equally certain that, on the Monday after the battle, he was with Monmouth in the Tower; and, in that age, a journey from London to Bridgewater and back again was no light thing.]

[Footnote 442: North's Life of Guildford, 260, 263, 273; Mackintosh's View of the Reign of James the Second, page 16, note; Letter of Jeffreys to Sunderland, Sept. 5, 1685.]

[Footnote 443: See the preamble of the Act of Parliament reversing her attainder.]

[Footnote 444: Trial of Alice Lisle in the Collection of State Trials; Act of the First of William and Mary for annulling and making void the Attainder of Alice Lisle widow; Burnet, i. 649; Caveat against the Whigs.]

[Footnote 445: b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes.]

[Footnote 446: Locke's Western Rebellion.]

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