honourest my declining age, to thee and the husband whom thou shalt choose I give the third part of my realm. So fair a speeding for a few words soon uttered, was to Regan, the second, ample instruction what to say. She, on the same demand, spares no protesting; and the gods must3 witness that otherwise to express her thoughts she knew not, but that she loved him above all creatures; and so receives an equal reward with her sister. But Cordellia, the youngest, though hitherto best beloved, and now before her eyes the rich and easy present hire of a little easy soothing, yet moves not from the solid purpose of a sincere and virtuous answer. Father, said she, my love toward you is as my duty bids; What should a father seek?5 what should a child promise more? ' § 17.

2 §§ 1, 2, 13.

3 § 15.

4

S$ 1, 9.

5 § 34.

7.

At night, when they were gone to rest, Mackoneil beset the house wherein Macklein and his people lay with a number of men, and called him to come forth and drink; he answered,1 that of drink they had too much, and that it was then time to rest. Yet it is my will, said Mackoneil, that ye arise and come forth. Macklein hearing this began to suspect some bad dealing,2 and dressing himself and his men, did open the door; where, perceiving a company in arms, and Mackoneil with his sword drawn, he asked what the matter was, and if he meant to break his faith. No; faith, said he, I gave none, and must now have an account of you and your friends for the wrong I have received. Macklein had taken his nephew, a little child, to bed with him, and being put to his defence,3 kept the child on his left shoulder in manner of a targe. The child cried for mercy to his uncle wherewith Mackoneil, moved, did promise to spare his life, providing he would render his weapons, and become his prisoner. Macklein, feeling no better, was content, and thereupon was conveyed with some keepers to another house. All the rest (two excepted) upon the like promise rendered themselves. 4 § 18.

1 § 21.

2 § 3.

3 § 5.

8.

Of all the conspirators, Fenius Rufus was the one whose fate deserved the least pity. As prefect of the guards, he contrived adroitly to place himself on the tribunal by the side of Tigellinus, and sought to screen1 himself from inquiry2 by the violence with which he judged his own associates. Denounced at last by one of the victims,3 he turned pale, stammered, and was unable to defend himself. The accused were speedily convicted. Doomed without mercy by this domestic inquisition, they were allowed to choose their mode of death, an indulgence which spared the Government the odium of a public sentence.5 When escape was impossible, the culprits suffered with the callous fortitude which had become habitual with their class 5 under the terrors of the imperial tyranny. If they deigned to flatter the Prince with their last breath, it was for the sake of their children. Lucan died with a firmness which, while he still hoped for pardon, is said to have failed him; and when his veins were opened in the bath, found consolation in reciting some of his own verses, descriptive of a monstrous death by bleeding at every pore. 2 § 1. 4 § 21. 5 § 5.

1 § 9.

3 § 3.

9.

The fight1 began with small shot on both sides, but presently was continued by the cannon,2 the English endeavouring to beat the Scots out of the church2 steeple, the Scots to beat the English out of the sconces; by that time it was lowwater, the Scots had made a breach with their cannon in the greater sconce, where Colonel Lansford commanded, and divers were slain, which struck such a fear into the soldiers, who had but a slight acquaintance with the terrible face of war, and these frightful shapes of death, that, notwithstanding all the persuasions and entreaties of that brave commander, they basely threw down their arms and deserted the service; they also who maintained the other breast-work retreating from it, the Scots who, from the rising ground, perceived their disorder, immediately commanded a body of horse under Sir

Thomas Hope, and the regiments of foot of Crawford, Lindsey, and Lowdon to pass the river, and at the same time Lesley sorely gailed the King's horse, who were drawn up in the meadow.

The very neighbourhood of an enemy seemed to have been forgotten-so entirely the commonest precautions were neglected. A rough lesson1 brought them to a recollection of their position. On the 14th of April a party of French, disguised as women, entered the English works, and walked over them and round them, they killed a sentinel, who had perhaps3 discovered them, and carried off his head as an ornament to Leith church. The next day the garrison poured out in a swarm, cut up the pioneers in the trenches, spiked the cannon, and took Sir Maurice Berkeley—who was the first to come to the rescue-prisoner. Arthur Grey, Captain Vaughan, and others, each as they could collect their companies, rushed to the front in time to save the guns;2 but the French would not retreat till half the English army was brought into the field. It was one of the hottest skirmishes* 1 §§ 1, 13. 4 § 2.

ever seen.

2. § 25.

3 § 20.

11.

Thus did they endeavour not only to prune the Prerogative,1 but to cut it up by the roots, and to establish themselves in a sovereign and boundless authority of sitting so long as they pleased themselves.

To effect this there was a necessity3 to amuse the nation with strange fears and jealousies of plots, conspiracies both domestic and foreign, and to draw the people into tumultuary heats and disorders after the example of Scotland, and thereby oblige the King to compliances with their unreasonable and ambitious demands. And the sequel will abundantly manifest that Mr. Pym, the great engineer of the faction, so long as he lived never wanted plots or tumults to usher in his great designs, two of which were now the death of 3 §§ 15, 2. 4 § 9.

1 § 3.

2 § 11.

Strafford, and the obtaining a bill 5 for the sitting of the present Parliament till they should be dissolved by their own consent.

Of which the reader will receive a more full account in the second volume of these Collections, this having already risen to an unexpected bulk, whither, to avoid repetition, he is referred.

His Majesty saw, and with an admirable patience supported these unjust procedures; but aias! he had the wolf by the ears, bitten while he held him, but worried if he let him go:1 for there were now two armies in the kingdom, which 2 together with his former expenses in the northern expeditions, had plunged him into an irrecoverable debt, without the assistance of Parliamentary supplies; without money there was nothing to be done, the posture of his affairs appearing so ruinous, and no money was to be had but upon such terms as the faction pleased; one of which was the disvoting of the bishops :3 and whoever curiously observes the movement of affairs will see that the House of Commons,3 notwithstanding the compliment they made of inspecting his revenue, yet raised money by inches, and by the dilatory proceedings in the Scots' Treaty, who they might with half the expense have obliged to disband and return into their country, they still increased the King's necessities 5 and the charge of the kingdom before they raised money to defray them.

How infinitely this great Prince was abused and misrepresented to his subjects by these factious people in private, none can doubt who does but consider that even this speech was represented in public by the prints1 so different both from his Majesty's words and sense, as if they had a design to prepare the mind of the nation for the belief of that plot of a design to bring up the armies to London, and to bring

over the Irish army, which was now hatching2 and ready to be broached to amuse the people. The weekly disperser of the intelligence which flew throughout the kingdom3 hath this passage:-That his Majesty told the two Houses, "For the Irish army, he hath entered into consultation about it, but could not yet well disband it, for divers reasons best known to himself. Whereas it is most evident that his Majesty put it to the two Houses to remove the difficulties about that disbanding, which he tells them he holds fit not only to wish it, but to show the way how it may conveniently be done, and expects their advice and assistance in it."

This manner of arguing was displeasing to the nobles, and begat much heat1 and many bitter replies on both sides. At length a principal senator called Otto Cracg stood up, and in great anger told the President of the City that the Commons neither understood nor considered the privileges of the nobility, who at all times had been exempted from taxes, nor the true condition of themselves, who were no other than slaves [the word in the Danish is "unfree"]; so that the best way was to keep within their own bounds, and acquiesce in such measures as ancient practice had warranted,1 and which they were resolved to maintain. This word "slaves" put1 all the burghers and clergy into disorder, causing a loud murmur 2 in the hall; which Manson, the President of the city of Copenhagen, and Speaker of the House of Commons, perceiving, and finding a fit occasion of putting in practice a design3 before concerted (though but weakly) between him and the bishop, in great choler rose out of his seat and swore an oath—“That the Commons were no slaves, nor would from thenceforth be called so by the nobility, which they should soon prove to their cost; and thereupon breaking up the assembly in disorder, and departing out of the hall, was followed by all the clergy and burghers.

1 § 14.

2 § 6.

§ 12.

4

§ 13.