AMong all the Sins which are said to cry for vengeance, there is none to which a louder voice is ascribed in the ears of God as well as Men, than that of Murder. For as it is the destroy­ing a Creature, which carries the stamp and impress of the Divine image, and therein a defacing the most visibl' repre­sentation, which God hath vouchsav'd unto, and left of himself in sub [...]u­nary Beings; so it is a most daring insurrection against the Authority of the Supream Lawgiver, who designed his inhibition for a sufficient Fence about our Lifes. Nor does any Crime more audaciously controul the End of Divine Wisdom in making us sociable Creatures, and furnishing us with faculties and powers by which we are inabled as well as instructed to help and shelter one another. And therefore in proportion to the heynousness of the guilt of the sin of Murder, are both the denounciations of God in the Word, and his vindictive dispensations of providence against it, wrote in more legible Characters, than those wherein we find his displeasure re­corded and testified against other Crimes. Profane as well as Sacred Sto­ry's are filled with instances of Gods inquisition after the shedding inno­cent blood, and of the wr [...]thful severity which he hath shown against Fa­milies as well as persons in whose skirts it hath been found.

And as no Transgression is more provoking to God, so none does so much incense and exasperate mankind. The destroying one innocent per­son, is construed as a threatning of all; nor can we hear of the cutting our Neighbours throat, but we judg our selves alarm'd and bid look to our own. Nor is it only by the instinct, but by the Authority of the Law of Nature, that Murderers have in all places and ages been pursued with an Universal hatred. He abandon's his own life to the will and plea­sure of the next assailant, who esteems it not his duty not only to wrest the weapon out of a murderers hand, but to bring the malefactor to publick punishment.

And tho there is no person so dignified or priviledged, in whom assassi­nations and murders are not highly detestable, and to be prosecuted with the utmost impartiality and zeal; yet they deserve the greatest abhorrency, when perpetrated by those, whose duty it is to defend our lifes instead of invading them. For if it be criminal in a very enemy to kill the person whom he reckons himself most injured by, unless empowered thereunto by a judicial Sentence or a legal warrant; how infinitely more enormous is it, for those to be Author's of, or instrumental in our ruine, to whom the care of our preservation is committed and entrusted. And by how much any are vested with the Administration of the Law, to avenge them­selves [Page 2] and the community upon offenders; by so much does their crime and guilt become enhanced, if when they can not gratifie their indignation in the person and quality of Magistrates, they espouse the work and cha­racter, and assume the weapons of an assassinate. And who know's, but that as the Attorney General had the boldness in print to call the accusa­tion and commitment of the Earl of Essex, ^* a convictment for high Treason, but that others upon that conviction might have the impudence to give or­der for his Execution. What more hateful sight can there be to heaven, or more enraging spectacle to men, than to find those, who by the places they are advanced unto, and the Trust that is reposed in them, ought to watch for our safety, conspiring our ruine, and what they have not the courage themselves to execute, tempting and hiring others to commit?

As it will be easily allowed, being indelibly ingraven in our Natures, that every Murder is to be registred amongst crimes of the deepest die; so it cannot be denied, but that one may be of a more heynous nature than another, and receive aggravation from the worth and quality of him that is assassinated. For as the value of kindnesses grows in proportion to the meaness of the persons on whom they are bestowed; so crimes re­ceive an encrease of guilt, from the dignity and usefulness of those against whom, they are committed. By how much higher the station of any one is in the Commonwealth, and by how much through his wisdom, power, bounty and influence, he is beneficial to the Nation; by so much is the destruction of such, a person attended with the higher aggravations, and to be resented as a most enormous crime. Nor are we only to esteem our­selves injured and threatned in and by the example of such a person's ruine, but we are to account our selves wronged, and ought to demand repa­ration, answerably to the benefits we reapt by him, and which we are rob'd of by the loss of so useful and worthy a person. Our Law in making that against a Peer liable to an Action of Scandal, which it takes not so much as cognisance of as an offence against little and inferior people; could not be so improvident in reference to the lifes of Noblemen, as not to set a stronger and higher hedge about them, than those of Mechanicks are fenced and defended by.

Nor is it only from the quality of [...]erson against whom a crime is committed that it receives an aggravation, but there accrues a new addi­tion of guilt thereunto, from the obligations which the person destroyed, may have laid upon those who were instrumental in and accessory to his ruine. To see one perish by the hands of those, whom he may have in­jured [Page 3] either in their persons, reputations, or interest, is no more than what we may sometimes find instances of among the [...]rully and dege­nerate part of mankind; but to hear that a person is assassinated by those whom he served with the utermost zeal and fidelity, is a villany which none but prodigies of ingratitude, and monsters of humane Nature, can be guilty of. But there is a certain great man in the World whom I shall forbear to name, whose temper is to bestow his Favours upon such as have been his Majesties greatest enemies, as well as the most proffligate and basest among men, and in the mean time recompence such not only with ne­glect but hatred, whose parents as well as themselves had shed their blood and ventured their fortunes in the behalf of the King and the Royal cause. How true is that of Tacitus, lib. 4. Annal. Beneficia [...]ousque laeta sunt, dum vi­dentur exolvi posse, ubi multum antevenere, pro gratiâ odium redditur: Kind­nesses are acceptable while they may be repay'd, but when they exceed all possibility of recompence, they meet with hatred instead of acknowledgment. There is no other way to be secure from the malice of some sort of people, than in the place of obliging them, to keep them at defiance. For whereas they are altogether uncapable of being won and impressed by courtesies, they are either to be chained up or menaced from doing mischief.

And as all I have suggested, makes but too suitable an introduction into this following Discourse of the Assassination of the Earl of Essex; so it is no small reflection upon the honour of the Nation, and proclaims the exe­crableness of the Fact, and impudent boldness of the Actors, that they durst perpetrate this horrid villany not only in the Royal Prison, where the Government in the account of the Law is responsible and pledge for the safe­ty of the captive, but in one of his Majesties Palaces, where the King himself is to be esteemed security for the preservation and forthcoming of all who come under his roof. This honorable Gentleman being the Kings Prisoner, and deprived of all means and advantages of defending himself; these trusted with the administration of the Government, and particularly the King, were to be responsible for him in case he miscarried. Nor can his Majesties best friends, and these who are most zealous for his honour, think otherwise of that villanous Fact, than that they who where the contrivers of it, intended at once to rob the King of one of the best and ablest Mini­sters he had ever employ'd, and to give a mortal wound to the Royal re­putation, by perpetrating the bloody crime in such a place. And whereas the Queen had lain under an imputation of reproach, upon the account of Sr. Edmond Bury Godfrey's being assassinated in Somerset-house, they might hope to involve the King under the like dishonor, by cutting the Throat of this Noble Peer in the Tower of London.

[Page 4] Nor ought any man whom the providence of God hath furnished with means and advantages of detecting so horrid a murder, be judged either officious, or held for dissaffected to the Government, if he reveal what he hath attained to the knowledg of, and publish those evidences, which as they have satisfied himself, may be sufficient to convince all the unbyaz'd part of mankind, of the truth and reality of this barbarous assassination. And as it is impossible he should be a good Christian, so he ought not to be esteem'd a good Subject to his Majesty, nor a sincere friend to his Country, who shall more value his own ease and safety, than the delivering the throne from guilt, or saving the Nation from that vengeance, which the cry of innocent blood barbarously and treacherously shed, is ready to de­rive and bring upon it. And it is no small evidence by whose countenance and authority this murder was committed, that such discouragements have been given to the discovery of it, and that an honest Gentlemen hath been so severely proceeded against, in defiance of all Law as well as without Pre­sident, for but offering to represent what he had learned in relation to the destruction of that honourable person. But as we shall have occasion to speak more fully of that afterwards, I shall only add here, that the barbarity ex­pressed to Mr. Braddon, is so far from deterring others to pursue this af­fair, that his ill treatment at the Council Board and Kings Bench, was one of the motives of my undertaking this Province. And as by reason of the re­tirement I have confined my self unto, and the privacy I have used in fol­lowing these researches, I labour not under the inconvenience of dreading a sine or prison which does so much frighten others; so I dare boldly affirm that the terror of these things, (were I to encounter them) would not so affect me, as to make me neglect what I reckon a necessary as well as an im­portant duty. Patriae deesse quoad vita suppetat, aliis turpe, mihi etiam nefas, was the saying of Camillus in Livy. And tho I be not so vain and ambitious, as to desire the world should know who I am, yet I judg it absolutely needful that they should understand who I am not, least others come into trouble for that which ought not to be charged upon them, and which none but my self can with any equity or justice be made accountable for. And seeing Mr. Braddon hath been singled forth as the object of some men's indignation, for the service he was willing to have done his Majesty in the detection of this Murder; I reckon my self bound to publish to all the world that I know not the Gentleman, and that to the best of my remembrance I never saw him, much less have ever conversed, or had any communication with him. I will not deny, but that he is a person whom I do infinitely esteem for his integrity, zeal, and courage in this matter; yet I will not be so far inju­rious [Page 5] to him, as to commence an acquaintance with him during the trans­action and dependence of this affair, and while he is under the power of those that will be ready to declare him criminal, for the least intercourse with a person that is likely to become so obnoxious to the rage of St. Jame's and Westminster-Hall as I may come to be for this service to the King and Kingdom.

But besides the common tyes, which I lye under equally with the rest of mankind for endeavouring to detect so horrid and barbarous a Murder, there are some special obligations upon me, by which I esteem my self more par­ticularly bound than others are, to do all the right and justice I can to the me­mory of this massacred Lord, and to redeem his Name from the infamy with which they have aspersed him of being Felo de se. For I had not only the honour to be known to him, which Mr. Braddon pretends not unto, but be­sides the favouring me with diverse Testimonies of his respect, he did me the kindness to own and befriend me at a juncture, when I was in no small hazard from the malice of very Powerful as well as considerable persons. And seeing that honourable Peer has been so unhappy, as to find nothing but ingratitude as well as injustice from those of the highest and sublimest qua­lity whom he had most effectually served and infinitely obliged; it is not amiss that the world should understand there are some remains of vertue and gratitude among the mean and little people, and that tho their condition does not inable them to recompence favours conferred upon them by great per­sons, yet they have that ingenuity which others want, viz. to sense and acknowledg them.

And as I reckon it no small honour to have been known to the deccased Peer, so I thereby enjoyed an advantage which others wanted, namely an opportunity of learning the principles and observing the Temper of that ex­cellent person. Whom as I found to be one imbu'd with the most vertuous and religious, as well as heroick and generous principles of any Noble Man in the Kingdom; so I observed him to be a Gentleman of the greatest se­dateness of mind, least subject to the undue agitation of unruly passions, and most under the conduct of a calm, steady, strong, clear and well poised Reason, of any Man of Quality, I ever had the happiness of access unto. And if either the succors of Nature, Education, or Grace, were suffi­cient to fortifie and preserve a person from such an enormity and crime, then must the Earl of Essex above all men be acquitted from the guilt of so exe­crable a fact, as being contrary to the Frame and constitution of his Nature, as well as to all the intellectual and moral habits of his Mind. So villanous a Deed, was inconsistent with his Temper, as well as repugnant to his vertue. [Page 6] As he was an excellent Christian, he durst not allow a thought that might give encouragement to so heynous a sin; and as he was a well accomplisht Gentleman, he scorned to render himself guilty of a thing that was so mean and base. Nor was the folly of the Assassinates less, in hoping to obtain cre­dit to a report, that the Earl of Essex cut his own throat, than their wickedness was, in contriving and perpetrating themselves, that bloody mur­der upon him.

Yea as if it had not been enough, to have first cut the throat of this innocent tho unfortunate Earl, and then to have fastned the guilt and infamy of their own Fact upon his untainted vertue and spotless Soul; they have sought to gain credit to their calumnious accusation, and to reconcile unthinking people to their opinion, by assuming that he used to commend and justifie self Murder, in case there remained no other way to escape a capital punish­ment, and the being made a spectacle to the little and gazing part of man­kind. And to give the better gloss to this malicious fiction, they report that he used to extol the action of his Ladies Grandfather the Duke of Northumberland, who being prisoner in the Tower for Treason, shot himself in the head with a Pistol. Put as the Earl of Essex, had he entertained so ungedly and corrupt a sentiment, was more prudent and discreet than to publish and avow an opinion so contrary to the Rules of Religion, the principles of honor, and the common sense and persuasion of mankind; so it is enough to detect the falsehood as well as the malice that is in this report, that the Authors and dispersers of it, either dare not declare the persons to whom the Earl should have discovered and revealed his mind in this matter, or else such as they have named for vouchers of the truth of this story, have not only denyed their having at any time heard him express the least word in favour of self murder, but do affirm with all the sacred­ness imaginable, that he used to speak always of it with the utmost abhor­ [...]ency, and to brand it as the greatest and most heynous sin. For whereas they have had the impudence to affirm that this report either proceeded ori­ginally from his own Lady, or was at least assented unto and attested by her; she hath upon application to her La [...]ship for the knowledge of the truth or falsehood of this Story, not only with all the solemnity re­quisite in a matter of this importance, vindicated my Lord from having ever spoken a word that might induce the Lawfulness of self murder, or give countenance to a person's being Felo de se, but she hath further assirmed that he used to speak against it with an emotion beyond what was custo­mary to him, and that he hath often declaned that no circumstances what­soever could extenuate the guilt, or lessen the infamy of so unnatural and [Page 7] wicked a Fact. So that this Story, which hath been so maliciously and in­dustriously spread, to gain, belief to the Report of my Lords having mur­thered himself, may upon this detection of its Falshood, be very justly im­proved for the establishing an Assurance that he was assassinated by others. For it is impossible to imagine upon what other Motive it could be invented, unless to palliate the Crime of those who had destroyed him.

But should it be granted that the late Earl of Essex used to speak with all Candor and Respect of the Duke of N [...]thumberland, who slew himself in the Tower; it was no more than what might be expected from a Gentleman of Civility and good Breeding, partly out of Decorum and Complacency to his Lady, whose Grand-father the said Duke was, and partly out of respect to that Noble Mans Personal Merit and Worth, being upon many accounts a truly great Person. For is it not enough to condemn a Fact, without heaping Obloquy and Reproach upon him that hath been guilty of it? It is sufficient to represent the Evil of a Thing in Thesi, and to demonstrate the Sin as well as Dishonour in committing it; but it neither agrees with the Rules of Religion, nor the Measures of Conversation among Persons of Qua­lity, to be over severe in Hypothesi, and to pronounce this or that Man wicked and infamous, though upon the score of that which we have doctrinally, and in way of Argumentation censured and condemned. Nor was the Earl of Essex's Case parallel to that of the Duke of N [...]rthumberland, that the latter should make the former a President. For whereas that Duke was not only accused, but condemned for High Treason when he committed that Fact; the Earl, though accused and committed, not only knew himself innocent of the Crime wherewith he was charged, but was well assured that there was no Evidence upon which they could proceed to try, and much less to con­demn him. For of all the Witnesses who had undertaken the Drudgery of swearing Men out of their Lives, there was only my Lord H. that could pretend to so much as acquaintance with him. Whose Testimony being but that of one Man, and a very infamous one too, it could not found an Indict­ment of Treason, much less be esteemed a sufficient Proof in Law for the Conviction and Condemnation of the meanest Subject.

And this leads me to another Topick, that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but was murthered by others. For whereas it is not only sworn, that he cut his own Throat, but ^* that he had ordered his Servants two days before, to provide a Pen-knife for him, on pretence of cutting his Nails; but with an Intent, as Bomeny insinuates in his Deposition, of committing that fatal and tragical Act: I doubt not but to make it appear, that he was so far from [Page 8] any previous Intention of that nature, that he took all imaginable care, in re­ference to his Safety, and being fully secure, as to any hurt he might do him­self, was only apprehensive and jealous of what might be attempted upon him by others, and was accordingly solicitous how to prevent it. And therefore he had the very day before his Murther, appointed his Servants to bring up out of the Country, several Vessels of Silver, necessary for the pre­paring and dressing of Victuals, with an intent to have them brought into the Tower, not so much because he would have his Diet provided and pre­pared by his own Cook, by reason of being curious in what he eat, but be­cause he was jealous of his Safety whilst his Meat was made ready by any of the Officers of the Prison, and was not without Suspition that some violent and illegal means would be used towards his Destruction. Nor is it unworthy of our further remark, that he was so far from having abandoned himself to despair, or having entertained the least thought of being his own Executio­ner, that the very day before the perpetration of the barbarous and horrid Fact upon him, he had ordered a considerable quantity of the best sort of Wines to be bought and brought into his Lodgings for his own Drinking, resolving out of a Regard to his Safety, rather than his Health, to taste none that was sold in or about the Tower. And whereas he knew that they had no intentions at Court of bringing him to a Tryal, nor indeed could, having but only one Person that pretended to be a Witness against him, he had ac­cordingly appointed the providing such a quantity for him, as would have sufficed some Months for his own drinking, till he could have been deliver­ed in a due Course of Law. Nor can unbiassed and impartial Men, make any other Inference and Deduction from these Circumstances, than that the Earl of Essex, instead of having designed any Violence upon himself, was only suspitious of what might be attempted against, and perpetrated up­on him by other Hands.

But if we will allow our selves leave to observe, what Ends the violent Death of that Earl hath been improved unto, and what Designs his Majesties Justices and Ministers have studied to serve by it; we shall both let our selves and the World into a fuller view and knowledge of this hellish Mystery of Darkness, and be able to detect the Contrivers of it, and by whose encou­ragement and Authority that excellent, though unfortunate Person was brought to an untimely and bloody Death. In order whereunto, we are to re­collect, how that after diverse Contrivances and Essays of involving Prote­stants in Sham Plots against the Person of the King and the established Go­vernment, they were at last possessed of a Pretence of a Conspiracy of this nature, and had furnished themselves with some Witnesses, who un­dertook [Page 9] the swearing the best and chiefest men of the Kingdom into a conjuration for levying war and destruction of his Majesty. But being conscious that their witnesses were not of a reputation to win belief to what they had prepared in charge against the principal Patriots of our Religion and Laws, they resolved to murther the Earl of Essex, (being one of these they had committed upon an accusation of being guilty of that pretended conspiracy) and then to give out that he had destroyed himself from the shame and horror of being concerned in so treasonabl' a design. This they judged to be the most effectual way to support the cre­dit of their witnesses, and gain over the Nation to give faith to the truth and reality of the plot. For as his Mejesties Ministers knew what infamous persons most of the witnesses were, and how far from deserving that any thing should be received from their Testimony; so they were very sen­sibl' that the generality of the Kingdom were not over inclinabl' to be­lieve a Protestant plot, there having been so many endeavours before, of imposing upon them in this way and kind. This was the design in or­der to which the murder of this honourabl' and innocent person was con­trived and resolved; and to this end did the Attorney General and my Lord Chief Justice with all the Eloquence and Artifice as well as all the malice they are Masters of, endeavour to make it useful and subservient. The Lord of Essex being committed to the Tower for the Plot, and killing himself there, was more, say's the Attorney General, than a thousand witnesses to open the eyes of the people, and confirm the belief of the conspiracy. ^* There was Digitus Dei in it, say's my Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes, and enough to satisfie all the world of the Truth of the conspiracy, that the Earl of Essex being conscious of the great guilt he had contracted in being concerned in it, did rather than abide his Trial, and for the avoiding the methods of justice in his own particular case destroy himself. The improvement of the Murder of that noble Peer to the establishing the belief of a plot, gives no small ground to suspect who were the contrivers of his death, and upon what design they did first assassinate, and then endeavour to cast and divert the infamy and guilt of it upon himself. But I hope they will from their own way's of argumentation, allow us the liberty of inferring, that in case my Lord of Essex was not Felo de se, that then there was no such Prote­stant plot as they have filled the world with the noise of, seeing the only motives upon which they suppose and alledg' his having committed that unnatural fact upon himself, were the reproach and horror of that con­spiracy. Nay we doubt not, but that all the honest and disinterested part [Page 10] of mankind, will upon conviction of their having destroyed that inno­cent Gentleman, become fully satisfied, that there hath been no such Treasonable combination, as his Majesties Ministers have endeavoured to impose the belief of upon the Nation, but that all his Court and Popish Sham, and only devised and fram'd for subverting our liberties and Re­ligion, by cutting off those that had the integrity and courage to espouse the protection and defence of them.

And as the end whereunto the unnatural death of my Lord Essex is ap­plied and improved, shows by whom it was contrived and effected; so the Tim'ing of that murder, does further evidence and demonstrate, where the guilt of it ought to be charged, and what service it was calculated for the promoting of. For as if it had not been enough to murder one innocent person in a way of the most barbarous violence imaginable, they resolved to adjust it to such a juncture of time, as that it might serve to facilitate and compass the ruine of an other Noble Person in the way of their Legal Form's And therefore no sooner was my Lord Russel entred on his Trial for life, upon an indictment of being guilt of that preten­ded conspiracy for which the Earl of Essex stood committed, but they assassinated the one in the Tower, and immediately dispatched away the news of his having murdered himself to the Old Bayly, thereby to amuse and prepossess the jury, and byaz them to convict that other virtuous, no­ble and innocent person. And with what satisfaction in themselves, as well as malice and artifice against the prisoner at the Barr, did his Majesties Councel lay hold on the tyd'ings, and apply them towards the begetting a belief of the guilt of that admirable person who stood then arraigned, and whom they were at that very time harrangu'ing and pleading out of his life. As if it had not been enough to impress the minds of a jury suffi­ciently prejudiced, and which to all mens knowledge was grosly partial, for the Attorney General to say, ^* That my Lord Russel was one of the Coun­cil for carrying on the Plot with the Earl of Essex, who had that morning prevented the hand of justice upon himself; Sir George Jefferys comes after him, and adds in the winding up the evidence to the jury just before they went from the Bar, and without all doubt the better to mould and de­termine them to find the arrained person guilty, ^† That there was nothing could be said in favour of my Lord Russel's innocency as to what he was ac­cused of, but what might be more strongly alledged in behalf of the Earl of Essex, who nevertheless from a conciousness of being guilty of that desperate conspiracy, had brought himself to an untimely end, to avoid the methods of pub­lick [Page 11] justice. Yea so evident was it to all impartial persons, who were then present at the Tryal, that the Murder of the Earl of Essex was not per­petrated by himself but by others, and that it was time'd and adjusted to that season, in order to influencing the jury to give up my Lord Russel with the more ease as a sacrifice and victime to the rage of the Court; that a ve­ry noble Lord, who was always in the interests of Whitehall, and who was then very zealous in the prosecution of those accused for the Plot, being at that time on the Bench, did upon the hearing of my Lord of Essex's death, and who were then walking in the Tower when it fatally fell out, and upon observing with what diligence, care and artifice the news was brought into Court as my Lord Russel was at the Bar, and how the Kings Coun­cil thereupon acted their parts, rise up in great consternation from the Bench where he sat, and pulling his hat over his eyes press out of Court, saying he plainly saw the bottom of the business, and all the Mysteries wrapt up in it. And indeed such influence and success had the news of the Earl of Essex's having murder'd himself, from the shame and horror he was under for being concerned in the Conspiracy whereof my Lord Russel stood then arraigned, that diverse of the Inquest have confessed and acknow­ledged, that the Report of the Earl's death, especially as improved and managed by the Kings Council, had greater power over their minds for the convicting him, than all the other evidence which was given, and that they do really believe they should never have sound him guilty with­out the intervention of that fatal stroke, and the crafty application which the Kings Council at Law made of it. But so far was the Earl of Essex from entertaining any foregoing thoughts of murdering himself, or from calculating the perpetration of it to that unhappy season, that the very day before my Lord Russel's Trial, (being also the day before his own Throat was cut) he gave private directions to his Steward, to place himself with all the conveniency in Court which he could at the said Trial, the better to take the evidence in short hand, instructing him withall how he might af­terwards convey it to him for his perusal and to be made use of as he should have occasion And as the Earl of Essex was a person of that sedateness, ho­nor and vertue, that no rational or good man can believe he would commit so horrid a crime upon himself; so such was the entire friendship between him and my Lord Russel, that we must renounce common sense and rea­son, before we can admit that the Earl of Essex would be guilty of so hei­nous an injury to his dearest and best Friend, as to calculate and adjust the murdering himself to such a season, which he must needs know would be too probable a means, to derive the destruction of a person whom he infi­nitely valued and loved after it.

[Page 12] Having now shown the end unto which the murder of this incompara­ble Earl was designed and adapted, and the improvement which was made of it, not only through endeavouring to establish thereby the belief of a Protestant Plot in general, but to compass and facilitate the ruine of that religious and noble person my Lord Russel in particular; we shall as a further inducement to perswade and convince the inquisitive part of man­kind, that some about St. James's and Whitehall where the contrivers and authorisers of that barbarous assassination, lay open and unfold the motive and pique upon which it was done, and what it was which gave the origi­nal rise to some mens implacable malice against that loyal as well as virtuous person. And as it cannot be denied but this late Nobl' Earl had received Titles of honor, and places of Trust, interest and advantage from his Ma­jesty; so it will be acknowledged that not only his Father but himself, had laid all the obligations upon the Crown, which it was possibl' for Subjects in way of Acting or Suffering to do. Nor is it less evident, that notwith­standing both the Father my Lord Capel's Laying down his life for Charles the First, and the English Monarchy, and his Son Essex's manifold suffe­rings and services for Charles the Second and the Royal Family; yet this honorable Person instead of quietly possessing any longer the just re­wards of his own and Fathers merits, or enjoying any more the wonted signs of his Princes favour, was not onely debarred from, and deprived of the respect and confidence which his Majesty had used to show him, but was become the object of a great mans implacable hatred and bound­less malice For though the Earl of Essex was a person, whom nothing could corrupt from his loyalty to the King and the Established Government: yet he was also a sincere and zealous Patriot of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom, and a couragious Defender as well as owner of the Protestant Religion. And as he was none of those mercinary, base, and timorous Lords, who would either connive at, or concur in the introduction of Slavery and Popery; so he was one of the principal of those heroick and generous Peers, who had been active in detecting the Popish Conspiracy, and who had laboured with the greatest industry to prevent the effects of that hellish conjuration of the Valican, Louvre and St. James's, for the extirpation of the Reformed Worship, and the subversion of the ancient Laws and Priviledges of England. And as he was known to understand more of the nature and extent of the Popish Conspiracy, and who were concerned in it, and to what degree, than most persons in the Kingdom either were or ever had oportunities for; so nothing can be more certain, than that as hereby he became the most dangerous man in the whole Na­tion [Page 13] to the Papists, but that he must consequently be the most special ob­ject of their jealousie, fear, and hatred. [...] as his publick Station in Ireland, as well as his having been long a Member of His Majesty's Privy Council in England, furnished him with manifold advantages, which others wanted, of knowing the tendency, and penetrating into the bottom of all the De­signs and Counsels which have been carrying on against our Religion and Legal Government; so his scorning and abhorring to sacrifice his Con­science and Honour by either falling in with the Conspirators, or by a­voiding to withstand and oppose them in their attempts for the introduction and establishment of Popery and Arbitrariness, made them to think of all ways and means how to destroy him And besides these forementioned advantages which he had above other men, of knowing all the dimensions of the Popish Plot; he received no small accession of light in that affair, by having been always a Member of those Secret Committees, which had the Examination of Persons, and Inspection of Papers, concerning that devilish Conspiracy. Nor was the Earl insensible of the danger▪ he was in upon this account, and accordingly was wont sometimes to say to his inti­mate friends, that as generally all the Papists, and more particularly such of them as make the greatest figure in the Kingdom dreaded him by rea­son of the detection he was able to make of their horrid Machinations; so he could not be without apprehension, but that they would seek to destroy him in order to prevent it. Alas poor Essex, thy respect to some whom I forbear to name, made thee wanting to save the Nation and thy self, by revealing that while we had ParlJaments, the knowledge whereof would have been a means to have prevented our ruine; and as thou art now ill rewarded for thy tenderness to those ungratefull men, so we are at once unhappily robb'd of the great Instrument that could have unmasked per­sons and things, and denied ParlJaments, from whose legal Authority as well as united Counsels and Wisdom, we can only, under God, hope for the preservation of England from becoming the Seat of Popery, and the Thea­tre of Tyranny. Nor ought it to seem strange that the malic [...] of the Papists, and of those who have conspired against our Rights and Priviledges, should transport them to that measure and degree of rage against a person, who had not only faithfully served his Majesty and the Crown, but from whom they could expect no opposition but what was founded in the authority of our Laws, and promoted in a ParlJamentary-way, and which the King him­self is bound by his Oath as well as the duty and trust reposed in him, to second and give countenance unto. For besides diverse Gentlemen of that temper and character, whom they have destroyed or condemned by and [Page 14] under a Form of Law, but indeed contrary to all the Laws of the Land, and against the worst presidents even in the most absolute and despotical times; there may be several Gentlemen mentioned whom they have cut off without the Form of any Process, meerly because they either thought themselves prejudiced and withstood by them in their designs, or were a­fraid of them by reason of the discovery which they were able to give of their conjurations against the Kingdom, and of the villanies they had com­mitted in subserviency to the establishment of Popery and Tyranny. For not to mention either the Condemnation of that most Honourable Person the Earl of Argyle, nor the Condemnation and Execution of that gallant Gentleman Collonel Sydney, nor the late Barbarity used against their an­cient Servant Sir Thomas Armestrong, all which were directly repugnant to the Laws of the respective Kingdoms, and contrary to all proceedings in other criminal and capital Cases; were not my Lord Lucas, Sir Robert Brook [...], and Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, without being so much as arraigned or accused, murthered by them, only because they either found them oppo­site to their Romish and Arbitrary designs, or knew them capable of re­vealing their hellish Counsels and Actions against the Nation, the establish­ed Government, and the Reformed Religion? What Family in England had done or suffered more for Monarchy, and for his present Majesty as well as his Father, than that of my Lord Lucas, some whereof had sacrifi­ced their Lives, and all lost their Estates and Fortunes, upon the alone score and account of their Loyalty; and yet notwithstanding all this, my late Lord Lucas could no sooner declare his jealousie concerning the entrench­ments which were making upon the Laws of the Land, and with zeal and courage avow his integrity in the Protestant Religion, and his resolution to assert by all legal ways the ancient Rights and Priviledges of England, but the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws, contrived and resolved the death of that worthy Patriot, and found means to poyson him by sub­orned and hired instruments. And for Sir Robert Brooks, tho' he had not been called to that service for the Crown, nor had the misfortune to suffer in that degree for the Monarchy, which the former noble Person had; yet he was never wanting in Loyalty to his Majesty, but always served him with faithfulness in his capacity, and upon all occasions expressed the ut­most readiness to maintain and promote the greatness of the King and ho­nour of the Throne; Nevertheless that worthy Gentleman had no sooner ravelled into the burning of London, and traced that execrable deed to St. James's, which as Chairman of the Committee that was appointed to inspect and search after the Authors of that dreadfull conflagration, he had both [Page 15] occasion and was justified by his place to do; but the Romish Faction who had perpetrated that horrid villany, took up a resolution to cut him off, partly in revenge of his zeal and service to the City and Kingdom in that matter, and partly to discourage others from medling in a point which so neerly touched some of the greatest, as well as to prevent the publication of the researches and discoveries he had made And whereas Sir Robert upon an entertainment of apprehensions and jealousies in himself, as well as upon the warnings and informations he had received from friends, of a design against his Person and Life, did on the Prorogation of the Parlia­ment withdraw the Kingdom to avoid their fury; yet these implacable and blood-thirsty men, who never pardon either those that actually have, or are in a capacity to injure them, hired assassinates to dog and pursue him whithersoever he went, who at last taking him at an advantage drow­ned him in a river where he was about to wash and refresh himself. And for Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, all that are not wilfully and perversely igno­rant, are so fully instructed both of the barbarous murther committed up­on that Gentleman, and from what motives and inducements, and by whose countenance and authority he was assassinated, that I shall not trouble my self or the Reader by enlarging on that villanous fact, which we have hi­therto wanted the courage to make a person at St. James's answer for. Upon the whole, it can be no surprise to thinking and observing persons, to hear that the Earl of Essex was, by the Authority of a great Man, mur­thered and assassinated; seeing it is no more, than what he and our Arbi­trary and Popish Ministers, have practised upon several others, whose opposi­tion, power, wisdom and interest, they did not so dread and apprehend, as they did the zeal, courage, integrity, prudence, and figure as well esteem in the Kingdom, of that truly, great and honourable Peer.

As the Topicks which we have already insisted upon, administer suffici­ent ground to believe that the Earl of Essex did not murther himself, but was villanously assassinated by others; so it is rendred more plain and evi­dent from the Reports which were spread abroad both of his death and the manner of it, before that barbarous Fact was committed, or at least before the Fame of it could reach the places where it was told and related. It hath been always esteemed a rational ground of accusing the Spaniards and Jesuites of the assassination of Henry the Fourth of France; ^* that the news of his death was not only reported in Spain, Millan and Flanders some days if not weeks before the miscreant Ravilliack gave him the fatal stab, but because a Courrier passing through Luxemburgh both related the news [Page 16] of his death a week before he was murdered, and had the impudence to declare that he was carrying the Tidings of it to the Princes of Germany. ^* The Committee of ParlJament that had the examination of the burning of London, Anno 1666. judged it no small evidence that the City was burnt on design, and through the treachery of the Papists, that the news of it had not only been reported in diverse parts of England before that fatal con­flagration fell out, but written from beyond sea as the discourse which the Ie [...]s entertained their favourites and privado's with. Nay it was both one of the first means of discovering by whose contrivance Sir Edmundbury God­frey had been murder'd, and was also urged, and allowed upon my Lord Stafford's Trial as a proof of the Papists being guilty of that assassination, that the news of Sir Edmund's being killed was related sixty or seventie mile off in the Countrey before it was known at London what was become of him. Nor indeed can it be imagined how matters of Fact, should come to be told, before they are acted or committed, but by granting that such things were resolved upon and designed, and that they came to be vented and talk'd off by reason of the blabbing humour either of some Persons accesso­ry to the contrivance, or entrusted with the knowledge of what had been agreed unto and determined in more secret Cabal's. So that we may ra­tionally hope, the ingenuous part of mankind will esteem themselves much enlightned in reference to the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, and enabled to conclude who were the contrivers and perpetrators of the villanous assassination of that renowned person, if we represent unto them, with all the distinctness we can, the reports which went of it, both in Ci­ty and Countrey before the Commission of the abominable Fact, or at least before the tidings could reach the places where it was spoken and discoursed. Nor will it be unfit to begin with that which a Woman of Quality hath re­lated to diverse persons, and which she is ready to swear in the presence of any Magistrate when called thereunto, namely that being the day before the Earl of Essex's death bestowing a visit upon some of her acquaintance, and there happening in that conversation a discourse concerning that unfor­tunate Gentleman Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, who because of the intelli­gence he had received from [...]olimun, as well as the Deposition made before him by Dr. Oat [...], about the Popish Conspiracy against the King and the Go­vernment, was barbarously murdered Anno 1678. a Gentleman then in company took the freedom and boldness to say that there would appear on the [...]norrow another S. Edmundbury Godfrey. This though the Lady could not at that time fathom and comprehend, yet being surprised with the expres­sion, [Page 17] she related it to her Sister, that evening when she came home. And upon hearing the next day that the Earl of Essex was murdered, and how it was reported. That he should have cut his own Throat; the poor Lady, thô strangely alarmed with the News, could not but immediately make this re­flexion, That what she had look't upon overnight as a Parable and Mystery, was then deciphered and unriddled, and that the Earl must needs have come to that untimely end, by the Treachery and Villany of others. To this we shall subjoin what Mrs. Mewx, a Gentlewoman, who also lives in London, was ready to Depose upon Oath, relating to a previous report of this nature, at Mr. Braddon's Trial. For being on Thursday the 12th. of July (which was the day before my Lord of Essex death) travelling with her Daughter in a Coach from the City down to Berkshire; she is ready to swear that her Daughter then told her how she had heard it reported, That one of the Lords committed for the late Plot had cut his Throat in the Tower. Which fully evidenceth, That there was a discourse not only of his death, but the manner of it, antecedently to his Fatal and Tragical end. But the Daughter being with Child, and near her time, and therefore not daring to venture abroad, much less into the Court at Mr. Braddon's Trial; my Lord Chief Justice would not suffer the Mother (thô she was there and sworn) to be examined, alledging, That because she could not Depose on her own know­ledge, but only on the report of her Daughter, it was no evidence, and therefore against all judicial forms to admit it. But as Mr. Wallop well re­plied, ^* It was evidence there was such a talk, previous to my Lord of Essex's death, so I may add, That by consequence he did not murder himself, but was assassinated by others. Nor was it only in and about the Town that my Lord of Essex was reported to have cut his Throat, at least a day if not more before he came to his untimely end; but the same was discoursed of at a con­siderable distance in the Country, and related after the same manner and with the same circumstances For one Mr. Fielder, a Shopkeeper, in Andover, a Town removed from London above fifty Miles; positively swears that it was talk't there the 11th. and 12th. of July, That the Ea [...]l of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower, whereas he was not killed till the 13th. nor could the news arrive so far in the ordinary way of conveying Intelligence before the 14th. And the said Mr. Fielder further avers, That this was to commonly di­scoursed of, from Wednesday night till Friday noon, that he fully expected the confirmation of it by the Post-Letters, which were to arrive that day. But finding no mention in those Letters of any such thing, tho they all agreed in the relation of the Earl of Essex's commitment to the Tower, he concluded [Page 18] there could be no truth in the report, but withal wondred how such a thing came to be talk'd of. And therefore when the certain news of my Lord's death was brought to Andover about Saturday noon, by some Cloathiers that came out of London on Friday at twelve of the Clock, he could not but be a­mased at the report which had been current among them two days before. But my Lord Chief Justice was pleased to ridicule all this when it was deposed at Mr. Braddon's Trial, ^* as a contrivance to deceive the King's Subjects, and to set us together by the ears, stiling it stuff, rak'd out of Dunghills, and pick'd up on purpose to kindle a fire, and set us all into a flame. But can his Lordship think that his blustering, his impudence, and the huffing the World with foaming wrathful speeches, are enough to take off the positive testimony of an honest and credible person, and who had spoken of this report long before he thought any improvement would be made of it? Nor is it sufficient to blast the reputation of the Man, or detract from the Truth of what he swore, that he could not particularly name the persons that had reported it; because as he never expected to be called into question about it, so he had no occa­sion to recollect it, till he was served with a sub poena to appear at Mr. Brad­don's Trial, which was above five Months after the time of the said talk and discourse. And besides how many things are there, which a publick Skopkeeper, as this person is, may hear his Customers speak of, which he would be nonplust to give an account of the Authors of at a weeks end? Nay by how much a Report is common, (as he says this was at Andover) by so much are we apt to neglect by whom it hath been particularly related. And the more our understandings are struck with the horror of a matter de­clared to us, the less do we advert by whom it is spoken, and the more un­prepared are our memories to treasure up the names of the reporters. Nor was it at Andover only, that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat, the day before he was killed; but the same story and cloathed with the same circumstances, was discoursed of before his death in divers other places. For I am not only credibly informed, That the Earl of Essex's having cut his Throat, was reported on Thursday, being the day before his death, at Warmister in Wiltshire, which is distant from London about eighty Miles; but there is one Thomas Cox, who lives near Bruningham, that did positively declare, That the same was told him in that Town the 12th. of July, whereas my Lord was not killed in the Tower till the 13. And besides all this to evi­dence a Report of that Noble Person's being Murthered, previous to the com­mission of the [...] there are two Informations more delivered upon Oath Mr. Braddon's Trial, [...] [...]miah Burg [...]s, that lives at Marlborrough, [Page 19] who swears that he heard it at Frome, a place 90. Miles from London, the very day that the Earl of Essex died; and another by one Lewes that lives at Marleborrough, who deposeth, That being riding on the Road within three or four Miles of Andover, on Friday in the Afternoon, the same day that the Earl of Essex was murdered, he was told by a person, whom he fell in with on the way, That the said Earl had cut his Throat in the Tower. And not­withstanding all the affronts and discouragements put upon those two Wit­nesses whilest they were giving their Testimony, and notwithstanding all the scorn and contempt wherewith ^* Sir George Jeffery's endeavoured to ex­pose and ridicule what they Deposed; yet I dare venture their Informations upon the Faith of all indifferent and ingenuous Men, whether they do not abundantly prove that there was such a Report spread abroad antece­dently to my Lord of Essex's death, or at least before the tidings of it could reach so far, as that he had cut his Throat in the Tower. Only I shall crave liberty to make two or three reflexions on these Depositions, and they shall not only be natural and easie, and far from being wrested and exported out of what was said, but they shall be such as must necessarily beget and strengthen a belief that my Lord of Essex did not murder himself, but was through the contrivance and malice of others barbarously assassinated by the hands of Russians and execrable Villains. And the first is, That it ought to be reckoned as a wonder, and ascribed only to the over-ruling Providence of God, that will not suffer a Crime so hateful to Heaven, and so ruinous to Hu­mane Society, to fall out without leaving some prints and footsteps by which it may be traced and detected, that a Crime so enormous in it self, so provoking and exasperating to Mankind, and which the Authors of, and Actors in, would be loth to bear the ignominy, and undergo the punish­ment, that so horrid a guilt subjects them unto, should be communicated to so many and so commonly talkt of before the Fact. But by how much Re­venge is one of the sweetest passions, and most grateful to depraved nature, by so much hath it a power and vertue in it, to cause Men to open and unbo­some themselves, from the satisfaction which it yields, and the delightful gust that it affords them. And thô the Papists were at that time exceeding­ly transported with joy, partly through their having shamm'd a Plot upon the Protestants which they supposed would extinguish the remembrance of their own, and partly from the hopes they had, of appeasing the Ghosts of their Tyburn Martyrs, with the Blood of English Hereticks; yet they could not but be uneasie in their minds, to think that the Earl of Essex, whom they so peculiarly hated, and whose ability to unma [...]k their de­signs, [Page 20] as well as interest in the Nation and resentment for being committed, they so much apprehended and feared, should be able to escape their hands, through want of evidence against him, which made it needful for the heads of the Romish Faction, to let their little clamours and talkative votaries know, how they had resolved to use and employ force and violence for the destruction of that so much dreaded Enemy, whom mercenary Judges and suborned and pick [...]t Juries would not serve to cut off in the way of Legal and judicial Forms. Nor is it improbable but that the Contrivers of this No­ble Man's death, might have resolved the execution and commission of the Fact sooner, and that the reason of adjourning it, was to adjust it to the sea­son of my Lord Russels's Trial, thereby to make the murder of the one sub­servient and useful to the death of the other; but that those acquainted with the first Resolution, had from a forwardness of obliging their friends, too hastily given them intelligence of the thing as already done, when it was not as yet perpetrated, nor committed, by reason of the later Resolution. The second observation I would make upon the forementioned reports, is, That tho' they were vented by several persons, yet they not only agreed in the matter of the Earl of Essex's death, but they accorded also in the way and manner of it namely, that he had cut his Throat. Which plainly shows that it was not vulgar Tattle vented at random, but that it had its foundati­on in a previous and fixed resolution that he should undergo that unhappy fate. Nothing but a steddy and determinate cause, can produce a steddy and determinate effect. Had the report taken its rise in the jealousies of his friends, or owed its birth to the fearful apprehensions of the common people; they would have rather dream'd of his being poyson'd, as being more safe for the Actors to perpetrate, and requiring the accession of sewer hands, than have ever imagined that his throat should be cut. It is impossible to con­ceive that the Reports of so many several persons, should not only agree in the matter of his death, but all harmonise and center in the very circum­stance of the manner of it; unless it had originally proceeded from such as had contrived and determined both the murder it self, and the way wherein it should be committed. For when reports have their foundation only in mens fancies, they will always vary according to the different tempers, passions and complexions of the Reporters. The third deduction which I would infer from the premised Reports, is, That they could not be fictions and forgeries of Lyers and People Romantickly disposed. For how could so many persons, and at such distances from one another, and betwixt whom there was never any correspondence, agree and combine together to impose upon the World and to abuse the Faith of Mankind? And as they all seem [Page 21] to be persons who abhor tricks, and who would not be guilty of spread­ing, much less of raising a false Report? so it is beyond the wit of man to declare, how it should come to be the interest of Gentlewomen, and Country Tradesmen to be the Authors of such a Story that my Lord of Essex had cut his throat before it was done. And for any to imagine that the Fanaticks were the framers of it, is to represent them not only wicked but foolish, and to suppose they would disserve themselves, as well as slander and reproach their noblest and best friend.

And what clearer evidence, or greater confirmation can there be, of the Earl of Essex's not having been Felo de se, but treacherously murdered by others, and that they who were the Authorisers of that horrid assassination, are persons of great power and interest at Court; than that there have been Letters sent and proposals made to some noble Lords near the King, that his Majesty will but grant a pardon to two or three men who shall be named when that grace is indulged, and that then the whole intrigue and mysterie of that hellish contrivance shall be discovered, and the contrivers as well as perpetrators of it particularly detected, with a full account of all the cir­cumstances of its execution. 'Tis true I dare not affirm, that those Letters have been shown to his Majesty, or any intercession used with him in pur­suance of that overture and proposal; but this I may justly say, that if they have neglected it, they must needs either know or suspect, that there are persons of too great power as well as quality interested and concerned in that execrable villany. For we can suppose no other motive, upon which men of honour would decline a service so acceptable to God, and whereby they might avert wrath not only from the Throne and Kingdom, but from their own persons and families, through bringing enormous offenders and exe­crable assassinates to punishment. But alass! that apprehension they are un­der, of deriving trouble and destruction upon themselves, instead of being able to expose the Malefactors to justice, frightens them from the discharge of that duty which they owe both to God and Men. The having heard what a Great Man should say in reference to Mr. Braddon, namely, that he was ravelling into such a business, but that he was resolved to ruine him if all the Law of England would do it; makes every man affraid as well as sensible what he may encounter if he have the boldness to interest himself in this affair. O degenerate off spring of brave and heroick ancestors! were it not much more eligible to run hazard by acquitting your selves as persons of honour in discharge of your duty, than to seek for safety by involving your persons and posterity under the guilt of that abominable and villanous Fact. And besides, can they otherwise hope, than that through conniving at so hor­rid [Page 22] a murder committed upon another person, and one who was of a rank and condition equal to themselves, they shall at last undergo the same or the like fate, whensoever they have the unhappiness and misfortune to fall under the wrath of a certain Gentleman at St. James's. But over and above the two Letters that were sent to noble persons very near the King to be communicated to his Majesty, there was another Letter addressed to the Countess of Essex, and in order to the being conveyed to her Ladyship, directed to be left with one Mr. Cadman a Bookseller in the New Exchange in the Strand; the Tenor whereof was, that if her Honour would prevail with the King for a pardon, to one that would discover how my Lord came by his death, or obtain of his Majesty a proclamation, assuring forgiveness to any who should come in and detect by whom and after what manner my Lord was murder'd, that upon either of those securities, the way of the Earl of Essex's assassination, should be revealed, and laid open with all its circumstances. This Letter was in August last brought by a young woman to Mr. Cadman's Shop, who finding him sleeping on the inside of his Counter, told him that she had brought him a Letter directed to my Lady Essex concerning my Lords death, which she desired he would read, being to that end left open and unsealed. But Cadman being drowsie and still inclined to sleep, instead of taking notice what she said, thrust her from the Counter as an officious and troublesome person, and commanded her to goabout her business. Yet having after his being throughly awake both perused the Letter, and considered the importance and consequence of it, he judged himself in pru­dence obliged to carry it to a Magistrate, which accordingly he did to one Hinton a Justice of Peace in Covent Garden, who as I have been credibly informed went with it to one of the Secretaries of State. This Letter as is most justly conceived was written by Bomeny; forasmuch as he not only seemed about that time to be under some Remorse in reference to the death of my Lord, but because some of Bomeny's handwriting being shewed to Mr. Cadman, it appeared to him according to the best of his remembrance and judgment, to be the same hand, or at least very much like unto that which the letter was written in. This much is plainly evident that it must have been written by one that was willing to be known, seeing it was both sent open and by a person that was able to declare of whom she had received it. For had the writing of this Letter been only a contrivance to avert the infamy of my Lord's death from himself, and deliver those Gentlemen ac­cused for the Plot, from the consequences unto which the Earls imagined murdering himself was improved against them; it would never have been left unsealed for Mr. Cadman to read, nor seat by a person that was ac­quainted [Page 23] with the contents of it, as it plainly appears the bearer was; but would both have been sealed, to prevent Cadman's looking into it, and con­veyed by a porter or some such hand, that would have been less lyable to be questioned either about the contents or the Author of it. Nor does any thing more amaze and astonish thinking people, than that notwithstanding the many Reports, as well as Universal jealousies, of my Lord of Essex being murder'd in the Tower. yet all this time his Majesty hath not published one word to encourage an inquisition into the manner of his death, or to secure a pardon to such as shall be able to discover whether he was assassinated, and by whom and after what manner he was brought to an untimely End. For considering the obligations which the King and the Royal Family lay un­der to the late Earl of Essex, as well as to his Father my Lord Capel, and considering the many aspersions thrown upon the Court in relation to the death of the said Earl; it hath been expected that his Majesty as well in ju­stice to the Family of the Capels, as in vindication of his own honour from the infamy of having a person of my Lord Essex's merit and figure assassi­nated in his Majesties prison and Palace, would have issued out a proclama­tion ascertaining forgiveness to any that should be able to prove his being murdered by others, and that he did not destroy himself as some people have been industrious to give out. And that which encreaseth the surprise and won­der, is the consideration of the forwardness which the King hath expressed in some other cases, for the detection of murders of this nature. For besides the tender of a pardon, there was the promise of 500. l. to any who should discover the murder of Sr. Edmondbury Godfrey and reveal the miscreants by whom he was assassinated. And I would be loth to think, that his Ma­jesties proceeding so differently in that case, from what he hath done in this, was rather to be ascribed to his apprehensions of a ParlJament which was then in Being, than to his love of justice or the desire of delivering the Nation from the guilt of innocent blood. But I am willing to believe that the reason why the King doth not encourage the discovery of this late mur­der of my L. of Essex, ariseth from the fear he is in of the persons that were accessory to it. For in case he would authorise the detection of the Assassinates of this Noble Earl, he will find himself obliged, not only to bring the Earl of S.—and my Lord F.—but his Royal and dearly beloved Brother I—D.—of Y.—to punishment. And who knows but that he dreads left in calling these Gentlemen to account for cutting the E. of Essex's throat, He too much hazard and expose his own? Nor is it at all surprizing, that the King who had not courage to resent the poysoning his own Sister by her husband the Duke of Orleans, at a juncture when He might have made France feel the effects of his justice and displeasure; should not have the [Page 24] boldness to question his Brother and other principal persons of the Popish Fa­ction for the assassination of Essex, especially at a time that he hath dive­sted himself of all power to hurt them, and by seeming offended may only stir up their wrath against himself. For I remember, that when the late Sr. Thomas Armstrong had come post from Paris, to give his Majesty an account how Orleans had poisoned the Princess Henrietta, that he only re­plyed, Orleans is a Rascal, but pray thee Tom do not speak of what he hath done. Yet that his Majesty may not excuse himself hereafter from causing further inquisition to be made after my Lord of Essex's death by saying he never heard otherwise but that he murder'd himself, I do therefore tell his Majesty, and publish to all the World, that if he will grant an indemnity and protection to three or four persons, we shall fully and evidently prove a Great Man, the Earl of S.—my Lord F.—&c. to have been the contrivers and Authorisers of it, and shall name the Ruffians in particular, who were employed to perpetrate the hellish and execrable Fact, with an account of the several sums of money which they had for the execution of it. Nor ought his Majesty to be displeased, that I arraign his Brother and principal Ministers of so enormous and bloody a crime; for as I write nothing but what I can fully justify, so I take the boldness further to tell both him and them, that if ever there come a ParlJament in England, this matter shall be laid fully open, and justice demanded against these im­pudent and enormous Offenders.

And as if it were not enough to evidence the E. of Essex did not murder himself, but was barbarously assassinated by others, that no encouragement hath been given for the discovery of the Authors of that villanous Fact, notwithstanding all the rumours and Reports which have run to and fro, both of the Manner of his death and the Actors in it; it receives both a further and a very convincing accession of proof from this, that all means have been used to deterr men from enquiring into that matter, and to prevent their detecting what they may know of it. The passages to this purpose would fill a volume meerly to relate them, and therefore I shall confine my self to two particu­lars, which I shall endeavour to deduce and represent, with all the brevity as well as clearness I can. Nor can it in the first place, but astonish the world, to find the Judges, with whom the administration of law and justice between the King and his people is trusted, I say to find them, contrary both to the nature and End of their office, and the Oaths they have taken of acting im­partially, to brand the medling in the matter of the E. of Essex's death, as a Reflection upon his Majesty, an Affront to the Government, and a de­sign to involve and embroil the Nation in trouble. For not only the Attor­ney General stigmatiseth the report and belief of the Earl's being murdered [Page 25] by villanous hands, as ^* the throwing that ill thing upon the Government which he had committed upon himself, but my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies is pleased to stile it a libelling of it, and to have been forged in order to beget heart burnings and jealousies in the Kings Subjects against the Government, and to raise Sedition. Whereas the Government would never have been charged with this horrid Guilt, tho some at the head of affairs might possibly have been accused of it, had not these Gown-men involved the Government under the infamy and aspersion of it, and done all they can to teach others to lay the barbarous Fact at that Door. For as it is not the first time, that a Prisoner hath been murdered in the Tower, so it was never till now called a Refle­ction on the Government, to endeavour to prove that such or such a person was destroyed by [...]iol [...]nt and bloody hands, even of whose death the Coroners Inquest had upon their inquisition given an other verdict. Nay when the chief Favourites of our Princes and first Ministers of State, have been accused as guilty of murdering a Gentleman imprisoned in the Tower, whom the Coroners Jury had on their Inquisition declared to have died a natural death; yet it was not thought to be an impeachment of the Government, or a de­volving the guilt of that bloody crime upon the King. Of this we have a fa­mous instance in Sr. Thomas Overbury, who being committed Prisoner to the Tower in the Reign of King James, and there poisoned by the contrivance and instigation of the Earl of Sommerset, &c. (that was then chief Minister as well as principal Favourite) was brought in by the Coroners inquisition to have died a natural death. And yet it was thought no dishonour to the Government, to have the death of that Gentleman afterwards enquired in­to, and to find it proved contrary to the Coroners Inquisition, that instead of dying a natural death, he was basely and treacherously murdered by Vil­lanous hands, through the accession and contrivance of him whom he had faithfully served, and with the consent of those to whose care, trust and cu­stody he was committed. Nay, was it not a great Vindication of the honor of the Government, and an eminent Declaration of the Justice of the Na­tion, to have the Lieutenant of the Tower, and four or five meaner persons executed, and the Earl of Sommerset and his Countess convicted and condem­ned for that bloody and barbarous Fact, which the Coroners Inquest had ac­quitted and absolved all the world from the suspition as well as the guilt of? And what an injury will the Judges of the Kings Bench, and his Majesties Councel at Law, be found to have done the King and the Government, by their foolish as well as wicked expressions, if at any time hereafter it come to be proved (as certainly it will) that the Earl of Essex did not murder him­self, [Page 26] but was assassinated by a company of hired Russians. We should be loath in that case to claim the right of their way of Argumentation, and to inferr that because my Lord of Essex was murdered in the Tower, and at a time ^* when the King was walking there, that therefore not only the Govern­ment ought to be charged with it, but that the King himself had a hand in, and had designed it. Tho I must say that according to their method of reasoning, it will be impossible in that case to avoid such a deduction. However it is a convincing proof, that the ignominy and guilt of this Noblemans death, ought to be ascribed to others than himself, that the Judges and the men of the long Robe, can find no other way to stifle the suspition, and silence the clamor of the People, but by interposing the Government as a Skreen to shelter Malefactors from Accusation, and abusing the Authority of the Kingdom, to deter men from the duty which they owe to God and his Majesty in discovering so execrable a murder. Nor is this the only way and method they have taken to frighten and discourage Persons from discour­sing of the Earl of Essex's being destroy'd by others, without any accession or contribution of his own to his death, but they have laid their commands and injunctions upon such as they have power and authority over, and whom they thought conscious either to the manner of that Noble Peers fatal End, or capable of detecting any circumstances which might let in light upon that affair. And therefore knowing that the Soldiers who were upon Duty in the Tower, that morning when the Earl of Essex was killed, had not only taken notice of several Persons, and made Observation of diverse things, from which both the murder of that vertuous Lord might be in­ferred and concluded as well as by whose hands it was perpetrated, but that divers of them had talkt too freely and lavishly of it abroad as well as among themselves; accordingly on the Saturday morning (being that which imme­diately succeeded to the day of the Earls death) did a Military Officer after They and other Soldiers were called together, charge them with the highest threats and menaces, that they should not dare to speak of what they had seen or heard the day before, adding that whosoever should be known to divulge what had passed in the Tower on the Friday in the forenoon should severely suffer for it. This divers of the Soldiers have confessed and related to their friends, who are willing to testifie it when occasion serves. And among others, one Robert Meak (of whom I shall afterwards have occasion to say somewhat more) declared the whole of this passage to two men that are ready to swear it, whensoever their Depositions may be of advantage to the publick, and can be made without exposing themselves to ruin. It will not be [Page 27] denied by rational men, but that the Souldiers who were then upon Duty in the Tower, had advantages of knowing more in reference to the Earl of Essex death, than most other persons can pretend unto; seeing that as some were so posted as both to see all that went into his Lodgings, and to hear the noise and bustle which was made in his Chamber upon his resistance, and the force and violence which the miscreants used towards him; so others were placed in that manner, as to observe whence and from whom they came, and whither and to whom they returned, that were employed to commit the Hellish and Tragical deed. Nor can any suspect, that men who march under the Ensigns of his Majesty, should forge a story so much tend­ing to the dishonor of a great man, and the Kings Ministers, and so likely to displease persons that had power to cashier, and otherwise punish them as this of my Lord Essex not cutting his own Throat, but being Assassinated by others, was adapted unto, and would infallibly do. Yea, I do affirm with all the Sacredness which becomes a Man and a Christian in a matter of this weight and importance, that this is no Calumny imposed on the Souldiers and their Commander, in order to traduce the Government, and enflame the Kingdom. but that whatsoever is here affirmed, is built upon the greatest moral certainty, that an Affair of this nature is capable of. And all I do desire in order to the justifying what I have now related and declared, is only that his Majesty would cause order a writ of Revieu, or melius Inqui­rendum, to be issued out, with an assurance of pardon to such as shall be willing to come in and be able to testifie by whom and after what manner this Noble Lord was Assassinated and Murdered. Nor can his Majesties Mini­sters escape this Dilemma, either of lying under the infamy of being con­scious of, and accessary unto the assassination of that Honorable person, or of being obliged to obtain a Revieu of this matter, with a promise of indem­nity to those who shall appear witnesses and be able to give evidence in the case. And I shall take the liberty further to say, that it is not only the du­ty, but the interest of those very Ministers who may not be directly concern­ed in the Guilt of my Lord of Essex blood, to promote and second this over­ture and proposal, and that not only for the Honor of the Government, but for their own Vindication from being accessary to so enormous and detestable a Crime. For the time may possibly come, that their meer connivance at the concealment of this murder, may rise in judgment against them, and render them more lyable to punishment, than they seem at present to ap­prehend. Our Laws which expressly requires the least Officers in the Com­mon-wealth, to pursue Robbers, Fellons, and Murderers with Hue and Cry, or otherwise makes them obnoxious to penalties; never intended that privy [Page 28] [...] who [...] by the duty of their place are to watch and advise for the [...] and [...] of the Subject, as well as the preservation, and honer of the King, should be esteemed Innocent and not be liable to any punish­ment by Law, tho they be found to connive at the destruction of his Me­ [...] people, and at the involving his Person and Government, under an in­de [...]ble reproach and infamy. And therefore tho it cannot be supposed that those of his Majesties Ministers, who are directly criminal, by contriv­ing and c [...]mmanding this Murder, should countenance or encourage an in­quiry into and a detection of it; yet it may not only be exspected, but ought to be claimed of the Marquis of Hallisax, the Earl of Radnar, my Lord Fal­ [...]ridg, and some others, who have still the priviledge of being in the pub­lick manage of Affairs, and admitted to sit in his Majesties Councel, that they would not both to their own danger and dishonor, as well as the prejudice of the King in his reputation and safety, continue to connive at this Excra­ble and Barbarous Murder, but that they would apply themselves, as be­comes the duty of their places and the regard they ought to have for their own honor, to obtain of his Majesty what is here desired, in order to the detection of the assa [...]ination of my Lord Essex, and the bringing the Male­ [...]actors to undergo that severity which the Justice of the Law subjects them unto.

But as if the precedeing T [...]pick did not administer sufficient Evidence, that the E. of Essex was assassinated by others, howsoever his memory comes to be branded for cutting his own Throat; there is a further proof ariseth in confirmation of it from this, that they have not only discouraged and frigh­ted such as might be willing to lay open the whole Mystery of that divelish work of darkness; but they have beyond all law and president, persecuted and [...]ppressed those, who were either found inclined to inquire into the man­ner of that honorable persons death, or to have vented what they had heard which might give suspition of his being brought to his End, by the treache­ [...] villa [...]y of bloody misereants. Nor shall I here enlarge on the pro­ceedings against old Mr. Edwards the Custom-house Officer, who besides his [...]ing shamefully upbraided and standered by my Lord Chief Justice at the Trial of Mr. Bradden, was afterwards turned out of his place where he had served for 39 years, and for no other crime but affiring his Boy had said he saw [...]a bl [...] Raz [...] thrown [...]ut of [...]he E. of E [...]ex 's Window immediately before the [...] of [...]s Death. But that which I shall more largely insist up­on, is the course and method that hath been [...]red towards ^* Mr. Brad­don himself, which as it is without all president, so it hath been extrava­gant and arbitrary in the highest degree. All who understand any thing of [Page 29] the Law of England, know that in all Cases and Indictments of Murder, except upon Appeals, the Charge and Accusation not only runs in the Kings Name, but he is according to, and in the sense of the Law, the proper Plan­tiff. And there is this reason for it, because as others through the death of the person destroy'd, may have lost a Relation, Acquaintance, or Friend, so the King alway's loseth a Subject from whom he was to have Allegiance and Service, and whom by vertue of his Office he was trusted with the care and protection of, and in the Sense and esteem of the Law made responsible for. It was upon this account that the Conspirators against the life, and Authorisers of the Assassination of this late Peer, and to prevent the advantage and benefit, which Mr. Braddon would have had in bringing an Indi [...]ment of Felony and Murder against B [...]meny and others, took the start of him and cau­sed an Information to be preferred against him, of subornation and spreading false Reports, whereby to bring the Government of the King into hatred, dis­grace and contempt. And by this means they did not only obstruct, the Kings ^* being made Plantif and party against the murderers, which he must have been in case way had been given to Mr. Braddons getting any of them Indicted, but they commence an Action against that poor Gentle­man, wherein they make the King party and Plantiff against him, and in effect no less than Advocate und Voucher, for the Innocency of those that were to have been Indicted for a most execrable and barbarous Assassination. Which as it was a most divelish Artifice, for the oppressing an honest Gen­tleman, who had done nothing, but what he was bound unto, in Consci­ence to God, and duty to his Majesty; so it was a most villanous and enor­mous crime against the King through making him to be the Skree [...] and Patron of those, of whom he should have been the prosecutor and pu [...]isher, and at the same time to be the pursuer and ruiner of a w [...]rthy person, whom he was bound to have countenanced, encouraged, and protected. It would fill a whole Volumn to relate the severities which Mr. Bradden hath encoun­tred; and upon no other score, but because he was willing in order, to de­livering the Throne and Kingdom from the Guilt of Innocent Blood, to ga­ther up such Informations as might have served to convince the King of the murder committed upon the E. of Essex while he was in a special man­ner under the protection of his Majesty and the Law, being not only a Pri­soner, but standing committed to the T [...]wer of London, where-with re­spect to the quality of the place, Captives ought to be supposed more safe from violence than in other Prisons. But as it is not yet a season to present the world with a History of the Sufferings of this Honest and Ingenious Gentleman; so it were but to en-tangle and perplex the affair I am upon, to [Page 30] interweave it with a large narrative of another mans troubles, tho they all sp [...]ng from his being concerned in enquiring and discovering, how and by what hands and means this noble Man was brought to so fatal and untimely an End. I shall therefore only briefly intimate some few things, which may serve to enlighten and confirm the T [...]pick and Head which I am now disco [...]ing from. And whatsoever proves the ill treatment of those, who keeping themselves within the bonds of loyalty and modesty have ende­voured to detect the Assassination of that honorable person, does by conse­quence demonstrate that he was not Felo de se, but that he was Murdered by the malice and violence of other men. The first unexpected enter­tainment which this Gentlemen Mr. Braddon met with, was his being taken into Custody, and carried before the Council, on his having gone to White-hall to wait upon my Lord S. in order to inform his Lordship what a certain Boy (whom he took thither along with him) had reported concerning a Razor, which he saw thrown out of the Earl of Essex Win­dow, immediately before the noise and report of his Death And not to mention what other Treatment he met with there, which some of the Honorable Menbers of that Board themselves, have declared to have been very unbecoming his Majesties presence, and no way's agreeable to the gravity, wisdom and honor of such an assembly, he was required to give 2000 l. Bail to answer an Information, for having suborned the Boy; a thing very unsuitable to the service he had been performing for the Honor of his Majesty and the Government, and very surprising to all indifferent persons that heard of it. And tho this poor Gentleman was discharged at that time and, restored to his liberty, upon giving the forementioned 2000 l. Bail, to answer the said Information; yet his troubles did not end and terminate here; but this was rather only a commencement and beginning of the hardships and oppressions which he was to meet with, for having had the honesty and courage to appear in a business, which so neerly affected a great man, and so many of his Majesties principal Ministers of State. For though they had laid him under a necessity of making all the provisions he could, for Vindicating himself from being the Author and Forger of that Report, concerning a Razor's being thrown out of the E. of Essex window just be­fore the cry and noise of his death, being that which gave the suspition of my Lords being murdered by violent, treacherous and bloody hands, and that he did not destroy himself, as was endeavoured to be obtruded and imposed upon his Memory and the Faith of the Nation; yet Mr. Braddon was no sooner gone into the Country to enquire into the truth of an other Story, which very much strengthened and confirmed the suspition and jealousie that my [Page 31] Lord was not Felo de Se; but this poor Gentleman fell into new troubles, and found persecution and oppression awaiting him whithersoever he went. For having received intelligence from a friend, that on the very day on which the Earl died, it was reported at Marleborough, that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower; he judged it very useful and subservient both to the acquitting himself from the Slander of being the first Author of the Report that my Lord was murdered by others, and also to the eviden­cing and clearing up that he really was so, to search into the truth of that Information which his Friend had given him, and to learn out the persons to whom that News had been told, and know if possible the names of those who had related it. But while he was going in the search and pursuit of this, which his being obliged under the Penalty of 2000 l. to answer an Information of Subornation, had made an act of Justice to himself as well as a duty of God and his Country, behold the poor Gentleman was appre­hended and committed to Fisherton Goal in Wil [...]shire, by a Warrant the most illegal for the Form as well as the Matter that ever any man was sent to Prison upon. For what could be more extravagant and illegal than to seise and commit a Gentleman travelleng peaceably on the road, without an Oath or deposition of any witness against him, meerly upon a groundless and na­ked suspition of being a dangerous and ill affected man to the Government, and for having two Informations about him, relating to a Razors being thrown out of my Lord Essex VVindow before the news of his death was di­vulged, and for carrying two Letters, whereof the contents of one he knew not, and the contents of the other could administer no just offence. But the Form of the VVarrant was more extravagant, arbitrary, and illegal than the matter, carrying in express words this order and command to the Goa­ler, namely, That he should Lawrence Braddon safely keep, till he should receive further Order from the King and Privy Councel. Which VVarrant had the Goaler been as mad and foolish to obey, as the officious and doating Justice was to write, the poor Gentleman for any foundation of relief that was left him in the Mittimus, might have lain in Prison all the days of his life, unless the King and Councel should have ordered his Release and Discharge. But Mr. Braddon knowing both his own Integrity as to the Busi­ness he was going upon, and his Innocency as to any crime the malice of his Enemies could charge him with, sued out a habeas corpus to be brought to London before some of the Judges, in order to be Bailed. But alass! being arrived there, none of the Judges of either Bench, nor Barons of the Exchec­quer were in Town, so that he was necessitated to desire the Goaler to carry him before my Lord K. which the Goaler having accordingly done, his [Page 32] Lordship instead of admitting the Prisoner immediately into his presence, and allowing him the benefit of the Statute, was pleased to adjourn the seeing him till the next day, with a command that he should be then brought to the Councel Chamber at Whitehall. Whither being in obedience to the said Order carried, he was after an hours waiting called in before my Lord, and sound together with him my Lord Priey Seal, my Lord Duke of Or­mond, and Mr. Secretary Jenkins. It would be both to enlarge these Papers beyond the bounds allowed to them, and to depart too far from the essen­tial part of the subject I am upon, to relate the whole entertainment, which I have been told Mr. Braddon did there meet with. Only it may not be amiss, to reminde my Lord K. of a Verse that he quoted out of Juvenal, and to subjoin the Translation of it into English, as a certain author hath rendred it. For having upbraided the poor Gentleman as one that had a design to raise and advance himself by sinistrous courses (which God knows the endeavouring to detect the Earl of Essex Murder, was not as the present posture of Affairs stands, a very likely method unto) he quoted that of the Poet to give an edg to his Irony and Sarcasm:

But his bitter and contemptuous Language, with all his other ungentile as well as illegal Treatment, might have easily been dispensed with; had not his Lordship refused him the benefit of the Statute of being admitted to be Bayled, unless he would procure Sureties who together with himself might stand bound in 12000 l. for appearance. A thing so exorbitant, con­sidering the quality of the Prisoner, as well as unjust considering the na­ture of that which they stiled his offence, that he had both acted unwise­ly should he have engaged himself and Friends in Bonds so much above what he was able to discharge, and injuriously to others should he have con­descended to so illegal a demand, and which might afterwards be improved into a president. Whereupon finding after diverse Applications, that this Lordship was not to be wrought to a mitigation of the 12000 l, and that he would not be prevailed on to take the 6000 l. Bail, which was offered; the Gentleman rather than be remitted again to Prison in the Countrey, was forced to comply to stand committed to the Messenger, Mr. Atterburys, where he continued for five Weeks at the charges and rate of 4 l. 1 s, 8 d. [Page 33] per week. During which time he applied himself by way of petition to his Majesty in Council, but alas without that success which he hoped for, which most Men are apt to aseribe to the King's being prepossessed by my Lord K. concerning his case, so that despairing both of all Justice from my Lord K. and of all Favour from the Council Board, and groaning as well un­der a close Confinement, as the excessive charges he was at in the Messenger's House; he judged it the best method he could take, to endeavour the get­ing himself turned over to the Kings Bench Prison in Southwark, reckoning that he should not only live there at a more moderate Expence (which the Narrowness of his Fortune obliged him to consult) than was extorted from him at Mr. Atterburies, but likewise expecting, that upon giving Security for his true Imprisonment, he should have the Liberty of the Rules, and thereby enjoy a more open and free Air, than he did in the place where he was before. But as it was with some Difficulty and after earnest Applica­tion, as well to my Lord K. as to my Lord Chief Justice, and the Attorney General, that this small Kindness was obtained; so after his removal to the Kings Bench by vertue of a Habeas Corpus from my Lord Chief Justice, and after his having given 10000 l. Security for his faithful and true Imprison­ment, yet he was by an order from my Lord Chief Justice to the Marshal of the said Prison for his close Consinement, denied the Freedom of the Rules, which he had not only promised himself as a thing that was in course al­lowed, but what the Keeper of the Prison had consented unto, and without the granting whereof he could not according to Law demand Bayl and Se­curity for his true Imprisonment. Yea, so arbitrary and illegal were they in all their actings against this poor Gentleman Mr. Braddon, that notwith­standing his Imprisonment, yet they refused to discharge him from the 2000 l. Bayl, which he had given at his first Appearance before the Coun­cil to answer an Information of pretended Subornation; and also notwith­standing his close Confinement, they withheld from him, and positively denied to give up the 10000 l. Bonds, which he and his Sureties had entred into for his being a true Prisoner, nor would they so much as restore him the Fees he had payd upon the sealing of them. And it being now the long Vacation, and there remaining no way of helping and relieving himself till the Term, he was forced both to continue a close Prisoner under no less Expence than two l. Sterl. per week, and to lie under the Weight and Terror of the 12000l. Bayl which they had wrested from him. But tho he was denied the Succour and Benefit of the Law, and sound neither Justice nor Mercy in Men; yet he could not be rob'd of the Comforts of a good Conscience, nor deprived of the Refreshments and Supports which the Knowledg of his own Integrity [Page 34] and Innocency administred unto him. And I have been fully informed by credible Hands, that neither the troubles and oppressions which he lay then under, nor the further Persecutions and Sufferings he was in prospect of, were able to give him any Discomposure, or create him any vexation, Grief in himself, nor yet to transport him to a behaviour in word or deed that could furnish his Enemies with an advantage against, or yield them matter of insulting over him. In this state and Condition he contin [...]d till Michael­mass Term, which being come, and the Westminster Courts begun to fit, he caused move the Court of Kings Bench the very first day for a Rule to the Marshal to bring him up the next morning, in order to discharge the Bayl he had given by Appointment of the Council Board about the answering an Information of pretended Subornation. Which Rule being granted by the Court, and obeyed by the Marshal; his Appearance was recorded; and his Bayl discharged. Now having succeeded in this which my Lord K. had refused in the time of the Vacation to grant him, the next step he took was for the obtaining his own Liberty, in order to which he did on the fifth day of the Term move the Court for a Habeas Corpus to be brought up and bailed. Which being also immediately granted, he was after a few days, and a little delay, which I shall not complain of the occasion of, brought up to the Court of the Kings Bench, and there discharged from his Imprison­ment upon he giving 3000 l. Bayl, whereof himself stood [...]ound in a Bond of a 1000 l. and his four Sureties in 500 l. a Man. From all which we may not only collect the Hardships and Oppressions which this honest and wor­thy Gentleman met wit, meerly for enquiring into the Truth of some Re­ports, which if admitted, do clearly prove that the Earl of Essex was assas­sinated by others, and did not murder himself, but we may also observe and infer after what an arbitrary and illegal manner his Majesties Subjects are treated by some of his judicial Officers, as well as prime Ministers, for at­tempting to discover a most execrable and barbarous Murder, wherein a great Man, and the chief Heads of the Popish Faction would have been found deeply concerned and involved. Nor did Mr. Braddons troubles upon this account issue here, all these things being only Praeludiuars to what he was further to encounter from the Rage and Malice of St. James's, and therefore the next Scene that opened, was the bringing him to a Trial for endeavouring in the Earl of Essex's Death, to cast Aspersiens upon the Government and defame the King. And all I would desire of any unpre­judiced and impartial Person, is only to read the said Trial, being fully con­fident that he will thereupon not only acquit the Gentleman from the Guilt of any such thing; but that he will find himself obliged in conscience [Page 35] to acknowledge that there was barbarous villany used in bringing my Lord of Essex to that Fatal and untimely End. And the first thing remarkable as an Introduction to that Trial, is, that my Lord Chief Justice was not on­ly that morning for some time at Whitehall before he went to West­minster, but was attended upon by Lord F. (whom we have reason to accuse of being one of the Contrivers and Authorisers of the Earl of Essex murder) at the lighting out of his Coach in Westminster, and discoursed with both as he was conducted through the Hall, and in a corner near unto the Court before his Lordship ascended to the Bench. Which hath given many men ground to suspect, that his business at the first place was to receive such Instructions as he was to follow and attend unto in the work of the day, and that the reason of the others according and discoursing him where he did, was to impress him with a fresh sense of the business that was to be before him, and to represent the dreadful consequences which would ensue to a great Man and His Majesties Ministers, in case Mr. Braddon should come to be acquitted. And whosoever did either observe the beha­viour of the Bench at that time, or hath since read the Trial, (where tho what was said on all sides may be related, yet the Gesture, Countenance, Passion, Heat and Air with which many things were spoken, cannot be represented) must be forced to acknowledge that my Lord Chief Justice and his Brethren, were rather sworn parties against the Defendant, than equal Judges in a Cause betwixt the King and him. I should be obliged to tran­scribe most of the Trial, did I undertake to give an account of the ungen­tile, slanderous, and malicious language vented against himself; or the interrupting, menacing, and hectoring of his Counsel, or the imposing upon, prescribing unto as well as byassing the Jury against him; and therefore instead of that, I entreat and desire the world to do both themselves, and Mr. Braddon that right as to peruse the Trial, and if in their hearts they subscribe not to what I say, I am contented to undergo the character both of a person that understands nothing of the Rules and Measures which ought to be observed in Courts of Judicature, and of one who is not sufficiently regardful of his Credit and Fame in the things which he delivers. And if I be not wonder­fully mistaken, there is nothing more needful, but an impartial reading and weighing of that Trial, for the vindication of Mr. Braddon's enquiring in­to the Reports which seem'd to imply that the Earl of Essex had not killed himself, nor to justify his innocency as to the crime whereof he was accu­sed, namely ^* of maliciously conspiring and endeavouring to defame the Go­vernment; and, as Justice Withins was pleased to express it, of charging the King [Page 36] with taking away an innocent mans blood, and of murdering an innocent man, and as it was layd in the Indictment, of his procuring and suborning false Wit­nesses to prove that the Earl of Essex was not a Felon of himself, but was killed and murdered by unknown persons. For admit that all which was sworn concerning a bloody Razor's being thrown out of my Lord Essex's window im­mediately before the news of his death, and that all which was deposed concerning a Report in City and Countrey about his having cut his Throat before it was done, were false and only invented by the Informers; yet, as it is evident by the Oaths and Depositions of the Witnesses, that Mr. Braddon was not the Forger of these things; so it is demonstrable that they were in their nature of that weight and importance, upon which a wise as well an honest man, might suspect that my Lord had not murdered himself, but was destroyed by others. Nor could the Gentleman have ever been found guilty, but by means of Mercinary Judges, and an overaw'd as well as a pick'd and prejudiced Jury, who will boggle at nothing tho never so unjust that may but gratisy a great Man, and oblige His Majesties Ministers of State. And the reason, as I have said before, upon which Mr. Braddon came to be convicted and found guilty, was plainly to skreen a great Man, and some other persons from coming to be involved in the guilt of that Noble Man's death, and to keep up the belief of a Protesiant Plot, ^* which (as Justice Withins phraseth it) was likely otherwise to lose its credit, and to be esteemed a Sham Plot for the taking away Innocent Protestants Lives. Nor was the whole Trial against this Worthy and Vertuous Person, more ex­travagant, arbitrary and illegal, than the Sentence against him, upon the Ju­ries finding him convict of the Indictment, was unjust and severe. For be­sides the condemning him in a Fine of 2000 l. which is more than his whole visible Estate amounts unto, and expressly contrary to the Law of the Land, which requires no man shall be fined but with a salvo contenemento. i. e. the leaving him as much as may support him in some degree answerable to his quality, they have over and above ordered his finding Sureties for good be­haviour during life, which as I question whether it be lawful by the ancient and Common Law (tho it hath been sometimes practised) any more than it is to condemn a person to perpetual Imprisonment; so I am sure there is no President to be found for the like in a matter that was not of a more criminal and heynous Nature. But all serves to prove, that whosoever hath the cou­rage or honesty to [...]avel into the Earl of Essex's death, are to be persecuted, op­pressed and ruined, and by consequence serves to demonstrate, that there is a villanous mystery in the manner of his coming to that Fatal End, which [Page 37] they are affraid to have searched out and detected.

And as if it were not enough in the judgment of all rational men, to acquit and vindicate the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having destroyed himself, that those have been prosecuted with the utmost s [...]ve­rity, and oppressed in their Estates and Liberties, who with all imagin [...]ble modesty towards the Government were willing to inquire into the manner of his death, and to declare their just suspitions, with the grounds of them, to persons trusted with the administration of affairs, that he did not mur­der himself, but was assassinated by others: Behold, that as one Crime is not to be concealed but by the perpetration of more, so the Conspirators and Authorisors of that Noble Mans death, have proceeded to the murde­ring several other men, who as they had a perfect knowledge and compre­hension both of the manner of the Fact, the villanous bloody Agents who were immediately instrumental to commit it, and the Persons who em­ployed, rewarded, and encouraged them, so they had been guilty of what some will call indiscretion, to communicate to others what they had seen and observed, and too fully understood themselves. Among others who part­ly saw, heard, and observed themselves, and partly learned from others, several circumstances relating to the matter of my Lord's death, there was one Meak a common Sentinel, who had stood on duty all that morning [...]er unto the place and house where the Earl of Essex was confined. For whereas on other days the Sentinels used to stand but two hours at a time on duty, there was care taken that morning, that those who were on duty when the King and Duke came into the Tower, which was about six of the clock, should not be changed till both after the time of the Earl of Essex's death, which was about nine, and till after the King and Dukes departure from thence, which was about half an hour after. And the reason of this is obvious, namely, that tho it was impossible to keep all persons from seeing who walk't to and fro, and what was transacting, yet they resolved to pre­serve it in as narrow a compass as they could, and to admit as few to an opportunity of observing persons and things as might be. Whence it came to pass, that those Souldiers who entred upon Duty at Four, and should according to course have been relieved at Six, were suffered and obliged to stay on till Ten. Now this Meak having an advantage from the post he was in, of observing the several persons that went that morning to my Lord Essex's Lodgings, and having par [...]ly himself seen, and partly learned from others, divers material particulars, relating to the manner of the Assassi­nation of that Noble Person, it will be easily acknowledged, that he was as capable as any to detect it, or at least of letting these, who should have [Page 38] the honesty, courage, and zeal to enquire after my Lord's death, so far into it as to be able to unravel that whole villany, and to trace it not only to the Instruments, but the original Authors and Contrivers. This poor fellow both abhorring in himself what he had seen, and conceiving the greatest detestation imaginable against all the Villains who had been accessory to it, was neither able to conceal his knowledge of what he had seen, nor his re­sentments of so horrid a Fact, but at the same time had not the prudence to distinguish betwixt persons, who without dammage to the Author, might be entrusted with so important a Secret, and those who at first would seem forward enough to hear it, but would withall make their advantage by revealing it to such as would reward them, and destroy him. Whence it unhappily came to pass that this poor foolish man, not only related it to such as were honest and faithful to him, and who will be ready in due time to testify the whole of what he acquainted them with, but to others who con­veyed it to St. James's as a piece of important intelligence, and of wonder­ful consequence to his Royal Highness. And tho it be not yet seasonable to recount the several particulars relating to that barbarous Murder, which he declared upon his own knowledge, as well as the confirmation of others; yet I may take the liberty to digest and branch them into their several heads, and to let the World know that some of them were such as preceeded his death, others accompanied it, and one or two came after it. Wherefore that he might tell no more stories, nor rise up as a witness against the Assassinates, this poor unfortunate Fellow was secretly murdered and thrown into the Tower Ditch. And there are several particulars relating to his Death; which are not unworthy to be known to the World, but it were to advantage the Conspirators, and to prejudice our selves to mention them at present. On­ly this is remarkable, that as this Robert Meak was for some time before his death, very apprehensive of the danger he went in of being privately de­stroyed for what he had declared concerning the E. of Essex being murdered, so he had a greater dread of it the morning before he was killed, than he had been possessed with at any other time. And therefore from that allarm which his mind suggested to him of his impendent danger, he begged of an Acquuaintance and Friend that morning before he died, that he would have accompanied, and kept with him for that day. But such was the poor fellow's fate, that tho he told that person the apprehensions he was in of being mur­dered, and he from a sense and belief of it, had left his work with a resolu­tion to attend him, yet whether from a jealousie he might have of his own safety, or upon what other motive I shall not enquire, he stole away from, and forsook him before Twelve of the Clock. But tho the Conspirators and [Page 39] Assassionates had thus by a second murder delivered themselves from the ap­prehensions they were in of being detected for the first; yet there arose an other person, who as he had better opportunity of knowing the whole My­stery of the Lord of Essex's death, than Meak the Sentinel had; so from re­morse of Conscience for what he had been accessory unto, and from an ab­horrency of that bloody Fact, which he so well knew the Authors and Per­petrators of, he begun to discourse and communicate it with shame and loathing to others. The person whom I mean was Mr. Hawley, a Warder of the Tower, living in Winchester-street, being a Person both for Reputation and Estate far above that Hawley, in whose house the Earl of Essex was then Prisoner when his Throat was cut, and therefore one without whose knowledge, consent and contribution, it cannot be supposed to have been done. And by how much he was not only more capable than others to detect the whole vil­lany of the Noble Man's death, and lay open the enormous crime in all the parts and branches of it, but was of better credit than the Sentinel, and more likely to obtain belief from the World in what he should declare, by so much was he to be esteemed for a most dangerous person to the Conspirators, and to be treated as one from whom they might dread the most fatal mischief to them­selves as well as their cause. Hence the intelligence was no sooner conveyed to a great Man and the rest of the Juncto, that Hawly had been talking such things concerning the Earl of Essex's death, which it concerned them no less than both their Lives and Honours to have concealed; but they resolved to de­stroy him, and thereby prevent his prating for the future, and being able to tell any tales. And being informed that he was inquiring where he might purchase an Estate, they employ one to tempt him out of Town, under pretence of his seeing a parcel of Land that was to be sold. For they thought, that should they cause him to be murdered in or about the City, it would fill all men with jealousies of their being guilty of his death, especially considering the Reports which went of them, and the suspicions that they lay under of ha­ving caused Meak to be killed. And therefore in order to the getting him de­stroyed with the more secrecy, and the administring the less apprehension a­bout the Authors of his death, they prevailed on him by the baite and temptation which I have mentioned, to take a journey into the Countrey. Whence having resolved that he should never return, they employed some to dogg, and others to way-lay and murder him. And with that Secrecy as well as Obedience, were their Orders and Decrees executed, that it was a considerable while after his Death, before he could be heard of, or his Body found. But when after long search and enquiry after him; his Corps were at last found, there were all the marks and Symptoms of a most barbarous As­sassination [Page 40] prepared upon him, which malicious wit could invent, or en­raged jealousie and revenge act or commit. For besides diverse con [...]usions in the head, face and breast from the blows he had received, it appeared plainly that he had been also strangled. And as he had never administred cause to any other persons save the Conspirators and Instruments of the Earl of [...]ffex's death, upon which we can with the least shadow of reason, fancy his being murdered upon a personal and private Revenge; so there are proofs ready to be produced, whensoever either a ParlJament comes, or a fair Trial can be obtained before upright and impartial Judges, not only by whom he was destroyed, but by whose Command and Authority. Nor was his Wife unsensible and without apprehension even before the Body was discovered, both that he might be murdered, and upon what motives and inducements it was done, so that she told some Friends how she dreaded the consequences and effects of his having so often discoursed about the Earl of Essex's death. Yea there is one Glover, who is a Servant to His Majesty, being at present a Warder in the Tower, who being in conference with some peo­ple about the Earl of Essex and Mr. Braddon, was pleased with more than an ordinary emotion to say, Hawley also hath been prating, but he was fain to walk for it. But the same person being asked after it was known that he had been murdered, what he thought of Mr. Hawley's walking, appeared exceedingly disturbed, and said he knew nothing of it, nor would he have the patience to hear any thing spoken about that matter. So that we have here an other evidence that the Earl of Essex did not, as he hath been defamed and slandered, cut his own Throat, but that this Person of incomparable Merit and Vertue was Massacred by wicked and suborned Ruffians; seeing to prevent the discovery of that heinous and execrable Fact, two other men who had advantages of knowing both the Actors in, and manner of his death, and had talked somewhat freely about it, and seemed inclinable to re­veal it, were barbarously killed.

And as the destroying as well as oppressing those from whom the World might receive light about the murder of that Noble Peer, plainly shews by whose Councels, and by what means, he came to his faral End; so the countenancing, protecting and preferring those, who are justly suspected to have been deeply instrumental in it, and who long ere this would have been publickly indicted for it, (had it not been partly for the discouragement given by the Court, His Majesties Ministers of State and Officers of Justice, and partly not to expose men to that hazard which they must necessarily run by engaging in this affair) affords us a new proof of my Lord's innocency from being Felo de se, and that the infamy and guilt of his death ought to [Page 41] be devolved upon others. There are cases wherein suspition of guilt may so wait on some men, that others tho never so well perswaded of their inno­cency, cannot without forfeiture of discretion, and becoming Sharers in the reproach and dishonour which attends them, give them either the least countenance, or yield them any Testimonies of Favour and Kindness, till they have vindicated and acquitted themselves from that whereof they are suspected, and which common Fame accuseth them of. And as all persons pretending to wisdom, or who are regardful of their reputation, will ac­count themselves obliged to act under the conduct and guidance of this Rule and principle; so of all men, those in Authority are most concerned not to take upon them the sheltring of those that are aspersed with infa­mous crimes; nor to countenance and advance such, whom the cry of a Kingdom chargeth with a barbarous, enormous and execrable Fact. But to that impudence in Villany, as well as contempt of honour and credit are the Gentlemen of the Popish Juncto and Cabal arrived; that they not only cause secretly Murther, such as would discover a great and heinous offence against God and Mankind, but they dare openly and in the face of the Sun, both protect and prefer the chief Miscreant and Ruffian, whom all sober and impartial persons have in suspition for it. It must necessarily be acknowledged, that in case my Lord was assassinated by violent and and bloody hands, his Valet de Chamber Romeny the only Servant who at­tended him in the Tower, save a Footman, must be acquainted with it, and accessory to it. And so many, as well as weighty, were the arguments of his being guilty of his Earl and Master's death, that he was justly suspected for it both by the rest of my Lord's Servants, and all the thinking impartial peo­ple about the Town. And tho I shall have occasion hereafter to mention divers particulars and recount several circumstances, which not only serve to lay him under a suspition, but to convict him of being accessary to the death of his Lord; yet I care not if I relate one at present, namely the appre­hension he was in, and the trouble he expressed to one of the Lady Essex's Gentlewomen, upon a Report which he had heard that my Lord's Murder was to come under a second Examination, and that the Body was to be taken up in order to a review. Nor was the Countess her self, for all the im­pressions which some great men had endeavoured to possess her with, of my Lord's cutting his own Throat, without strong apprehensions to the contra­ry; nor void of jealousie of this French Fellow's being guilty of her Hus­band's death, which made her discharge him her service, and dismiss him out of the Family. And as no Gentlemen in England would have after this done so foolish a thing, or so unworthy of himself, as to cherish and entertain [Page 42] such a Rascal; so it least of all became the honour of the Court, unless there were a further mystery in it than the world is aware of, to take him both into their protection, and to advance him to an employ and place. Let us therefore a little observe and recount what favours this Rascal under all the suspition and infamy of being accessary to his Lord's death, hath met with both from his Majesties Ministers of Justice, and from the principal persons at Court, and chiefest Officers of State. Can it be less than a reflexion both upon the honour of the Government, and an insinuation that great men were con­cerned in that horrid fact whereof Bomeny is so justly suspected, that my Lord Chief Justice at Mr. Braddon's Trial, after he had been affronting, in­terrupting and hectoring all the Witnesses for the Defendant, steps in not only to assist and rectifie Bomeny in his Deposition, guiding him to say a Ra­zor when the Rogue had said a Penknife, but durst represent the Villain un­der the character ^* of one whose integrity and fidelity to my Lord, was con­firmed by six years experience of his service, and that he was not an upstart and wandering fellow. Yea, the esteem that this Ruffian was in with our Gran­dees, and which by consequence proves that there is a Mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, which is not yet fully discovered, see­ing these who are deservedly suspected to have been accessary to it, are favoured and befriended by them, may be further enlightned and confirmed from the correspondence which Bomeny had with the Secretary of State, when he lay concealed from others, and the readiness he expressed to con­verse with any that pretended to enquire for him in Sir Lionel Jenkin's name, when he was denied to every body besides. For a certain person having occasion to call at his Lodging in order to Subpaena him to Mr. Braddon's Trial, and being positively told that there was no such man there, took the boldness to say he came from Sir Lionel; upon which Bomeny immediately appeared, and he who was said not to be there before, stept forth with all imaginable readiness to receive the Secretaries Messenger, and to know what his Honour's pleasure was. And if these two passages which I have related, be not enough to evidence the kindness which his Majesties Ministers had for this little and Infamous creature, I shall subjoin a third importing the care which the greatest about the Court took of him, and the respect they shew him. For when he seemed to be abandoned by all others, and knew not where to be admitted into a service, by reason of the suspition he lay under of being either an instrument that murdered his Lord, or who had consented to the doing of it, behold a great man, and the Officers of his Ma­jesties Forces, embrace him under all that ignominy and reproach, and list [Page 43] him to ride in one of the Troops of Guards. Nor is it possible for any man without renouncing his Reason, to imagine, that that Great Man; as well as divers other persons of Figure and Quality, should expose themselves to the censure of the world in entertaining a Fellow judged guilty of so enor­mous and abominable a crime, unless they themselves had been accessory some way or other to that execrable wickedness, and except they judged the Rascal to have merited by the Fact.

But to put it beyond all possibility of any rational contradiction that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat, but that he was massacred by others, I shall demonstrate the impossibility of it as the manner of his death is represented in the Coroners Inquisition, and declared in the Depositions of the Chyrurgions, who view'd the Body, and searched and examined the fatal wound. And where there is a Natural Impossibility that a thing should be so or so done, all the Informations of the world to the contrary serve to no other end but to declare the perjury of the informers. A matter that is naturally impracticable ought not to be credited, tho never so many should have the impudence to swear they saw it done. But as the rage of the Con­spirators and Assassinates transported and hurried them to commit the bar­barous Fact in such a manner, that all who have not abjured common sense as well as Reason, must acknowledg that it was not practicable in that way and manner, or a thing that could be done by the Earl of Ess [...]x himself; so their malice corrupted and blinded their judgments to that measure and de­gree, that the Instrument which they have chosen and pitched upon as the Tool, Weapon and Mean by which it was done, renders the doing it by my Lord impossible in it self, and unworthy to be believed except by the grossest of Fools, or the worst of knaves, who never consider how far a matter either is or can be true, but only what may conduce to their profit, or gra­tifie their malice to take up and admit. And how conspicuous is the Wis­dom as well as Righteousness of God, in infatuating villanous men, so to accomplish and perpetrate their villanies, as that their folly shall detect their guilt, and the Marks and Characters of stupidity as well as rage left upon the Fact shall reveal the Authors of it, let them do all they can to transfer and abdicate it from themselves, and to charge and fassen it upon others. Now the Coroners Inquest in their Inquisition made the 14th of July, 1683 concerning the Earl of Essex death, do upon their Oaths from the Depositions of such witnesses as they thought fit to examine, give us this account of the way and manner of it. That the Earl of Essex being the 13 [...]h day of July alone in his Chamber, did with a Razor voluntarily and felo­niously cut his own Throat, giving unto himself one mortal wound, cut from one [Page 44] Jugular to the other, and by the Aspera Arteria, and the Wind-pipe to the vertebres of the Neck, both the Jugulars being throughly divided, of which said mortal Wound, the said Earl of Essex instantly died. And to this ac­count so far as relates to the Nature of the Wound, do the Informations upon Oath of Robert Sherwood and Robert Andrews, two Chyrurgions called to view the Body of the said Earl fully agree. For Robert Sherwood swears, That having viewed the Threat of the Earl of Essex, he finds that there is a large wound, and that the Aspera Arteria or Wind pipe, and the Gullet, with the Jugular Arteries are all divided. And Robert Andrews deposeth to the same purpose, namely, That having viewed the Throat of the Lord of Essex, he found that it was cut from one Jugular to the other, and through the Wind-pipe and Gullet into the Vertebres of the Neck, both Ju­gular Veins being also quite divided. And as the first thing observable in the Coroners Inquest about my Lords death, is that his Throat was cut with a Razor, so it is needful the world should know that the Razor which Bomeny in his Deposition before the said Inquest, swears to be the same wherewith he gave himself the fatal and mortal wound, was a small French Razor of about four Inches and half long at most, without any Spill or Tongue at the end of the Blade, as all Razors of the English Form and Fashion have: So that the Razor being of that make, proportion, and extent, it is as evident as any demonstrated pro­blem in Euclid, that it could not be used but upon holding it by the Blade; and that in order to the holding it with strength and steddiness requisite to the making such a wound, the Fingers and Hand must grasp and fasten upon no less than two Inches of it. The second thing remarkable from the Inquisition of the Coroner, and the Depositions of the Cbyrurgions refers to the extent and dimension of this deplorable and dead­ly wound. Which as they all acknowledg to have reached from Jugular to Jugular in length, and to the vertebrae of the Neck in depth; so a certain Gentleman who saw the wound before ever the Jury did, affirms that it begun at the side of the Neck Bone behind the left jugular, and extended to the Bone of the Neck beyond the right, being betwixt eight and nine inches in dimension from one side to the other, and that it so nearly ap­proached unto, and pierced into the vertebrae that had it light on a joint it would have cut off his Head instead of merely cutting his Throat. And I may upon what is here confessed and sworn, confidently say, That no man could cut his own Throat after the rate and manner, and to that measure and extent, that the Earl of Essex's was cut. Nor did I ever speak with Physician or Chyrurgeon, who was so far above the dread of the Court and St. James's as to dare venture the giving his opinion, but he would [Page 45] readily acknowledg and confirm it with unanswerable reasons, that it was impossible the Earl of Essex should have given himself that mortal wound, or cut his Throat in the manner it appears to have been done? For the Razor being in the whole length but four inches and a half, and two inches of these being necessary at the least to be held and grasped in the hand in order to the using and managing of it; it is not imaginable how with the other two Inches and a half both the Jugulars could be divided at one stroke, and a gash made which extended no less than Eight Inches from one side to the other. There is no man that is versed in Chyrurgery or the Anatomy of the humane Body, but will find himself obliged to own, that it is altoge­ther impossible that after the cutting the one Jugular, there should remain life and strength for carrying forward the wound to the dividing the other. Nor can there be any thing more certain in Nature, than that there would have been such an effusion of Spirits and Blood upon dividing the first Jugu­lar, that all life and motion would have immediately ceased, and that there would have been no strength left to push forward the instrument to the se­cond, so as to dissect it. Besides there being no more of the Razor beyond the hand which held the Razor, than about two inches and a half of the blade that could be used and applied to the making the incision in the Throat; How is it possible that a Gash or Wound of four Inches deep (for of that dimension it was from the outside of the Gullet, where the hand must lye, to the Verte­brae of the Neck where the incision terminated) could be made by an In­strument of two inches and a half long? These being plain and direct impos­sibilities, it necessarily follows that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but that this hellish Murder was committed upon him by the hands of bloody and hired Ruffians. Nor indeed was a Razor the Instrument which they made use of upon this villanous occasion, but it was done by one of an­other kind, as well as form and figure, and which as they had prepared and provided on purpose, so it was much more convenient for the perpetration of the Fact. But it would have too palpably betrayed the Actors, to have suffered that to have lain by the massacred Body, or to have let it be seen by any honest and indifferent persons who might throng in among others to view and look upon the bleeding Corps. And of all the Instruments which they could have thought upon, a Razor, especially of the fashion which that was, that they threw down by my Lord's Body after they had Murdered him, was the most unfit for an incision in the Throat of those dimensions, as the wound whereby they treacherously killed him evidently appears to have been. A certain Gunner in the Tower, who may be supposed not al­together a stranger to this affair, pitched upon a more convenient and [Page 46] proper Instrument for the doing of it, when about Nine of the Clock that morning he reported the death of my Lord in a place not-far distant from thence, saying, the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat with a Case Knife wherewith he had been carving a Pidgeon for his Breakfast. And had they not been infatuated, they would have rather ordered such an Instrument to have been laid by the Body in order to blind and deceive the World about the manner of his death, than the small French Raz [...]r which I have descri­bed, and by which they have endeavoured to make men believe the gastful and fatal wound was made. But if a ParlJament come to sit again in England, or if His Majesty will grant a Pardon to such Witnesses, as we are ready to produce, and allow a Writ of Melius Inquirendum concerning the death of this Noble Peer before equal and impar [...]al Judges, we shall both describe the Instrument he was killed by, and prove the truth of what we say, by persons who saw the whole Bloody and Tragical transaction, and are as Ac­cessories too far concerned in that horrid Murder.

Nor want there proofs of my Lords being treacherously Assassinated by others, and that he was not a Felon of himself, from the Testimonies of these very Witnesses which were produced both before the Coroners Inquest, and at Mr. Bradden's Trial, to Swear that the Earl of Essex had cut his own Throat. And tho it may be pardonable in the Coroner upon the Inquisition into the manner of my Lord's death, to have admitted the Depositions of Bomeny and Russel, there being not then so just suspitions of their guilt in this mat­ter, as afterwards there were; yet for my Lord Chief Justice to allow them as competent Witnesses in that affair, when the presumptions of their being accessory to that Murder were so strong, as they plainly appeared from the whole scope and tendency of that which was sworn, said, and alledged in Mr. Braddon's behalf at the foresaid Trial, was the greatest affront imagin­able to Justice, and argued a most criminal partiality. For with what equity could Bomeny's Testimony be admitted to destroy either the Truth or pro­bability of my Lord's being assassinated by others, seeing it must be granted that in case the Earl of Essex was treacherously Murdered, Bomeny being the only Servant who then waited upon him, must be an Actor in, or at least an Accessory to it. And what is this, but to admit a fellow under the highest presumptions of guilt to be a witness in his own Cause, and to allow his Testimony as a sufficient vindication from the most perfidious, as well as barbarous Crime that could be committed; and which to have acknowledged, would have derived upon him the severest punishment? And the same may be said of my Lord Chief Justice's partiality and un­reasonableness, in suffering Russel's Testimony to pass for good and legal evi­dence [Page 47] in the matter and case that we are discoursing of. For Russel being the Person who, that morning my Lord was murdered, attended upon him as his Warder, must likewise have been either an Actor in, or Accessory to, the cruelty that was committed on him. Nor can it be otherwise thought than that he who contrary to the Duty of his Place, and the trust reposed in him instead of assisting and defending my Lord, when forcibly assaulted, would consent unto, or at least connive at the Violence com­mitted upon him, should also for the sa [...]ing himself as well as others from the Punishment of the said Crime, transfer th [...] Murder from himself, and charge it upon my Lord. For as Russel was set [...]t my Lords door to prevent any endeavours which might have been used by himself or others for an escape; so one main end of his being posted ther [...] was to see that no Vio­lence should be committed upon the Prisoner. B [...] to dismiss this without further enlarging upon it, I shall in proof, that my [...]ord of Essex did not Murder himself, but was ass [...]ssinated by others, observe the Contradictions that are in the Informations of the Witnesses, about the manner of his Death, and the Circumstances relating to it, and how they disagree not only one with another, but gainsay themselves in their Testimonies. It hath always been admitted as a sufficient ground of disbelieving Winesses, and of judg­ing them to Swear falsely, when their Testimonies instead of being either harmonious and coherent in themselves, or consonant and agreeable one to another, do both interfere with, and contradict themselves and each other. For as Truth is always uniform and consistent, so Falshood is contra­dictious and various. Now that this may the better appear, and that all Men may see, I do neither impose upon the Witnesses, nor endeavour to de­ceive the world, I shall transcribe the two Informations which were Sworn by Bomeny and Russel before the Coroner and the Inquest, when they sat on my Lords Body upon an Inquisition after the manner of his Death, and by what means he came to his fatal End. Paul Bomeny in his Deposition made upon Oath the 14 of July, 1683. saith, That when my Lord came to Captain Haw­ley 's, which was the eleventh of that month, my Lord ask'd him for a Penknife to pare his Nails as he was wont to do; to which the Informant answered, being come in hast he had not brought it, but he will send for one; and accordingly sent the Footman with a No [...]e for several things for my Lord, amongst which the Penknife was inserted; and that the Footm [...] went and gave the Bill to my L [...]ds Steward, who sent the Provisions but not the Pe [...]knife, only told the Footman he would get one the next day. That when the Footman was come, my Lord ask'd if the Penknife was c [...]me, to which the Informant answered he should have it the next day; and accordingly on the [...]2. in the Morning, before my Lord of [Page 48] Essex was up, the Informant sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward, in which amongst other things he ask'd for a Penknife for my Lord, and when the Footman was gone, about a little after 8. of the Clock, my Lord sent one Mr. Russel his Warder to the Informant, who came and ask'd him if the Pen­knife was come; to which the Informant said no my Lord, but I shall have it by and by: to which my Lord said, that he should bring him one of his Razors, it would do as well; and then the Informant went and fetched one, and gave it my Lord, who went then to pare his Nails, and then the Informant went out of the Room into the Passage by the door on Friday the 13, and begun to talk with the Warder, and a little while after he went down Stairs, and soon after came the Footman with the Provisions, and brought also a Penknife, which the Informant put upon his Bed, and thought my Lord had no more need of it, because he thought he had paired his Nails, and then the Informant came up to my Lords Chamber about 8 or 9 in the Forenoon on Friday the 13 of July, with a little Note from the Steward, but not finding his Lord in the Chamber, went to the Close-Stool Closet-door and found it shut, and he thinking his Lord was busy there, went down and staid a little, and came up again, thinking his Lord had been come out of the Closet, and finding him not in the Chamber, he knock'd at the Door with his Finger thrice, and said, my Lord; but no body answering, he took up the Hanging, and looking through the chink, he saw Blood, and a part of the Razor, whereupon he called the Warder Russel, and went down to call for help, and the said Russel pushed the Door open, and there they saw my Lord of Essex all along on the Floor without a Periwig, and all full of Blood, and the Razor by him; and the Deponent further deposeth that the Razor now shewed to him at the time of his Examination, is the same Razor which he did bring to my Lord, and which did lye on the Ground in the Closet by my Lord. To this Information I shall subjoyn that of Thomas Russel one of the Warders of the Tower, who being examined the 14. of July 1683. saith, That on the 13. of the said July, about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon he was present, when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Mr. Bomeny for a Penknife to pare his Nails, and then for a Razor, which Mr. Bomeny brought him, and then my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nails with the Razor, and shut the outward Door; Mr. Bomeny half a quarter of an Hour afterwards not finding my Lord in his Bed-Chamber went down Stairs again believing that my Lord was then private in his Closet. Bomeny came up about a quarter of an hour after­wards, and knock'd at the door, and then called, My Lord, My Lord, but he not answering, peep'd through a chink of the door, and did see the Earl of Essex lying on the Ground in the Closet, whereupon he did cry out, that my Lord was fallen down Sick, and then the Informant went to the Closet-door, and opened it, [Page 49] the key being on the outside, and then did see my Lord lye down on the ground in his blood, his Throat being cutt. These are all the informations which the Inquest charged and sworn to enquire when, by what means and how Arthur E. of Essex came to his death, thought fit to take, and upon the Depositions of these two Fellows who in case any violence were offered to my Lord must have been accessory to it, they bring in and do say upon their oaths that the sayd Arthur Earl of Essex did voluntarily and feloniously cut his Throat. It may indeed seem strange that there being other persons at that time in the house besides Bomeny and Russel, particularly the Maid servant, that they should nei­ther be examined nor so much as called to know whether they could say any thing in that affair. But it is not improbable that the contradictions in the Te­stimonies of the two Witnesses whom they had examined, to one an other, might discourage them from examining any more, least they in what they might swear should contradict what both the former had said. Now what I have to observe concerning the contradictions in the forego'ing Depositions, they are either such, wherein these Informations are directly contrary to the reports which themselves made to others about my Lords death; or they are such, wherein the Testimony of the one, contradicts that of the other, or lastly, wherein the Information of one and the same person, gainsay's and overthrow's it self. For the first, whereas both Bomeny and Russel do positi­vely swear that it was not above a quarter of an houre and half, from the time that Bomeny left my Lord in his Chamber pareing his Nailes, to the time that they found him dead in the Closet; yet this very Bomeny being ask'd the Question by one of my Lords Family soon after his death, how long my Lord might have lyen dead before either he or the Warder discovered it, replyed that he believed he must have lyen so above two hours for that when they first found him the Body was cold and stiff. And whereas Russel deposeth that the Razor was given by Bomeny to my Lord after he was up and about eight or nine of the clock in the forenoon, and that both he and Bomeny inform how they saw his Lordship upon the delivery of the Razor to him apply to the pareing of his Nailes; yet this Rogue Bomeny having the property of lyars namely the want of a good memory, affirmed to a person of good credit and who is rea­dy to depose it upon Oath, that from the time of his sending away the Foot­man with a Note to the Steward (which was about or before six) that morning on which the Earl died, he did not see my Lord till the time that he found him killed and wallowing in his blood in the Closet. And whereas there is not one word in Bomenies Information concerning my Lords being used to be taken with sudden Frensical passions and fitts, or that he was par­ticularly taken with one that morning before his death, but the contrary [Page 50] plainly insinuated in the whole Information and also acknowledged at Mr. Braddon's Trial, where tho he says, that ^* my Lord was melancholy, yet he adds they took no notice of it, nor had reason to suspect any thing more than or­dinary; all which directly contradicts what the Villain told an Eminent Dr. of the Church of England, namely that his Lord was frequently taken with sudden Frensical passions, and in particular with one that morning just before his death. For said the perjured Rascal, when the Earl of Essex saw my Lord Russel carried out of the Tower to be Tryed, he struck his Breast, and said himself was the cause of my Lord Russel 's misery, seeing had it not been for him, my Lord Russel would never have admitted my Lord Howard into his company. And that thereupon seeing my Lord Russel like to be ruined by the Testimony of that person for whose integrity he had engaged his Honour, he fell destracted. Now as this is directly repugnant, to the Testimony which his own Lady and all other persons who had the advantage of being known to his Lordship do justly give him, affirming that he was the most sedate, best composed, and freest from passions of all men they ever knew, so there is not one word of it in his in­formation to the Coroners Inquest, tho' it would have been a stronger evi­dence of my Lords murdering himself, than all that he deposed or swore be­sides. Truth being ever the same, whosoever is called to testifie a Truth that falls within his knowledg, can give the same account of it a thousand times over without the least variation from it, or from himself; but a Lie having no foundation save what it has in the invention of the Author, easily escapes the memory, and lay's the Reporter as often as he is called to repeat and declare it, under a continual liableness of inventing either some thing new that was not, or which is different to what was in his former report, so that by the last Fiction he both detects and discredits the first. But secondly, as the Informations of these two Witnesses, interfere with the Reports which themselves gave concerning my Lords Death to other persons, so the Testi­mony of the one does directly contradict and supplant the Testimony of the other. For whereas Bomeny positively swears, that on the 12. of July in the morning before my Lord of Essex was up, be sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward, in which among other things he ask'd for a Penknife for my Lord, and that when the Footman was gone, about or a little after eight of the Clock, my Lord sent Russel the Warder to the said Bomeny, who came and ask'd him if the Penknife was come, to which Bomeny replyed, no my Lord, but I shall have it by and by, and that thereupon my Lord bid him bring him one of his Razors, which he went and fetched and gave to his Lordship, who applyed himself there [Page 51] with to pair his Nailes; Russel in a direct contradiction to this, swears, that on the 13. of July about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon, he was present when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Bomeny for a Penknife to pare his Nailes, and then for a Razor which Bomeny brought him, and that thereupon my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nailes with the Razor. So that whil'st Bomeny deposed upon Oath that my Lord called for the Ra­zor, and had it delivered to him on the 12 of July being Thursday and the day before my Lords death; Russel comes and swears, that it was on the 13 of July being Friday, and the day on which my Lord was killed, that he ask'd for the Razor and received it from his man. We may with the same ease bring the Time Past, to be the Time present or Future; as make the 12 of July, upon which Bomenie swears he gave my Lord the Razor, to be the 13 of July, on which Russel swears it was delivered to him. And tho this be such a dissagreement in their Testimonies, that no wise and unbiaz'd person can give credit to what either of them sayes, but is in justice obliged to be­lieve that both of them swore falsely; yet it is not the only thing wherein their Depositions contradict one another, there being a second thing, and as important as the former, wherein the Information of the on lyes in a full contrariety to the Information of the other. For whereas Bomeny swears that Russel push'd the closet door open where my Lord lay, which implyes his using violence and force to get in; Russel comes and deposeth that being called by Bomenie, he went to the Closet door and opend it the Key being on the outside. Nor it is possibl' to reconcile what the one sayes in this particular, to what is declared by the other, unless we can make the unlocking the door with the key, to be the same with the bursting it open in a forcibl' way. Yea as if it were not sufficient to demonstrate the falsehood of both their Testimo­nies, that they do expressly contradict one another in two important and weighty particulars; there is yet a third wherein their Informations do plain­ly cross and thwart each other. For whereas Bomeny swears that upon looking through the Chink of the Closet door, he saw blood and a part of the Razor, without making mention of his seeing my Lords Body or any part of it; Russel comes and deposeth that Bomenie upon peeping through a Chink of the door, saw the Earl of Essex lying on the ground in the Closet, without adding any thing of his having seen blood, and a part of the Razor. Now besides that Russel swears a thing positively, which at most he could only swear upon Bomenie's Info [...] ­mation; here is also a dissagreement between the account of what Bomenie say's he saw, and that which Russel affirm's him to have seen. The two El­ders who in the Apocryphal History are reported to have sworn falsely a gainst Susanna, did not more evidently, nor in so many particulars inter­fere [Page 52] with and contradict one another, as these two Fellows Bomeny and Russel appear to have don'in their Testimonies concerning the Earl of Essex death. But alaz! we have not been hitherto so happy as to have this pretended crime of my Lord Essex's cutting his Throat, to fall under the examination and cognisance of persons of that integrity and uprightness as well as wis­dom, which the calumnious accusation of uncleanness fastned upon Susan­na had the fortune to do. And as the Informations of these two Rascals do plainly contradict each other; so in the last place we shall observe how one and the same Witness does in his Deposition thwart and gainsay himself. For whereas Bomenie swears that on Thursday the 12. of Iu'y he gave the Razor to my Lord, who thereupon went to pare his Nailes with it; he immediately adds without the least congrnity either to Sense or Grammer, that he the said Bomenie having given my Lord the Razor, went out of the room into the pas­sage by the door on Fryday the 13. Nothing can be more aparent then that the for'go'ing part of the Information relates wholly to Thursday; but at last without any regard in himself to what he said, or relation in the next words to those which preceded, Friday is brought in contrary both to all Rules of Syntax, and the for'going words of his own Testimony. For what was antecedently deposed referring to what had fallen out and was trans­acted on Thursday, his immediately subjoyning that Then he went out of the Room into the passage by the door, ought by all the Rules of Speech and the Measures of Sence to relate to Thursday also. But Friday being the day on which the Earl of Essex was killed, and which as both Bomenie and Russel swear was soon after his having received the Razor; it was therefore need­ful that in order to the giving some glose to that part of their Information wherein they swear my Lord cutt his own Throat, that Friday should be mentioned tho with never so much incongruity and absurdness. How con­spicuous is the righteousness of God in suffering a villain who had first con­sented to the murdering his Master, if not assisted in it, and then undertaken to transferr' the crime and infamy from the Assassinates and charge it upon his innocent Lord, so evidently to contradict himself in what he swears, as thereby to affoord the world an uncontroulabl' demonstration both of the falshood of his own Deposition, and of his Masters being guiltless of what he accused him.

And as the many contradictions of one kind and another, which occurr' in the informations of the Witnesses, do as so many prints and Footsteps lead and conduct us to other Authors and Instruments of my Lords death than himself, so the many irregularities which were committed about the [...]ody by those who had the oversight and custody of it, before the Coroner's [Page 53] Inquest had sat upon it, administer unto us new proofs that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se, but that he was treacherously and barbarously murdered by the hands of bloody and suborned Ruffians. By the custome of all Nations which is equivalent to a common and Universal Law, but most especially by the known and alwaise practiced Custom of England, the Body of a person found dead and supposed to have come to an untimely End, ought (if it be possibl') to lye in the place and posture that it is found, till the Coroners Ju­ry have sat upon the Body and inquired into the manner of the persons death. Nor can we think that those in the House, where my Lord was killed and found dead, could be ignorant of this custom', seeing it is so well and universally known to the meanest and most ignorant people of the Nation. Neither is there any thing more adapted and proper, as well as needful to­wards a discovery whether a person have fallen by his own hands or the hands of others, than this received custome and practice is upon many frequent and repeated experiences found to have been. For how many circumstances not only may but do often occurr' from an observation of the Site and po­sture wherein the Body is found, from an inspection of the marks, tokens, and impressions left upon the Cloaths which the party destroyed wore, and from a view of the Footsteps, Symtom's, and Signes, which the place where the Fact was committed and the Body fell may yield and afford; all which may have their usefulness and tendency to give light unto the Jury that is to sit upon the Body, and whose Du'ty and Office it is to make inquiry into the manner of the persons death. But least the Earl of Essex should have been found to have come to his End after an other manner, and by other way's and means, than was safe or convenient for some people to have known and believed, therefor' were all things otherwise carried, and the custom' of the Nation in cases of this Nature not only neglected and despi­sed, but with the greatest impudence imaginabl' violated and acted contrary unto. For besides their taking my Lords Body out of the Closet where it was found and by consequence ought to have lyen, they did not only un­cloath, stripp, and wash it; but also wash both the Closet where it was found, and the lodging chamber into and through which we must suppose the persons to have come, if any assassination was by the violent hands of others committed upon him. Yea and as if all this had not been too daring in it self, and enough to administer a just suspition to all mankind of some villany perpetrated upon the person of this Nobl' Lord; they proceeded fur­ther even to the carrying away the very Cloaths which they would not so much as allow the Jury to see, tho some of the Coroners Inquest had the wit and seeming ingenuity as to call for them. I do not affirm nor would I have [Page 54] it thought, that all these irregularities were committed before the Coroner himself saw the Body, for I have been well informed and am fully satisfied to the contrary, and have reason to believe that he was prevailed upon to consent and give way to the do'ing of these absurd and illegal things. But that which I assert and which will be proved if occasion be, both by the several members of the Jury it self, and by diverse other persons who saw the Body before the time of the Coroners inquisition, is that these irregulari­ties were committed and done, ere ever the Jury, who were to be the jud­ges of the manner of my Lord Essex's death, were admitted or indeed could be to the sight of the Corps. For as the Coroners Inquest neither sat upon, nor saw the Body till the 14 of July in the forenoon; so all these irregular things had been don' the 13 being the same day on which my Lord was killed. Now besides many other circumstances which the Jury might have observed dete­ctive of and serving to discover the manner of my Lord Essex's death, had all things been suffered to remain as they were at the moment when his Body was found, and as they ought according to the custome of the Kingdom and the practice in all cases of that Nature to have done, there would have appeared three remarkabl' things to them, which had served to convince all men who had a spark of Reason or degree of honesty, that this great and honorabl' Peer did not destroy himself, but was Massacred by hired and suborned Ruffians. The first whereof would have been the print of a bloody foot upon one of my Lords Stockins, which seeing it could not be an impression made by himself, must necessarily have been the effect of a most perfidious cruelty exercised upon him by others. Nor is this a fiction of mine raised to vindicate the memory of the E. of Essex from the guilt and infamy of so base and enormous a Crime, nor given out to baffle and discredit the belief of the late Plot, and deliver the Conspirators from the re­proach and danger which that pretended Combination had derived upon them, much less is it invented to defame the King, cast an aspersion upon the Government and enflame the Nation, but there are ey' Witnesses ready to swear it; and one as remote from all likelihood of being the Author of a groundless and Romantick Fabl' as any man, affirmed it before the Coroner and Jury when they sat upon an Inquisition into the manner of my Lords death. For Samuel Peck a Servant of the Earl of Essex's, and who had just brought the provisions which Bomeny by my Lords Order had writ­ten to the Steward for, as the perfidious Rascal was running down Stairs crying out that my Lord had killed himself, and that he had found his Body dead in the Closet, did thereupon being surprised by Bomenies report run up into the Chamber, where he saw his Master lying in the Closet with a great [Page 55] part of his Leggs reaching out of the Closet door, and the print of a bloody foot upon one of his Stockins, which so far convinced this honest and unbiaz'd man of violence committed upon the Earl of Essex's person, that he immediately cryed out they have murdered my Lord. Nor is Peck the only Witness whom we can produce to testifie this, but there are others also ready to confirm it upon Oath, whensoever his Majesty will be pleased to take them into his protection and indemnifie them from the accession they are guilty of to that horrid and bloody murder. But before I dimiss Peck, there is one thing further observabl', namely that having among other things brought wine for my Lords own drinking, Russel and others of that fellow's stamp and comple­xion who stood by, fell a jeering the poor man, telling him the wine came too late for my Lord to drink, but that he had brought it very seasonably for his Funeral. Nor is this the only circumstance which would have af­foorded the Coroners Jury matter of evidence and light as to the manner of the Earl of Essex death, had not the Body been medled with, but suffered to continue in the place and posture as it fell; but there would have appeared a second circumstance of as great importance and signification in it self, and as serviceabl' as the former to have discovered the barbarous violence com­mitted upon this innocent and excellent person. For not only Mary Johnson the woman who was then Servant in the Warders house where my Lord was a prisoner, and who affirms that she saw my Lords Body as soon as either Bo­meny or Russel did, but several other persons besides her, have confessed that the Neck or midd'l of my Lords Cravat was cut in four pieces. Surely if my Lord (as Bomeny tells us) had taken off his periwig and hung it up, because as the Villain would have the world believe, he could not so conveniently have cut his Throat with the Periwig on, he would for the same reason have much rather laid aside his Cravat, being no less than three times about his Neck, and more apt to hinder the accomplishment of that unnatural Fact which the infidous and perjured Rascal hath endeavoured to father upon him, than the Periwig was. And therefor' as it is unreasonabl' to think other wise, but that the Earl of Essex would have lay'd by his Cravat, had he designed to commit that violence upon himself; so it gives just suspi­tion that he was assassinated by others that his Cravat was about his Neck, and c [...] thorough in so many places. And whensoever this affair' of my Lord of Essex's death comes to be admitted to a fair and indifferent hearing, and a pardon vouchsaf'd to such as shall give evidence, it will be fully pro­ved that the bloody Miscreants came provided and furnished with an Instru­ment which was able to conquer the resistance, which a Cravat, tho thrice rolled about the Neck was abl' to give it. And whereas one Webster Bayliff of [Page 56] the Tower liberty, being a person who assisted Mary Johnson in stripping my Lords Body, hath pretended to some that it was he who cutt the Cra­vat as not being abl' readily to untye it; this may be easily demonstrated to be a story purposely forged towards the avoiding the suspition, which the circumstance of the Cravats being cutt by the same Instrument and stroke that gave my Lord the fatal and deadly wound, would have both begotten and cherished in the Minds of unbiaz'd Men. For besides that Mary Johnson who in conjunction with Webster stripp'd the Body, hath often asserted the contrary to this which Webster reports and gives out, it was not possibl' that the Cravat should be thrice about my Lords Neck when the wound and Gash was made from the Neck Bone behind the one jugular to the Neck Bone behind the other jugular; and not at all cutt or touched by the Instru­ment wherewith that large and deadly wound was given. And as my Lords Cravat could not be tyed harder than he tyed it himself, without the inter­vention of some violent hand that had endeavoured to choak him with it to hinder and prevent his crying out; so we cannot suppose that my Lord him­self had tyed it so hard, but that it might have been easily loosed and untyed without cutting of it. And as it was impossibl' that my Lords Neck should swell after the Gullet and both the jugulars were cutt, which if it could have don' might have been a means and occasion of the Cravats being more strait' and closs about his Neck, so no rational man can apprehend, but that had it been never so strait', they would have taken pains and found a way to untye it, especially having a prospect of enjoying it themselves, it being usual in England that they who stripp a dead Body are recompenced with the gift and possession of all the Cloaths which they find about it. And there­for' as Websters pretending to have cutt the Cravat when he assisted in stripp­ing the Body, is both a confirmation that it was about my Lords Neck when he was killed, and that it was cutt into so many pieces as I have declared; so the having made it evident that this pretence of Webster as to his cutting the Cravat at such a time is a forgery and fiction of his own, I may from the whole very justifiably conclude, that this Report was invented to sup­press the evidence and light which this circumstance would have given into the manner of my Lord Essex's death, and to prevent the questioning such as might thereupon have been suspected and apprehended for assassinating and murdering that vertuous and Nobl' Peer. But besides the two fore­go'ing circumstances which would have served to detect the manner of my Lords death, and the violence which had been used to bring him to his unti­mely End, there was a Third of as great weight and moment as either of them, which had the Body been suffered to continue in the place, posture, [Page 57] and condition as it fell, would have clearly discovered the perjury of Bo­meny and Russel, and wonderfully contributed to the unvailing and laying open the whole Mystery of this barbarous murder. For whereas both Bomeny and Russel not only swear that the Closet door where my Lord fell, was lock'd when they came up to it, but that upon opening the door they found him lying all along on the Closet Floor; Peck the Servant that had brought the provisions to my Lord just as Bomeny pretended to have found him dead, and who upon Bomeny's meeting him on the stairs and telling him that my Lord had killed himself, run immediately into the Cham­ber, is ready to depose upon Oath that he saw the Earl of Essex 's Body lying in the Closset with a great part of his leggs without the Closet door. Which Testimony as it shews the falshood of those two Rascals Informa­tions in swearing that the Closet door was lock'd when they came first up to it; so it ought to have credit given thereunto, as proceeding from one that could hope for no advantage by telling a lie, nor fear any danger from declaring the Truth, while on the contrary Russel and Bomeny were sub­orned and brib'd to attest a forged story, and knew themselves liable to be hanged for their accession to my Lord's murder, had they related the mat­ter as it really was. Yea this posture wherein Peck declares he found my Lord's Body, namely, three quarters of it lying in the Closet, and one quar­ter out of it, must have awakened the Ju [...]y had they seen it in that condi­tion, to suspect and apprehend, that some preceding violence had been of­fered to his person near the Closet door. But as the removing and stripping the Body, and washing both it and the two Rooms before ever the Co­roner's Inquest was admitted either to see it, or to view those places where the Tragedy had been acted, deprived them of the knowledge of the fo [...]e­going circumstances, (and possibly of many others as weighty and impor­tant) which would have served to have led them into this Mystery, and enlightned them about the manner of my Lord Essex's death, so nothing can be more convictive of some violent and unlawful course and means, made use of to bring him to that deplorable and untimely End, than the irregularities committed upon and about the Body, before the Jury either sat upon, or so much as saw it.

That which we advance unto in the next place, as fresh matter of proof that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se, but that he perished by the violent hands of bloody Assassinates, ariseth partly from the carriage of the Jury it self, which was trusted with the Inquisition into the man­ner of his Death, and who as men of little Sense or Reason, and of less Justice and Honesty, gave in upon Oath, that he did voluntarily and feloniously [Page 58] cut his own Throat; and partly from the behaviour of others towards the Jury bo [...] in consining and abridging them to a shorter time than was ne­cessary to a s [...]itable and thorough Enquiry into so great an Affair, and in denying and withholding from them those means of being enlightned in that matter, which it was their Duty to require, and the Duty of others to grant, and without which they could not judge themselves inabled to give a t [...]e and just Verdict concerning the manner of that Noble Mans death. And the f [...]r [...] thing that occurs in the carriage of the Jury, which makes it suspected that even they did judge the manner of the Earl of Essex's death a business of too much hazard to enquire narrowly into, was their partia­lity in examining those few Witnesses which they called before them, and their giving too hasty and undeserved credit to two Fellows of whom they had reason to be jealous as interested in that murder, against the informa­tion of an honest and unbiass'd person. With what not only coldness but apparent loathness to be truly informed, did they examine Peck, as if they had dreaded to hear any thing which might shake their belief of the Earl of Essex's having killed himself, or which might oblige them to accuse and charge others with the guilt of his murder, while in the mean time they greedily hearkned to whatsoever Bomeny and Russel swore, tho' stuft with all the inconsistencies and contradictions imaginable? How little esteem and value did they set upon the information of poor Peck, tho' they could not but know that he was a man whom none could have endeavoured to prepossess, and who was neither under the influence of hope or fear to testifie any thing but what he saw; while in the interim they paid an im­plicite faith to the self and one another contradicting depositions of Bo­meny and Russel, whom they might easily have suspected not only to have been prompted and taught what they were to say, but to have been both deterred by the apprehension of punishment from declaring the Truth, and sway'd by Rewards to swear and publish a Falshood? But there is a Second thing wherein the Jury were partial and defective in their Enquiry into the man­ner of the Earl of Essex's death, and which by consequence shews that if not all of them, yet some, and they such as conducted the rest, did either know or were jealous of a mystery in the way of that Noble Mans coming to his fatal end, which they were not willing, and judged it not for their interest to dive too far into. For albeit there were more persons than Rus­sel and Bomeny then in the house when my Lord's Throat was cut, yet I do not find that they did, or were willing to examine any others. Now amongst those that were in Hawley's house at that season when that bloody Fact was committed upon this honourable Peer, there was one Mary Johnson, [Page 59] who amongst many other things which she declares, affirms particularly that being just entred my Lords Chamber as Russel and Bomeny were opening the Closet door, she saw the Body as soon as either of them did; and yet this Wo­man, whom the Cor [...]ner's Inquest were bound by the [...]aws of Justice as well as the Rules of Prudence to have examined, was never so much as called upon, nor ask'd a Question concerning that matter in a judicial way. And we have the more reason to complain of the Juries neglect, and infideli­ty in this particular, because she has often reported, and prosesseth her self ready to depose upon Oath, divers things, which are wholly inconsi­stent with what Russel and Bomeny have informed. For while they depose that they found my Lord's Body lying along in the Closet, and the Razor lying by him on the Floor, this Woman, Mary Johnson, both hath and doth still report, that my Lord of Essex was found kneeling on both his knees with his Body leaning against the Wall, and that the Razor was in his hand, the blade being lying upon his Forefinger, and the handle hanging down between that Fin­ger and the Thumb. And while they swear that it was not above a quarter of an hour and a half, from Bomeny 's delivering the Razor to his Master, till the time of their finding him dead in the Closet; She positively avers and affirms, that the Body when at first found was cold and st [...]ff, which it could not be at that season of the year in a much longer time than their Informations do specifie and allow. I do not say that what she affirms was true, no more than I believe that what they inform was so; but I say the contrariety which (had she been examined) would have appeared in her Testimony to theirs, might have served to convince the Jury, and is suffi­cient to satisfie all mankind, that things were not as they are declared by any of them, but that the manner of my Lord's death, and the posture wherein the Body was found, being otherwise than was safe for them to disclose and reveal, each of them in order to hide and conceal the Truth, and for the sheltering both themselves and others from Justice, fram'd a story of their own concerning that matter, whence it came to pass that they so widely differed one from another in their several and respective Reports. And as the carriage and behaviour of the Jury in their Inquisition after the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, does plainly shew that there was a secret and hidden villany in that matter which some of them were either forbidden or afraid to ravel into; so it serves to depress and take off the credit of that Verdict which they gave in concerning his having mur­dered himself. But let us in the next place observe and consider the be­haviour of other persons, and those acting by no meaner Authority than of great men, towards the Coroner's Inquest when they were met [Page 60] and sat upon the Body; and we shall from thence also be furnished with new proofs and further evidence, that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but was brought to his unfortunate and untimely end, by Instru­ments whom they would not have known, and by means which they durst not admit to have narrowly searched into. For whereas according to the saying of the Poet, which my Lord Chancellor Finch was pleased to quote at the Tryal of my Lord Stafford,

That we can hardly proceed slowly, nor search diligently enough in what con­cerns the life or death of a man; so there were many singular and weighty reasons, arising from the worth and quality of the person, the place and condition my Lord of Essex was then in, the benefit or prejudice which were likely to ensue to others, as his death should be found to be compas­sed by this or that means, which should have influenced the Jury to use all the utmost scrutiny and diligence imaginable in their Enquiry into the manner of that Noble Mans death. But instead of this, the Jury was little sooner met (which by the way was at a publick house in the Tower, whi­ther the Coroner had adjourned them after they had seen the Body) than a Message was sent them to make haste in their Inquisition, because one waited to carry it to the King. Not that I would perswade the World they had any Authority from His Majesty to use such an Expression, or that the King was not willing they should take time to examine things throughly as well as with gravity and leisure, but that there were some great men and very near his person who gave order to make use of his name, in order to the preventing the reproach and publick guilt, which a due, calm, impar­tial, and leisurely Enquiry of the Jury into that matter, would have subjected and made them obnoxious unto. Nor can I believe that Hawly the Warder, who was one of those that sent the forementioned Message to the Jury, either would or durst have done it, and much less have named the King, but that he had express Command and Warrant from some in power for the doing of it, and that there were some men of the first quality, who for reasons well known to themselves, were exceeding backward and averse to the having the manner of the Earl of Essex's death too critically searched into. But besides the method which I have mentioned that was used towards the Jury to hinder a due Inquisition into the matter they were met about, and to frighten and intimidate them from tracing things too far, there was a second passage, and much more astonishing than the former, in the beha­viour [Page 61] of some people towards the Coroner's Inquest while they were assem­bled and sitting about the Earl of Essex's death. For one of the Jury having observed, that tho' they had been admitted to view the Body, yet they had not seen the Cloaths which my Lord wore when he was killed, but that they had been taken off, and were carried away, did thereupon ask to see the Cloaths which my Lord had on when that unfortunate thing fell out, and in which he was found dead. One would think that a more modest, just, and necessary demand could not have been made; and I take the con­fidence to say, the Jury ought not to have proceeded to a Verdict till they had been complied with in it, unless upon the denial of so righteous a Re­quest, and the refusal of a matter that was so necessary as well as useful to inform them, they had proceeded as in duty and conscience they ought, to acquit my Lord from having committed any violence upon himself, and have cast this horrid Murder upon others. - For instead of being gratified in the demand of seeing the Cloaths, the Coroner was immediately called into the next Room, where some Gentlemen were attending (and a­mongst others the person I have just now mention'd) who having overheard what was ask'd for, severely check'd and rebuk'd him for suffering such Questions to be proposed. And this mercenary, or at least cowardly Soul, Farnham the Coroner (if I may so call him, being but the Coroner's Deputy) returning back to the Jury after he had receiv'd the reprimand and rebuke, told them, they were called to sit on my Lord's Body, and not on his Cloaths, and that it was sufficient they had seen the Body, and received an Account upon Oath how it was found. O faithless and nonsensical Man! as if because they were to sit upon the Body, they might not be allowed a view of the Cloaths in which it was arrayed, when this noble Person received his fatal and deadly Wound. But stupid Fool, whom if thy Place and Office had not made an Esquire, thy honesty and wit never would; didst thou think that it was meerly the Body of the Earl of Essex thou wast to sit upon, whilst thy business, man, was to enquire by what means, and after what manner my Lord himself came to that unnatural, violent, and untimely end. And therefore as thou sat upon the Body meerly in order to the receiving light and information into the manner how my Lord's Person came to be destroyed, so if thou hadst not renounced Conscience as well as Courage, thou wouldst have desired a sight of the Cloaths in subservency and order to the same end. Nor can any rational person otherwise judge, why the Body, was first stripp'd, and the Cloaths afterwards with held from the view of the Jury when demanded by one of them to be seen, but because something or other remarkable would have been found upon and about them, which [Page 62] would have overthrown the Informations of Bomenie and Russel, and made appear my Lord's being murthered by others, instead of perishing by his own hands.

To all that we have hitherto said in vindication of the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having been a F [...]lon of himself, and in proof that he was most treacherously as well as barbarously murdered by others; we shall in the next place give an account of some remarkable passages which were observed in the Tower that Morning my Lord was kill'd, which will not only inform us there was something requiring great secrecy then trans­acting, but will conduct us home to the Authors and Authorizers of that villanous, and ever to be abhorred Assassination. The first thing then re­markable was, That the Gate at the lower end of those Apartments in the Tower where the Earl of Essex and all the other Gentlemen committed for the late pretended Plot, were lodged and secured, and which always used to stand open from Morning to Evening, was all that Morning kept shut till after my Lord of Essex was dead, except that it was once opened to let out my Lord Russel to his Trial, being immediately after he was gone, lock'd up again. And as this could not escape the sight of the persons who were then confin'd, so it gave that surprise to some of them, being a thing which had not fallen out before, that one Gentleman in particular called to his Warder and ask'd him the meaning of it, and receiv'd for answer, That there was special Order given for it. Nor is it difficult to guess the reason of the Order, and upon what Motives, and in reference to what end, command was given for keeping the said Gate shut up all that Morning till after the Earl of Essex was kill'd. For the Stage and Theater upon which the bloody Tra­gedy was to be acted, being within that Gate, it was needful to keep people out as much as they could, to prevent the discovery of the Actors, unless it were such as had their parts in some of the Scenes, or would be sure to give their Plaudite to the whole. A second passage very remarkable, which was observed in the Tower that Morning, and which speaks as loud to the matter we are upon as the former, was, that the King and Duke having been at the Lieutenant's house, which is about the middle of the Alley where my Lord of Essex and the rest were imprisoned; and having stood in a Balcony with a few attending them to see my Lord Russel pass by to his Trial; the Duke did soon after, with several waiting upon him, withdraw from the King down into the Alley the Gate whereof was still kept shut. Surely it could not be the pleasure of the walk that made the Duke leave his Majesty at that season, but he had something to give Order about, and to see the managing of, which was of more moment than his Prince's com­pany, [Page 63] and which his heart was infinitely more set upon. The Third and last thing which fell under the observation of divers then in the Tower, was, That the Duke having withdrawn from the King, there were several persons immediately sent and dismissed from his very side towards the Earl of Es­sex's lodgings, wh [...] returned not till after the death of that Noble person, that they came and gave an account of the obedience they had paid to his Highness's commands, and that the Earl of Essex was kill'd, pretending he had cut his own Throat, thereby murdering his Memory after they had assassinated his Person. It may be expected that I should here mention the Names of those that were sent upon that barbarous errand, but there being some of them who may be improved and made serviceable to detect the villanous crime they were assisting to commit, it is but Justice to our selves as well as to them to conceal their Names: And to publish the Names of the rest, were but to set a mark upon the former, and expose them to the rage and power of St. James's by not proclaiming them in conjunction with the others. But this offer I renew again both to his Majesty and his Ministers of Justice, that if a melius inquirendum into the manner of my Lord Essex's death, may be ordered, and an Indemnity granted to such as shall be willing and able to detect by whom and how he was murdered, then shall the Names not only of the Russians who committed the bloody Fact, but the Names of the Conspirators who were the Contrivers, Au­thors, and Encouragers of it, he both discovered to his Majesty and judicial Officers, and published to all the World.

The only thing which remains to be discoursed of, in confirmation of the Earl of Essex's being murdered by others, and that he was not Felo de se, is that of a bloody Razor's being thrown out of his chamber Window before any noise of his Death, or the least intimation that he was killed. And indeed this of a bloody Razors being thrown out of his Window, has already made a great clamor in the World, and was the first thing which raised a suspici­on that my Lord had not destroyed himself, but that he was assassinated by others. For as it was impossible that after his Throat was cut he should throw it out himself, so it could not be cast forth by others before the body is pretended to be found, or any declaration made that he was killed, un­less it was by such as were present in the Room when he was slain, and who were instrumental in his Murder. Nor can any account be given why they did it, but that God infatuated them, thereby to detect the villany they had committed. And it seems they had no sooner recollected themselves, but they were sensible it would not serve the end they had design'd it unto, namely of making the world believe he had cut his own Throat, and in [Page 64] revenge upon the Instrument wherewith it was done, thrown it away after the deed was performed, and therefore they immediately both caused it to be taken up, and carried back into the Closet, and have had the impudence ever since to deny that ever such a thing was done. Nor can the Story which a certain Gentleman at Whitehal had formed for them, stand them in any stead, viz. That Bomeny finding my Lord dead in the Closet, and the Razor which had been the Instrument of his Death, lying by him, and that thereupon being struck with Surprize and Astonishment at so unexpected and deplorable an Accident, he took up the Razor, being acted by Grief and Indignation, and not minding what he did, threw it out of the Window. For besides that the Razor was thrown out of the Window before there was the least noise of my Lord's death; this Gloss and Qualification was invented too late to serve the end it was designed unto, seeing Bomeny's and Russel's Examinations with which it is inconsistent, were publick before. Now in proving that a Razor was thrown out of my Lord Essex's Window before the news and tidings of his Death, I would not be thought to acknowledge that it was a Razor wherewith the mortal and deplorable Wound was given him, being well assured that it was with an Instrument much more proper for the purpose than that would have been; but that which I intend by the proof hereof is partly the overthrow and subversion of Bomeny's and Russel's Informations, upon which the inquisition and verdict of the Coroner's Inquest was built, and partly to establish and evidence that antecedently to the noise and report of my Lord's death, there were some persons in the Chamber where he was kill'd: Which last if once obtained, it will, I suppose, be thence readily grant­ed that they were not there to be idle Spectators of my Lords cutting his own Throat, but that their business was to perpetrate themselves that barba­rous Fact upon him, tho' for the concealing their guilt, and avoiding the ju­stice and severity of the Law, they have endeavoured to cast the reproach and infamy of it upon that innocent and injured person. The first who re­ported and divulged the Story of a bloody Razor's being thrown out of the E. of Essex's Window before there was any news of my Lord's death, was one William Edwards a Youth between thirteen and fourteen years of age, who having heard as he was going to School that the King and Duke were in the Tower, went in to see them, and continuing there sometimes in one place and sometimes in another all that morning, came home about ten of the Clock to his Mother, and told the Earl of Essex was killed; and that while he the said Edwards stood near the Earl's Lodgings looking up towards his Chamber-window, he saw a Hand cast out a bloody Razor, which being going [Page 65] to take up, there came a short Maid or Woman with a white hood on her head cut of Captain Hawley 's House where the Earl lay, and took up the Razor, which she immediately carried into the Captain's H [...]use, and run up stairs, and that soon after he heard one cry out murder▪ All this the B [...]y hath frequent­ly repeated and averred to his Father, Mother, Sister, and to one Mrs. Burt, as well as to Mr. Braddon, as those four persons deposed upon Oath at Mr. Braddon's Tryal, yea, the very B [...]y himself did confess and acknow­ledge in Court that he had said and reported it. 'Tis true, that after he had often affirmed it, he was at last by the flatteries of some, and the menaces of others, brought to say he saw no such thing as a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window, but that the whole which he had re­ported relating thereunto was seigned and invented by himself. For having been told by his Sister, that through persevering in his first Report he would not only ruine his Father and the Family, but that he would bring both himself and his Father to be hanged; he thereupon under the influence of dread and fear retracted what he had before affirmed. But whether there ought not more credit to be given to his Affirmation, than to his Denial, I dare refer it to the judgment of all impartial men, who have either heard of the Methods used towards the Boy at the Council Board, or who have read the carriage and behaviour of my Lord Chief Justice and the Court of Kings Bench in this matter at the Tryal of Mr. Braddon. And as I was amazed my self on the perusal of the Tryal, to observe with what impudence and barefacedness they not only discovered the means used by others to influence the Boy to forswear himself, but the arts and tricks in hussing on the one side, and cajoling on the other, whereby the very Bench drew him into and cherished him in perjury; to I never had the fortune to speak with a man that was wise or honest, but he was forced to acknowledge that the Boy's first Report in saying he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window, seem'd natu­ral, plain, candid, and true, whilst his denying what he had so often affirmed to have seen, appeared evidently to be wheedled out of him, or by reason of the dread and fear wherewith they had possess'd him, wrested and extorted from him. How gross as well as unbecoming was it for my L. Chief Justice, when old Mr. Edwards had upon his Childs being sworn, ^* charged him in the presence of Almighty God to speak the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, I say for my L. C. Justice to bid the Child turn about, and say, Father, be sure you say nothing but the Truth. For as the Father's command to his Son does plainly intimate the jealousie he was under concerning the Boy's being [Page 66] wrought upon to perjure himself; so the Reply which my Lord Chief Justice advised the Child to make to his Father, did besides the irreverence towards a Parent whereof it savoured, directly insinuate the apprehensions he had lest the Father's Christian Counsel should fortifie the Child to assert the Truth. How palpably as well as shamefully did my Lord Chief Justice betray and reveal their entangling the Boy to swear a lie, by the rage as well as superciliousness wherewith he treated Mr. Wallop (a person not only to whose age honour is due, but who in all the qualifications of a Gentleman, and the accomplishments of a Scholar in all other Learning as well as the Law, infinitely transcends and exceeds his Lordship) and for no other reason but because Mr. Wallop would have ask'd young Mrs. Edwards ^* whether she had not told her Brother that the King would hang his Father if he did not deny what he had so often affirmed to have seen. And tho' it was a Question, the answering whereof would have unfolded and laid open the means by which the Boy was wrought to retract what he had formerly declared, and would have confirmed the truth of his first Report, yet my L. C. Justice instead of suffering any Answer to be given to it, not only upbraided that ancient, learned, and worthy Gentleman, as if he had intended to have charged the King with a design of hanging men, or else of making them deny the Truth (both which were far from his thoughts and the intention of the Question) but having huff'd and hectored him, did threaten him with the animadversion and correction of the Court for refle­cting upon and aspersing the Government. Nor is young Edwards the only one who hath declared that he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window before any noise or rumor of his death; but there is also a Girl, one Jane Lodeman, of about thirteen years of age, who being in the Tower that Morning the Earl of Essex was killed, and stand­ing over against his Lodgings, came home and told both her Aunt and others about ten of the Clock, that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cutt his Throat, and that she had seen a hand cast a bloody Razor out of the window where the people said that my Lord lodged. And as this Girl had no acquaintance with or knowledge of the former Boy, and consequently they could not agree together to form and invent a Romantick and fabulous Story, nor to concert the particulars which they were to report; so it is observable that their Relations do harmonise and accord in all the main heads, and only seem to differ in one thing, which the Girls unacquain­tedness with the several parts of the house where my Lord lodged led her into a mistake about. For they both agree that there was a Razor thrown [Page 67] out of the Chamber window before Murder cryed out, and that this Ra­zor was bloody, and that immediately there came a short Maid or Woman out of the house with a white hood upon her head, who went towards the place where the Razor fell; which as they are all the material things requisite to the confirmation of the Fact, so being wholly strangers to one another, they could not before-hand concert them, nor agree the things they should report. Had one said it was a Knife that was thrown out of the window, while the other had affirmed that it was a Razor; or had one denyed it to be bloody, while the other had reported that it was so; or had the one mentioned a Man as having come out of the house towards it, while the other spake of a Woman, there would have been then some reason for the Ridiculing it as a Fiction, seeing the contradicting one ano­ther in the essential circumstances of the Report, would have detected the falshood of the Reporters. And it must argue great perverseness as well as strange prepossession of Mind, to pretend to disbelieve the Story because the Children seem to vary one from another in a little and minute thing, when in the mean time there is the greatest harmony imaginable be­tween them in all that is of moment for the establishment and assurance of he realty of the Fact. And therefore whereas towards invalidating the Girls Testimony, it was objected by my L. Chief Justice Jeffreys that she should say the Razor was thrown out of the Closet window, when the Boy had said ^† that it was thrown out at the Chamber window; this pretended inconsistency between the two may be easily removed to the satisfaction of all rational men, and the eternal reproach and infamy of Sir George Jeffreys. For indeed she said no such thing, nor did she know the Closet window from the Chamber window, nor so much as which was my Lord's Chamber but as she heard declared by the Standers by. All that the Girl did affirm was, that ^* she saw a hand throw a bloody Razor out of a win­dow, which as the people discoursed belonged to the house where the E. of Essex lodged. Nor did the objection arise from what the Child her self deposed in Court, but it was started from the Deposition of one Glasbrook, who infor­med of the Girls having told her Aunt that the E. of Essex had cut his Throat, and that she was sure of it because she saw him throw the Razor out of the window, and that it was all bloody. Now because the Closet was the place where my Lord was found dead, they would infer that she meant the Closet window, and thereupon conclude the Story to be false, both be­cause of the impossibility that himself should throw the Razor out, and the contrariety which they would have supposed to be in this expression [Page 68] to what the Boy had reported. Whereas the phrase does only shew the simplicity of the Child, but does no ways argue the falsity of the Report. And the account which She gave of the place where She stood, namely, ^* in that part of the Tower called the Mount, plainly shews that she could not mean the Closet window, but the window of the Chamber. And had the Court of the Kings Bench had but the justice and integrity which be­came men in their places, one Question of the Judges, and the Childs An­swer to it, would have clearly decided whether she meant the Closet window, or that of the Chamber. For had they but ask'd her, whether the window out of which the Razor was thrown, stood towards the Forestreet or the Back yard, the Objection would have immediately va­nished; seeing considering the place where the Child was then standing, she must have answered, that it look'd towards the Fore-street; nor was it possible for her to see any thing thrown out of the Closet window, un­less she had stood in the Back-yard, which she neither did, nor was so much as ever there. But by the asking such a question, Sir George Jeffreys would have lost the advantage not only of ridiculing the whole matter about the Razor, and of devolving the murder of the Earl of Essex upon himself, but of skreening the Malefactors from Justice, and possibly of ruining Mr. Braddon, which were things of too great concernment to St. James's, to let an occasion and pretence of compassing them escape him, especially at the cost of a little Meekness, Patience, and Justice in his Lordship in receiving a Deposition, and examining a Witness. Now this Objection advanced by my Lord Chief Justice against the Truth of the Girls Testimony, being fully and to the satisfaction of all impartial men removed and taken off, all that absurd and nonsensical stuff, which through his having wrested the Childs words, he superstructs upon his own Dreams and Fictions, does of its own accord, and without its being needful for me to interpose any thing by way of remark upon it, fall to the ground. Nor will any man of common sense henceforth imagine that the Coach which the Child says she saw at the Door, must therefore have been in the Back-yard, and consequently been droven through the narrow Entry and Door of the House; seeing it is evident from what hath been here discoursed, that she meant the Fore-door and not the Back, and to that there was no difficulty of access. ^† And with the same ease may all that Captain Hawley and my Lord Chief Justice declare about the height of the Pales, and the impossibility of throwing any thing out of the Closet win­dow over them, and especially of seeing it when thrown over and lying [Page 69] upon the ground, be dissipated and blown away, because it was not the Pales encompassing the Back-yard which the Girl's Testimony referred un­to, but those to which her Deposition related, are the Pales which face and sence the forepart and front of the House. O the Chicanery and frau­dulency of a mercenary Lawyer, instead of the uprightness and integrity of a just and impartial Judge! Nor could my L. C. Justice have taken a more expeditious and effectual course to proclaim his own Villany, than he hath done, by endeavouring to ridicule and expose this poor Child's Testi­mony in the foregoing particular. And whereas ^* Mr. Justice Holloway was pleased to except against the De [...]o [...]tion of the Girl in another parti­cular, namely, that whilst she swore the Razor fell within the Pales, the Boy had said that it fell without them; I do return this by way of Answer to it: First, that the Reports of the two Children are much more easie to be reconciled, than the Observation of Mr. Justice H [...]lloway upon this point, is to be reconciled with that of my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys con­cerning the same. For whereas Justice H [...]lloway would have the contra­diction between the Informations of the Children to lie in this, ^† That the Girl said the Razor fell within the Pales, and the Boy said it fell without; my Lord Chief Justice will have it to lie in the Girl's saying the Razor was thrown on the outside, while the Boy had said it was thrown on the inside. I am sure one of these two Judges must be mistaken, seeing it is impossible that two accounts of the same thing so clearly contradictory the one to the other, can be true. And indeed the mistake lies with my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys (whom passion had transported to that degree, that he nei­ther duly minded what himself or others said) in affirming that the Girl should say, the Razor was thrown on the outside the Pales, when she had expressly sworn that it was thrown on the inside of them. But then, 2. as to the inconsistency between what the Boy informed, and that which the Girl deposed; I say that young Edwards had both in words, and by imi­tating the posture and motion of the hand out of which the Razor fell, fre­quently declared that it was cast on the inside of the Pales. His Father, Mother, and several others are ready to depose, that when he first told the Story of the Razor, he expressed it by saying that it dropt out of a hand from the E. of Essex's Window, which did plainly signifie that he meant it fell on the inside of the Pales. And whensoever he used to imitate the motion of the hand from which the Razor fell, he did put it into such a down­right posture, as that all who observed his imitating what he saw done, concluded that the Razor fell on the inside the Pales. Nor was he ever heard [Page 70] to say that it fell on the outside of the Pales, save only that time that Mr. Braddon took his information in writing, when his Sister by endeavouring to threaten him into a denial of the whole matter he saw, had put him into such a fright, that either he could not remember, or did not mind every little circumstance of what he as well saw as had often reported before. And it is remarkable that neither himself at Mr. Braddon's Trial, where he repeated and acknowledged what he had formerly reported, nor any other Witnesses who appeared at the said Trial to testifie what they had heard him say, did in the least mention his having at any time said that the Ra­zor fell on the out-side of the Pales; but on the contrary his Mother does so word her Deposition, as serves to prove that she believed he always meant the in side of the Pales; for she sweares, ^* that he said he saw a hand out of a Window and a Razor fall down. And as the whole matter of a Razor's being thrown or let fall out of the Earl of Essex his Window immediately before the noise of his death, will be attested by several other persons when there is occasion; so the Sentinel Meak, whom we have formerly mentioned, not only reported it to divers persons both that Morning my Lord was killed, and afterwards, but he added two or three remarkable Circumstances, some whereof the Boy had not taken notice of, nor the Girl observed others. That which Meak then declared to three persons the very day my Lord was killed, and which they are ready to swear when called thereunto, is, That just before the Earl's death was publickly known, there was a bloody Razor thrown out of his Chamber-window, which was seen by some of the Souldiers as well as by others; and whilst a little Boy who had seen the Razor thrown out, run towards it to take it up, a short Maid or Woman that came out of the house where the Earl of Essex lodged, was to quick for the Boy, and snatched up the Razor, and having run with it into the house, Murder was soon after cryed out. Thus we have not only a confirmation from a third person, that there was a Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before any tidings of his death, and that a Boy went to take it up, but was prevented by a short Woman from Captain Hawley's house, who took it up and run in with it, the last passage of which the Girl had not observed; but we have also a ratification of a passage the Girl swore, which the Boy gave no account of, namely, that there were divers other persons standing by who saw this bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord of Essex's Chamber-window. Nor is it strange that every little thing should not be equally minded by all, but it is enough to set this business beyond the controul of all rational men, that it hath been declared by two besides the Boy, whereof as none of them can be [Page 71] supposed under any prevalent temptation to feign such a Story, so it was impossible that three persons, altogether Strangers to one another, should at one and the same time, and in three different places conspire and agree to report the same thing. But to all these proofs drawn from the testimonies of several persons concerning a Razor's being thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before the news of his death. There is another evidence as con­vincing as any of them which may be derived from the Razor of it self. And that is the several Gaps or Notches which were sound in it when the Jury saw it, and had the account of its being found by my Lord's Body, and of its being the Instrument wherewith, as they said, he had cut his Throat. For besides one large Gap or Notch at the point, into which a man might al­most lay the end of his little Finger, it was for about two inches towards the handle so gapp'd and notch'd, that the edge was wholly broken off, and yet all that part of the Razor which extended from the Notch at the point till within two inches of the handle, was so far from being gapp'd, that it re­mained very keen and sharp. And this of the Notches in the Razor was so remarkable, that some of the Jury not only observed it, but asked one of the Chyrurgeons who was by, Whether my Lord by cutting his Throat could have made these Notches in the Razor. To which the Chyrurgeon answered he might, but whether it was from his being Fool or Knave, or both, I leave others to judge. For I am sure the reason he assigned from the Tremefaction that was in the hand by that time the Razor reached the Neck-bone, is ri­diculous in it self, and can satisfie no rational man. And had this ignorant or suborned fellow considered the position and site of the notches, he would have both understood the falsehood of his reply, and how absurd the rea­son was which he endeavour'd to justifie and support it by. For admitting at the present that the gap at the point might have been so occasion'd, which yet was impossible for reasons assigned before; yet how was it possible that that part of the Razor which was towards the handle, and which must be grasp'd or held in the hand, otherwise the Razor could not be used, nor the wound given, should be most notch'd and gapp'd, seeing all must grant that it was so far from approaching the Neck-bone, that it could not pass beyond the skin and outward part of the Gullet. Surely I, the same part of the Razor could not at one and the same time be held fast within the hand, and be gra­ting also upon, and against the Neck-bone? This is so obvious to every child, that I know not how to ascribe the Chyrurgeon's Answer to his ignorance, but must either impute it to the Consternation which so Tragical an acci­dent had put him into, that he remain'd not Master of common sense; or it must be resolved into a worse cause, namely, a fear of tracing the murder [Page 72] of that honourable person, to the true and real Actors of it. Nor can the Conspirators against the life of that Noble Peer avoid the strength and evi­dence of this argument, but that the Razor must have fallen both from some considerable height, and upon some resisting sharp and hard substance, or that otherwise it could never have been gapp'd a [...]d n [...]tch'd as it was. And I dare upon this Theam challenge R [...]ger Lestrange to do his utmost, tho' I know he hath as good a faculty at ridiculing and [...]af [...]ling reasons which he can­not answer, as my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys has at exposing and hectoring Witnesses, the truth of whose testimony he cannot otherwise avoid.

Thus I have finished what at least I judge fit and proper at this time and juncture to be said concerning the barbarous murder and unparallell'd mas­sacre, as well as the violent and untimely end of that honourable and inno­cent person, Arthur late E. of Essex: And do greatly rejoice that I have been able to do this piece of service to God and my Country, as well as to the memory and vertue of that excellent man. For tho' thy Friends, great Es­sex! were not so happy as to prevent thy being murdered by the hands of execrable Ruffians, yet it is some relief to them under all their sorrows for thy unfortunate and tragical end, to be in a condition to vindicate thy Name from the infamy cast upon thee of having destroy'd thy self. And tho' we have all the light into, & assurance imaginable of divers other things, yet we do not here publish them because that were both to expose divers persons to the like fate & destiny, & to deprive our selves of the benefit of their testimo­ny at a Bar against the Malefactors. We hope never theless that under all the disadvantages under which welie, there is that account given of matters, circumstances & persons, that none can reasonably doubt of the truth of my Lord of Essex's being perfidiously assassinated. And to set this affair yet far­ther beyond all question and control, I do challenge those who do think themselves injured or agrieved, that for their own vindication, and the dis­covery of that murder, they would put this matter concerning the manner of the E. of Essex's death, into a fair, safe, and legal way of Trial, without danger to them who shall appear as Witnesses, or damage to such as shall have the vertue and courage to undertake to prosecute. But if instead of this they fall upon ruining men by Actions of Scandalum Magnatum, or of assassinating such whom they shall suspect to have detected this bloody and enormous crime, I hope it will be lookt upon not as a vindication of their innocency, but as an Argument of their Guilt. Nor can any man be brought into trouble for having or reading this Book, but it will be a fresh proof, that there is both a villanous mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death which they would not have known, and that there are persons [Page 73] guilty of, and accessory to it, whom it concerns them to preserve from the Infamy and Punishment thereof. Great Essex! how ungratefully wert thou recompensed for the Loyalty of thy Family, as well as thy own Sufferings and Services in behalf of the Crown? Was this the Reward of thy Fa­ther's laying down his Life on a Scaffold, and of all that thou thy self under­went and did for the King and the Government? Is it the Fate of the Ca­pels either to die for the Royal Family, or to fall by the Treachery & Cruely of some of the Regal Off-spring? Vertuous Soul! when thou had'st not Crimes for which they could destroy thee, thy Worth & Integrity became thy capital Offences; When their infamous and perjured Witnesses could not administer ground to those at St. James's to reach thy Life; thy Love to England, and zeal for the Protestant Religion, were sufficient Reasons with a great Man, and some others, to conspire and compass thy Death? And thy declining to join with the Papists to subvert the Laws of the Kingdom, and extirpate the Northern Heresy, was Motive enough, first to hate, and then to destroy thee. And what they despaired to effect by perjured Witnesses, and a pack'd Jury of Peers, they resolved to accomplish by suborned and hired Assassinates. When they wanted the shadow of Law to arraign thee before thy Peers in a publick way, they found Men wearing Stars and Coronets, who undertook to sit privately upon thee and sentence thee to die. Having lived the Patron as well as Darling of thy Country, thou fell at last, through the malice of the Nation's Enemies, a Victim and Sacrifice for its Rights and Liberties. Nor was there any way for thee to have escap'd their rage, but either to have been less dutiful to God and thy Country, or less tender to them, and more their open and avow'd Enemie. Had'st thou, when time was, unravell'd the Popish Conspiracy, as thou both might and should have done, thou could'st have prevented the misery that is fal­len upon the Nation, and the deplorable End thou hast been brought unto thy self? But thy Zeal for the greatness of the Monarchy, and thy Love as well as Compassion to a Great Man, have, through the injustice and un­thankfulness of that Man whom thou wast so industrious to save, proved an unhappy occasion of our Slavery, and thy own ruin. And tho none does more reverence thy memory than I do, yet I cannot but observe how conspicuous the Righteousness of God is, in the injustice of that ungrate­ful Man. Whil'st his Associates are reserved by Heaven to fall with him; they who knew his Designs, but out of pity to his Person as well as love lo his Majesty, thought sit to conceal them, are by an unsearcheable, but holy Providence, left and suffered to fall by him. Nor according to the measures of Wisdom, or in consistency with the Principles of true Reason, can any Man be a Friend to Religion and Natural Rights, without being [Page 74] an avowed Adversary to that great Man himself, as well as to his Contrivan­ces? But what do you think, O ye Peers and Gentlemen of England! are not all your Lives threatned in the destruction of this one Nobleman? The Laws that could not protect him, will be as unable to defend you. If the Tower of London, which is his Majesty's Royal Palace as well as the State Prison, could not secure the Earl of Essex from the irruption and violence of Assassinates: Can you either hope for, or promise your selves safety in your Country Dwellings? For if they want Pretences of destroying you by Persons in Ermine and Scarlet, they have no more to do but commissionate and arm Russians and Banditti against you. And when it may not be found convenient to assault your Lives by Strangers and hired Rascals whom you do not know; they understand the Art of debauching your Valet's de Cham­ber, and the Servants into whose hands you commit the care of your Per­sons, to stab or poison you. Into what a deplorable condition are English Gentlemen reduced, being exposed, if they stay in the Nation, to be either sworn out of their Lives by false Witnesses, or murdered by bloody Assas­sinates; or if they withdraw and retreat into Foreign Countries, made liable to be pursued to Outlawries. And which was never known in any Kingdom of the World, till Sir George Geffry's had given us a President, an Outlawry does as certainly destroy a Man, if the outlaw'd Party once fall into their hands, as if he had drunk Poison, or were stab'd through the heart with a Stilleto. Of this the unfortunate Sir Thomas Armstrong is an Exam­ple of the first impression, who albeit apprehended within the twelfth Month, which is the time the Statute allows for a Person to come in and have the benefit of a Trial notwithstanding an Outlawry, was yet executed by a Rule of the Court of King's Bench, without being allowed a Trial, tho he most earnestly demanded it as a right of the Subject, and what the Law of the Land gave him a just claim unto. And which is worthy to be remarked, as shewing the different treatment which Protestants meet with, beyond what was measured out to the worst and most criminal Papists. The same Attorny General who opposed Sir Thomas Armstrong's having the liberty and benefit of a Trial, and who required a Rule of Court for his Execution upon the bare Outlawry, did but a few Years before in the case of Levallian and Don O Carney, two of the Ruffians, who in the Popish Conspiracy were to have killed the King at Windsor, not only plead for the Reverse of their Outlawry (tho they had been above two Years outlaw'd, and came not in till they knew there was but one Witness could swear against them, Mr. Bedloe, the other Witness being dead) but he withal told my Lord Chief Justice Pem­berton, that there being an Error in the Fact through their absence beyond Sea when the Outlawry was issued out against them, the Reverse of it was [Page 75] a thing of course, which they had a Right to demand, and which the Court was bound by the Duty of their Office and Place to grant. Seeing therefore that those of you, O English Peers and Gentlemen, who remain either faithful to God in the matter of Religion, or true to your Country in the business of Civil Rights, can neither hope to escape the Malice and Rage of your Enemies by staying at home nor by going abroad, is it not time to be at last so far awakened out of your Lethargy, as to demand Justice upon those bold and enormous Malefactors that were the Contrivers and Perpetrators of this horrid Murder upon this Noble and Innocent Lord. Can you believe you have discharged your Duty either to your Maker, your Prince, your Country, your Selves, your Posterity, or to your murde­red Friend, till you have fill'd the Ears of his Majesty with a cry of inno­cent Blood barbarously shed? and till you have demanded melius inquiren­dum into the manner of that Noble Man's Death, and have brought the Authors and Instruments of his Assassination to undergo the Justice and Severity of the Law? Let me tell you, O Peers and Gentlemen! that this is both what Heaven and Earth do expect from you. And if you continue to neglect it, you will, in the account of God, be reckon'd amongst Acces­sories to that Guilt, and in the Esteem of Men be held for a dastardly and degenerate People. But if all Men shall either prove so intimid, or so supine, as to be regardless of the Command and Authority of God, their own Per­sonal Safety, the Wrath that impends over the Nation upon the cry of in­nocent Blood: Awake then and stir up thy self thou All-seeing and Righ­teous Lord, who beholdest Mischief and Spite to requite with thy hand, and make thy Wisdom known in the Detection, and thy Justice in the Punish­ment of this horrid Crime. For thou hast not only devolved the Inquisition after Murder upon those who are trusted with Rule among Men, but hast charged thy self with it, and hast said, The Blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of Man, and at the hand of every Man's Brother, will I require the Life of Man: and whoso sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. And we do the rather make this Appeal unto thee, O Lord, not only because they who are advanced unto the Seats of Judgment, are either un­accessable, or Patrons of what they should search out and punish; but be­cause they who take upon them to minister in thy holy Things, have pro­phaned thy Name, made contemptible thy Ordinances, and deceived thy People whom they should have informed, both by vindicating the Authors of this bloody Murder from the Guilt and Suspition of it, and by defaming and wounding the Memory of an innocent and guiltless Person. While the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws, have been like Wolves ravening to shed Blood, and to get dishonest Gain; these Mercenary Men have daub'd them [Page 76] with untempered Mortar, making the King glad with their Wickedness, and the Princes with their Lies. 'Tis to them that the Enemies of Protestancy and English Rights owe the success of all their Attempts; and it is they whom the Nation ought to accuse, of being the Instruments that have betray'd us to Popery and Slavery. For to omit their other Villanies by which they have fought as well to ruine the Nation, as oblige the Popish Faction; they have endeavoured to ingratiate themselves with that traiterous Party, by becoming Advocates for Assassinates, and Concealers of Massacres. The aspersing this Innocent and Noble Person (whose Spittle some years ago they were ambitious to lick up) with the Infamy of being Felo de se, and they ma­naging that wicked Fiction to the involving others in the Guilt of a Plot, hath been a Year's employment for some of the Clergy to exercise their Ta­lent upon, hoping thereby to pave their way to rich Benefices. Nor is there any thing so base, which some of the Clergy will not prostitute themselves unto and glory in, if it may but serve the Designs of St. James's, and pre­vent the detection of the Crimes whereof a great Man is guilty. A Fresh example we have of this in an Ecclesiasticks turning Informer, and causing a Souldier to be made run the Gantlet, and to be cashier'd. For a certain high flown Tory being viewing the Tower, did with a kind of plea­sure, on the remembrance that the Earl of Essex had there fatally ended his days, ask'd a common Sentinel where the Chamber was in which my L. of Essex had cut his Throat. To which the Souldier, who was neither a Stranger to the Reports that went concerning the Death of that Noble Person, nor to divers Circumstances importing by what means and hands he had fal­len) reply'd, pointing at the same time to the Room, that is the Chamber where the Earl of Essex was killed. And because the honest Fellow would not own to that inquisitive Person that my L. of Essex had murder'd him­self, but persevered in saying he was kill'd in such a place, therefore did the Divine inform against him, and brought him to suffer what I have re­lated. Which as it represents unto us the Principles of the present Clergy, so it confirms the Assassination committed upon that Noble Peer. O there­fore thou holy One, to whom Justice belongeth, shew thy self, yea, lift up thy self thou Judg of the Earth, cause their Mischief to return upon their own Heads, and for the Violence of their Hands, and the Sin of their Mouth, let them be taken in their Pride, that all Men may know God hath not for saken the Earth, but that he ruleth in Jacob, even unto the Ends of it.