I Shall not trouble you with an Account of the particular Crimes for which I am brought to this untimely End; but only in General deliver Five Principal Causes that have, in sooth, drawn so just a Judgment up­on me. First, Disobedience to my Parents. Secondly, Ill Company. Thirdly, the leaving my lawful Calling to engage in Affairs of State. Fourth­ly, Bearing false Witness: And lastly, my Ingratitude to those that rais'd me.

I shall say something upon each of these by way of Warning to all People, but especially to those who have been my Accomplices; several of whom do now hear what I say.

First, Of my Disobedience to my Parents, who sent me to study the Law, albeit I prov'd a graceless Youth, given up to all manner of Naughtiness; and in one of my wild Frolicks [...]estsoons married without their Consent or Know­ledge, and was thereupon left by them to shift in the wide World: Where I lived many Years in the lowest Degree of Misery and Want, which when attended with Pride, Avarice and Ambition, is the Parent of all Evil.

My Wants engaged me in ill Company, and taught me to associate with such who were secret Enemies to the Queen's Highness; particularly one Robin Trickster a Turn-coat Scrivener, and Maister Harry Madrigall of St. Iohn's Parish, afterwards Clerk of Her Grace's Guards. These Two, as it was ge­nerally thought, held private Intelligence with Mary late Queen of Scots, and were entirely devoted to Her and Her young Son Iames; who they affirmed had a better Title to the Crown than Her Highness. They perswaded me that Her Highness was an Enemy to God's Church. That Philip King of Spain, when he had reduced his Rebellious Subjects, whom our Queen had takan in­to Her Protection, would lend his Troops to be employed against Her Ma­jesty: That Mary Queen of Scots would by the Help of France (where She had great Power) prepare an Army to be sent to Scotland, and from thence invade England. That the Queen's Grace should be Deposed, and Her best Friends destroyed, especially the Lord Burleigh, the Earl of Leicester, General for Her Highness in Holland, and Sir Francis Walsingham. They told me, They had both worked themselves into Her Majesty's Service, and advised me to do the same; which I accordingly did, with their Assistance, in the way of my own Profession.

[Page] But alas! I soon neglected my Calling as a Lawyer, to engage in Affairs of State, which was the Third Cause of my Misfortunes. Being employed to engross an Act of Parliament against Popery, I inserted a Clause which in­volved the Protestants in the same Guilt and Penalty with the Papists. Then I endeavoured to set up an Inquisition against the Calvinists, as the Duke of Alva has lately done in Planders, which was promoted by Direction from the Queen of Scots Her Abettors, in order to divide the Protestants among them­selves.

I shall not take up your Time with recounting the several Attempts I made for the Advancement of Popery, and of the Interests of Mary late Queen of Scots, and Her Son Iames. I therefore proceed to the Fourth Cause of my Misfortunes, I mean, the Breach of that Commandment which forbids us to bear false Witness against our Neighbours.

Sir Nicholas Bacon, whom his Enemies allow to be the greatest Lawyer, ablest Statesman, and truest Lover of his Prince and Country of any in his Age; Sir Philip Sidney, that Noble Patron as well as Master of Wit and Learning; a Personage who seems born for Courts, and the Management of the greatest Affairs: My Lord Admiral Howard, who gave the Enemy that famous Defeat at Sea, which they have never since been able to recover; and another Lord of the Council, were the chief Enemies to the Queen of Scots, and had perform'd the most eminent Services to the Kingdom. This my two Confederates wotted well enough; and thereafter perswaded me to forge an Accusation against them of High Treason. It is well known how sharp and Universal the Prosecution was, so that if their Innocence had not appeared unblemished in every Particular, they might probably have lost their Heads: And now my own Sufferings have brought me to a true Sense of my Crimes, I am heartily glad that wicked Design did not succeed.

I now come to the last and greatest Cause of my present Calamity, which is, my Ingratitude to those that raised me.

My two Companions and I, in order to pursue our Designs, began to insi­nute our selves into the good liking of Sir William Cecil, L. Burleigh, who tho' he well enough understood our Principles, yet observing us to be Men of some Dexterity, and believing the solemn Protestations we made him, was pre­vailed with, upon Promises of our Amendment, to pardon our past Offences, and take us into some Degree of Favour. We then professed the greatest Zeal for the Service of Her Highness; but still continued our Correspondence with the Queen of Scots by the means of a Clerk to Robin the Scrivener. At home we made our Party so strong, that we attempted by the help of a certain Tire­woman, to bring the L. Burleigh, the E. of Leicester, and some others into Dis­grace with Her Highness, by all the ill Offices and Representations that Ca­lumny could suggest. Nay, we began to hope we had made some Impression: Which fed our Vanity to such a Degree, that I confess, I flatter'd my self with nothing less than immediately succeeding Sir Tho. Bromley; semblably the Scrivener had fixed his hopes on my L. Burleigh's Staff; and Harry Madrigall expected to come into the Place of Sir Francis Walsington. But Her Grace im­mediately saw thro' the Design: The whole Kingdom began to resent our Pra­ctices with the utmost Indignity: The Parliament publickly asserted the Me­rit of those great Men; and we were all discarded with the just Marks of Ignominy, to the Satisfaction of all good Subjects.

What hath happened since, I need not repeat. I acknowledge my self just­ly doomed to the Execution of that Sentence pronounc'd against me. I must now leave you all, tho' notwithstanding my many Infirmities, I might by the Course of Nature have held out Three Years longer. May Her Majesty's Grace long Live and Reign. Amen. And I wish that every Body, but espe­cially my Accomplices, of whom I see several here before me, would take Warning by my Example.