Part 35

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Look thee, if thou canst not comprehend what I mean, I will repeat it to thee again; for thou shalt see what countryman I am, by my telling my story over twice; therefore I ask thee once again. Thou sayedst thy lady asked thee, whether he knew of the business: and thou toldest her he did not. Now let us know what that business was?

DUNNE--I cannot mind it, my lord, what it was.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--But mind me, prithee: Thou didst tell that honest man there, that my lady Lisle asked thee, whether he knew anything of the business, and thou saidest no. What was that business?

DUNNE--That business that Barter did not know of?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Yes, that is the business; be ingenuous, tell the truth: Oh! how hard the truth is to come out of a lying Presbyterian knave. Prithee, friend, consider the oath that thou hast taken, and that thou art in the presence of a God that cannot endure a lie, nor whose holiness will not admit him to dispense with a lie; consider that that God is an infinite being of purity, holiness and truth; and it would be inconsistent with his being to dispense with the least untruth; and thou hast called him to witness, that thou wouldest testify the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I charge thee, therefore, as thou wilt answer it to that God of truth, and that thou mayest be called to do, for aught I know, the very next minute, and there thou wilt not be able to palliate the truth; what was that business you and my lady spoke of?--[Then he paused for half a quarter of an hour, and at last said--]

DUNNE--I cannot give an account of it, my lord.

Jeffreys continued for a long time to use and repeat every possible kind of threat without being able to draw anything from Dunne; at last

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Why, prithee, dost thou think thou dost thy lady a kindness by this way of proceeding? Sure thou canst not think so; for such a sort of carriage were enough to convict her, if there were nothing else.

DUNNE--Truly, my lord, I do think not to do her any kindness at all.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Then prithee, let me persuade thee to have some kindness for thyself; look to thy own soul that is in great peril of everlasting ruin and destruction by these means; dost thou call this religion? It is a prodigious piece of religion! Come pray tell me what business it was that you talked of? You should not have asked me a question so often, but I would have given you a plain answer, though I were under the obligation of an oath as you are.

DUNNE--My lord, pray ask the question again once more and I will tell you.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I will so, and I will ask it you with all the calmness, and seriousness, and candour, that I can; if I know my own heart, it is not in my nature to desire the hurt of anybody, much less to delight in their eternal perdition; no, it is out of tender compassion to you, that I use all these words: I would have thee to have some regard to thy precious and immortal soul, which is more valuable than the whole world; reflect upon that scripture again which I mentioned before, which must be true because it is the words of him that is truth itself: what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If that soul of thine be taken away, what is the body fit for, but, like a putrid carcase, to be thrust into and covered with the dust with which it was made: therefore I ask you, with a great desire that thou mayest free thyself from so great a load of falshood and perjury, tell me what the business was you told the prisoner the other man Barter did not know.

DUNNE--My lord, I told her, he knew nothing of our coming there.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Nay, nay, that can never be it, for he came along with thee.

DUNNE--He did not know anything of my coming there till I met him on the way.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee, mind my question; sure enough thou hadst told him whither thou wert going, or else he could not have been thy guide; so he must needs know of thy coming there: but what was the business thou told'st her, he did not know?

DUNNE--She asked me whether I did not know that Hicks was a Nonconformist?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Did my lady Lisle ask you that question?

DUNNE--Yes, my lord, I told her I did not.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--But that is not my question; what was that business that he did not know?

DUNNE--It was the same thing; whether Mr. Hicks was a nonconformist.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--That cannot be all; there must be something more in it.

DUNNE--Yes, my lord, it is all; I know nothing more.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--What did she say to you when you told her, he did not know it?

DUNNE--She did not say anything, my lord.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Why, dost thou think, that after all this pains, that I have been at to get an answer to my question, that thou canst banter me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle to his face that we may see his brazen face.

DUNNE--My lord, I tell you the truth.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Did she ask thee whether that man knew anything of a question she had asked thee, and that was only of being a nonconformist?