Part 39

Besides, gentlemen, I am sorry to remember something that dropped even from the gentlewoman herself; she pretends to religion and loyalty very much, how greatly she wept at the death of King Charles the Martyr, and owns her great obligations to the late King, and his royal brother; that she had not had a being, nor any thing to maintain it for twenty years last past but from their bounty, and yet no sooner is one in the grave, but she forgets all gratitude and entertains those that were rebels against his royal successor; I will not say what hand her husband had in the death of that blessed martyr, she has enough to answer for of her own guilt; and I must confess it ought not one way or other to make any ingredient into this case what she was in former times, and I told a relation of hers, a Mr. Tipping by name, that came to me, last night, to desire that she might not lie under some imputations that were gone abroad of her that she rejoiced at the death of King Charles I., nor that any false report of that nature might influence the Court or jury against her, that it should not;--be the thing true or false, it is of no weight one way or other in the trial of this case, nor is she to be accountable for it.

But I must remember you of one particular, that is plain upon this evidence, and is of very great moment in this case; that after all these private messages and directions given to come by night, and the kind reception they met with when they came, and after all this care to lodge them and feed them, when Col. Penruddock, after the discovery made by Barter, came to search her house, then she had nobody in it truly, which is an aggravation of the offence testified by col. Penruddock himself, whose father likewise was a martyr, and died for his fidelity to the crown; and who was the judge of that father we all very well know.

God Almighty is a just God, and it may be worth considering (especially by her) how God has been pleased to make use of him as the instrument in this business; and she would do likewise well to consider the finger of God in working upon the heart of that man Barter, who was employed in all this affair, and that all the truth has been told by Nelthorp, that blackest of villains Nelthorp, that would have murdered the King and his royal brother; that he was one of those barbarous, malicious assassinates in that black conspiracy, and outlawed, should be harboured, by one that pretends a love for the royal family, and entertained and discoursed with at night about being in the army; yet that he and that other villain Hicks, who pretends to religion, and to be a preacher of the gospel, but is found in rebellion, and in the company of traitors, should be denied the next morning.

I hope they themselves are all by this time satisfied truth will come out, and I hope you will not be deceived by any specious pretences. Our forefathers have been deluded, but the deception I hope is now at an end. And I must needs say if all these witnesses that have freely discovered their knowledge, joined to that truth which is at length drawn from that Dunne, be worthy of any credit, it is as plain a proof as can be given, and as evident as the sun at noon day.

Gentlemen, upon your consciences be it; the preservation of the government, the life of the King, the safety and honour of our religion, and the discharge of our consciences as loyal men, good Christians, and faithful subjects, are at stake; neither her age or her sex are to move you who have nothing else to consider but the evidence of the fact you are to try. I charge you therefore, as you will answer it at the bar of the last judgment, where you and we must all appear, deliver your verdict according to conscience and truth.

With that Great God the impartial judge there is no such thing as respect of persons, and in our discharge of our duty in courts of justice, he has enjoined us his creatures, that we must have no such thing as a friend in the administration of justice, all our friendship must be to truth, and our care to preserve that inviolate.

LISLE--My lord, if your lordship please----

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Mistress, you have had your turn, you cannot now be heard any more after the jury is charged.

MRS. LISLE--My lord, I did not know Nelthorp, I declare it, before he was taken.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You are not indicted for Nelthorp, but we are not to enter into dialogues now, the jury must consider of it.

JURY-MAN--Pray my lord, some of us desire to know of your lordship in point of law, whether it be the same thing, and equally treason, in receiving him before he was convicted of treason, as if it had been after.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--It is all the same, of that certainly can be no doubt; for if in case this Hicks had been wounded in the rebels' army, and had come to her house and there been entertained but had died there of his wounds, and so could never have been convicted, she had been nevertheless a traitor.

Then the jury withdrew, and staying out a while the Lord Jeffreys expressed a great deal of impatience, and said that he wondered in so plain a case they would go from the bar, and would have sent for them with an intimation, that if they did not come quickly, he would adjourn, and let them lie by it all night; but about after half-an-hour's stay, the Jury returned, and the foreman addressed himself to the Court thus:

FOREMAN--My lord, we have one thing to beg of your lordship some directions in, before we can give our verdict in this case; We have some doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew Hicks to have been in the army.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--There is as full proof as proof can be; but you are judges of the proof, for my part I thought there was no difficulty in it.

FOREMAN--My lord, we are in some doubt of it.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I cannot help your doubts, was there not proved a discourse of the battle and of the army at supper time?

FOREMAN--But my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks was in the army.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I cannot tell what would satisfy you; Did she not enquire of Dunne, whether Hicks had been in the army? and when he told her he did not know, she did not say she would refuse him if he had been there, but ordered him to come by night, by which it is evident she suspected it, and when he and Nelthorp came, discoursed with them about the battle and the army. Come, come, gentlemen, it is a plain proof.

FOREMAN--My lord, we do not remember it was proved that she did ask any such question when they were there.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Sure you do not remember anything that has passed! Did not Dunne tell you there was such discourse, and she was by, and Nelthorp's name was named. But if there were no such proof the circumstances and management of the thing is as full of proof as can be; I wonder what it is you doubt of.

MRS. LISLE--My lord, I hope----

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You must not speak now.

Then the jury laid their heads together for near a quarter of an hour, and at length agreed, and being called over, delivered in this verdict by the foreman.

CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--Alice Lisle, hold up thy hand. Gentlemen of the jury, look upon the prisoner, how say ye? Is she guilty of the treason whereof she stands indicted, or not guilty.

FOREMAN--Guilty.

CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--What goods or chattels, lands or tenements had she?

FOREMAN--None that we know of.