Chapter VIII: Part 8

There was also _Dr. Brown_[52] of Norwich, a person of great
knowledge; who after this evidence given, and upon view of three
persons in Court, was desired to give his opinion, what he did
conceive of them: and he was clearly of opinion, that the
persons were bewitched; and said, That in Denmark there had
been lately a great discovery of witches, who used the very same
way of afflicting persons, by conveying pins into them, and
crooked as these pins were, with needles and nails. And his
opinion was, That the devil in such cases did work upon the
bodies of men and women, upon a natural foundation (that is), to
stir up, and excite such humours super-abounding in their bodies
to a great excess, whereby he did in an extraordinary manner
afflict them with such distempers as their bodies were most
subject to, as particularly appeared in these children; for he
conceived, that these swooning fits were natural, and nothing
else, but only heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of
the devil, co-operating with the malice of these which we term
witches, at whose instance he doth these villanies.

Besides the particulars above mentioned touching the said
persons bewitched, there were many other things objected against
them for a further proof and manifestation that the said
children were bewitched. As first, during the time of the trial,
there were some experiments made with the persons afflicted, by
bringing the persons to touch them; and it was observed, that
when they were in the midst of their fits to all men's
apprehension wholly deprived of all sense and understanding,
closing their fists in such manner, as that the strongest man in
court could not force them open; yet by the least touch of one
of these supposed witches, Rose Cullender by name, they would
suddenly shriek out opening their hands, which accident would
not happen by the touch of any other person.

And lest they might privately see when they were touched by the
said Rose Cullender, they were blinded with their own aprons,
and the touching took the same effect as before.

There was an ingenious person that objected, there might be a
great fallacy in this experiment, and there ought not to be any
stress put upon this to convict the parties, for the children
might counterfeit this their distemper, and perceiving what was
done to them they might in such manner suddenly alter the motion
and gesture of their bodies, on purpose to induce persons to
believe that they were not natural, but wrought strangely by the
touch of the prisoners. Wherefore to avoid this scruple it was
privately desired by the Judge, that the Lord Cornwallis, Sir
Edmund Bacon, and Mr. Serjeant Keeling, and some other gentlemen
there in court, would attend one of the distempered persons in
the farther part of the Hall, whilst she was in her fits, and
then to send for one of the witches, to try what would then
happen, which they did accordingly: and Amy Duny was conveyed
from the bar and brought to the maid: they put an apron before
her eyes, and then one other person touched her hand, which
produced the same effect as the touch of the witch did in the
Court. Whereupon the gentlemen returned, openly protesting, that
they did believe the whole transaction of this business was a
mere imposture. This put the Court and all persons into a stand.
But at length Mr. Pacy did declare, That possibly the maid might
be deceived by a suspicion that the witch touched her when she
did not. For he had observed divers times, that although they
could not speak, but were deprived of the use of their tongues
and limbs, that their understandings were perfect, for that they
had related divers things which have been when they were in
their fits, after they had recovered out of them. This saying of
Mr. Pacy was found to be true afterwards when his daughter was
fully recovered (as she afterwards was) as shall in due time be
related: For she was asked, whether she did hear and understand
anything that was done and acted in the Court, during the time
that she lay as one deprived of her understanding? and she said,
She did: and by the opinions of some, this experiment (which
others would have a fallacy) was rather a confirmation that the
parties were really bewitched, than otherwise: for say they, it
is not possible that any should counterfeit such distempers,
being acquainted with such various circumstances, much less
children; and for so long time, and yet undiscovered by their
parents and relations: For no man can suppose that they should
all conspire together (being out of several families, and as
they affirm, no way related one to the other, and scarce of
familiar acquaintance) to do an act of this nature whereby no
benefit or advantage could redound to any of the parties, but a
guilty conscience for perjuring themselves in taking the lives
of two poor simple women away, and there appears no malice in
the case. For the prisoners themselves did scarce so much as
object it. Wherefore, said they, it is very evident that the
parties were bewitched, and that when they apprehend or
understand by any means, that the persons who have done them
this wrong are near, or touch them; then their spirits being
more than ordinarily moved with rage and anger at them being
present, they do use more violent gestures of their bodies, and
extend forth their hands, as desirous to lay hold upon them;
which at other times not having the same occasion, the instance
there falls not out the same.

Additional witnesses were afterwards called to prove other acts of witchcraft by the prisoners.

_John Soam_,'a yeoman, and a sufficient person,' deposed that one harvest he had three carts, and that as they were going into the field to load, one of them wrenched the window of Rose Cullender's house, whereupon she came out in a great rage, and threatened him. Afterwards the two carts that had not touched the house twice made the journey home loaded and back again, safely. But the cart that had touched the house was overturned twice or thrice that day after it was loaded; and as they brought it through the gate out of the field it stuck so fast that they had to cut down the gate-post, 'although they could not perceive that the cart did of either side touch the gate-posts.' And further,

after they had got it through the gate-way, they did with much
difficulty get it home into the yard; but for all that they
could do, they could not get the cart near unto the place where
they should unload the corn, but were fain to unload it at a
great distance from the place, and when they began to unload
they found a great difficulty therein, it being so hard a labour
that they were tired that first came; and when others came to
assist them, their noses burst forth a bleeding; so they were
fain to desist and leave it until the next morning, and then
they unloaded it without any difficulty at all.

_Robert Sherringham_ swore that about two years before, as he was passing along the street with his cart and horse, the axle-tree of his cart touched Rose Cullender's house, and broke down some part of it, at which she was very much displeased, threatening him that his horses should suffer for it;

and it so happened that all those horses, being four in number,
died within a short time after; since that time he hath had
great losses by the sudden dying of his other cattle; so soon as
his sows pigged, the pigs would leap and caper, and immediately
fall down and die. Also not long after he was taken with a
lameness in his limbs that he could neither go nor stand for
some days. After all this, he was very much vexed with great
number of lice of an extraordinary bigness, and although he many
times shifted himself, yet he was not anything the better, but
would swarm again with them; so that in the conclusion he was
forced to burn all his clothes, being two suits of apparel, and
then was clean from them.

_Richard Spencer_, about the first of September last, heard Amy Duny say that the devil would not let her rest until she was revenged on the wife of one Cornelius Sandeswell.

_Ann Sandeswell_ says that seven or eight years since,

she having bought a certain number of geese, meeting with Amy
Duny, she told her, if she did not fetch her geese home they
would all be destroyed; which in a few days after it came to
pass.

Afterwards the said Amy became tenant to the witness's husband for a house, and Amy told the witness that if she did not look well to such a chimney in the house it would fall, whereupon the witness told her that it was a new one, and they parted without the witness attaching much importance to the matter;

but in a short time the chimney fell down according as the said
Amy had said.

Also the witness once asked her brother, who was a fisherman, to send her a firkin of fish, which he did; and she hearing that the firkin was brought into Lowestofft Road, asked a boatman to bring it ashore with other goods which they had to bring;

and as she was going down to meet the boat-man to receive her
fish, she desired the said Amy to go along with her to help her
home with it; Amy replied she would go when she had it. And
thereupon this deponent went to the shore without her, and
demanded of the boat-man the firkin; they told they could not
keep it in the boat from falling into the sea, and they thought
it was gone to the devil, for they never saw the like before.
And being demanded whether any other goods in the boat were
likewise lost as well as hers? they answered not any.

This was the substance of the whole evidence given against the
prisoners at the bar; who being demanded, what they had to say
for themselves? they replied, nothing material to anything that
was proved against them. Whereupon the judge, in giving his
direction to the jury, told them, that he would not repeat the
evidence unto them, lest by so doing he should wrong the
evidence on the one side or on the other.

Only this acquainted them, that they had two things to enquire
after. First, Whether or no these children were bewitched?
Secondly, Whether the prisoners at the bar were guilty of it?

That there were such creatures as witches he made no doubt at
all; For first, the scriptures had affirmed so much. Secondly
the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such
persons, which is an argument of their confidence of such a
crime.

And such hath been the judgment of this kingdom, as appears by
that act of parliament which hath provided punishments
proportionable to the quality of the offence. And desired them,
strictly to observe their evidence; and desired the great God of
heaven to direct their hearts in this weighty thing they had in
hand: For to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go
free, were both an abomination to the Lord. With this short
direction the jury departed from the bar, and within the space
of half an hour returned, and brought them in both Guilty upon
the several indictments, which were thirteen in number,
whereupon they stood indicted.

This was upon Thursday in the afternoon, March 13, 1665. The
next morning, the three children with their parents came to the
Lord Chief-Baron Hales's lodging, who all of them spake
perfectly, and were in as good health as ever they were; only
Susan Chandler by reason of her very much affliction did look
very thin and wan. And their friends were asked at what time
they were restored thus to their speech and health? And Mr. Pacy
did affirm, That within less than half an hour after the
witches were convicted they were all of them restored, and slept
well that night, feeling no pain; only Susan Chandler felt a
pain like pricking of pins in her stomach.

After, they were all of them brought down to the court, but Ann
Durent was so fearful to behold them, that she desired she might
not see them. The other two continued in the court, and they
affirmed in the face of the country, and before the witches
themselves, what before hath been deposed by their friends and
relations; the prisoners not much contradicting them. In
conclusion, the judge and all the court were fully satisfied
with the verdict, and thereupon gave judgment against the
witches that they should be hanged.

They were much urged to confess, but would not.

That morning we departed for Cambridge, but no reprieve was
granted; And they were executed on Monday the 17th of March
following, but they confessed nothing.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Witchcraft, always an ecclesiastical offence, was first made a statutory crime by 33 Hen. VIII. (1541), which Hutchinson suggests was intended as 'a hank upon the reformers,' by reason of the part which mentioned the pulling down of crosses. This act was repealed on the accession of Edward VI., but was revived by 5 Eliz. c. 16 in a slightly different form. Hutchinson mentions five convictions under this statute between 1560 and 1597. A new act was passed in 1603, the first year of the reign of James I. Under it seventeen persons were condemned to death in Lancashire in 1634 on the evidence of one witness, who afterwards admitted his imposture. Their lives were saved by the judge who tried the case. In the eastern counties about fifty persons were executed in 1644 and 1645. Various other cases were tried throughout the seventeenth century, of which a list is given by Hutchinson, and the last conviction took place in 1712, at Hertford, but the prisoner was pardoned. The act of James was repealed in 1736, when it was enacted that no more prosecutions for witchcraft should take place, but that pretending to exercise witchcraft, and so forth, should be offences punishable on the same scale as other acts of petty cheating. Further information on the subject may be found in Hutchinson's _Essay on Witchcraft_; and an account of the very curious outburst of prosecutions for witchcraft in New England about the time of this trial, and, it is said, partly in consequence of it, may be found in Howell's _State Trials_, vol vi. pp. 647-686. In those parts of the British Empire where there is a large population of negroes, it has been found necessary to make stringent laws against witchcraft, which are regarded by the persons most affected by them as something much more than a protection against mere cheats.

[50] Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676) was the grandson of a Gloucestershire weaver. He was educated as a Puritan and entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1626. He here suddenly dropped his Puritan habits, and would have become a soldier in the Low Countries, but that, having to consult the learned Glanville as to legal proceedings taken against him which endangered his patrimony, he was persuaded to become a law student. He again resumed a quiet method of life, and owing to the slovenliness of his dress narrowly escaped being shipped to the West Indies by a press-gang. He was called in 1637, and already enjoying a considerable reputation at once acquired a lucrative practice. He devilled for Noy, but according to Campbell refused to follow him when he joined the Court party. He kept clear of politics at the beginning of the Long Parliament, though courted by both sides. He is said to have taken part in Strafford's defence; he certainly defended Laud. He took the Covenant in 1644, and sat in the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He procured honourable terms for the garrison of Oxford on the capture of that town. He took the engagement to be true to the Commonwealth in 1649, and continued to practise, often appearing for the defence in State prosecutions; particularly for the Duke of Hamilton after the battle of Worcester. He took a prominent part in the Commission appointed to reform the laws, which abolished feudal tenures and caused all legal proceedings to be conducted in English. He became a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1654, when he was occasionally brought into opposition to the government. At last he refused to try criminal causes; particularly that of Colonel Penruddock (see _post_, p. 59). He supported Cromwell against the sectaries. He was summoned to act as assessor to Cromwell's House of Lords; but refused to act as a judge under Richard Cromwell, though he sat in his Parliament. He sat for Gloucestershire in the Convention Parliament, and took an active part in the Restoration. He sat at the trial of the Regicides, though not at Vane's. On Bridgman becoming Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas in 1660, Hale succeeded him as Chief-Baron, his appointment being due, it is said, to Clarendon's scheme for having the Comprehension Bill, which he had drafted, defeated. He became Lord Chief-Justice in 1671, in succession to Kelyng. He has the reputation of being one of the greatest judges in English history. He settled satisfactorily all claims arising out of the rebuilding of London after the great fire; he found himself unable to help Bunyan, whom he considered to have been unjustly imprisoned, thereby, according to Campbell, being entitled to some of the credit attaching to the production of _The Pilgrim's Progress_. On the failure of his health he retired from the bench in 1676. It may be of interest to quote Campbell's opinion of his conduct of the present trial. 'I wish to God,' says that author, 'I could as successfully' (as he has done in Bunyan's case) 'defend the conduct of Sir Matthew Hale in a case to which I most reluctantly refer, but which I dare not, like Bishop Burnet, pass over unnoticed--I mean the famous trial before him, at Bury St. Edmunds, for witchcraft. I fostered a hope that I should have been able, by strict inquiry, to contradict, or mitigate, the hallucination under which he is generally supposed to have then laboured, and which has clouded his fame--even in some degree impairing the usefulness of that bright example of Christian piety which he has left for the edification of mankind. But I am much concerned to say, that a careful perusal of the proceedings and of the evidence shows that upon this occasion he was not only under the influence of the most vulgar credulity, but that he violated the plainest rules of justice, and that he really was the murderer of two innocent women.... Had the miserable wretches, indicted for witchcraft before Sir Matthew Hale, pleaded guilty, or specifically confessed the acts of supernatural agency imputed to them, or if there had been witnesses who had given evidence, however improbable it might be, to substantiate the offence, I should hardly have regarded the Judge with less reverence because he pronounced sentence of death upon the unhappy victims of superstition, and sent them to the stake, or the gibbet. But they resolutely persisted in asserting their innocence, and there was not only no evidence against them which ought to have weighed in the mind of any reasonable man who believed in witchcraft, but during the trial the imposture practised by the prosecutors was detected and exposed.' 'Hale's motives were most laudable; but he furnishes a memorable instance of the mischiefs originating from superstition. He was afraid of an acquittal or of a pardon, lest countenance should be given to a disbelief in witchcraft, which he considered tantamount to a disbelief in Christianity. The following Sunday he wrote a "Meditation concerning the mercy of God in preserving us from the malice and power of Evil Angels," in which he refers, with extreme complacency, to the trial over which he had presided at Bury St. Edmunds.'

[51] See _ante_, p. 127.

[52] Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) was the well-known author of _Religio Medici_, published in 1642; _Vulgar Errors_, published in 1646; and numerous other mystic, pseudo-scientific and philosophical works. Mr. Leslie Stephen (_Hours in a Library_, vol. ii. p. 11) writes of him: 'Obviously we shall find in Sir Thomas Browne no inexorably severe guide to truth; he will not too sternly reject the amusing because it happens to be slightly improbable, or doubt an authority because he sometimes sanctions a mass of absurd fables.' So he more or less believed in the griffin, the phoenix, and the dragon: he knew that the elephant had no joints, and was caught by cutting down the tree against which he leant in sleep; that the pelican pierced its breast for the good of its young; that storks refused to live except in republics or free states; and that men were struck dumb, literally dumb, by the sight of a wolf: he discusses what would have happened had Adam eaten the apple of the Tree of Life before that of the Tree of Knowledge; he discovers error in every recorded speech but one delivered before the Flood; he admits that the phoenix is mentioned in holy writers, and alluded to in Job and the Psalms, but nevertheless adduces eight reasons for not believing in his existence, of which one is that no one has seen one, another that in the Scriptures the word translated phoenix also means a palm-tree, another that he could neither enter the ark in a pair, nor increase and multiply. At the same time, he probably possessed a considerable knowledge of physical science, and holds a high, though peculiar, position in English literature. Evidently he was not a suitable witness in the present case, and his appearance as recorded above is far the most unamiable thing known of him; but it is possible that his neighbours did not take him more seriously as a trustworthy authority than do his modern critics.

ALICE LISLE

Alice Lisle was the daughter and heiress of Sir White Bechenshaw of Moyles Court, Ellingham, Hants, the scene of the principal facts referred to in this trial. The house is still standing. In 1630 she became the second wife of John Lisle; he was called to the bar, and became a bencher of the Middle Temple. He sat in the Long Parliament for Winchester, was one of the managers of Charles I.'s trial, and is said to have drawn up the form of the sentence. He became President of the High Court of Justice in 1654, sat in the Parliament of that year, and was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Exchequer. He appears to have been a consistent follower of Cromwell, and became a member of his House of Lords in 1657. He left England on the Restoration and fled to Lausanne, where he was murdered by an Irish Royalist in 1664. He sentenced John Penruddock, the father of the Colonel Penruddock of this trial, to death in 1655 for his participation in an unsuccessful rising against the Commonwealth in Wiltshire.

Alice Lisle, commonly called Lady Lisle, was tried for high treason at Winchester on 27th August 1685, before Lord Chief-Justice Jeffreys,[53] during his notorious 'Bloody Assize.' The charge against her was that knowing one George Hicks, a popular dissenting minister, to have been in Monmouth's army at Sedgemoor she entertained and concealed him in her house at Moyles Court. To convict her it was necessary to prove that Hicks had been in Monmouth's army, that she knew it, and that she entertained and concealed him. The prosecution was conducted by Pollexfen,[54] Mundy, and Corriton, as far at least as it was not conducted by Jeffreys. Lady Lisle, according to the custom of the time, was not allowed counsel, though no doubt she had opportunities for receiving legal advice during the course of the trial. Hicks was afterwards tried, and hanged at Glastonbury.[55]

The first three witnesses were Pope, Fitzherbert, and Taylor, who were visited by Hicks and Monmouth's chaplain, apparently for more or less charitable purposes, when they were prisoners to Monmouth's Army in Sir Thomas Bridge's stables at Keynsham. Two of them also spoke to having seen him actually in Monmouth's Army.

_James Dunne_ was then sworn.

POLLEXFEN--If your lordship please to observe, the times will
fall out to be very material in this case: the battle at
Kings-Edgemore was the sixth of July; three or four days
afterwards was the taking of Monmouth, and my lord Grey at
Ringwood; upon the 26th of July, ten or twelve days after the
taking of Monmouth, was this message sent by Dunne to Mrs.
Lisle: so we call Dunne to prove what message he carried upon
the 26th, and what answer was returned; he will tell you that
Tuesday was the time appointed for them to come, in the night,
and all the other circumstances. But withal, I must acquaint
your lordship, that this fellow, Dunne, is a very unwilling
witness; and therefore with submission to your lordship, we do
humbly desire your lordship would please to examine him a little
the more strictly.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You say well: Hark you, friend, I would take
notice of something to you, by the way, and you would do well to
mind what I say to you. According as the counsel that are here
for the King seem to insinuate, you were employed as a messenger
between these persons, one whereof has already been proved a
notorious rebel, and the other is the prisoner at the bar, and
your errand was to procure a reception at her house for him.

DUNNE--My lord, I did so.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Very well. Now mark what I say to you,
friend: I would not by any means in the world endeavour to
fright you into anything, or any ways tempt you to tell an
untruth, but provoke you to tell the truth, and nothing but the
truth, that is the business we come about here. Know, friend,
there is no religion that any man can pretend to, can give a
countenance to lying, or can dispense with telling the truth:
Thou hast a precious immortal soul, and there is nothing in the
world equal to it in value: There is no relation to thy
mistress, if she be so; no relation to thy friend; nay, to thy
father or thy child; nay, not all the temporal relations in the
world can be equal to thy precious immortal soul. Consider that
the Great God of Heaven and Earth, before whose tribunal thou,
and we, and all persons are to stand at the last day, will call
thee to an account for the rescinding his truth, and take
vengeance of thee for every falshood thou tellest. I charge thee
therefore, as thou wilt answer it to the Great God, the judge
of all the earth, that thou do not dare to waver one tittle from
the truth, upon any account or pretence whatsoever: For though
it were to save thy life, yet the value of thy precious and
immortal soul is much greater, than that thou shouldst forfeit
it for the saving of any the most precious outward blessing thou
dost enjoy; for that God of Heaven may justly strike thee into
eternal flames, and make thee drop into the bottomless lake of
fire and brimstone, if thou offer to deviate the least from the
truth, and nothing but the truth. According to the command of
that oath that thou hast taken, tell us who employed you, when
you were employed, and where? Who caused you to go on this
message, and what the message was? For I tell thee God is not to
be mocked, and thou canst not deceive him, though thou mayst us.
But I assure you if I catch you prevaricating in any the least
tittle (and perhaps I know more than you think I do; no, none of
your saints can save your soul, nor shall they save your body
neither) I will be sure to punish every variation from the truth
that you are guilty of.

Now come and tell us, how you came to be employed upon such a
message, what your errand was, and what was the issue and result
of it?

Dunne then proceeds to depose that a man came to his house to desire him to go with a message to Lady Lisle; he came on a Friday, after the battle; he was a short black man, and promised a good reward. On Saturday Dunne went to Moyles Court, and Lady Lisle agreed to receive Hicks on Tuesday evening. He was pressed as to whether she asked if he knew Hicks--

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Why dost thou think that she would entertain
any one she had no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr.
Dunne! Mr. Dunne! have a care, it may be more is known of this
matter than you think for.[56]

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

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, to be sure you do, do not let me take
you prevaricating!

DUNNE--My Lord, I speak nothing but the truth.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Well, I only bid you have a care, truth
never wants a subterfuge, it always loves to appear naked, it
needs no enamel, nor any covering; but lying and snivelling, and
canting, and Hicksing, always appear in masquerade. Come, go on
with your evidence.

Dunne then proceeds--he went home, arriving on Sunday, and gave his message to the man he first saw, and on Tuesday morning he, and a 'full fat black man,' and a 'thin black man,' came to his house at seven in the morning. Starting with two of them whom he had not seen before, but identified as Hicks and Nelthorp, at eleven, he took them by way of Deverel, Chilmark and Sutton to Salisbury Plain, where one Barter met them to guide them on, by Chalk, Rochesborne and Fordingbridge. This way he alleged, apparently falsely, was a shorter way than he had taken on Saturday. Near Barton, however, they lost their way, and Dunne was sent down to the village to a man to tell him that one Hicks desired to speak to him. Who the man was, he hesitated to say.

DUNNE--His name, my Lord, I cannot rightly tell for the present.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee recollect thyself: indeed thou canst
tell us if thou wilt.

DUNNE--My Lord, I can go to the house again if I were at
liberty.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I believe it, and so could I; but really
neither you nor I can be spared at present; therefore prithee do
us the kindness now to tell us his name.

DUNNE--My Lord, I think his name was Fane.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Thou sayest right, his name was Fane truly,
thou seest I know something of the matter.[57]

Dunne brought Fane to Hicks, who asked him the way to Mrs. Lisle's.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Now tell us what kind of man that was, that
desired this of Mr. Fane?

DUNNE--My Lord, it was the full fat black man.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Now we have got him out, now we know which
was Hicks, now go on.

On arriving at Mrs. Lisle's, Hicks and Nelthorp entered first in the dark; Dunne did not see them again till they were taken. Dunne was received by a young girl he did not know. He had 'a bit of cake and cheese from my own house, and that I eat': he did not see Mrs. Lisle.

So far, Jeffreys had been conducting an examination-in-chief, or what served the same purpose. Now the cross-examination begins--Dunne was forced to take the word of the first man who came to him that he would be paid. He was a baker, and would not bake on Sundays.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Alack-a-day! thou art precise in that, but
thou canst travel on Sundays to lead rogues into lurking holes
... but I assure thee thy bread is very light weight, it will
scarce pass the balance here.

He left his horse in the stable, the other two left theirs outside the gate. He knew there were fugitives about the country; he did not ask the little man with the black beard who Hicks was. Hicks told him he was in debt. Did not the man who first came tell him Hicks was in debt and wanted to be concealed? He did. How came Dunne to be so impudent then as to tell such a lie?

DUNNE--I beg your pardon, my Lord.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You beg my pardon! That is not because you
told me a lye, but because I found you in a lye. Come Sirrah,
tell me the truth.

Where did Dunne sleep? in a chamber to which the girl showed him, he saw no one else; he put up his horse himself and fed him on hay which was in the rack; the stable-door was latched; he pulled up the latch. He knew his way to the stable, because he had been there before--even though it was dark. Carpenter the bailiff gave his horse hay and brought a light to the stable after he had gone there. Besides Carpenter and the girl he saw no one. He did not drink in the house; he had last drunk at Barton.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Now prithee tell me truly, where came
Carpenter unto you? I must know the truth of that; I would not
terrify thee to make thee say anything but the truth, but assure
thyself I never met with a lying, sneaking, canting fellow, but
I always treasured up vengeance for him; and therefore look to
it, that thou dost not prevaricate with me, for be sure thou
wilt come by the worst of it in the end.

DUNNE--My Lord, I will tell the truth as near as I can.

Carpenter met him in the court when he was with Hicks and Nelthorp; no one else was there; Carpenter opened the stable-door.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Why thou vile wretch, didst thou not tell me
just now that thou pluckedst up the latch? Dost thou take the
God of Heaven not to be a God of truth, and that He is not a
witness of all thou sayest? Dost thou think because thou
prevaricatest with the court here thou canst do so with the God
above who knows thy thoughts? And it is infinite mercy, that,
for these falsehoods of thine, he does not immediately strike
thee into hell! Jesus God!... Did you not tell me that you
opened the latch yourself and that you saw nobody else but a
girl? How durst you offer to tell such horrid lies in the
presence of God and of a court of Justice? Answer me one
question more. Did he pull down the hay or you?

Dunne did not pull down any hay; Carpenter took him into the house and to his room; but no one asked him to eat or drink; he did not know what became of the others' horses.

JEFFREYS--Did you tell Carpenter that the horses were there?

DUNNE--I did not tell him any such thing.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Thou art a strange, prevaricating,
shuffling, sniveling lying rascal.

_Barter_ was then called and sworn.

Having been duly threatened he deposed that Dunne came to his house on Saturday; he guided Dunne to Moyles Court; Dunne gave Carpenter a letter. Carpenter would not meddle with it; Dunne went in to my lady. He went into the kitchen where my lady came in, and she asked if he could make bricks; she went up to Dunne 'laughing with him and looked at me.' He asked Dunne what she laughed at. Dunne said she asked if he knew anything of 'the concern,' and he, Dunne, answered no, and that this was what she laughed at. He was thereupon disturbed, and consulted Colonel Penruddock. It was agreed between them that he should guide Dunne and his friends across Salisbury Plain and that the Colonel should intercept them there; this plan, however, failed, and he left them when they insisted on going 'a private way over the fording bridge towards Moyles Court,' sending word, however, to Colonel Penruddock that they were at the house.

Dunne told him that the men he was to guide had 'half a score of thousands of pounds a year a piece.' 'He' (Dunne) 'told me he had a very fine booty for his part, and that he should never want money again, that I should be very well paid, and he gave me half-a-crown.'

Dunne is recalled, and denies that he gave Carpenter a letter or spoke to Barter of the wealth of the men he was to guide.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Then one thing more, Did you not tell him
that you told my lady when she asked whether he was acquainted
with this concern, that he knew nothing of the business?

DUNNE--My lord, I did tell him so.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Did you so? Then you and I must have a
little further discourse: Come now and tell us what business was
that? and tell it us so, that a man may understand and believe
that thou dost speak truth.

DUNNE--Does your lordship ask what that business was?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Yes, it is a plain question; what was that
business that my lady asked thee, whether the other man knew;
and then you answered her, that he did know nothing of it? (Then
he paused awhile.)

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Remember, friend, thou art upon thy oath;
and remember, withall that it is not thy life, but thy soul that
is now in danger; therefore I require from thee a plain answer
to a very plain question: what was that business my lady
enquired after, whether the other fellow knew, and thou toldest
her, he did not? [Dunne made no answer, but stood musing
awhile.]

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--He is studying and musing how he shall
prevaricate; but thou hadst better tell the truth, friend;
remember what thou hast said already; thou hast said that thou
didst tell that man, that the lady asked you, whether he knew
anything of the business, and thou toldest her, he did not? Now
I would know what that business was. [Still he made no answer,
but seemed to muse.]

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,[58] 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?

DUNNE--Yes my lord, that was all.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--That is all nonsense; dost thou imagine that
any man hereabouts is so weak as to believe thee?

DUNNE--My lord, I am so baulked, I do not know what I say
myself.

Pollexfen here recalled Barter, who said that Dunne had told him that he had concealed the two men in his house for ten days, that it was the best job he had ever had in his life, and that he should never lack money again. All this Dunne denied having said; Barter, however, swore that he repeated it to Colonel Penruddock.

_Colonel Penruddock_, being called and sworn, deposed that Barter came to his house on Monday morning and said he had been with Dunne upon a journey to Lady Lisle's house to get entertainment for some people. They were going to meet him on Tuesday between nine and eleven on Salisbury Plain, and Colonel Penruddock could take them there. He sent a servant to take them there, who missed them; and accordingly went with soldiers to Lady Lisle's house the next day, searched it, found Hicks and Dunne in the Malt House, the latter having 'covered himself up with some sort of stuff there,' and Nelthorp 'in a hole by the chimney.'

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Dunne, how came you to hide yourself in the
malt-house?

DUNNE--When I heard the stir and bustle, I went through the
chamber where I lay, and came into that room where I was taken.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--When thou heardst a stir and a bustle, why
wert thou afraid of anything?

DUNNE--My lord, I was frightened at the noise.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee, what needst thou be afraid for,
thou didst not know Hicks nor Nelthorp? and my lady only asked
thee whether Hicks were a Nonconformist parson. Thou art a very
innocent soul, and surely need'st no occasion to be afraid.

Colonel Penruddock did not remember Barter telling him what he said he did, but Barter said he apprehended the two men to be rebels, and 'that Dunne told him as much.'

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--What do you say to that, Dunne? It seems you
told Barter that you apprehended them to be rebels?

DUNNE--I apprehend them for rebels, my Lord?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--No, no, you did not apprehend them for
rebels, but you hid them for rebels. But did you say to Barter
that you took them to be rebels?

DUNNE--I take them to be rebels!

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You blockhead, I ask you, did you tell him
so?

DUNNE--I tell Barter so?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, is not that a plain question?

DUNNE--I am quite cluttered out of my senses; I do not know that
I say (A candle being still held nearer his nose).

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--But to tell the truth would rob thee of none
of thy senses, if ever thou hadst any; but it should seem that
neither thou, nor thy mistress the prisoner had any, for she
knew nothing of it neither, though she had sent for them
thither.

Colonel Penruddock continuing, said he had some difficulty in getting admittance to Lady Lisle's house; he did not see her till after he had brought out Hicks and Dunne; she denied that anybody else was there, but he searched and found Nelthorp.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--But she denied it [Nelthorp's being there]
first it seems?

LISLE--My lord, I hope I shall not be condemned without being
heard.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--No, God forbid, Mrs. Lisle. That was a sort
of practice in your husband's time, you know very well what I
mean; but God be thanked it is not so now; the king's courts of
law never condemn without hearing.

_Downing_ being called and sworn, deposed to finding Dunne and Hicks in the Malt-house, the former in a little hole 'where he had taken some stuff or other to cover him.'

_Mrs. Carpenter_, the bailiff's wife, spoke to serving the men who came on Tuesday with supper in the chamber where they lay, and to Mrs. Lisle's presence there. _Carpenter_ spoke to Dunne's first arrival, when he asked for entertainment for Hicks and another whom he did not know.

After the Carpenters had finished it appeared that Dunne had given way.

MR. RUMSEY--Now, my lord, Dunne says he will tell all, whether
it makes for him or against him.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Let him but tell the truth, and I shall be
satisfied.

DUNNE--Sure my lord, I never entertained these men a night in my
house in my life; but this Hicks sent that man to me to go to my
lady Lisle's, to know whether she would please to entertain him;
and when I came my lady asked me whether he had been in the army
or no? I told her I could not tell, I did not know that he was.
She then asked me if he had nobody else with him? I told her I
believed there was. This is the very truth of it, my lord. I
asked her might the men be entertained? She said they might. So
when we came to my lady Lisle's on the Tuesday night, somebody
took the two horses, I cannot tell who if I were to die; the two
went in; and after I had set up my horse, I went in along with
Carpenter up into the chamber to my lady, and to this Hicks and
Nelthorp; and when I came there, I heard my lady bid them
welcome to her house; and Mr. Carpenter or the maid, I cannot
tell which, brought in the supper, and set it on the table.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And didst thou eat or drink with them in the
room or not?

DUNNE--My lord, I will tell everything that I know; I confess I
did both eat and drink there in the room.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I pity thee with all my soul and pray to God
Almighty for thee, to forgive thee, and to the Blessed Jesus to
mediate for thee; and I pray for thee with as much earnestness,
as I would for my own soul; and I beg of thee once more, as thou
regardest thy own eternal welfare, to tell all the truth.

DUNNE--My lord, I did never know these men were in the army when
I carried the message to my lady Lisle's, nor never did
entertain them in my house in my life time, so much as one
night.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee, I do not ask thee what thou didst
not, but what thou didst?

DUNNE--My lord, I will tell all I know.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--What discourse had you that night at the
table in the room?

DUNNE--I cannot tell what discourse truly, my lord, there was.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Was there nothing of coming beyond seas, who
came from thence, and how they came? Come I would have it rather
the effect of thy own ingenuity, than lead thee by any questions
I can propound; come tell us what was the discourse?

DUNNE--I do not remember all the discourse.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee let me ask thee one question, and
answer me it fairly; didst thou hear Nelthorp's name named in
the room?

DUNNE--My lord, I cannot tell whether he were called Nelthorp,
but it was either Crofts or Nelthorp, I am sure one of them.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Prithee, be ingenious, and let us have the
truth on it.

DUNNE--My lord, I am ingenious and will be so.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I will assure you Nelthorp told me all the
story before I came out of town.[59]

DUNNE--I think, my lord, he was called Nelthorp in the room, and
there was some discourse about him.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, there was unquestionably, and I know
thou wert by, and that made me the more concerned to press upon
thee the danger of forswearing thyself.

DUNNE--My lady asked Hicks who that gentleman was, and he said
it was Nelthorp, as I remember.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Very well, and upon that discourse with
Nelthorp, which I had in town, did I give particular direction,
that the outlawry of Nelthorp should be brought down hither, for
he told me particularly of all the passages and discourses of
his being beyond sea: I would not mention any such thing as any
piece of evidence to influence this case, but I could not but
tremble to think, after what I knew, that any one should dare so
much to prevaricate with God and man, as to tell such horrid
lyes in the face of a Court.

DUNNE--What does your lordship ask me?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Come I will ask thee a plain question; was
there no discourse there about the battle, and of their being in
the army?

DUNNE--There was some such discourse, my lord.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, prithee now tell us what that discourse
was.

DUNNE--My lord, I will tell you, when I have recollected it, if
you will give me time till to-morrow morning.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Nay, but we cannot stay so long, our
business must be dispatched now; but I would have all people
consider, what a reason there is, that they should be pressed to
join with me in hearty prayers to Almighty God, that this sin of
lying and perjury may never be laid at thy door. What say'st
thou? Prithee, tell us what the discourse was?

DUNNE--My lord, they did talk of fighting, but I cannot exactly
tell what the discourse was.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And thou saidst thou didst eat and drink
with them in the same room?

DUNNE--I did so, my lord, I confess it.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--And it was not a little girl that lighted
thee to bed, or conducted thee in?

DUNNE--It was not a little girl.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Who was it then?

DUNNE--It was Mr. Carpenter, my lord.