.iaiMoence  by  flight,  of  whksh  I  do  not  (I  thank

.God)  yet  repeal  (though  much  pressed  to  it)

Vw  ntel  soever  it  may  have  seemed  to  have

proved  to  me;  for  I  look  upon  my  death  m

Okn  mi<nTT  (I  thank  God)  with  other  eyes


•  Of  this  Paper,  the  following  gross  misre-
presentation ^  given  vfi  "  Sprat's  History  of  the
Rye  House  Plot."  [See  some  account  of  it
at  p.  362.  of  this  volume.]  *»  As  to  the  whola
niatter  of  it,  time,  the  best  discoverer  and  light
of  truth,  has  since  shew*!!  it  to  be  full  of  enor-
mous falshoods,  and  for  the  manner  of  its  com-
posure it  was  such  as  rather  became  the  sub«
tilty,  artifice,  and  equivocation  of  some  crafty  ^
hypocritical  confessor  or  presbyterian  easai^
than  the  noble  plainness  and  simplicity  of  a
gentleman,  especially  of  one  who  in  this  very
paper,  so  much  boasts  of  the  sincerity  awl
candour  of  his  whole  tife,  and  of  his  perpetual
hatred  of  tricks  and  evasions."  In  the  same
work  lonl  Russell  is  styled,  •  a  person  carried


« an  imaginary  return  of  popery.'  This  last
uncorroborated  imputation,  I  apprehend  to  be  a
most  base  and  groundless  slander  of  artftxl  un-
priiicipled,  and  impkicable  malignity.  Sir  Wil-
fiam  Temple  (whose  testimony  in  fiivour  of
lord  Russell,  must  be  admitted  to  be  omns
exceptUme  majui)  calls  him  "a  person  m
general  repute  of  an  honest  a-orthy  gentleman ,
without  tncks  or  private  ambition,  and  who  was
known  to  venture  as  ffreat  a  stake  perha|it  m
any  subject  of  Englaod.'*


«95]  STATE  TRIALS.  3&  Cuaulbs  It ^68i.— TrW  afWHUafn  Uri  Ruuell,  [Q9S

80  willing  to  leaFe  all,  that  it  was  iHit  without  I  noOrable  William  ^  earl   »f  Bedford,   in  1km
difficulty  that  I  did  any  thiqg  for  the  saving  |  month  of  July,,  in  the  fiv^and-tbiitiedi  jr«^


my  life  that  was  beg^ng.  But  J  was  willing  to
let  my  friends  see  what  power  they  had  over
ane,  and  that  I  was  not  obstinate  nor  sullen,  but
lYOuld  dp  any  thing  that  an  honest  man  oould
do  for  their  satisfiction,  which  was  the  only
motive  that  swayed,  or  had  any  weight  with  m^..
