AN ENQUIRY INTO, AND DETECTION OF THE Barbarous Murder OF THE Late Earl of Essex.  
Or a Vindication of that Noble Person from the Gild and Infamy of having destroyed Himself.  
Whose Hatred is covered by Deceit, his Wickedness shall be showed before the whole Congregation, Prov. 26. 26.  
The Land cannot be cleansed of the Blood that is shed therein, but by the Blood of him that shed it, Numb. 35. 33.  
Erit vobis locus querendi apud Senatum, invocandi leges, quod insidiis circumventus, vitam pessimâ morte finierim.  
Germanicus ad Amicos apud Tacit. Annal. lib. 2. §. 71.  
Anno 1684.   

Upon the Execrable Murder Of the Right Honourable ARTHUR Earl of ESSEX.  

MOrtality would be too frail to hear  
How ESSEX fell, and not dissolve with fear;  
Did not more generous Rage take off the blow,  
And by his Blood the steps to Vengeance show.   

The Tower was for the Tragedy designed,  
And to be slaughtered, he is first confined,  
As fettered Victims to the Altar go.  
But why must Noble ESSEX perish so?  
Why with such Fury dragged into his Tomb,  
Murdered by Slaves, and sacrificed to Rome?   

By stealth they kill, and with a secret stroke  
Silence that Voice which charmed when ere it spoke.  
The bleeding Orifice o'erflowed the Ground,  
More like some mighty Deluge, than a Wound.  
Through the large space his Blood and Vitals glide,  
And his whole Body might have passed beside.  
The reaking Crimson swelled into a Flood,  
And streamed a second time in Capel's Blood.  
He's in his Son again to Death pursued,  
An Instance of the highest Gratitude.  
They then malicious Stratagems employ,  
With Life, his Dearer Honour to destroy,  
And make his Fame extinguish with his Breath;  
An Act beyond the Cruelties of Death.  
Here Murder is in all its shapes complete;  
As Lines, united in their Centre, meet;  
Formed by the blackest Politics of Hell:  
Was Cain so devilish when his Brother fell?   

He that contrives, or his own Fate desires,  
Wants Courage, and, for fear of Death, expires.  
But Mighty ESSEX was in all things brave,  
Neither to Hope, nor to Despair, a Slave.  
He had a Soul too innocent and great  
To fear, or to anticipate his Fate;  
Yet their exalted Impudence and Gild,  
Charge on himself the precious Blood they spilt.  
So were the Protestants some Years ago,  
Destroyed in Ireland without a Foe.  
By their own barbarous Hands the mad Men die,  
And massacre themselves they know not why.  
Whilst the kind Irish howl to see the Gore,  
And pious Catholics their Fate deplore.  
If you refuse to trust erroneous Fame,  
Royal Mack-Ninny will confirm the same.   

We have lost more in injured Capel's Heir  
Than the poor bankrupt Age can e'er repair.  
Nature indulged him so, that there we saw  
All the choice Strokes her steady hand could draw.  
He the old English Glory did revive,  
In him we had Plantagenets alive.  
Grandeur, and Fortune, and a vast Renown  
Fit to support the Luster of a Crown.  
All these in him were potently conjoined,  
But all was too ignoble for his Mind:  
Wisdom and Virtue, Properties Divine,  
Those, Godlike- ESSEX, were entirely thine.   

In his Great Name he's still preserved alive,  
And will to all succeeding Times survive.  
With just Progression, as the constant Sun  
Doth move, and through its bright Ecliptic run.  
For whilst his Dust does undistinguished lie,  
And his blessed Soul is soared above the Sky  
Fame shall below his parted Breath supply.    

AMong all the Sins which are said to cry for vengeance, there is none to which a louder voice is ascribed in the ears of God as well as Men, than that of Murder. For as it is the destroying a Creature, which carries the stamp and impress of the Divine image, and therein a defacing the most visibl' representation, which God hath vouchsaved unto, and left of himself in sublunary Being's; so it is a most daring insurrection against the Authority of the Supreme Lawgiver, who designed his inhibition for a sufficient Fence about our Lives. Nor does any Crime more audaciously control the End of Divine Wisdom in making us sociable Creatures, and furnishing us with faculties and powers by which we are enabled as well as instructed to help and shelter one another. And therefore in proportion to the heinousness of the guilt of the sin of Murder, are both the denounciations of God in the Word, and his vindictive dispensations of providence against it, wrote in more legible Characters, than those wherein we find his displeasure recorded and testified against other Crimes. Profane as well as Sacred Story's are filled with instances of God's inquisition after the shedding innocent blood, and of the wr●thful severity which he hath shown against Families as well as persons in whose skirts it hath been found.  
And as no Transgression is more provoking to God, so none does so much incense and exasperate mankind. The destroying one innocent person, is construed as a threatening of all; nor can we hear of the cutting our Neighbour's throat, but we judge ourselves alarmed and bid look to our own. Nor is it only by the instinct, but by the Authority of the Law of Nature, that Murderers have in all places and ages been pursued with an Universal hatred. He abandon's his own life to the will and pleasure of the next assailant, who esteems it not his duty not only to wrest the weapon out of a murderer's hand, but to bring the malefactor to public punishment.  
And though there is no person so dignified or privileged, in whom assassinations and murders are not highly detestable, and to be prosecuted with the utmost impartiality and zeal; yet they deserve the greatest abhorrency, when perpetrated by those, whose duty it is to defend our lifes instead of invading them. For if it be criminal in a very enemy to kill the person whom he reckons himself most injured by, unless empowered thereunto by a judicial Sentence or a legal warrant; how infinitely more enormous is it, for those to be Author's of, or instrumental in our ruin, to whom the care of our preservation is committed and entrusted. And by how much any are vested with the Administration of the Law, to avenge themselves and the community upon offenders; by so much does their crime and guilt become enhanced, if when they can not gratify their indignation in the person and quality of Magistrates, they espouse the work and character, and assume the weapons of an assassinate. And who knows, but that as the Attorney General had the boldness in print to call the accusation and commitment of the Earl of Essex, 
* Braddons Trial p. 4.  a convictment for high Treason, but that others upon that conviction might have the impudence to give order for his Execution. What more hateful sight can there be to heaven, or more enraging spectacle to men, than to find those, who by the places they are advanced unto, and the Trust that is reposed in them, aught to watch for our safety, conspiring our ruin, and what they have not the courage themselves to execute, tempting and hiring others to commit?  
As it will be easily allowed, being indelibly engraven in our Natures, that every Murder is to be registered amongst crimes of the deepest die; so it cannot be denied, but that one may be of a more heinous nature than another, and receive aggravation from the worth and quality of him that is assassinated. For as the value of kindnesses grows in proportion to the meaness of the persons on whom they are bestowed; so crimes receive an increase of guilt, from the dignity and usefulness of those against whom, they are committed. By how much higher the station of any one is in the Commonwealth, and by how much through his wisdom, power, bounty and influence, he is beneficial to the Nation; by so much is the destruction of such, a person attended with the higher aggravations, and to be resented as a most enormous crime. Nor are we only to esteem ourselves injured and threatened in and by the example of such a person's ruin, but we are to account ourselves wronged, and aught to demand reparation, answerably to the benefits we reaped by him, and which we are robbed of by the loss of so useful and worthy a person. Our Law in making that against a Peer liable to an Action of Scandal, which it takes not so much as cognisance of as an offence against little and inferior people; could not be so improvident in reference to the lifes of Noblemen, as not to set a stronger and higher hedge about them, than those of Mechanics are fenced and defended by.  
Nor is it only from the quality of 〈…〉 erson against whom a crime is committed that it receives an aggravation, but there accrues a new addition of guilt thereunto, from the obligations which the person destroyed, may have laid upon those who were instrumental in and accessary to his ruin. To see one perish by the hands of those, whom he may have injured either in their persons, reputations, or interest, is no more than what we may sometimes find instances of among the ●●rully and degenerate part of mankind; but to hear that a person is assassinated by those whom he served with the utermost zeal and fidelity, is a villainy which none but prodigies of ingratitude, and monsters of humane Nature, can be guilty of. But there is a certain great man in the World whom I shall forbear to name, whose temper is to bestow his Favours upon such as have been his Majesty's greatest enemies, as well as the most proffligate and basest among men, and in the mean time recompense such not only with neglect but hatred, whose parents as well as themselves had shed their blood and ventured their fortunes in the behalf of the King and the Royal cause. How true is that of Tacitus, lib. 4. Annal. Beneficia ●ousque laeta sunt, dum videntur exolvi posse, ubi multum antevenere, pro gratiâ odium redditur: Kindnesses are acceptable while they may be repaid, but when they exceed all possibility of recompense, they meet with hatred instead of acknowledgement. There is no other way to be secure from the malice of some sort of people, than in the place of obliging them, to keep them at defiance. For whereas they are altogether uncapable of being won and impressed by courtesies, they are either to be chained up or menaced from doing mischief.  
And as all I have suggested, makes but too suitable an introduction into this following Discourse of the Assassination of the Earl of Essex; so it is no small reflection upon the honour of the Nation, and proclaims the execrableness of the Fact, and impudent boldness of the Actors, that they durst perpetrate this horrid villainy not only in the Royal Prison, where the Government in the account of the Law is responsible and pledge for the safety of the captive, but in one of his Majesty's Palaces, where the King himself is to be esteemed security for the preservation and forthcoming of all who come under his roof. This honourable Gentleman being the King's Prisoner, and deprived of all means and advantages of defending himself; these trusted with the administration of the Government, and particularly the King, were to be responsible for him in case he miscarried. Nor can his Majesty's best friends, and these who are most zealous for his honour, think otherwise of that villainous Fact, than that they who where the contrivers of it, intended at once to rob the King of one of the best and ablest Ministers he had ever employed, and to give a mortal wound to the Royal reputation, by perpetrating the bloody crime in such a place. And whereas the Queen had lain under an imputation of reproach, upon the account of Sr. Edmond Bury Godfrey's being assassinated in Somerset-house, they might hope to involve the King under the like dishonour, by cutting the Throat of this Noble Peer in the Tower of London.  
Nor ought any man whom the providence of God hath furnished with means and advantages of detecting so horrid a murder, be judged either officious, or held for dissaffected to the Government, if he reveal what he hath attained to the knowledge of, and publish those evidences, which as they have satisfied himself, may be sufficient to convince all the unbyazed part of mankind, of the truth and reality of this barbarous assassination. And as it is impossible he should be a good Christian, so he ought not to be esteemed a good Subject to his Majesty, nor a sincere friend to his Country, who shall more value his own ease and safety, than the delivering the throne from guilt, or saving the Nation from that vengeance, which the cry of innocent blood barbarously and treacherously shed, is ready to derive and bring upon it. And it is no small evidence by whose countenance and authority this murder was committed, that such discouragements have been given to the discovery of it, and that an honest Gentlemen hath been so severely proceeded against, in defiance of all Law as well as without Precedent, for but offering to represent what he had learned in relation to the destruction of that honourable person. But as we shall have occasion to speak more fully of that afterwards, I shall only add here, that the barbarity expressed to Mr. Braddon, is so far from deterring others to pursue this affair, that his ill treatment at the Council Board and King's Bench, was one of the motives of my undertaking this Province. And as by reason of the retirement I have confined myself unto, and the privacy I have used in following these researches, I labour not under the inconvenience of dreading a sine or prison which does so much frighten others; so I dare boldly affirm that the terror of these things, (were I to encounter them) would not so affect me, as to make me neglect what I reckon a necessary as well as an important duty. Patriae deesse quoad vita suppetat, aliis turpe, mihi etiam nefas, was the saying of Camillus in Livy. And though I be not so vain and ambitious, as to desire the world should know who I am, yet I judge it absolutely needful that they should understand who I am not, lest others come into trouble for that which ought not to be charged upon them, and which none but myself can with any equity or justice be made accountable for. And seeing Mr. Braddon hath been singled forth as the object of some men's indignation, for the service he was willing to have done his Majesty in the detection of this Murder; I reckon myself bound to publish to all the world that I know not the Gentleman, and that to the best of my remembrance I never saw him, much less have ever conversed, or had any communication with him. I will not deny, but that he is a person whom I do infinitely esteem for his integrity, zeal, and courage in this matter; yet I will not be so far injurious to him, as to commence an acquaintance with him during the transaction and dependence of this affair, and while he is under the power of those that will be ready to declare him criminal, for the least intercourse with a person that is likely to become so obnoxious to the rage of St. Jame's and Westminster-Hall as I may come to be for this service to the King and Kingdom.  
But besides the common ties, which I lie under equally with the rest of mankind for endeavouring to detect so horrid and barbarous a Murder, there are some special obligations upon me, by which I esteem myself more particularly bound than others are, to do all the right and justice I can to the memory of this massacred Lord, and to redeem his Name from the infamy with which they have aspersed him of being Felo de se. For I had not only the honour to be known to him, which Mr. Braddon pretends not unto, but besides the favouring me with divers Testimonies of his respect, he did me the kindness to own and befriend me at a juncture, when I was in no small hazard from the malice of very Powerful as well as considerable persons. And seeing that honourable Peer has been so unhappy, as to find nothing but ingratitude as well as injustice from those of the highest and sublimest quality whom he had most effectually served and infinitely obliged; it is not amiss that the world should understand there are some remains of virtue and gratitude among the mean and little people, and that though their condition does not enable them to recompense favours conferred upon them by great persons, yet they have that ingenuity which others want, viz. to sense and acknowledge them.  
And as I reckon it no small honour to have been known to the deccased Peer, so I thereby enjoyed an advantage which others wanted, namely an opportunity of learning the principles and observing the Temper of that excellent person. Whom as I found to be one imbued with the most virtuous and religious, as well as heroic and generous principles of any Noble Man in the Kingdom; so I observed him to be a Gentleman of the greatest sedateness of mind, least subject to the undue agitation of unruly passions, and most under the conduct of a calm, steady, strong, clear and well poised Reason, of any Man of Quality, I ever had the happiness of access unto. And if either the succours of Nature, Education, or Grace, were sufficient to fortify and preserve a person from such an enormity and crime, then must the Earl of Essex above all men be acquitted from the guilt of so execrable a fact, as being contrary to the Frame and constitution of his Nature, as well as to all the intellectual and moral habits of his Mind. So villainous a Deed, was inconsistent with his Temper, as well as repugnant to his virtue. As he was an excellent Christian, he durst not allow a thought that might give encouragement to so heinous a sin; and as he was a well accomplished Gentleman, he scorned to render himself guilty of a thing that was so mean and base. Nor was the folly of the Assassinates less, in hoping to obtain credit to a report, that the Earl of Essex cut his own throat, than their wickedness was, in contriving and perpetrating themselves, that bloody murder upon him.  
Yea as if it had not been enough, to have first cut the throat of this innocent though unfortunate Earl, and then to have fastened the guilt and infamy of their own Fact upon his untainted virtue and spotless Soul; they have sought to gain credit to their calumnious accusation, and to reconcile unthinking people to their opinion, by assuming that he used to commend and justify self Murder, in case there remained no other way to escape a capital punishment, and the being made a spectacle to the little and gazing part of mankind. And to give the better gloss to this malicious fiction, they report that he used to extol the action of his Lady's Grandfather the Duke of Northumberland, who being prisoner in the Tower for Treason, shot himself in the head with a Pistol. Put as the Earl of Essex, had he entertained so ungedly and corrupt a sentiment, was more prudent and discreet than to publish and avow an opinion so contrary to the Rules of Religion, the principles of honour, and the common sense and persuasion of mankind; so it is enough to detect the falsehood as well as the malice that is in this report, that the Authors and dispersers of it, either dare not declare the persons to whom the Earl should have discovered and revealed his mind in this matter, or else such as they have named for vouchers of the truth of this story, have not only denied their having at any time heard him express the least word in favour of self murder, but do affirm with all the sacredness imaginable, that he used to speak always of it with the utmost abhorrency, and to brand it as the greatest and most heinous sin. For whereas they have had the impudence to affirm that this report either proceeded originally from his own Lady, or was at least assented unto and attested by her; she hath upon application to her La●●ship for the knowledge of the truth or falsehood of this Story, not only with all the solemnity requisite in a matter of this importance, vindicated my Lord from having ever spoken a word that might induce the Lawfulness of self murder, or give countenance to a person's being Felo de se, but she hath further affirmed that he used to speak against it with an emotion beyond what was customary to him, and that he hath often declaned that no circumstances whatsoever could extenuate the guilt, or lessen the infamy of so unnatural and wicked a Fact. So that this Story, which hath been so maliciously and industriously spread, to gain, belief to the Report of my Lords having murdered himself, may upon this detection of its Falsehood, be very justly improved for the establishing an Assurance that he was assassinated by others. For it is impossible to imagine upon what other Motive it could be invented, unless to palliate the Crime of those who had destroyed him.  
But should it be granted that the late Earl of Essex used to speak with all Candour and Respect of the Duke of N●●thumberland, who slew himself in the Tower; it was no more than what might be expected from a Gentleman of Civility and good Breeding, partly out of Decorum and Complacency to his Lady, whose Grandfather the said Duke was, and partly out of respect to that Noble Man's Personal Merit and Worth, being upon many accounts a truly great Person. For is it not enough to condemn a Fact, without heaping Obloquy and Reproach upon him that hath been guilty of it? It is sufficient to represent the Evil of a Thing in Thesi, and to demonstrate the Sin as well as Dishonour in committing it; but it neither agrees with the Rules of Religion, nor the Measures of Conversation among Persons of Quality, to be over severe in Hypothesi, and to pronounce this or that Man wicked and infamous, though upon the score of that which we have doctrinally, and in way of Argumentation censured and condemned. Nor was the Earl of Essex's Case parallel to that of the Duke of N●rthumberland, that the latter should make the former a Precedent. For whereas that Duke was not only accused, but condemned for High Treason when he committed that Fact; the Earl, though accused and committed, not only knew himself innocent of the Crime wherewith he was charged, but was well assured that there was no Evidence upon which they could proceed to try, and much less to condemn him. For of all the Witnesses who had undertaken the Drudgery of swearing Men out of their Lives, there was only my Lord H. that could pretend to so much as acquaintance with him. Whose Testimony being but that of one Man, and a very infamous one too, it could not found an Indictment of Treason, much less be esteemed a sufficient Proof in Law for the Conviction and Condemnation of the meanest Subject.  
And this leads me to another Topick, that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but was murdered by others. For whereas it is not only sworn, that he cut his own Throat, but 
* Braddon's Trial, p. 45. 55.  that he had ordered his Servants two days before, to provide a Penknife for him, on pretence of cutting his Nails; but with an Intent, as Bomeny insinuates in his Deposition, of committing that fatal and tragical Act: I doubt not but to make it appear, that he was so far from any previous Intention of that nature, that he took all imaginable care, in reference to his Safety, and being fully secure, as to any hurt he might do himself, was only apprehensive and jealous of what might be attempted upon him by others, and was accordingly solicitous how to prevent it. And therefore he had the very day before his Murder, appointed his Servants to bring up out of the Country, several Vessels of Silver, necessary for the preparing and dressing of Victuals, with an intent to have them brought into the Tower, not so much because he would have his Diet provided and prepared by his own Cook, by reason of being curious in what he eat, but because he was jealous of his Safety whilst his Meat was made ready by any of the Officers of the Prison, and was not without Suspicion that some violent and illegal means would be used towards his Destruction. Nor is it unworthy of our further remark, that he was so far from having abandoned himself to despair, or having entertained the least thought of being his own Executioner, that the very day before the perpetration of the barbarous and horrid Fact upon him, he had ordered a considerable quantity of the best sort of Wines to be bought and brought into his Lodgings for his own Drinking, resolving out of a Regard to his Safety, rather than his Health, to taste none that was sold in or about the Tower. And whereas he knew that they had no intentions at Court of bringing him to a Trial, nor indeed could, having but only one Person that pretended to be a Witness against him, he had accordingly appointed the providing such a quantity for him, as would have sufficed some Months for his own drinking, till he could have been delivered in a due Course of Law. Nor can unbiased and impartial Men, make any other Inference and Deduction from these Circumstances, than that the Earl of Essex, instead of having designed any Violence upon himself, was only suspicious of what might be attempted against, and perpetrated upon him by other Hands.  
But if we will allow ourselves leave to observe, what Ends the violent Death of that Earl hath been improved unto, and what Designs his Majesty's Justices and Ministers have studied to serve by it; we shall both let ourselves and the World into a fuller view and knowledge of this hellish Mystery of Darkness, and be able to detect the Contrivers of it, and by whose encouragement and Authority that excellent, though unfortunate Person was brought to an untimely and bloody Death. In order whereunto, we are to recollect, how that after divers Contrivances and Essays of involving Protestants in Shame Plots against the Person of the King and the established Government, they were at last possessed of a Pretence of a Conspiracy of this nature, and had furnished themselves with some Witnesses, who undertook the swearing the best and chiefest men of the Kingdom into a conjuration for levying war and destruction of his Majesty. But being conscious that their witnesses were not of a reputation to win belief to what they had prepared in charge against the principal Patriots of our Religion and Laws, they resolved to murder the Earl of Essex, (being one of these they had committed upon an accusation of being guilty of that pretended conspiracy) and then to give out that he had destroyed himself from the shame and horror of being concerned in so treasonabl' a design. This they judged to be the most effectual way to support the credit of their witnesses, and gain over the Nation to give faith to the truth and reality of the plot. For as his Mejesties' Ministers knew what infamous persons most of the witnesses were, and how far from deserving that any thing should be received from their Testimony; so they were very sensibl' that the generality of the Kingdom were not over inclinabl' to believe a Protestant plot, there having been so many endeavours before, of imposing upon them in this way and kind. This was the design in order to which the murder of this honourabl' and innocent person was contrived and resolved; and to this end did the Attorney General and my Lord Chief Justice with all the Eloquence and Artifice as well as all the malice they are Masters of, endeavour to make it useful and subservient. The Lord of Essex being committed to the Tower for the Plot, and killing himself there, was more, says the Attorney General, than a thousand witnesses to open the eyes of the people, and confirm the belief of the conspiracy. 
* Braddon's Trial p. 3. ibid. pag. 63.  There was Digitus Dei in it, says my Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes, and enough to satisfy all the world of the Truth of the conspiracy, that the Earl of Essex being conscious of the great guilt he had contracted in being concerned in it, did rather than abide his Trial, and for the avoiding the methods of justice in his own particular case destroy himself. The improvement of the Murder of that noble Peer to the establishing the belief of a plot, gives no small ground to suspect who were the contrivers of his death, and upon what design they did first assassinate, and then endeavour to cast and divert the infamy and guilt of it upon himself. But I hope they will from their own way's of argumentation, allow us the liberty of inferring, that in case my Lord of Essex was not Felo de se, that then there was no such Protestant plot as they have filled the world with the noise of, seeing the only motives upon which they suppose and alledg' his having committed that unnatural fact upon himself, were the reproach and horror of that conspiracy. Nay we doubt not, but that all the honest and disinterested part of mankind, will upon conviction of their having destroyed that innocent Gentleman, become fully satisfied, that there hath been no such Treasonable combination, as his Majesty's Ministers have endeavoured to impose the belief of upon the Nation, but that all his Court and Popish Shame, and only devised and framed for subverting our liberties and Religion, by cutting off those that had the integrity and courage to espouse the protection and defence of them.  
And as the end whereunto the unnatural death of my Lord Essex is applied and improved, shows by whom it was contrived and effected; so the Tim'ing of that murder, does further evidence and demonstrate, where the guilt of it ought to be charged, and what service it was calculated for the promoting of. For as if it had not been enough to murder one innocent person in a way of the most barbarous violence imaginable, they resolved to adjust it to such a juncture of time, as that it might serve to facilitate and compass the ruin of an other Noble Person in the way of their Legal Forms And therefore no sooner was my Lord Russel entered on his Trial for life, upon an indictment of being guilt of that pretended conspiracy for which the Earl of Essex stood committed, but they assassinated the one in the Tower, and immediately dispatched away the news of his having murdered himself to the Old Bailie, thereby to amuse and prepossess the jury, and byaz them to convict that other virtuous, noble and innocent person. And with what satisfaction in themselves, as well as malice and artifice against the prisoner at the Bar, did his Majesty's Council lay hold on the tyd'ings, and apply them towards the begetting a belief of the guilt of that admirable person who stood then arraigned, and whom they were at that very time harrangu'ing and pleading out of his life. As if it had not been enough to impress the minds of a jury sufficiently prejudiced, and which to all men's knowledge was grossly partial, for the Attorney General to say, 
* My Lord russel's Trial, p. 38.  That my Lord Russel was one of the Council for carrying on the Plot with the Earl of Essex, who had that morning prevented the hand of justice upon himself; Sir George Jefferys comes after him, and adds in the winding up the evidence to the jury just before they went from the Bar, and without all doubt the better to mould and determine them to find the arraigned person guilty, 
† Ib. p. 59  That there was nothing could be said in favour of my Lord Russel's innocency as to what he was accused of, but what might be more strongly alleged in behalf of the Earl of Essex, who nevertheless from a conciousness of being guilty of that desperate conspiracy, had brought himself to an untimely end, to avoid the methods of public justice. Yea so evident was it to all impartial persons, who were then present at the Trial, that the Murder of the Earl of Essex was not perpetrated by himself but by others, and that it was timeed and adjusted to that season, in order to influencing the jury to give up my Lord Russel with the more ease as a sacrifice and victim to the rage of the Court; that a very noble Lord, who was always in the interests of Whitehall, and who was then very zealous in the prosecution of those accused for the Plot, being at that time on the Bench, did upon the hearing of my Lord of Essex's death, and who were then walking in the Tower when it fatally fell out, and upon observing with what diligence, care and artifice the news was brought into Court as my Lord Russel was at the Bar, and how the King's Council thereupon acted their parts, rise up in great consternation from the Bench where he sat, and pulling his hat over his eyes press out of Court, saying he plainly saw the bottom of the business, and all the Mysteries wrapped up in it. And indeed such influence and success had the news of the Earl of Essex's having murdered himself, from the shame and horror he was under for being concerned in the Conspiracy whereof my Lord Russel stood then arraigned, that divers of the Inquest have confessed and acknowledged, that the Report of the Earl's death, especially as improved and managed by the King's Council, had greater power over their minds for the convicting him, than all the other evidence which was given, and that they do really believe they should never have sound him guilty without the intervention of that fatal stroke, and the crafty application which the King's Council at Law made of it. But so far was the Earl of Essex from entertaining any foregoing thoughts of murdering himself, or from calculating the perpetration of it to that unhappy season, that the very day before my Lord Russel's Trial, (being also the day before his own Throat was cut) he gave private directions to his Steward, to place himself with all the conveniency in Court which he could at the said Trial, the better to take the evidence in short hand, instructing him withal how he might afterwards convey it to him for his perusal and to be made use of as he should have occasion And as the Earl of Essex was a person of that sedateness, honour and virtue, that no rational or good man can believe he would commit so horrid a crime upon himself; so such was the entire friendship between him and my Lord Russel, that we must renounce common sense and reason, before we can admit that the Earl of Essex would be guilty of so heinous an injury to his dearest and best Friend, as to calculate and adjust the murdering himself to such a season, which he must needs know would be too probable a means, to derive the destruction of a person whom he infinitely valued and loved after it.  
Having now shown the end unto which the murder of this incomparable Earl was designed and adapted, and the improvement which was made of it, not only through endeavouring to establish thereby the belief of a Protestant Plot in general, but to compass and facilitate the ruin of that religious and noble person my Lord Russel in particular; we shall as a further inducement to persuade and convince the inquisitive part of mankind, that some about St. James' and Whitehall where the contrivers and authorisers of that barbarous assassination, lay open and unfold the motive and pique upon which it was done, and what it was which gave the original rise to some men's implacable malice against that loyal as well as virtuous person. And as it cannot be denied but this late Nobl' Earl had received Titles of honour, and places of Trust, interest and advantage from his Majesty; so it will be acknowledged that not only his Father but himself, had laid all the obligations upon the Crown, which it was possibl' for Subjects in way of Acting or Suffering to do. Nor is it less evident, that notwithstanding both the Father my Lord Capel's Laying down his life for Charles the First, and the English Monarchy, and his Son Essex's manifold sufferings and services for Charles the Second and the Royal Family; yet this honourable Person instead of quietly possessing any longer the just rewards of his own and Father's merits, or enjoying any more the wont signs of his Prince's favour, was not only debarred from, and deprived of the respect and confidence which his Majesty had used to show him, but was become the object of a great man's implacable hatred and boundless malice For though the Earl of Essex was a person, whom nothing could corrupt from his loyalty to the King and the Established Government: yet he was also a sincere and zealous Patriot of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom, and a courageous Defender as well as owner of the Protestant Religion. And as he was none of those mercenary, base, and timorous Lords, who would either connive at, or concur in the introduction of Slavery and Popery; so he was one of the principal of those heroic and generous Peers, who had been active in detecting the Popish Conspiracy, and who had laboured with the greatest industry to prevent the effects of that hellish conjuration of the Valican, Lovure and St. James', for the extirpation of the Reformed Worship, and the subversion of the ancient Laws and Privileges of England. And as he was known to understand more of the nature and extent of the Popish Conspiracy, and who were concerned in it, and to what degree, than most persons in the Kingdom either were or ever had opportunities for; so nothing can be more certain, than that as hereby he became the most dangerous man in the whole Nation to the Papists, but that he must consequently be the most special object of their jealousy, fear, and hatred. 〈◊〉 as his public Station in Ireland, as well as his having been long a Member of His Majesty's Privy Council in England, furnished him with manifold advantages, which others wanted, of knowing the tendency, and penetrating into the bottom of all the Designs and Counsels which have been carrying on against our Religion and Legal Government; so his scorning and abhorring to sacrifice his Conscience and Honour by either falling in with the Conspirators, or by avoiding to withstand and oppose them in their attempts for the introduction and establishment of Popery and Arbitrariness, made them to think of all ways and means how to destroy him And besides these forementioned advantages which he had above other men, of knowing all the dimensions of the Popish Plot; he received no small accession of light in that affair, by having been always a Member of those Secret Committees, which had the Examination of Persons, and Inspection of Papers, concerning that devilish Conspiracy. Nor was the Earl insensible of the danger▪ he was in upon this account, and accordingly was wont sometimes to say to his intimate friends, that as generally all the Papists, and more particularly such of them as make the greatest figure in the Kingdom dreaded him by reason of the detection he was able to make of their horrid Machinations; so he could not be without apprehension, but that they would seek to destroy him in order to prevent it. Alas poor Essex, thy respect to some whom I forbear to name, made thee wanting to save the Nation and thyself, by revealing that while we had ParlJaments, the knowledge whereof would have been a means to have prevented our ruin; and as thou art now ill rewarded for thy tenderness to those ungrateful men, so we are at once unhappily robbed of the great Instrument that could have unmasked persons and things, and denied ParlJaments, from whose legal Authority as well as united Counsels and Wisdom, we can only, under God, hope for the preservation of England from becoming the Seat of Popery, and the Theatre of Tyranny. Nor ought it to seem strange that the malic● of the Papists, and of those who have conspired against our Rights and Privileges, should transport them to that measure and degree of rage against a person, who had not only faithfully served his Majesty and the Crown, but from whom they could expect no opposition but what was founded in the authority of our Laws, and promoted in a ParlJamentary-way, and which the King himself is bound by his Oath as well as the duty and trust reposed in him, to second and give countenance unto. For besides divers Gentlemen of that temper and character, whom they have destroyed or condemned by and under a Form of Law, but indeed contrary to all the Laws of the Land, and against the worst precedents even in the most absolute and despotical times; there may be several Gentlemen mentioned whom they have cut off without the Form of any Process, merely because they either thought themselves prejudiced and withstood by them in their designs, or were afraid of them by reason of the discovery which they were able to give of their conjurations against the Kingdom, and of the villainies they had committed in subserviency to the establishment of Popery and Tyranny. For not to mention either the Condemnation of that most Honourable Person the Earl of Argyle, nor the Condemnation and Execution of that gallant Gentleman Colonel Sidney, nor the late Barbarity used against their ancient Servant Sir Thomas Armstrong, all which were directly repugnant to the Laws of the respective Kingdoms, and contrary to all proceedings in other criminal and capital Cases; were not my Lord Lucas, Sir Robert Brook●, and Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, without being so much as arraigned or accused, murdered by them, only because they either found them opposite to their Romish and Arbitrary designs, or knew them capable of revealing their hellish Counsels and Actions against the Nation, the established Government, and the Reformed Religion? What Family in England had done or suffered more for Monarchy, and for his present Majesty as well as his Father, than that of my Lord Lucas, some whereof had sacrificed their Lives, and all lost their Estates and Fortunes, upon the alone score and account of their Loyalty; and yet notwithstanding all this, my late Lord Lucas could no sooner declare his jealousy concerning the entrenchments which were making upon the Laws of the Land, and with zeal and courage avow his integrity in the Protestant Religion, and his resolution to assert by all legal ways the ancient Rights and Privileges of England, but the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws, contrived and resolved the death of that worthy Patriot, and found means to poison him by suborned and hired instruments. And for Sir Robert Brooks, tho' he had not been called to that service for the Crown, nor had the misfortune to suffer in that degree for the Monarchy, which the former noble Person had; yet he was never wanting in Loyalty to his Majesty, but always served him with faithfulness in his capacity, and upon all occasions expressed the utmost readiness to maintain and promote the greatness of the King and honour of the Throne; Nevertheless that worthy Gentleman had no sooner ravelled into the burning of London, and traced that execrable deed to St. James', which as Chairman of the Committee that was appointed to inspect and search after the Authors of that dreadful conflagration, he had both occasion and was justified by his place to do; but the Romish Faction who had perpetrated that horrid villainy, took up a resolution to cut him off, partly in revenge of his zeal and service to the City and Kingdom in that matter, and partly to discourage others from meddling in a point which so nearly touched some of the greatest, as well as to prevent the publication of the researches and discoveries he had made And whereas Sir Robert upon an entertainment of apprehensions and jealousies in himself, as well as upon the warnings and informations he had received from friends, of a design against his Person and Life, did on the Prorogation of the Parliament withdraw the Kingdom to avoid their fury; yet these implacable and bloodthirsty men, who never pardon either those that actually have, or are in a capacity to injure them, hired assassinates to dog and pursue him whithersoever he went, who at last taking him at an advantage drowned him in a river where he was about to wash and refresh himself. And for Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, all that are not wilfully and perversely ignorant, are so fully instructed both of the barbarous murder committed upon that Gentleman, and from what motives and inducements, and by whose countenance and authority he was assassinated, that I shall not trouble myself or the Reader by enlarging on that villainous fact, which we have hitherto wanted the courage to make a person at St. James' answer for. Upon the whole, it can be no surprise to thinking and observing persons, to hear that the Earl of Essex was, by the Authority of a great Man, murdered and assassinated; seeing it is no more, than what he and our Arbitrary and Popish Ministers, have practised upon several others, whose opposition, power, wisdom and interest, they did not so dread and apprehend, as they did the zeal, courage, integrity, prudence, and figure as well esteem in the Kingdom, of that truly, great and honourable Peer.  
As the Topics which we have already insisted upon, administer sufficient ground to believe that the Earl of Essex did not murder himself, but was villainously assassinated by others; so it is rendered more plain and evident from the Reports which were spread abroad both of his death and the manner of it, before that barbarous Fact was committed, or at least before the Fame of it could reach the places where it was told and related. It hath been always esteemed a rational ground of accusing the Spaniards and Jesuits of the assassination of Henry the Fourth of France; 
* See Mezerny's Life of Henry 4.  that the news of his death was not only reported in Spain, Milan and Flanders some days if not weeks before the miscreant Ravilliack gave him the fatal stab, but because a Courier passing through Luxemburgh both related the news of his death a week before he was murdered, and had the impudence to declare that he was carrying the Tidings of it to the Princes of Germany. 
* See the Information exhibited to the Committie of ParlJament p. 5. 〈◊〉. 13.  The Committee of ParlJament that had the examination of the burning of London, Anno 1666. judged it no small evidence that the City was burnt on design, and through the treachery of the Papists, that the news of it had not only been reported in divers parts of England before that fatal conflagration fell out, but written from beyond sea as the discourse which the je 〈…〉 s entertained their favourites and privadoes with. Nay it was both one of the first means of discovering by whose contrivance Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had been murdered, and was also urged, and allowed upon my Lord Stafford's Trial as a proof of the Papists being guilty of that assassination, that the news of Sir Edmund's being killed was related sixty or seventy mile off in the Country before it was known at London what was become of him. Nor indeed can it be imagined how matters of Fact, should come to be told, before they are acted or committed, but by granting that such things were resolved upon and designed, and that they came to be vented and talked off by reason of the blabbing humour either of some Persons accessary to the contrivance, or entrusted with the knowledge of what had been agreed unto and determined in more secret Cabal's. So that we may rationally hope, the ingenuous part of mankind will esteem themselves much enlightened in reference to the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, and enabled to conclude who were the contrivers and perpetrators of the villainous assassination of that renowned person, if we represent unto them, with all the distinctness we can, the reports which went of it, both in City and Country before the Commission of the abominable Fact, or at least before the tidings could reach the places where it was spoken and discoursed. Nor will it be unfit to begin with that which a Woman of Quality hath related to divers persons, and which she is ready to swear in the presence of any Magistrate when called thereunto, namely that being the day before the Earl of Essex's death bestowing a visit upon some of her acquaintance, and there happening in that conversation a discourse concerning that unfortunate Gentleman Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, who because of the intelligence he had received from ●olimun, as well as the Deposition made before him by Dr. Oat●, about the Popish Conspiracy against the King and the Government, was barbarously murdered Anno 1678. a Gentleman then in company took the freedom and boldness to say that there would appear on the ●norrow another S. Edmundbury Godfrey. This though the Lady could not at that time fathom and comprehend, yet being surprised with the expression, she related it to her Sister, that evening when she came home. And upon hearing the next day that the Earl of Essex was murdered, and how it was reported. That he should have cut his own Throat; the poor Lady, though strangely alarmed with the News, could not but immediately make this reflection, That what she had looked upon overnight as a Parable and Mystery, was then deciphered and unriddled, and that the Earl must needs have come to that untimely end, by the Treachery and Villainy of others. To this we shall subjoin what Mrs. Mewx, a Gentlewoman, who also lives in London, was ready to Depose upon Oath, relating to a previous report of this nature, at Mr. Braddon's Trial. For being on Thursday the 12th. of July (which was the day before my Lord of Essex death) travelling with her Daughter in a Coach from the City down to Berkshire; she is ready to swear that her Daughter then told her how she had heard it reported, That one of the Lords committed for the late Plot had cut his Throat in the Tower. Which fully evidenceth, That there was a discourse not only of his death, but the manner of it, antecedently to his Fatal and Tragical end. But the Daughter being with Child, and near her time, and therefore not daring to venture abroad, much less into the Court at Mr. Braddon's Trial; my Lord Chief Justice would not suffer the Mother (though she was there and sworn) to be examined, alleging, That because she could not Depose on her own knowledge, but only on the report of her Daughter, it was no evidence, and therefore against all judicial forms to admit it. But as Mr. Wallop well replied, 
* See Braddox's Trial p. 48.  It was evidence there was such a talk, previous to my Lord of Essex's death, so I may add, That by consequence he did not murder himself, but was assassinated by others. Nor was it only in and about the Town that my Lord of Essex was reported to have cut his Throat, at least a day if not more before he came to his untimely end; but the same was discoursed of at a considerable distance in the Country, and related after the same manner and with the same circumstances For one Mr. Fielder, a Shopkeeper, in Andover, a Town removed from London above fifty Miles; positively swears that it was talked there the 11th. and 12th. of July, That the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower, whereas he was not killed till the 13th. nor could the news arrive so far in the ordinary way of conveying Intelligence before the 14th. And the said Mr. Fielder further avers, That this was to commonly discoursed of, from Wednesday night till Friday noon, that he fully expected the confirmation of it by the Post-Letters, which were to arrive that day. But finding no mention in those Letters of any such thing, though they all agreed in the relation of the Earl of Essex's commitment to the Tower, he concluded there could be no truth in the report, but withal wondered how such a thing came to be talked of. And therefore when the certain news of my Lord's death was brought to Andover about Saturday noon, by some Cloathiers that came out of London on Friday at twelve of the Clock, he could not but be amazed at the report which had been current among them two days before. But my Lord Chief Justice was pleased to ridicule all this when it was deposed at Mr. Braddon's Trial, 
* Bradd. Trial p. 38. 39  as a contrivance to deceive the King's Subjects, and to set us together by the ears, styling it stuff, raked out of Dunghills, and picked up on purpose to kindle a fire, and set us all into a flame. But can his Lordship think that his blustering, his impudence, and the huffing the World with foaming wrathful speeches, are enough to take off the positive testimony of an honest and credible person, and who had spoken of this report long before he thought any improvement would be made of it? Nor is it sufficient to blast the reputation of the Man, or detract from the Truth of what he swore, that he could not particularly name the persons that had reported it; because as he never expected to be called into question about it, so he had no occasion to recollect it, till he was served with a sub poena to appear at Mr. Braddon's Trial, which was above five Months after the time of the said talk and discourse. And besides how many things are there, which a public Skopkeeper, as this person is, may hear his Customers speak of, which he would be nonplussed to give an account of the Authors of at a week's end? Nay by how much a Report is common, (as he says this was at Andover) by so much are we apt to neglect by whom it hath been particularly related. And the more our understandings are struck with the horror of a matter declared to us, the less do we advert by whom it is spoken, and the more unprepared are our memories to treasure up the names of the reporters. Nor was it at Andover only, that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat, the day before he was killed; but the same story and clothed with the same circumstances, was discoursed of before his death in divers other places. For I am not only credibly informed, That the Earl of Essex's having cut his Throat, was reported on Thursday, being the day before his death, at Warmister in Wiltshire, which is distant from London about eighty Miles; but there is one Thomas Cox, who lives near Bruningham, that did positively declare, That the same was told him in that Town the 12th. of July, whereas my Lord was not killed in the Tower till the 13. And besides all this to evidence a Report of that Noble Person's being Murdered, previous to the commission of the 〈◊〉 there are two Informations more delivered upon Oath Mr. Braddon's Trial, 〈◊〉 〈…〉 miah Burg●s, that lives at Marlborrough, who swears that he heard it at from, a place 90. Miles from London, the very day that the Earl of Essex died; and another by one Lewes that lives at Marleborrough, who deposeth, That being riding on the Road within three or four Miles of Andover, on Friday in the Afternoon, the same day that the Earl of Essex was murdered, he was told by a person, whom he fell in with on the way, That the said Earl had cut his Throat in the Tower. And notwithstanding all the affronts and discouragements put upon those two Witnesses whilst they were giving their Testimony, and notwithstanding all the scorn and contempt wherewith 
* See Braddon's Trial p 37, 49, 50, 51.  Sir George Jeffery's endeavoured to expose and ridicule what they Deposed; yet I dare venture their Informations upon the Faith of all indifferent and ingenuous Men, whether they do not abundantly prove that there was such a Report spread abroad antecedently to my Lord of Essex's death, or at least before the tidings of it could reach so far, as that he had cut his Throat in the Tower. Only I shall crave liberty to make two or three reflections on these Depositions, and they shall not only be natural and easy, and far from being wrested and exported out of what was said, but they shall be such as must necessarily beget and strengthen a belief that my Lord of Essex did not murder himself, but was through the contrivance and malice of others barbarously assassinated by the hands of Russians and execrable Villains. And the first is, That it ought to be reckoned as a wonder, and ascribed only to the overruling Providence of God, that will not suffer a Crime so hateful to Heaven, and so ruinous to Humane Society, to fall out without leaving some prints and footsteps by which it may be traced and detected, that a Crime so enormous in itself, so provoking and exasperating to Mankind, and which the Authors of, and Actors in, would be loath to bear the ignominy, and undergo the punishment, that so horrid a guilt subjects them unto, should be communicated to so many and so commonly talked of before the Fact. But by how much Revenge is one of the sweetest passions, and most grateful to depraved nature, by so much hath it a power and virtue in it, to cause Men to open and unbosom themselves, from the satisfaction which it yields, and the delightful gust that it affords them. And though the Papists were at that time exceedingly transported with joy, partly through their having shamm'd a Plot upon the Protestants which they supposed would extinguish the remembrance of their own, and partly from the hopes they had, of appeasing the Ghosts of their Tyburn Martyrs, with the Blood of English Heretics; yet they could not but be uneasy in their minds, to think that the Earl of Essex, whom they so peculiarly hated, and whose ability to unmask their designs, as well as interest in the Nation and resentment for being committed, they so much apprehended and feared, should be able to escape their hands, through want of evidence against him, which made it needful for the heads of the Romish Faction, to let their little clamours and talkative votaries know, how they had resolved to use and employ force and violence for the destruction of that so much dreaded Enemy, whom mercenary Judges and suborned and picket Juries would not serve to cut off in the way of Legal and judicial Forms. Nor is it improbable but that the Contrivers of this Noble Man's death, might have resolved the execution and commission of the Fact sooner, and that the reason of adjourning it, was to adjust it to the season of my Lord Russels' Trial, thereby to make the murder of the one subservient and useful to the death of the other; but that those acquainted with the first Resolution, had from a forwardness of obliging their friends, too hastily given them intelligence of the thing as already done, when it was not as yet perpetrated, nor committed, by reason of the later Resolution. The second observation I would make upon the forementioned reports, is, That tho' they were vented by several persons, yet they not only agreed in the matter of the Earl of Essex's death, but they accorded also in the way and manner of it namely, that he had cut his Throat. Which plainly shows that it was not vulgar Tattle vented at random, but that it had its foundation in a previous and fixed resolution that he should undergo that unhappy fate. Nothing but a steady and determinate cause, can produce a steady and determinate effect. Had the report taken its rise in the jealousies of his friends, or owed its birth to the fearful apprehensions of the common people; they would have rather dreamed of his being poisoned, as being more safe for the Actors to perpetrate, and requiring the accession of sewer hands, than have ever imagined that his throat should be cut. It is impossible to conceive that the Reports of so many several persons, should not only agree in the matter of his death, but all harmonise and centre in the very circumstance of the manner of it; unless it had originally proceeded from such as had contrived and determined both the murder itself, and the way wherein it should be committed. For when reports have their foundation only in men's fancies, they will always vary according to the different tempers, passions and complexions of the Reporters. The third deduction which I would infer from the premised Reports, is, That they could not be fictions and forgeries of Liars and People Romantickly disposed. For how could so many persons, and at such distances from one another, and betwixt whom there was never any correspondence, agree and combine together to impose upon the World and to abuse the Faith of Mankind? And as they all seem to be persons who abhor tricks, and who would not be guilty of spreading, much less of raising a false Report? so it is beyond the wit of man to declare, how it should come to be the interest of Gentlewomen, and Country Tradesmen to be the Authors of such a Story that my Lord of Essex had cut his throat before it was done. And for any to imagine that the fanatics were the framers of it, is to represent them not only wicked but foolish, and to suppose they would disserve themselves, as well as slander and reproach their noblest and best friend.  
And what clearer evidence, or greater confirmation can there be, of the Earl of Essex's not having been Felo de se, but treacherously murdered by others, and that they who were the Authorisers of that horrid assassination, are persons of great power and interest at Court; than that there have been Letters sent and proposals made to some noble Lords near the King, that his Majesty will but grant a pardon to two or three men who shall be named when that grace is indulged, and that then the whole intrigue and mystery of that hellish contrivance shall be discovered, and the contrivers as well as perpetrators of it particularly detected, with a full account of all the circumstances of its execution. 'Tis true I dare not affirm, that those Letters have been shown to his Majesty, or any intercession used with him in pursuance of that overture and proposal; but this I may justly say, that if they have neglected it, they must needs either know or suspect, that there are persons of too great power as well as quality interested and concerned in that execrable villainy. For we can suppose no other motive, upon which men of honour would decline a service so acceptable to God, and whereby they might avert wrath not only from the Throne and Kingdom, but from their own persons and families, through bringing enormous offenders and execrable assassinates to punishment. But alas! that apprehension they are under, of deriving trouble and destruction upon themselves, instead of being able to expose the Malefactors to justice, frightens them from the discharge of that duty which they owe both to God and Men. The having heard what a Great Man should say in reference to Mr. Braddon, namely, that he was ravelling into such a business, but that he was resolved to ruin him if all the Law of England would do it; makes every man afraid as well as sensible what he may encounter if he have the boldness to interest himself in this affair. O degenerate off spring of brave and heroic ancestors! were it not much more eligible to run hazard by acquitting yourselves as persons of honour in discharge of your duty, than to seek for safety by involving your persons and posterity under the guilt of that abominable and villainous Fact. And besides, can they otherwise hope, than that through conniving at so horrid a murder committed upon another person, and one who was of a rank and condition equal to themselves, they shall at last undergo the same or the like fate, whensoever they have the unhappiness and misfortune to fall under the wrath of a certain Gentleman at St. James'. But over and above the two Letters that were sent to noble persons very near the King to be communicated to his Majesty, there was another Letter addressed to the Countess of Essex, and in order to the being conveyed to her Ladyship, directed to be left with one Mr. Cadman a Bookseller in the New Exchange in the Strand; the Tenor whereof was, Essex's assassination, should be revealed, and laid open with all its circumstances. This Letter was in August last brought by a young woman to Mr. Cadman's Shop, who finding him sleeping on the inside of his Counter, told him that she had brought him a Letter directed to my Lady Essex concerning my Lord's death, which she desired he would read, being to that end left open and unsealed. But Cadman being drowsy and still inclined to sleep, instead of taking notice what she said, thrust her from the Counter as an officious and troublesome person, and commanded her to goabout her business. Yet having after his being throughly awake both perused the Letter, and considered the importance and consequence of it, he judged himself in prudence obliged to carry it to a Magistrate, which accordingly he did to one Hinton a Justice of Peace in Covent Garden, who as I have been credibly informed went with it to one of the Secretaries of State. This Letter as is most justly conceived was written by Bomeny; forasmuch as he not only seemed about that time to be under some Remorse in reference to the death of my Lord, but because some of Bomeny's handwriting being showed to Mr. Cadman, it appeared to him according to the best of his remembrance and judgement, to be the same hand, or at least very much like unto that which the letter was written in. This much is plainly evident that it must have been written by one that was willing to be known, seeing it was both sent open and by a person that was able to declare of whom she had received it. For had the writing of this Letter been only a contrivance to avert the infamy of my Lord's death from himself, and deliver those Gentlemen accused for the Plot, from the consequences unto which the Earls imagined murdering himself was improved against them; it would never have been left unsealed for Mr. Cadman to read, nor seat by a person that was acquainted with the contents of it, as it plainly appears the bearer was; but would both have been sealed, to prevent Cadman's looking into it, and conveyed by a porter or some such hand, that would have been less liable to be questioned either about the contents or the Author of it. Nor does any thing more amaze and astonish thinking people, than that notwithstanding the many Reports, as well as Universal jealousies, of my Lord of Essex being murdered in the Tower. yet all this time his Majesty hath not published one word to encourage an inquisition into the manner of his death, or to secure a pardon to such as shall be able to discover whether he was assassinated, and by whom and after what manner he was brought to an untimely End. For considering the obligations which the King and the Royal Family lay under to the late Earl of Essex, as well as to his Father my Lord Capel, and considering the many aspersions thrown upon the Court in relation to the death of the said Earl; it hath been expected that his Majesty as well in justice to the Family of the Capulets, as in vindication of his own honour from the infamy of having a person of my Lord Essex's merit and figure assassinated in his Majesty's prison and Palace, would have issued out a proclamation ascertaining forgiveness to any that should be able to prove his being murdered by others, and that he did not destroy himself as some people have been industrious to give out. And that which increaseth the surprise and wonder, is the consideration of the forwardness which the King hath expressed in some other cases, for the detection of murders of this nature. For besides the tender of a pardon, there was the promise of 500 l. to any who should discover the murder of Sr. Edmondbury Godfrey and reveal the miscreants by whom he was assassinated. And I would be loath to think, that his Majesty's proceeding so differently in that case, from what he hath done in this, was rather to be ascribed to his apprehensions of a ParlJament which was then in Being, than to his love of justice or the desire of delivering the Nation from the guilt of innocent blood. But I am willing to believe that the reason why the King doth not encourage the discovery of this late murder of my L. of Essex, ariseth from the fear he is in of the persons that were accessary to it. For in case he would authorize the detection of the Assassinates of this Noble Earl, he will find himself obliged, not only to bring the Earl of S.— and my Lord F.— but his Royal and dearly beloved Brother I— D.— of Y.— to punishment. And who knows but that he dreads left in calling these Gentlemen to account for cutting the E. of Essex's throat, He too much hazard and expose his own? Nor is it at all surprising, that the King who had not courage to resent the poisoning his own Sister by her husband the Duke of Orleans, at a juncture when He might have made France feel the effects of his justice and displeasure; should not have the boldness to question his Brother and other principal persons of the Popish Faction for the assassination of Essex, especially at a time that he hath divested himself of all power to hurt them, and by seeming offended may only stir up their wrath against himself. For I remember, that when the late Sr. Thomas Armstrong had come post from Paris, to give his Majesty an account how Orleans had poisoned the Princess Henrietta, that he only replied, Orleans is a Rascal, but pray thee Tom do not speak of what he hath done. Yet that his Majesty may not excuse himself hereafter from causing further inquisition to be made after my Lord of Essex's death by saying he never heard otherwise but that he murdered himself, I do therefore tell his Majesty, and publish to all the World, that if he will grant an indemnity and protection to three or four persons, we shall fully and evidently prove a Great Man, the Earl of S.— my Lord F.— etc. to have been the contrivers and Authorisers of it, and shall name the Ruffians in particular, who were employed to perpetrate the hellish and execrable Fact, with an account of the several sums of money which they had for the execution of it. Nor ought his Majesty to be displeased, that I arraign his Brother and principal Ministers of so enormous and bloody a crime; for as I write nothing but what I can fully justify, so I take the boldness further to tell both him and them, that if ever there come a ParlJament in England, this matter shall be laid fully open, and justice demanded against these impudent and enormous Offenders.  
And as if it were not enough to evidence the E. of Essex did not murder himself, but was barbarously assassinated by others, that no encouragement hath been given for the discovery of the Authors of that villainous Fact, notwithstanding all the rumours and Reports which have run to and fro, both of the Manner of his death and the Actors in it; it receives both a further and a very convincing accession of proof from this, that all means have been used to deter men from enquiring into that matter, and to prevent their detecting what they may know of it. The passages to this purpose would fill a volume merely to relate them, and therefore I shall confine myself to two particulars, which I shall endeavour to deduce and represent, with all the brevity as well as clearness I can. Nor can it in the first place, but astonish the world, to find the Judges, with whom the administration of law and justice between the King and his people is trusted, I say to find them, contrary both to the nature and End of their office, and the Oaths they have taken of acting impartially, to brand the meddling in the matter of the E. of Essex's death, as a Reflection upon his Majesty, an Affront to the Government, and a design to involve and embroil the Nation in trouble. For not only the Attorney General stigmatiseth the report and belief of the Earl's being murdered by villainous hands, as 
* See Braddons Trial, p. 3, 20, 6●.  the throwing that ill thing upon the Government which he had committed upon himself, but my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies is pleased to style it a libelling of it, and to have been forged in order to beget heart burnings and jealousies in the King's Subjects against the Government, and to raise Sedition. Whereas the Government would never have been charged with this horrid Gild, though some at the head of affairs might possibly have been accused of it, had not these Gownsmen involved the Government under the infamy and aspersion of it, and done all they can to teach others to lay the barbarous Fact at that Door. For as it is not the first time, that a Prisoner hath been murdered in the Tower, so it was never till now called a Reflection on the Government, to endeavour to prove that such or such a person was destroyed by ●iol●nt and bloody hands, even of whose death the Coroners Inquest had upon their inquisition given an other verdict. Nay when the chief Favourites of our Princes and first Ministers of State, have been accused as guilty of murdering a Gentleman imprisoned in the Tower, whom the Coroners Jury had on their Inquisition declared to have died a natural death; yet it was not thought to be an impeachment of the Government, or a devolving the guilt of that bloody crime upon the King. Of this we have a famous instance in Sr. Thomas Overbury, who being committed Prisoner to the Tower in the Reign of King James, and there poisoned by the contrivance and instigation of the Earl of Somerset, etc. (that was then chief Minister as well as principal Favourite) was brought in by the Coroners inquisition to have died a natural death. And yet it was thought no dishonour to the Government, to have the death of that Gentleman afterwards enquired into, and to find it proved contrary to the Coroners Inquisition, that instead of dying a natural death, he was basely and treacherously murdered by Villainous hands, through the accession and contrivance of him whom he had faithfully served, and with the consent of those to whose care, trust and custody he was committed. Nay, was it not a great Vindication of the honour of the Government, and an eminent Declaration of the Justice of the Nation, to have the Lieutenant of the Tower, and four or five meaner persons executed, and the Earl of Somerset and his Countess convicted and condemned for that bloody and barbarous Fact, which the Coroners Inquest had acquitted and absolved all the world from the suspicion as well as the guilt of? And what an injury will the Judges of the King's Bench, and his Majesty's Council at Law, be found to have done the King and the Government, by their foolish as well as wicked expressions, if at any time hereafter it come to be proved (as certainly it will) that the Earl of Essex did not murder himself, but was assassinated by a company of hired Russians. We should be loath in that case to claim the right of their way of Argumentation, and to infer that because my Lord of Essex was murdered in the Tower, and at a time 
* Braddons Trial p. 4. 60.  when the King was walking there, that therefore not only the Government ought to be charged with it, but that the King himself had a hand in, and had designed it. Tho I must say that according to their method of reasoning, it will be impossible in that case to avoid such a deduction. However it is a convincing proof, that the ignominy and guilt of this Nobleman's death, aught to be ascribed to others than himself, that the Judges and the men of the long Robe, can find no other way to stifle the suspicion, and silence the clamour of the People, but by interposing the Government as a Screen to shelter Malefactors from Accusation, and abusing the Authority of the Kingdom, to deter men from the duty which they owe to God and his Majesty in discovering so execrable a murder. Nor is this the only way and method they have taken to frighten and discourage Persons from discoursing of the Earl of Essex's being destroyed by others, without any accession or contribution of his own to his death, but they have laid their commands and injunctions upon such as they have power and authority over, and whom they thought conscious either to the manner of that Noble Peers fatal End, or capable of detecting any circumstances which might let in light upon that affair. And therefore knowing that the Soldiers who were upon Duty in the Tower, that morning when the Earl of Essex was killed, had not only taken notice of several Persons, and made Observation of divers things, from which both the murder of that virtuous Lord might be inferred and concluded as well as by whose hands it was perpetrated, but that divers of them had talked too freely and lavishly of it abroad as well as among themselves; accordingly on the Saturday morning (being that which immediately succeeded to the day of the Earls death) did a Military Officer after They and other Soldiers were called together, charge them with the highest threats and menaces, that they should not dare to speak of what they had seen or heard the day before, adding that whosoever should be known to divulge what had passed in the Tower on the Friday in the forenoon should severely suffer for it. This divers of the Soldiers have confessed and related to their friends, who are willing to testify it when occasion serves. And among others, one Robert Meak (of whom I shall afterwards have occasion to say somewhat more) declared the whole of this passage to two men that are ready to swear it, whensoever their Depositions may be of advantage to the public, and can be made without exposing themselves to ruin. It will not be denied by rational men, but that the Soldiers who were then upon Duty in the Tower, had advantages of knowing more in reference to the Earl of Essex death, than most other persons can pretend unto; seeing that as some were so posted as both to see all that went into his Lodgings, and to hear the noise and bustle which was made in his Chamber upon his resistance, and the force and violence which the miscreants used towards him; so others were placed in that manner, as to observe whence and from whom they came, and whither and to whom they returned, that were employed to commit the Hellish and Tragical deed. Nor can any suspect, that men who march under the Ensigns of his Majesty, should forge a story so much tending to the dishonour of a great man, and the King's Ministers, and so likely to displease persons that had power to cashier, and otherwise punish them as this of my Lord Essex not cutting his own Throat, but being Assassinated by others, was adapted unto, and would infallibly do. Yea, I do affirm with all the Sacredness which becomes a Man and a Christian in a matter of this weight and importance, that this is no Calumny imposed on the Soldiers and their Commander, in order to traduce the Government, and inflame the Kingdom. but that whatsoever is here affirmed, is built upon the greatest moral certainty, that an Affair of this nature is capable of. And all I do desire in order to the justifying what I have now related and declared, is only that his Majesty would cause order a writ of Revieu, or melius Inquirendum, to be issued out, with an assurance of pardon to such as shall be willing to come in and be able to testify by whom and after what manner this Noble Lord was Assassinated and Murdered. Nor can his Majesty's Ministers escape this Dilemma, either of lying under the infamy of being conscious of, and accessary unto the assassination of that Honourable person, or of being obliged to obtain a Revieu of this matter, with a promise of indemnity to those who shall appear witnesses and be able to give evidence in the case. And I shall take the liberty further to say, that it is not only the duty, but the interest of those very Ministers who may not be directly concerned in the Gild of my Lord of Essex blood, to promote and second this overture and proposal, and that not only for the Honour of the Government, but for their own Vindication from being accessary to so enormous and detestable a Crime. For the time may possibly come, that their mere connivance at the concealment of this murder, may rise in judgement against them, and render them more liable to punishment, than they seem at present to apprehend. Our Laws which expressly requires the least Officers in the Commonwealth, to pursue Robbers, Felons, and Murderers with Hue and Cry, or otherwise makes them obnoxious to penalties; never intended that privy 〈◊〉 who● by the duty of their place are to watch and advise for the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of the Subject, as well as the preservation, and honer of the King, should be esteemed Innocent and not be liable to any punishment by Law, though they be found to connive at the destruction of his Me 〈…〉 people, and at the involving his Person and Government, under an inde●●ble reproach and infamy. And therefore though it cannot be supposed that those of his Majesty's Ministers, who are directly criminal, by contriving and commanding this Murder, should countenance or encourage an inquiry into and a detection of it; yet it may not only be expected, but aught to be claimed of the Marquis of Hallisax, the Earl of Radnar, my Lord Fal 〈…〉 ridg, and some others, who have still the privilege of being in the public manage of Affairs, and admitted to sit in his Majesty's Council, that they would not both to their own danger and dishonour, as well as the prejudice of the King in his reputation and safety, continue to connive at this Execrable and Barbarous Murder, but that they would apply themselves, as becomes the duty of their places and the regard they ought to have for their own honour, to obtain of his Majesty what is here desired, in order to the detection of the assassination of my Lord Essex, and the bringing the Malefactor's to undergo that severity which the Justice of the Law subjects them unto.  
But as if the preceding T●pick did not administer sufficient Evidence, that the E. of Essex was assassinated by others, howsoever his memory comes to be branded for cutting his own Throat; there is a further proof ariseth in confirmation of it from this, that they have not only discouraged and frighted such as might be willing to lay open the whole Mystery of that devilish work of darkness; but they have beyond all law and precedent, persecuted and ●ppressed those, who were either found inclined to inquire into the manner of that honourable persons death, or to have vented what they had heard which might give suspicion of his being brought to his End, by the treache 〈…〉 villainy of bloody misereants. Nor shall I here enlarge on the proceedings against old Mr. Edward's the Custom-house Officer, who besides his ●●ing shamefully upbraided and slandered by my Lord Chief Justice at the Trial of Mr. Bradden, was afterwards turned out of his place where he had served for 39 years, and for no other crime but affiring his Boy had said he sawka bl●●●● Raz●● thrown ●ut of ●he E. of E 〈…〉 ex 's Window immediately before the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 s Death. But that which I shall more largely insist upon, is the course and method that hath been 〈…〉 red towards 
* 〈◊〉 Trial p. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.  Mr. Braddon himself, which as it is without all precedent, so it hath been extravagant and arbitrary in the highest degree. All who understand any thing of the Law of England, know that in all Cases and Indictments of Murder, except upon Appeals, the Charge and Accusation not only runs in the King's Name, but he is according to, and in the sense of the Law, the proper Plaintiff. And there is this reason for it, because as others through the death of the person destroyed, may have lost a Relation, Acquaintance, or Friend, so the King always loseth a Subject from whom he was to have Allegiance and Service, and whom by virtue of his Office he was trusted with the care and protection of, and in the Sense and esteem of the Law made responsible for. It was upon this account that the Conspirators against the life, and Authorisers of the Assassination of this late Peer, and to prevent the advantage and benefit, which Mr. Braddon would have had in bringing an Indi●●ment of Felony and Murder against B●meny and others, took the start of him and caused an Information to be preferred against him, of subornation and spreading false Reports, whereby to bring the Government of the King into hatred, disgrace and contempt. And by this means they did not only obstruct, the Kings 
* ●●●●ders Trial, p. 1, 2.  being made Plantif and party against the murderers, which he must have been in case way had been given to Mr. Braddons getting any of them Indicted, but they commence an Action against that poor Gentleman, wherein they make the King party and Plaintiff against him, and in effect no less than Advocate und Voucher, for the Innocency of those that were to have been Indicted for a most execrable and barbarous Assassination. Which as it was a most devilish Artifice, for the oppressing an honest Gentleman, who had done nothing, but what he was bound unto, in Conscience to God, and duty to his Majesty; so it was a most villainous and enormous crime against the King through making him to be the Screen and Patron of those, of whom he should have been the prosecutor and punisher, and at the same time to be the pursuer and ruiner of a worthy person, whom he was bound to have countenanced, encouraged, and protected. It would fill a whole Volumn to relate the severities which Mr. Bradden hath encountered; and upon no other score, but because he was willing in order, to delivering the Throne and Kingdom from the Gild of Innocent Blood, to gather up such Informations as might have served to convince the King of the murder committed upon the E. of Essex while he was in a special manner under the protection of his Majesty and the Law, being not only a Prisoner, but standing committed to the T●wer of London, wherewith respect to the quality of the place, Captives ought to be supposed more safe from violence than in other Prisons. But as it is not yet a season to present the world with a History of the Sufferings of this Honest and Ingenious Gentleman; so it were but to en-tangle and perplex the affair I am upon, to interweave it with a large narrative of another man's troubles, though they all sp 〈…〉ng from his being concerned in enquiring and discovering, how and by what hands and means this noble Man was brought to so fatal and untimely an End. I shall therefore only briefly intimate some few things, which may serve to enlighten and confirm the T●pick and Head which I am now discording from. And whatsoever proves the ill treatment of those, who keeping themselves within the bonds of loyalty and modesty have endeavoured to detect the Assassination of that honourable person, does by consequence demonstrate that he was not Felo de se, but that he was Murdered by the malice and violence of other men. The first unexpected entertainment which this Gentlemen Mr. Braddon met with, was his being taken into Custody, and carried before the Council, on his having gone to Whitehall to wait upon my Lord S. in order to inform his Lordship what a certain Boy (whom he took thither along with him) had reported concerning a Razor, which he saw thrown out of the Earl of Essex Window, immediately before the noise and report of his Death And not to mention what other Treatment he met with there, which some of the Honourable Menbers of that Board themselves, have declared to have been very unbecoming his Majesty's presence, and no way's agreeable to the gravity, wisdom and honour of such an assembly, he was required to give 2000 l. Bail to answer an Information, for having suborned the Boy; a thing very unsuitable to the service he had been performing for the Honour of his Majesty and the Government, and very surprising to all indifferent persons that heard of it. And though this poor Gentleman was discharged at that time and, restored to his liberty, upon giving the forementioned 2000 l. Bail, to answer the said Information; yet his troubles did not end and terminate here; but this was rather only a commencement and beginning of the hardships and oppressions which he was to meet with, for having had the honesty and courage to appear in a business, which so nearly affected a great man, and so many of his Majesty's principal Ministers of State. For though they had laid him under a necessity of making all the provisions he could, for Vindicating himself from being the Author and Forger of that Report, concerning a Razor's being thrown out of the E. of Essex window just before the cry and noise of his death, being that which gave the suspicion of my Lords being murdered by violent, treacherous and bloody hands, and that he did not destroy himself, as was endeavoured to be obtruded and imposed upon his Memory and the Faith of the Nation; yet Mr. Braddon was no sooner gone into the Country to inquire into the truth of an other Story, which very much strengthened and confirmed the suspicion and jealousy that my Lord was not Felo de Se; but this poor Gentleman fell into new troubles, and found persecution and oppression awaiting him whithersoever he went. For having received intelligence from a friend, that on the very day on which the Earl died, it was reported at Marleborough, that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower; he judged it very useful and subservient both to the acquitting himself from the Slander of being the first Author of the Report that my Lord was murdered by others, and also to the evidencing and clearing up that he really was so, to search into the truth of that Information which his Friend had given him, and to learn out the persons to whom that News had been told, and know if possible the names of those who had related it. But while he was going in the search and pursuit of this, which his being obliged under the Penalty of 2000 l. to answer an Information of Subornation, had made an act of Justice to himself as well as a duty of God and his Country, behold the poor Gentleman was apprehended and committed to Fisherton Goal in Wil●shire, by a Warrant the most illegal for the Form as well as the Matter that ever any man was sent to Prison upon. For what could be more extravagant and illegal than to seize and commit a Gentleman travelleng peaceably on the road, without an Oath or deposition of any witness against him, merely upon a groundless and naked suspicion of being a dangerous and ill affected man to the Government, and for having two Informations about him, relating to a Razors being thrown out of my Lord Essex Window before the news of his death was divulged, and for carrying two Letters, whereof the contents of one he knew not, and the contents of the other could administer no just offence. But the Form of the Warrant was more extravagant, arbitrary, and illegal than the matter, carrying in express words this order and command to the Gaoler, namely, That he should Laurence Braddon safely keep, till he should receive further Order from the King and Privy Council. Which Warrant had the Gaoler been as mad and foolish to obey, as the officious and doting Justice was to write, the poor Gentleman for any foundation of relief that was left him in the Mittimus, might have lain in Prison all the days of his life, unless the King and Council should have ordered his Release and Discharge. But Mr. Braddon knowing both his own Integrity as to the Business he was going upon, and his Innocency as to any crime the malice of his Enemies could charge him with, sued out a habeas corpus to be brought to London before some of the Judges, in order to be Bailed. But alas! being arrived there, none of the Judges of either Bench, nor Barons of the Exchequer were in Town, so that he was necessitated to desire the Gaoler to carry him before my Lord K. which the Gaoler having accordingly done, his Lordship instead of admitting the Prisoner immediately into his presence, and allowing him the benefit of the Statute, was pleased to adjourn the seeing him till the next day, with a command that he should be then brought to the Council Chamber at Whitehall. Whither being in obedience to the said Order carried, he was after an hours waiting called in before my Lord, and sound together with him my Lord Priey Seal, my Lord Duke of Ormond, and Mr. Secretary Jenkins. It would be both to enlarge these Papers beyond the bounds allowed to them, and to depart too far from the essential part of the subject I am upon, to relate the whole entertainment, which I have been told Mr. Braddon did there meet with. Only it may not be amiss, to remind my Lord K. of a Verse that he quoted out of Juvenal, and to subjoin the Translation of it into English, as a certain author hath rendered it. For having upbraided the poor Gentleman as one that had a design to raise and advance himself by sinistrous courses (which God knows the endeavouring to detect the Earl of Essex Murder, was not as the present posture of Affairs stands, a very likely method unto) he quoted that of the Poet to give an edge to his Irony and Sarcasm:  

Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, & career dignum,  
Si vis esse aliquis.  
Dare once but be a Rogue upon Record,  
And you may quickly hope to be a Lord.   
But his bitter and contemptuous Language, with all his other ungentile as well as illegal Treatment, might have easily been dispensed with; had not his Lordship refused him the benefit of the Statute of being admitted to be Bailed, unless he would procure Sureties who together with himself might stand bound in 12000 l. for appearance. A thing so exorbitant, considering the quality of the Prisoner, as well as unjust considering the nature of that which they styled his offence, that he had both acted unwisely should he have engaged himself and Friends in Bonds so much above what he was able to discharge, and injuriously to others should he have condescended to so illegal a demand, and which might afterwards be improved into a precedent. Whereupon finding after divers Applications, that this Lordship was not to be wrought to a mitigation of the 12000 l, and that he would not be prevailed on to take the 6000 l. Bail, which was offered; the Gentleman rather than be remitted again to Prison in the Country, was forced to comply to stand committed to the Messenger, Mr. Atterburys, where he continued for five Weeks at the charges and rate of 4 l. 1 s, 8 d. per week. During which time he applied himself by way of petition to his Majesty in Council, but alas without that success which he hoped for, which most Men are apt to aseribe to the King's being prepossessed by my Lord K. concerning his case, so that despairing both of all Justice from my Lord K. and of all Favour from the Council Board, and groaning as well under a close Confinement, as the excessive charges he was at in the Messenger's House; he judged it the best method he could take, to endeavour the getting himself turned over to the King's Bench Prison in Southwark, reckoning that he should not only live there at a more moderate Expense (which the Narrowness of his Fortune obliged him to consult) than was extorted from him at Mr. Atterburies', but likewise expecting, that upon giving Security for his true Imprisonment, he should have the Liberty of the Rules, and thereby enjoy a more open and free Air, than he did in the place where he was before. But as it was with some Difficulty and after earnest Application, as well to my Lord K. as to my Lord Chief Justice, and the Attorney General, that this small Kindness was obtained; so after his removal to the King's Bench by virtue of a Habeas Corpus from my Lord Chief Justice, and after his having given 10000 l. Security for his faithful and true Imprisonment, yet he was by an order from my Lord Chief Justice to the Marshal of the said Prison for his close Consinement, denied the Freedom of the Rules, which he had not only promised himself as a thing that was in course allowed, but what the Keeper of the Prison had consented unto, and without the granting whereof he could not according to Law demand Bail and Security for his true Imprisonment. Yea, so arbitrary and illegal were they in all their actings against this poor Gentleman Mr. Braddon, that notwithstanding his Imprisonment, yet they refused to discharge him from the 2000 l. Bail, which he had given at his first Appearance before the Council to answer an Information of pretended Subornation; and also notwithstanding his close Confinement, they withheld from him, and positively denied to give up the 10000 l. Bonds, which he and his Sureties had entered into for his being a true Prisoner, nor would they so much as restore him the Fees he had paid upon the sealing of them. And it being now the long Vacation, and there remaining no way of helping and relieving himself till the Term, he was forced both to continue a close Prisoner under no less Expense than two l. Sterl. per week, and to lie under the Weight and Terror of the 12000l. Bail which they had wrested from him. But though he was denied the Succour and Benefit of the Law, and sound neither Justice nor Mercy in Men; yet he could not be robbed of the Comforts of a good Conscience, nor deprived of the Refreshments and Supports which the Knowledge of his own Integrity and Innocency administered unto him. And I have been fully informed by credible Hands, that neither the troubles and oppressions which he lay then under, nor the further Persecutions and Sufferings he was in prospect of, were able to give him any Discomposure, or create him any vexation, Grief in himself, nor yet to transport him to a behaviour in word or deed that could furnish his Enemies with an advantage against, or yield them matter of insulting over him. In this state and Condition he continued till Michaelmass Term, which being come, and the Westminster Courts begun to fit, he caused move the Court of King's Bench the very first day for a Rule to the Marshal to bring him up the next morning, in order to discharge the Bail he had given by Appointment of the Council Board about the answering an Information of pretended Subornation. Which Rule being granted by the Court, and obeyed by the Marshal; his Appearance was recorded; and his Bail discharged. Now having succeeded in this which my Lord K. had refused in the time of the Vacation to grant him, the next step he took was for the obtaining his own Liberty, in order to which he did on the fifth day of the Term move the Court for a Habeas Corpus to be brought up and bailed. Which being also immediately granted, he was after a few days, and a little delay, which I shall not complain of the occasion of, brought up to the Court of the King's Bench, and there discharged from his Imprisonment upon he giving 3000 l. Bail, whereof himself stood ●ound in a Bond of a 1000 l. and his four Sureties in 500 l. a Man. From all which we may not only collect the Hardships and Oppressions which this honest and worthy Gentleman met wit, merely for enquiring into the Truth of some Reports, which if admitted, do clearly prove that the Earl of Essex was assassinated by others, and did not murder himself, but we may also observe and infer after what an arbitrary and illegal manner his Majesty's Subjects are treated by some of his judicial Officers, as well as prime Ministers, for attempting to discover a most execrable and barbarous Murder, wherein a great Man, and the chief Heads of the Popish Faction would have been found deeply concerned and involved. Nor did Mr. Braddons troubles upon this account issue here, all these things being only Praeludivars to what he was further to encounter from the Rage and Malice of St. James', and therefore the next Scene that opened, was the bringing him to a Trial for endeavouring in the Earl of Essex's Death, to cast Aspersiens upon the Government and defame the King. And all I would desire of any unprejudiced and impartial Person, is only to read the said Trial, being fully confident that he will thereupon not only acquit the Gentleman from the Gild of any such thing; but that he will find himself obliged in conscience to acknowledge that there was barbarous villainy used in bringing my Lord of Essex to that Fatal and untimely End. And the first thing remarkable as an Introduction to that Trial, is, that my Lord Chief Justice was not only that morning for some time at Whitehall before he went to Westminster, but was attended upon by Lord F. (whom we have reason to accuse of being one of the Contrivers and Authorisers of the Earl of Essex murder) at the lighting out of his Coach in Westminster, and discoursed with both as he was conducted through the Hall, and in a corner near unto the Court before his Lordship ascended to the Bench. Which hath given many men ground to suspect, that his business at the first place was to receive such Instructions as he was to follow and attend unto in the work of the day, and that the reason of the others according and discoursing him where he did, was to impress him with a fresh sense of the business that was to be before him, and to represent the dreadful consequences which would ensue to a great Man and His Majesty's Ministers, in case Mr. Braddon should come to be acquitted. And whosoever did either observe the behaviour of the Bench at that time, or hath since read the Trial, (where though what was said on all sides may be related, yet the Gesture, Countenance, Passion, Heat and Air with which many things were spoken, cannot be represented) must be forced to acknowledge that my Lord Chief Justice and his Brethren, were rather sworn parties against the Defendant, than equal Judges in a Cause betwixt the King and him. I should be obliged to transcribe most of the Trial, did I undertake to give an account of the ungentile, slanderous, and malicious language vented against himself; or the interrupting, menacing, and hectoring of his Counsel, or the imposing upon, prescribing unto as well as byassing the Jury against him; and therefore instead of that, I entreat and desire the world to do both themselves, and Mr. Braddon that right as to peruse the Trial, and if in their hearts they subscribe not to what I say, I am contented to undergo the character both of a person that understands nothing of the Rules and Measures which ought to be observed in Courts of Judicature, and of one who is not sufficiently regardful of his Credit and Fame in the things which he delivers. And if I be not wonderfully mistaken, there is nothing more needful, but an impartial reading and weighing of that Trial, for the vindication of Mr. Braddon's enquiring into the Reports which seemed to imply that the Earl of Essex had not killed himself, nor to justify his innocency as to the crime whereof he was accused, namely 
* Braddons Trial, p. 2. 70.  of maliciously conspiring and endeavouring to defame the Government; and, as Justice Withins was pleased to express it, of charging the King with taking away an innocent man's blood, and of murdering an innocent man, and as it was laid in the Indictment, of his procuring and suborning false Witnesses to prove that the Earl of Essex was not a Felon of himself, but was killed and murdered by unknown persons. For admit that all which was sworn concerning a bloody Razor's being thrown out of my Lord Essex's window immediately before the news of his death, and that all which was deposed concerning a Report in City and Country about his having cut his Throat before it was done, were false and only invented by the Informers; yet, as it is evident by the Oaths and Depositions of the Witnesses, that Mr. Braddon was not the Forger of these things; so it is demonstrable that they were in their nature of that weight and importance, upon which a wise as well an honest man, might suspect that my Lord had not murdered himself, but was destroyed by others. Nor could the Gentleman have ever been found guilty, but by means of Mercenary Judges, and an overawed as well as a picked and prejudiced Jury, who will boggle at nothing though never so unjust that may but gratisy a great Man, and oblige His Majesty's Ministers of State. And the reason, as I have said before, upon which Mr. Braddon came to be convicted and found guilty, was plainly to screen a great Man, and some other persons from coming to be involved in the guilt of that Noble Man's death, and to keep up the belief of a Protesiant Plot, 
* Braddon's Trial, p. 2, 70.  which (as Justice Withins phraseth it) was likely otherwise to lose its credit, and to be esteemed a Shame Plot for the taking away Innocent Protestants Lives. Nor was the whole Trial against this Worthy and Virtuous Person, more extravagant, arbitrary and illegal, than the Sentence against him, upon the Juries finding him convict of the Indictment, was unjust and severe. For besides the condemning him in a Fine of 2000 l. which is more than his whole visible Estate amounts unto, and expressly contrary to the Law of the Land, which requires no man shall be fined but with a salvo contenemento. i e. the leaving him as much as may support him in some degree answerable to his quality, they have over and above ordered his finding Sureties for good behaviour during life, which as I question whether it be lawful by the ancient and Common Law (though it hath been sometimes practised) any more than it is to condemn a person to perpetual Imprisonment; so I am sure there is no Precedent to be found for the like in a matter that was not of a more criminal and heinous Nature. But all serves to prove, that whosoever hath the courage or honesty to ●avel into the Earl of Essex's death, are to be persecuted, oppressed and ruined, and by consequence serves to demonstrate, that there is a villainous mystery in the manner of his coming to that Fatal End, which they are afraid to have searched out and detected.  
And as if it were not enough in the judgement of all rational men, to acquit and vindicate the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having destroyed himself, that those have been prosecuted with the utmost severity, and oppressed in their Estates and Liberties, who with all imaginable modesty towards the Government were willing to inquire into the manner of his death, and to declare their just suspicions, with the grounds of them, to persons trusted with the administration of affairs, that he did not murder himself, but was assassinated by others: Behold, that as one Crime is not to be concealed but by the perpetration of more, so the Conspirators and Authorisors' of that Noble Man's death, have proceeded to the murdering several other men, who as they had a perfect knowledge and comprehension both of the manner of the Fact, the villainous bloody Agents who were immediately instrumental to commit it, and the Persons who employed, rewarded, and encouraged them, so they had been guilty of what some will call indiscretion, to communicate to others what they had seen and observed, and too fully understood themselves. Among others who partly saw, heard, and observed themselves, and partly learned from others, several circumstances relating to the matter of my Lord's death, there was one Meak a common Sentinel, who had stood on duty all that morning ●●er unto the place and house where the Earl of Essex was confined. For whereas on other days the Sentinels used to stand but two hours at a time on duty, there was care taken that morning, that those who were on duty when the King and Duke came into the Tower, which was about six of the clock, should not be changed till both after the time of the Earl of Essex's death, which was about nine, and till after the King and Duke's departure from thence, which was about half an hour after. And the reason of this is obvious, namely, that though it was impossible to keep all persons from seeing who walked to and fro, and what was transacting, yet they resolved to preserve it in as narrow a compass as they could, and to admit as few to an opportunity of observing persons and things as might be. Whence it came to pass, that those Soldiers who entered upon Duty at Four, and should according to course have been relieved at Six, were suffered and obliged to stay on till Ten. Now this Meak having an advantage from the post he was in, of observing the several persons that went that morning to my Lord Essex's Lodgings, and having partly himself seen, and partly learned from others, divers material particulars, relating to the manner of the Assassination of that Noble Person, it will be easily acknowledged, that he was as capable as any to detect it, or at least of letting these, who should have the honesty, courage, and zeal to inquire after my Lord's death, so far into it as to be able to unravel that whole villainy, and to trace it not only to the Instruments, but the original Authors and Contrivers. This poor fellow both abhorring in himself what he had seen, and conceiving the greatest detestation imaginable against all the Villains who had been accessary to it, was neither able to conceal his knowledge of what he had seen, nor his resentments of so horrid a Fact, but at the same time had not the prudence to distinguish betwixt persons, who without damage to the Author, might be entrusted with so important a Secret, and those who at first would seem forward enough to hear it, but would withal make their advantage by revealing it to such as would reward them, and destroy him. Whence it unhappily came to pass that this poor foolish man, not only related it to such as were honest and faithful to him, and who will be ready in due time to testify the whole of what he acquainted them with, but to others who conveyed it to St. James' as a piece of important intelligence, and of wonderful consequence to his Royal Highness. And though it be not yet seasonable to recount the several particulars relating to that barbarous Murder, which he declared upon his own knowledge, as well as the confirmation of others; yet I may take the liberty to digest and branch them into their several heads, and to let the World know that some of them were such as preceded his death, others accompanied it, and one or two came after it. Wherefore that he might tell no more stories, nor rise up as a witness against the Assassinates, this poor unfortunate Fellow was secretly murdered and thrown into the Tower Ditch. And there are several particulars relating to his Death; which are not unworthy to be known to the World, but it were to advantage the Conspirators, and to prejudice ourselves to mention them at present. Only this is remarkable, that as this Robert Meak was for some time before his death, very apprehensive of the danger he went in of being privately destroyed for what he had declared concerning the E. of Essex being murdered, so he had a greater dread of it the morning before he was killed, than he had been possessed with at any other time. And therefore from that alarm which his mind suggested to him of his impendent danger, he begged of an Acqwaintance and Friend that morning before he died, that he would have accompanied, and kept with him for that day. But such was the poor fellow's fate, that though he told that person the apprehensions he was in of being murdered, and he from a sense and belief of it, had left his work with a resolution to attend him, yet whether from a jealousy he might have of his own safety, or upon what other motive I shall not inquire, he stole away from, and forsook him before Twelve of the Clock. But though the Conspirators and Assassionates had thus by a second murder delivered themselves from the apprehensions they were in of being detected for the first; yet there arose an other person, who as he had better opportunity of knowing the whole Mystery of the Lord of Essex's death, than Meak the Sentinel had; so from remorse of Conscience for what he had been accessary unto, and from an abhorrency of that bloody Fact, which he so well knew the Authors and Perpetrators of, he begun to discourse and communicate it with shame and loathing to others. The person whom I mean was Mr. Hawley, a Warder of the Tower, living in Winchester-street, being a Person both for Reputation and Estate far above that Hawley, in whose house the Earl of Essex was then Prisoner when his Throat was cut, and therefore one without whose knowledge, consent and contribution, it cannot be supposed to have been done. And by how much he was not only more capable than others to detect the whole villainy of the Noble Man's death, and lay open the enormous crime in all the parts and branches of it, but was of better credit than the Sentinel, and more likely to obtain belief from the World in what he should declare, by so much was he to be esteemed for a most dangerous person to the Conspirators, and to be treated as one from whom they might dread the most fatal mischief to themselves as well as their cause. Hence the intelligence was no sooner conveyed to a great Man and the rest of the Juncto, that Holy had been talking such things concerning the Earl of Essex's death, which it concerned them no less than both their Lives and Honours to have concealed; but they resolved to destroy him, and thereby prevent his prating for the future, and being able to tell any tales. And being informed that he was enquiring where he might purchase an Estate, they employ one to tempt him out of Town, under pretence of his seeing a parcel of Land that was to be sold. For they thought, that should they cause him to be murdered in or about the City, it would fill all men with jealousies of their being guilty of his death, especially considering the Reports which went of them, and the suspicions that they lay under of having caused Meak to be killed. And therefore in order to the getting him destroyed with the more secrecy, and the administering the less apprehension about the Authors of his death, they prevailed on him by the bait and temptation which I have mentioned, to take a journey into the Country. Whence having resolved that he should never return, they employed some to dog, and others to waylay and murder him. And with that Secrecy as well as Obedience, were their Orders and Decrees executed, that it was a considerable while after his Death, before he could be heard of, or his Body found. But when after long search and enquiry after him; his Corpse were at last found, there were all the marks and Symptoms of a most barbarous Assassination prepared upon him, which malicious wit could invent, or enraged jealousy and revenge act or commit. For besides divers confusion's in the head, face and breast from the blows he had received, it appeared plainly that he had been also strangled. And as he had never administered cause to any other persons save the Conspirators and Instruments of the Earl of ●ffex's death, upon which we can with the least shadow of reason, fancy his being murdered upon a personal and private Revenge; so there are proofs ready to be produced, whensoever either a ParlJament comes, or a fair Trial can be obtained before upright and impartial Judges, not only by whom he was destroyed, but by whose Command and Authority. Nor was his Wife unsensible and without apprehension even before the Body was discovered, both that he might be murdered, and upon what motives and inducements it was done, so that she told some Friends how she dreaded the consequences and effects of his having so often discoursed about the Earl of Essex's death. Yea there is one Glover, who is a Servant to His Majesty, being at present a Warder in the Tower, who being in conference with some people about the Earl of Essex and Mr. Braddon, was pleased with more than an ordinary emotion to say, Hawley also hath been prating, but he was fain to walk for it. But the same person being asked after it was known that he had been murdered, what he thought of Mr. Hawley's walking, appeared exceedingly disturbed, and said he knew nothing of it, nor would he have the patience to hear any thing spoken about that matter. So that we have here an other evidence that the Earl of Essex did not, as he hath been defamed and slandered, cut his own Throat, but that this Person of incomparable Merit and Virtue was Massacred by wicked and suborned Ruffians; seeing to prevent the discovery of that heinous and execrable Fact, two other men who had advantages of knowing both the Actors in, and manner of his death, and had talked somewhat freely about it, and seemed inclinable to reveal it, were barbarously killed.  
And as the destroying as well as oppressing those from whom the World might receive light about the murder of that Noble Peer, plainly shows by whose Counsels, and by what means, he came to his faral End; so the countenancing, protecting and preferring those, who are justly suspected to have been deeply instrumental in it, and who long ere this would have been publicly indicted for it, (had it not been partly for the discouragement given by the Court, His Majesty's Ministers of State and Officers of Justice, and partly not to expose men to that hazard which they must necessarily run by engaging in this affair) affords us a new proof of my Lord's innocency from being Felo de se, and that the infamy and guilt of his death ought to be devolved upon others. There are cases wherein suspicion of guilt may so wait on some men, that others tho never so well persuaded of their innocency, cannot without forfeiture of discretion, and becoming Sharers in the reproach and dishonour which attends them, give them either the least countenance, or yield them any Testimonies of Favour and Kindness, till they have vindicated and acquitted themselves from that whereof they are suspected, and which common Fame accuseth them of. And as all persons pretending to wisdom, or who are regardful of their reputation, will account themselves obliged to act under the conduct and guidance of this Rule and principle; so of all men, those in Authority are most concerned not to take upon them the sheltering of those that are aspersed with infamous crimes; nor to countenance and advance such, whom the cry of a Kingdom chargeth with a barbarous, enormous and execrable Fact. But to that impudence in Villainy, as well as contempt of honour and credit are the Gentlemen of the Popish Juncto and Cabal arrived; that they not only cause secretly Murder, such as would discover a great and heinous offence against God and Mankind, but they dare openly and in the face of the Sun, both protect and prefer the chief Miscreant and Ruffian, whom all sober and impartial persons have in suspicion for it. It must necessarily be acknowledged, that in case my Lord was assassinated by violent and and bloody hands, his Valet de Chamber Romeny the only Servant who attended him in the Tower, save a Footman, must be acquainted with it, and accessary to it. And so many, as well as weighty, were the arguments of his being guilty of his Earl and Master's death, that he was justly suspected for it both by the rest of my Lord's Servants, and all the thinking impartial people about the Town. And though I shall have occasion hereafter to mention divers particulars and recount several circumstances, which not only serve to lay him under a suspicion, but to convict him of being accessary to the death of his Lord; yet I care not if I relate one at present, namely the apprehension he was in, and the trouble he expressed to one of the Lady Essex's Gentlewomen, upon a Report which he had heard that my Lord's Murder was to come under a second Examination, and that the Body was to be taken up in order to a review. Nor was the Countess herself, for all the impressions which some great men had endeavoured to possess her with, of my Lord's cutting his own Throat, without strong apprehensions to the contrary; nor void of jealousy of this French Fellow's being guilty of her Husband's death, which made her discharge him her service, and dismiss him out of the Family. And as no Gentlemen in England would have after this done so foolish a thing, or so unworthy of himself, as to cherish and entertain such a Rascal; so it least of all became the honour of the Court, unless there were a further mystery in it than the world is aware of, to take him both into their protection, and to advance him to an employ and place. Let us therefore a little observe and recount what favours this Rascal under all the suspicion and infamy of being accessary to his Lord's death, hath met with both from his Majesty's Ministers of Justice, and from the principal persons at Court, and chiefest Officers of State. Can it be less than a reflection both upon the honour of the Government, and an insinuation that great men were concerned in that horrid fact whereof Bomeny is so justly suspected, that my Lord Chief Justice at Mr. Braddon's Trial, after he had been affronting, interrupting and hectoring all the Witnesses for the Defendant, steps in not only to assist and rectify Bomeny in his Deposition, guiding him to say a Razor when the Rogue had said a Penknife, but durst represent the Villain under the character 
* Braddons Trial, p. 55, 61.  of one whose integrity and fidelity to my Lord, was confirmed by six years' experience of his service, and that he was not an upstart and wandering fellow. Yea, the esteem that this Ruffian was in with our Grandees, and which by consequence proves that there is a Mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, which is not yet fully discovered, seeing these who are deservedly suspected to have been accessary to it, are favoured and befriended by them, may be further enlightened and confirmed from the correspondence which Bomeny had with the Secretary of State, when he lay concealed from others, and the readiness he expressed to converse with any that pretended to inquire for him in Sir Lionel Jenkin's name, when he was denied to every body besides. For a certain person having occasion to call at his Lodging in order to Subpaena him to Mr. Braddon's Trial, and being positively told that there was no such man there, took the boldness to say he came from Sir Lionel; upon which Bomeny immediately appeared, and he who was said not to be there before, stepped forth with all imaginable readiness to receive the Secretary's Messenger, and to know what his Honour's pleasure was. And if these two passages which I have related, be not enough to evidence the kindness which his Majesty's Ministers had for this little and Infamous creature, I shall subjoin a third importing the care which the greatest about the Court took of him, and the respect they show him. For when he seemed to be abandoned by all others, and knew not where to be admitted into a service, by reason of the suspicion he lay under of being either an instrument that murdered his Lord, or who had consented to the doing of it, behold a great man, and the Officers of his Majesty's Forces, embrace him under all that ignominy and reproach, and list him to ride in one of the Troops of Guards. Nor is it possible for any man without renouncing his Reason, to imagine, that that Great Man; as well as divers other persons of Figure and Quality, should expose themselves to the censure of the world in entertaining a Fellow judged guilty of so enormous and abominable a crime, unless they themselves had been accessary some way or other to that execrable wickedness, and except they judged the Rascal to have merited by the Fact.  
But to put it beyond all possibility of any rational contradiction that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat, but that he was massacred by others, I shall demonstrate the impossibility of it as the manner of his death is represented in the Coroners Inquisition, and declared in the Depositions of the Chirurgeons, who viewed the Body, and searched and examined the fatal wound. And where there is a Natural Impossibility that a thing should be so or so done, all the Informations of the world to the contrary serve to no other end but to declare the perjury of the informers. A matter that is naturally impracticable ought not to be credited, though never so many should have the impudence to swear they saw it done. But as the rage of the Conspirators and Assassinates transported and hurried them to commit the barbarous Fact in such a manner, that all who have not abjured common sense as well as Reason, must acknowledge that it was not practicable in that way and manner, or a thing that could be done by the Earl of Ess●x himself; so their malice corrupted and blinded their judgements to that measure and degree, that the Instrument which they have chosen and pitched upon as the Tool, Weapon and Mean by which it was done, renders the doing it by my Lord impossible in itself, and unworthy to be believed except by the grossest of Fools, or the worst of knaves, who never consider how far a matter either is or can be true, but only what may conduce to their profit, or gratify their malice to take up and admit. And how conspicuous is the Wisdom as well as Righteousness of God, in infatuating villainous men, so to accomplish and perpetrate their villainies, as that their folly shall detect their guilt, and the Marks and Characters of stupidity as well as rage left upon the Fact shall reveal the Authors of it, let them do all they can to transfer and abdicate it from themselves, and to charge and fassen it upon others. Now the Coroners Inquest in their Inquisition made the 14th of July, 1683 concerning the Earl of Essex death, do upon their Oaths from the Depositions of such witnesses as they thought fit to examine, give us this account of the way and manner of it. That the Earl of Essex being the 13●h day of July alone in his Chamber, did with a Razor voluntarily and feloniously cut his own Throat, giving unto himself one mortal wound, cut from one Jugular to the other, and by the Aspera Arteria, and the Windpipe to the vertebres of the Neck, both the Jugulars being throughly divided, of which said mortal Wound, the said Earl of Essex instantly died. And to this account so far as relates to the Nature of the Wound, do the Informations upon Oath of Robert Sherwood and Robert Andrews, two Chirurgeons called to view the Body of the said Earl fully agree. For Robert Sherwood swears, That having viewed the Threat of the Earl of Essex, he finds that there is a large wound, and that the Aspera Arteria or Wind pipe, and the Gullet, with the Jugular Arteries are all divided. And Robert Andrews deposeth to the same purpose, namely, That having viewed the Throat of the Lord of Essex, he found that it was cut from one Jugular to the other, and through the Windpipe and Gullet into the Vertebres of the Neck, both Jugular Veins being also quite divided. And as the first thing observable in the Coroners Inquest about my Lord's death, is that his Throat was cut with a Razor, so it is needful the world should know that the Razor which Bomeny in his Deposition before the said Inquest, swears to be the same wherewith he gave himself the fatal and mortal wound, was a small French Razor of about four Inches and half long at most, without any Spill or Tongue at the end of the Blade, as all Razors of the English Form and Fashion have: So that the Razor being of that make, proportion, and extent, it is as evident as any demonstrated problem in Euclid, that it could not be used but upon holding it by the Blade; and that in order to the holding it with strength and steddiness requisite to the making such a wound, the Fingers and Hand must grasp and fasten upon no less than two Inches of it. The second thing remarkable from the Inquisition of the Coroner, and the Depositions of the Cbyrurgions refers to the extent and dimension of this deplorable and deadly wound. Which as they all acknowledge to have reached from Jugular to Jugular in length, and to the vertebrae of the Neck in depth; so a certain Gentleman who saw the wound before ever the Jury did, affirms that it begun at the side of the Neck Bone behind the left jugular, and extended to the Bone of the Neck beyond the right, being betwixt eight and nine inches in dimension from one side to the other, and that it so nearly approached unto, and pierced into the vertebrae that had it light on a joint it would have cut off his Head instead of merely cutting his Throat. And I may upon what is here confessed and sworn, confidently say, That no man could cut his own Throat after the rate and manner, and to that measure and extent, that the Earl of Essex's was cut. Nor did I ever speak with Physician or Chirurgeon, who was so far above the dread of the Court and St. James' as to dare venture the giving his opinion, but he would readily acknowledge and confirm it with unanswerable reasons, that it was impossible the Earl of Essex should have given himself that mortal wound, or cut his Throat in the manner it appears to have been done? For the Razor being in the whole length but four inches and a half, and two inches of these being necessary at the least to be held and grasped in the hand in order to the using and managing of it; it is not imaginable how with the other two Inches and a half both the Jugulars could be divided at one stroke, and a gash made which extended no less than Eight Inches from one side to the other. There is no man that is versed in Chirurgery or the Anatomy of the humane Body, but will find himself obliged to own, that it is altogether impossible that after the cutting the one Jugular, there should remain life and strength for carrying forward the wound to the dividing the other. Nor can there be any thing more certain in Nature, than that there would have been such an effusion of Spirits and Blood upon dividing the first Jugular, that all life and motion would have immediately ceased, and that there would have been no strength left to push forward the instrument to the second, so as to dissect it. Besides there being no more of the Razor beyond the hand which held the Razor, than about two inches and a half of the blade that could be used and applied to the making the incision in the Throat; How is it possible that a Gash or Wound of four Inches deep (for of that dimension it was from the outside of the Gullet, where the hand must lie, to the Vertebrae of the Neck where the incision terminated) could be made by an Instrument of two inches and a half long? These being plain and direct impossibilities, it necessarily follows that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but that this hellish Murder was committed upon him by the hands of bloody and hired Ruffians. Nor indeed was a Razor the Instrument which they made use of upon this villainous occasion, but it was done by one of another kind, as well as form and figure, and which as they had prepared and provided on purpose, so it was much more convenient for the perpetration of the Fact. But it would have too palpably betrayed the Actors, to have suffered that to have lain by the massacred Body, or to have let it be seen by any honest and indifferent persons who might throng in among others to view and look upon the bleeding Corpse. And of all the Instruments which they could have thought upon, a Razor, especially of the fashion which that was, that they threw down by my Lord's Body after they had Murdered him, was the most unfit for an incision in the Throat of those dimensions, as the wound whereby they treacherously killed him evidently appears to have been. A certain Gunner in the Tower, who may be supposed not altogether a stranger to this affair, pitched upon a more convenient and proper Instrument for the doing of it, when about Nine of the Clock that morning he reported the death of my Lord in a place not-far distant from thence, saying, the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat with a Case Knife wherewith he had been carving a Pigeon for his Breakfast. And had they not been infatuated, they would have rather ordered such an Instrument to have been laid by the Body in order to blind and deceive the World about the manner of his death, than the small French Raz●r which I have described, and by which they have endeavoured to make men believe the gastful and fatal wound was made. But if a ParlJament come to sit again in England, or if His Majesty will grant a Pardon to such Witnesses, as we are ready to produce, and allow a Writ of Melius Inquirendum concerning the death of this Noble Peer before equal and impartial Judges, we shall both describe the Instrument he was killed by, and prove the truth of what we say, by persons who saw the whole Bloody and Tragical transaction, and are as Accessories too far concerned in that horrid Murder.  
Nor want there proofs of my Lords being treacherously Assassinated by others, and that he was not a Felon of himself, from the Testimonies of these very Witnesses which were produced both before the Coroners Inquest, and at Mr. Bradden's Trial, to Swear that the Earl of Essex had cut his own Throat. And though it may be pardonable in the Coroner upon the Inquisition into the manner of my Lord's death, to have admitted the Depositions of Bomeny and Russel, there being not then so just suspicions of their guilt in this matter, as afterwards there were; yet for my Lord Chief Justice to allow them as competent Witnesses in that affair, when the presumptions of their being accessary to that Murder were so strong, as they plainly appeared from the whole scope and tendency of that which was sworn, said, and alleged in Mr. Braddon's behalf at the foresaid Trial, was the greatest affront imaginable to Justice, and argued a most criminal partiality. For with what equity could Bomeny's Testimony be admitted to destroy either the Truth or probability of my Lord's being assassinated by others, seeing it must be granted that in case the Earl of Essex was treacherously Murdered, Bomeny being the only Servant who then waited upon him, must be an Actor in, or at least an Accessary to it. And what is this, but to admit a fellow under the highest presumptions of guilt to be a witness in his own Cause, and to allow his Testimony as a sufficient vindication from the most perfidious, as well as barbarous Crime that could be committed; and which to have acknowledged, would have derived upon him the severest punishment? And the same may be said of my Lord Chief Justice's partiality and unreasonableness, in suffering Russel's Testimony to pass for good and legal evidence in the matter and case that we are discoursing of. For Russel being the Person who, that morning my Lord was murdered, attended upon him as his Warder, must likewise have been either an Actor in, or Accessary to, the cruelty that was committed on him. Nor can it be otherwise thought than that he who contrary to the Duty of his Place, and the trust reposed in him instead of assisting and defending my Lord, when forcibly assaulted, would consent unto, or at least connive at the Violence committed upon him, should also for the sa●ing himself as well as others from the Punishment of the said Crime, transfer th● Murder from himself, and charge it upon my Lord. For as Russel was set ●t my Lord's door to prevent any endeavours which might have been used by himself or others for an escape; so one main end of his being posted ther 〈…〉 was to see that no Violence should be committed upon the Prisoner. B 〈…〉 to dismiss this without further enlarging upon it, I shall in proof, that my ●ord of Essex did not Murder himself, but was assassinated by others, observe the Contradictions that are in the Informations of the Witnesses, about the manner of his Death, and the Circumstances relating to it, and how they disagree not only one with another, but gainsay themselves in their Testimonies. It hath always been admitted as a sufficient ground of disbelieving Winesses, and of judging them to Swear falsely, when their Testimonies instead of being either harmonious and coherent in themselves, or consonant and agreeable one to another, do both interfere with, and contradict themselves and each other. For as Truth is always uniform and consistent, so Falsehood is contradictious and various. Now that this may the better appear, and that all Men may see, I do neither impose upon the Witnesses, nor endeavour to deceive the world, I shall transcribe the two Informations which were Sworn by Bomeny and Russel before the Coroner and the Inquest, when they sat on my Lord's Body upon an Inquisition after the manner of his Death, and by what means he came to his fatal End. Paul Bomeny in his Deposition made upon Oath the 14 of July, 1683. saith, That when my Lord came to Captain Hawley 's, which was the eleventh of that month, my Lord asked him for a Penknife to pair his Nails as he was wont to do; to which the Informant answered, being come in hast he had not brought it, but he will send for one; and accordingly sent the Footman with a No●e for several things for my Lord, amongst which the Penknife was inserted; and that the Footm 〈…〉 went and gave the Bill to my L 〈…〉ds Steward, who sent the Provisions but not the Penknife, only told the Footman he would get one the next day. That when the Footman was come, my Lord asked if the Penknife was c●me, to which the Informant answered he should have it the next day; and accordingly on the ●2. in the Morning, before my Lord of Essex was up, the Informant sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward, in which amongst other things he asked for a Penknife for my Lord, and when the Footman was gone, about a little after 8. of the Clock, my Lord sent one Mr. Russel his Warder to the Informant, who came and asked him if the Penknife was come; to which the Informant said no my Lord, but I shall have it by and by: to which my Lord said, that he should bring him one of his Razors, it would do as well; and then the Informant went and fetched one, and gave it my Lord, who went then to pair his Nails, and then the Informant went out of the Room into the Passage by the door on Friday the 13, and begun to talk with the Warder, and a little while after he went down Stairs, and soon after came the Footman with the Provisions, and brought also a Penknife, which the Informant put upon his Bed, and thought my Lord had no more need of it, because he thought he had paired his Nails, and then the Informant came up to my Lord's Chamber about 8 or 9 in the Forenoon on Friday the 13 of July, with a little Note from the Steward, but not finding his Lord in the Chamber, went to the Close-Stool Closet-door and found it shut, and he thinking his Lord was busy there, went down and stayed a little, and came up again, thinking his Lord had been come out of the Closet, and finding him not in the Chamber, he knocked at the Door with his Finger thrice, and said, my Lord; but no body answering, he took up the Hanging, and looking through the chink, he saw Blood, and a part of the Razor, whereupon he called the Warder Russel, and went down to call for help, and the said Russel pushed the Door open, and there they saw my Lord of Essex all along on the Floor without a Periwig, and all full of Blood, and the Razor by him; and the Deponent further deposeth that the Razor now showed to him at the time of his Examination, is the same Razor which he did bring to my Lord, and which did lie on the Ground in the Closet by my Lord. To this Information I shall subjoin that of Thomas Russel one of the Warders of the Tower, who being examined the 14. of July 1683. saith, That on the 13. of the said July, about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon he was present, when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Mr. Bomeny for a Penknife to pair his Nails, and then for a Razor, which Mr. Bomeny brought him, and then my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nails with the Razor, and shut the outward Door; Mr. Bomeny half a quarter of an Hour afterwards not finding my Lord in his Bedchamber went down Stairs again believing that my Lord was then private in his Closet. Bomeny came up about a quarter of an hour afterwards, and knocked at the door, and then called, My Lord, My Lord, but he not answering, peeped through a chink of the door, and did see the Earl of Essex lying on the Ground in the Closet, whereupon he did cry out, that my Lord was fallen down Sick, and then the Informant went to the Closet-door, and opened it, the key being on the outside, and then did see my Lord lie down on the ground in his blood, his Throat being cut. These are all the informations which the Inquest charged and sworn to inquire when, by what means and how Arthur E. of Essex came to his death, thought fit to take, and upon the Depositions of these two Fellows who in case any violence were offered to my Lord must have been accessary to it, they bring in and do say upon their oaths that the said Arthur Earl of Essex did voluntarily and feloniously cut his Throat. It may indeed seem strange that there being other persons at that time in the house besides Bomeny and Russel, particularly the Maid servant, that they should neither be examined nor so much as called to know whether they could say any thing in that affair. But it is not improbable that the contradictions in the Testimonies of the two Witnesses whom they had examined, to one an other, might discourage them from examining any more, lest they in what they might swear should contradict what both the former had said. Now what I have to observe concerning the contradictions in the forego'ing Depositions, they are either such, wherein these Informations are directly contrary to the reports which themselves made to others about my Lord's death; or they are such, wherein the Testimony of the one, contradicts that of the other, or lastly, wherein the Information of one and the same person, gainsay's and overthrow's itself. For the first, whereas both Bomeny and Russel do positively swear that it was not above a quarter of an hour and half, from the time that Bomeny left my Lord in his Chamber pareing his Nails, to the time that they found him dead in the Closet; yet this very Bomeny being asked the Question by one of my Lord's Family soon after his death, how long my Lord might have lain dead before either he or the Warder discovered it, replied that he believed he must have lain so above two hours for that when they first found him the Body was cold and stiff. And whereas Russel deposeth that the Razor was given by Bomeny to my Lord after he was up and about eight or nine of the clock in the forenoon, and that both he and Bomeny inform how they saw his Lordship upon the delivery of the Razor to him apply to the pareing of his Nails; yet this Rogue Bomeny having the property of liars namely the want of a good memory, affirmed to a person of good credit and who is ready to depose it upon Oath, that from the time of his sending away the Footman with a Note to the Steward (which was about or before six) that morning on which the Earl died, he did not see my Lord till the time that he found him killed and wallowing in his blood in the Closet. And whereas there is not one word in Bomenies' Information concerning my Lords being used to be taken with sudden Frensical passions and fits, or that he was particularly taken with one that morning before his death, but the contrary plainly insinuated in the whole Information and also acknowledged at Mr. Braddon's Trial, where though he says, that 
* Braddons Trial p. 45.  my Lord was melancholy, yet he adds they took no notice of it, nor had reason to suspect any thing more than ordinary; all which directly contradicts what the Villain told an Eminent Dr. of the Church of England, namely that his Lord was frequently taken with sudden Frensical passions, and in particular with one that morning just before his death. For said the perjured Rascal, when the Earl of Essex saw my Lord Russel carried out of the Tower to be Tried, he struck his Breast, and said himself was the cause of my Lord Russel 's misery, seeing had it not been for him, my Lord Russel would never have admitted my Lord Howard into his company. And that thereupon seeing my Lord Russel like to be ruined by the Testimony of that person for whose integrity he had engaged his Honour, he fell distracted. Now as this is directly repugnant, to the Testimony which his own Lady and all other persons who had the advantage of being known to his Lordship do justly give him, affirming that he was the most sedate, best composed, and freest from passions of all men they ever knew, so there is not one word of it in his information to the Coroners Inquest, tho' it would have been a stronger evidence of my Lords murdering himself, than all that he deposed or swore besides. Truth being ever the same, whosoever is called to testify a Truth that falls within his knowledge, can give the same account of it a thousand times over without the least variation from it, or from himself; but a Lie having no foundation save what it has in the invention of the Author, easily escapes the memory, and lays the Reporter as often as he is called to repeat and declare it, under a continual liableness of inventing either some thing new that was not, or which is different to what was in his former report, so that by the last Fiction he both detects and discredits the first. But secondly, as the Informations of these two Witnesses, interfere with the Reports which themselves gave concerning my Lord's Death to other persons, so the Testimony of the one does directly contradict and supplant the Testimony of the other. For whereas Bomeny positively swears, that on the 12. of July in the morning before my Lord of Essex was up, be sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward, in which among other things he asked for a Penknife for my Lord, and that when the Footman was gone, about or a little after eight of the Clock, my Lord sent Russel the Warder to the said Bomeny, who came and asked him if the Penknife was come, to which Bomeny replied, no my Lord, but I shall have it by and by, and that thereupon my Lord bid him bring him one of his Razors, which he went and fetched and gave to his Lordship, who applied himself there with to pair his Nails; Russel in a direct contradiction to this, swears, that on the 13. of July about 8 or 9 of the Clock in the Forenoon, he was present when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Bomeny for a Penknife to pair his Nails, and then for a Razor which Bomeny brought him, and that thereupon my Lord went up and down the Room scraping his Nails with the Razor. So that whilst Bomeny deposed upon Oath that my Lord called for the Razor, and had it delivered to him on the 12 of July being Thursday and the day before my Lord's death; Russel comes and swears, that it was on the 13 of July being Friday, and the day on which my Lord was killed, that he asked for the Razor and received it from his man. We may with the same ease bring the Time Past, to be the Time present or Future; as make the 12 of July, upon which Bomenie swears he gave my Lord the Razor, to be the 13 of July, on which Russel swears it was delivered to him. And though this be such a dissagreement in their Testimonies, that no wise and unbiazed person can give credit to what either of them says, but is in justice obliged to believe that both of them swore falsely; yet it is not the only thing wherein their Depositions contradict one another, there being a second thing, and as important as the former, wherein the Information of the on lies in a full contrariety to the Information of the other. For whereas Bomeny swears that Russel pushed the closet door open where my Lord lay, which implies his using violence and force to get in; Russel comes and deposeth that being called by Bomenie, he went to the Closet door and opened it the Key being on the outside. Nor it is possibl' to reconcile what the one says in this particular, to what is declared by the other, unless we can make the unlocking the door with the key, to be the same with the bursting it open in a forcibl' way. Yea as if it were not sufficient to demonstrate the falsehood of both their Testimonies, that they do expressly contradict one another in two important and weighty particulars; there is yet a third wherein their Informations do plainly cross and thwart each other. For whereas Bomeny swears that upon looking through the Chink of the Closet door, he saw blood and a part of the Razor, without making mention of his seeing my Lord's Body or any part of it; Russel comes and deposeth that Bomenie upon peeping through a Chink of the door, saw the Earl of Essex lying on the ground in the Closet, without adding any thing of his having seen blood, and a part of the Razor. Now besides that Russel swears a thing positively, which at most he could only swear upon Bomenie's Information; here is also a dissagreement between the account of what Bomenie says he saw, and that which Russel affirms him to have seen. The two Elders who in the Apocryphal History are reported to have sworn falsely a 'gainst Susanna, did not more evidently, nor in so many particulars interfere with and contradict one another, as these two Fellows Bomeny and Russel appear to have don'in their Testimonies concerning the Earl of Essex death. But alaz! we have not been hitherto so happy as to have this pretended crime of my Lord Essex's cutting his Throat, to fall under the examination and cognisance of persons of that integrity and uprightness as well as wisdom, which the calumnious accusation of uncleanness fastened upon Susanna had the fortune to do. And as the Informations of these two Rascals do plainly contradict each other; so in the last place we shall observe how one and the same Witness does in his Deposition thwart and gainsay himself. For whereas Bomenie swears that on Thursday the 12. of Iu'y he gave the Razor to my Lord, who thereupon went to pair his Nails with it; he immediately adds without the least congrnity either to Sense or Grammar, that he the said Bomenie having given my Lord the Razor, went out of the room into the passage by the door on Friday the 13. Nothing can be more aparent than that the for'go'ing part of the Information relates wholly to Thursday; but at last without any regard in himself to what he said, or relation in the next words to those which preceded, Friday is brought in contrary both to all Rules of Syntax, and the for'going words of his own Testimony. For what was antecedently deposed referring to what had fallen out and was transacted on Thursday, his immediately subjoyning that Then he went out of the Room into the passage by the door, aught by all the Rules of Speech and the Measures of Sense to relate to Thursday also. But Friday being the day on which the Earl of Essex was killed, and which as both Bomenie and Russel swear was soon after his having received the Razor; it was therefore needful that in order to the giving some gloze to that part of their Information wherein they swear my Lord cut his own Throat, that Friday should be mentioned tho with never so much incongruity and absurdness. How conspicuous is the righteousness of God in suffering a villain who had first consented to the murdering his Master, if not assisted in it, and then undertaken to transferr' the crime and infamy from the Assassinates and charge it upon his innocent Lord, so evidently to contradict himself in what he swears, as thereby to afford the world an uncontroulabl' demonstration both of the falsehood of his own Deposition, and of his Masters being guiltless of what he accused him.  
And as the many contradictions of one kind and another, which occurr' in the informations of the Witnesses, do as so many prints and Footsteps lead and conduct us to other Authors and Instruments of my Lord's death than himself, so the many irregularities which were committed about the ●ody by those who had the oversight and custody of it, before the Coroner's Inquest had sat upon it, administer unto us new proofs that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se, but that he was treacherously and barbarously murdered by the hands of bloody and suborned Ruffians. By the custom of all Nations which is equivalent to a common and Universal Law, but most especially by the known and alwaise practised Custom of England, the Body of a person found dead and supposed to have come to an untimely End, ought (if it be possibl') to lie in the place and posture that it is found, till the Coroners Jury have sat upon the Body and inquired into the manner of the persons death. Nor can we think that those in the House, where my Lord was killed and found dead, could be ignorant of this custom', seeing it is so well and universally known to the meanest and most ignorant people of the Nation. Neither is there any thing more adapted and proper, as well as needful towards a discovery whether a person have fallen by his own hands or the hands of others, than this received custom and practice is upon many frequent and repeated experiences found to have been. For how many circumstances not only may but do often occurr' from an observation of the Site and posture wherein the Body is found, from an inspection of the marks, tokens, and impressions left upon the clothes which the party destroyed wore, and from a view of the Footsteps, Symtom's, and Signs, which the place where the Fact was committed and the Body fell may yield and afford; all which may have their usefulness and tendency to give light unto the Jury that is to sit upon the Body, and whose Du'ty and Office it is to make inquiry into the manner of the persons death. But least the Earl of Essex should have been found to have come to his End after an other manner, and by other way's and means, than was safe or convenient for some people to have known and believed, therefore ' were all things otherwise carried, and the custom ' of the Nation in cases of this Nature not only neglected and despised, but with the greatest impudence imaginabl' violated and acted contrary unto. For besides their taking my Lord's Body out of the Closet where it was found and by consequence ought to have lain, they did not only unclothe, strip, and wash it; but also wash both the Closet where it was found, and the lodging chamber into and through which we must suppose the persons to have come, if any assassination was by the violent hands of others committed upon him. Yea and as if all this had not been too daring in itself, and enough to administer a just suspicion to all mankind of some villainy perpetrated upon the person of this Nobl' Lord; they proceeded further even to the carrying away the very clothes which they would not so much as allow the Jury to see, though some of the Coroners Inquest had the wit and seeming ingenuity as to call for them. I do not affirm nor would I have it thought, that all these irregularities were committed before the Coroner himself saw the Body, for I have been well informed and am fully satisfied to the contrary, and have reason to believe that he was prevailed upon to consent and give way to the do'ing of these absurd and illegal things. But that which I assert and which will be proved if occasion be, both by the several members of the Jury itself, and by divers other persons who saw the Body before the time of the Coroners inquisition, is that these irregularities were committed and done, ere ever the Jury, who were to be the judges of the manner of my Lord Essex's death, were admitted or indeed could be to the sight of the Corpse. For as the Coroners Inquest neither sat upon, nor saw the Body till the 14 of July in the forenoon; so all these irregular things had been don' the 13 being the same day on which my Lord was killed. Now besides many other circumstances which the Jury might have observed detective of and serving to discover the manner of my Lord Essex's death, had all things been suffered to remain as they were at the moment when his Body was found, and as they ought according to the custom of the Kingdom and the practice in all cases of that Nature to have done, there would have appeared three remarkabl' things to them, which had served to convince all men who had a spark of Reason or degree of honesty, that this great and honorabl' Peer did not destroy himself, but was Massacred by hired and suborned Ruffians. The first whereof would have been the print of a bloody foot upon one of my Lords Stockings, which seeing it could not be an impression made by himself, must necessarily have been the effect of a most perfidious cruelty exercised upon him by others. Nor is this a fiction of mine raised to vindicate the memory of the E. of Essex from the guilt and infamy of so base and enormous a Crime, nor given out to baffle and discredit the belief of the late Plot, and deliver the Conspirators from the reproach and danger which that pretended Combination had derived upon them, much less is it invented to defame the King, cast an aspersion upon the Government and inflame the Nation, but there are ey ' Witnesses ready to swear it; and one as remote from all likelihood of being the Author of a groundless and Romantic Fabl' as any man, affirmed it before the Coroner and Jury when they sat upon an Inquisition into the manner of my Lord's death. For Samuel Perk a Servant of the Earl of Essex's, and who had just brought the provisions which Bomeny by my Lord's Order had written to the Steward for, as the perfidious Rascal was running down Stairs crying out that my Lord had killed himself, and that he had found his Body dead in the Closet, did thereupon being surprised by Bomenies' report run up into the Chamber, where he saw his Master lying in the Closet with a great part of his Legs reaching out of the Closet door, and the print of a bloody foot upon one of his Stockings, which so far convinced this honest and unbiazed man of violence committed upon the Earl of Essex's person, that he immediately cried out they have murdered my Lord. Nor is Perk the only Witness whom we can produce to testify this, but there are others also ready to confirm it upon Oath, whensoever his Majesty will be pleased to take them into his protection and indemnify them from the accession they are guilty of to that horrid and bloody murder. But before I dimiss Perk, there is one thing further observabl', namely that having among other things brought wine for my Lords own drinking, Russel and others of that fellow's stamp and complexion who stood by, fell a jeering the poor man, telling him the wine came too late for my Lord to drink, but that he had brought it very seasonably for his Funeral. Nor is this the only circumstance which would have afforded the Coroners Jury matter of evidence and light as to the manner of the Earl of Essex death, had not the Body been meddled with, but suffered to continue in the place and posture as it fell; but there would have appeared a second circumstance of as great importance and signification in itself, and as serviceabl' as the former to have discovered the barbarous violence committed upon this innocent and excellent person. For not only Mary Johnson the woman who was then Servant in the Warders house where my Lord was a prisoner, and who affirms that she saw my Lord's Body as soon as either Bomeny or Russel did, but several other persons besides her, have confessed that the Neck or midd'l of my Lords Cravat was cut in four pieces. Surely if my Lord (as Bomeny tells us) had taken off his periwig and hung it up, because as the Villain would have the world believe, he could not so conveniently have cut his Throat with the Periwig on, he would for the same reason have much rather laid aside his Cravat, being no less than three times about his Neck, and more apt to hinder the accomplishment of that unnatural Fact which the infidous and perjured Rascal hath endeavoured to father upon him, than the Periwig was. And therefore ' as it is unreasonabl' to think other wise, but that the Earl of Essex would have laid by his Cravat, had he designed to commit that violence upon himself; so it gives just suspicion that he was assassinated by others that his Cravat was about his Neck, and c 〈…〉 through in so many places. And whensoever this affair ' of my Lord of Essex's death comes to be admitted to a fair and indifferent hearing, and a pardon vouchsafed to such as shall give evidence, it will be fully proved that the bloody Miscreants came provided and furnished with an Instrument which was able to conquer the resistance, which a Cravat, though thrice rolled about the Neck was abl' to give it. And whereas one Webster Bailiff of the Tower liberty, being a person who assisted Mary Johnson in stripping my Lord's Body, hath pretended to some that it was he who cut the Cravat as not being abl' readily to untie it; this may be easily demonstrated to be a story purposely forged towards the avoiding the suspicion, which the circumstance of the Cravats being cut by the same Instrument and stroke that gave my Lord the fatal and deadly wound, would have both begotten and cherished in the Minds of unbiazed Men. For besides that Mary Johnson who in conjunction with Webster stripped the Body, hath often asserted the contrary to this which Webster reports and gives out, it was not possibl' that the Cravat should be thrice about my Lord's Neck when the wound and Gash was made from the Neck Bone behind the one jugular to the Neck Bone behind the other jugular; and not at all cut or touched by the Instrument wherewith that large and deadly wound was given. And as my Lords Cravat could not be tied harder than he tied it himself, without the intervention of some violent hand that had endeavoured to choke him with it to hinder and prevent his crying out; so we cannot suppose that my Lord himself had tied it so hard, but that it might have been easily loosed and untied without cutting of it. And as it was impossibl' that my Lord's Neck should swell after the Gullet and both the jugulars were cut, which if it could have don' might have been a means and occasion of the Cravats being more straight ' and closely about his Neck, so no rational man can apprehend, but that had it been never so straight ', they would have taken pains and found a way to untie it, especially having a prospect of enjoying it themselves, it being usual in England that they who strip a dead Body are recompensed with the gift and possession of all the clothes which they find about it. And therefore ' as Websters pretending to have cut the Cravat when he assisted in stripping the Body, is both a confirmation that it was about my Lord's Neck when he was killed, and that it was cut into so many pieces as I have declared; so the having made it evident that this pretence of Webster as to his cutting the Cravat at such a time is a forgery and fiction of his own, I may from the whole very justifiably conclude, that this Report was invented to suppress the evidence and light which this circumstance would have given into the manner of my Lord Essex's death, and to prevent the questioning such as might thereupon have been suspected and apprehended for assassinating and murdering that virtuous and Nobl' Peer. But besides the two forego'ing circumstances which would have served to detect the manner of my Lord's death, and the violence which had been used to bring him to his untimely End, there was a Third of as great weight and moment as either of them, which had the Body been suffered to continue in the place, posture, and condition as it fell, would have clearly discovered the perjury of Bomeny and Russel, and wonderfully contributed to the unvailing and laying open the whole Mystery of this barbarous murder. For whereas both Bomeny and Russel not only swear that the Closet door where my Lord fell, was locked when they came up to it, but that upon opening the door they found him lying all along on the Closet Floor; Peck the Servant that had brought the provisions to my Lord just as Bomeny pretended to have found him dead, and who upon Bomeny's meeting him on the stairs and telling him that my Lord had killed himself, run immediately into the Chamber, is ready to depose upon Oath that he saw the Earl of Essex 's Body lying in the Closet with a great part of his legs without the Closet door. Which Testimony as it shows the falsehood of those two Rascals Informations in swearing that the Closet door was locked when they came first up to it; so it ought to have credit given thereunto, as proceeding from one that could hope for no advantage by telling a lie, nor fear any danger from declaring the Truth, while on the contrary Russel and Bomeny were suborned and bribed to attest a forged story, and knew themselves liable to be hanged for their accession to my Lord's murder, had they related the matter as it really was. Yea this posture wherein Peck declares he found my Lord's Body, namely, three quarters of it lying in the Closet, and one quarter out of it, must have awakened the Ju●y had they seen it in that condition, to suspect and apprehend, that some preceding violence had been offered to his person near the Closet door. But as the removing and stripping the Body, and washing both it and the two Rooms before ever the Coroner's Inquest was admitted either to see it, or to view those places where the Tragedy had been acted, deprived them of the knowledge of the foregoing circumstances, (and possibly of many others as weighty and important) which would have served to have led them into this Mystery, and enlightened them about the manner of my Lord Essex's death, so nothing can be more convictive of some violent and unlawful course and means, made use of to bring him to that deplorable and untimely End, than the irregularities committed upon and about the Body, before the Jury either sat upon, or so much as saw it.  
That which we advance unto in the next place, as fresh matter of proof that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se, but that he perished by the violent hands of bloody Assassinates, ariseth partly from the carriage of the Jury itself, which was trusted with the Inquisition into the manner of his Death, and who as men of little Sense or Reason, and of less Justice and Honesty, gave in upon Oath, that he did voluntarily and feloniously cut his own Throat; and partly from the behaviour of others towards the Jury bo●● in consigning and abridging them to a shorter time than was necessary to a suitable and thorough Enquiry into so great an Affair, and in denying and withholding from them those means of being enlightened in that matter, which it was their Duty to require, and the Duty of others to grant, and without which they could not judge themselves enabled to give a t 〈…〉 e and just Verdict concerning the manner of that Noble Man's death. And the f●r●● thing that occurs in the carriage of the Jury, which makes it suspected that even they did judge the manner of the Earl of Essex's death a business of too much hazard to inquire narrowly into, was their partiality in examining those few Witnesses which they called before them, and their giving too hasty and undeserved credit to two Fellows of whom they had reason to be jealous as interested in that murder, against the information of an honest and unbiass'd person. With what not only coldness but apparent loathness to be truly informed, did they examine Peck, as if they had dreaded to hear any thing which might shake their belief of the Earl of Essex's having killed himself, or which might oblige them to accuse and charge others with the guilt of his murder, while in the mean time they greedily harkened to whatsoever Bomeny and Russel swore, tho' stuffed with all the inconsistencies and contradictions imaginable? How little esteem and value did they set upon the information of poor Peck, tho' they could not but know that he was a man whom none could have endeavoured to prepossess, and who was neither under the influence of hope or fear to testify any thing but what he saw; while in the interim they paid an implicit faith to the self and one another contradicting depositions of Bomeny and Russel, whom they might easily have suspected not only to have been prompted and taught what they were to say, but to have been both deterred by the apprehension of punishment from declaring the Truth, and swayed by Rewards to swear and publish a Falsehood? But there is a Second thing wherein the Jury were partial and defective in their Enquiry into the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, and which by consequence shows that if not all of them, yet some, and they such as conducted the rest, did either know or were jealous of a mystery in the way of that Noble Man's coming to his fatal end, which they were not willing, and judged it not for their interest to dive too far into. For albeit there were more persons than Russel and Bomeny then in the house when my Lord's Throat was cut, yet I do not find that they did, or were willing to examine any others. Now amongst those that were in Hawley's house at that season when that bloody Fact was committed upon this honourable Peer, there was one Mary Johnson, who amongst many other things which she declares, affirms particularly that being just entered my Lord's Chamber as Russel and Bomeny were opening the Closet door, she saw the Body as soon as either of them did; and yet this Woman, whom the Cor●ner's Inquest were bound by the ●aws of Justice as well as the Rules of Prudence to have examined, was never so much as called upon, nor asked a Question concerning that matter in a judicial way. And we have the more reason to complain of the Juries neglect, and infidelity in this particular, because she has often reported, and professeth herself ready to depose upon Oath, divers things, which are wholly inconsistent with what Russel and Bomeny have informed. For while they depose that they found my Lord's Body lying along in the Closet, and the Razor lying by him on the Floor, this Woman, Mary Johnson, both hath and doth still report, that my Lord of Essex was found kneeling on both his knees with his Body leaning against the Wall, and that the Razor was in his hand, the blade being lying upon his Forefinger, and the handle hanging down between that Finger and the Thumb. And while they swear that it was not above a quarter of an hour and a half, from Bomeny 's delivering the Razor to his Master, till the time of their finding him dead in the Closet; She positively avers and affirms, that the Body when at first found was cold and st●ff, which it could not be at that season of the year in a much longer time than their Informations do specify and allow. I do not say that what she affirms was true, no more than I believe that what they inform was so; but I say the contrariety which (had she been examined) would have appeared in her Testimony to theirs, might have served to convince the Jury, and is sufficient to satisfy all mankind, that things were not as they are declared by any of them, but that the manner of my Lord's death, and the posture wherein the Body was found, being otherwise than was safe for them to disclose and reveal, each of them in order to hide and conceal the Truth, and for the sheltering both themselves and others from Justice, framed a story of their own concerning that matter, whence it came to pass that they so widely differed one from another in their several and respective Reports. And as the carriage and behaviour of the Jury in their Inquisition after the manner of the Earl of Essex's death, does plainly show that there was a secret and hidden villainy in that matter which some of them were either forbidden or afraid to ravel into; so it serves to depress and take off the credit of that Verdict which they gave in concerning his having murdered himself. But let us in the next place observe and consider the behaviour of other persons, and those acting by no meaner Authority than of great men, towards the Coroner's Inquest when they were met and sat upon the Body; and we shall from thence also be furnished with new proofs and further evidence, that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself, but was brought to his unfortunate and untimely end, by Instruments whom they would not have known, and by means which they durst not admit to have narrowly searched into. For whereas according to the saying of the Poet, which my Lord Chancellor Finch was pleased to quote at the Trial of my Lord Stafford, 
Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est. Juven. Sat 6.  That we can hardly proceed slowly, nor search diligently enough in what concerns the life or death of a man; so there were many singular and weighty reasons, arising from the worth and quality of the person, the place and condition my Lord of Essex was then in, the benefit or prejudice which were likely to ensue to others, as his death should be found to be compassed by this or that means, which should have influenced the Jury to use all the utmost scrutiny and diligence imaginable in their Enquiry into the manner of that Noble Man's death. But instead of this, the Jury was little sooner met (which by the way was at a public house in the Tower, whither the Coroner had adjourned them after they had seen the Body) than a Message was sent them to make haste in their Inquisition, because one waited to carry it to the King. Not that I would persuade the World they had any Authority from His Majesty to use such an Expression, or that the King was not willing they should take time to examine things throughly as well as with gravity and leisure, but that there were some great men and very near his person who gave order to make use of his name, in order to the preventing the reproach and public guilt, which a due, calm, impartial, and leisurely Enquiry of the Jury into that matter, would have subjected and made them obnoxious unto. Nor can I believe that Holy the Warder, who was one of those that sent the forementioned Message to the Jury, either would or durst have done it, and much less have named the King, but that he had express Command and Warrant from some in power for the doing of it, and that there were some men of the first quality, who for reasons well known to themselves, were exceeding backward and averse to the having the manner of the Earl of Essex's death too critically searched into. But besides the method which I have mentioned that was used towards the Jury to hinder a due Inquisition into the matter they were met about, and to frighten and intimidate them from tracing things too far, there was a second passage, and much more astonishing than the former, in the behaviour of some people towards the Coroner's Inquest while they were assembled and sitting about the Earl of Essex's death. For one of the Jury having observed, that tho' they had been admitted to view the Body, yet they had not seen the clothes which my Lord wore when he was killed, but that they had been taken off, and were carried away, did thereupon ask to see the clothes which my Lord had on when that unfortunate thing fell out, and in which he was found dead. One would think that a more modest, just, and necessary demand could not have been made; and I take the confidence to say, the Jury ought not to have proceeded to a Verdict till they had been complied with in it, unless upon the denial of so righteous a Request, and the refusal of a matter that was so necessary as well as useful to inform them, they had proceeded as in duty and conscience they ought, to acquit my Lord from having committed any violence upon himself, and have cast this horrid Murder upon others.- For instead of being gratified in the demand of seeing the clothes, the Coroner was immediately called into the next Room, where some Gentlemen were attending (and amongst others the person I have just now mentioned) who having overheard what was asked for, severely checked and rebuked him for suffering such Questions to be proposed. And this mercenary, or at least cowardly Soul, Farnham the Coroner (if I may so call him, being but the Coroner's Deputy) returning back to the Jury after he had received the reprimand and rebuke, told them, they were called to sit on my Lord's Body, and not on his clothes, and that it was sufficient they had seen the Body, and received an Account upon Oath how it was found. O faithless and nonsensical Man! as if because they were to sit upon the Body, they might not be allowed a view of the clothes in which it was arrayed, when this noble Person received his fatal and deadly Wound. But stupid Fool, whom if thy Place and Office had not made an Esquire, thy honesty and wit never would; didst thou think that it was merely the Body of the Earl of Essex thou wast to sit upon, whilst thy business, man, was to inquire by what means, and after what manner my Lord himself came to that unnatural, violent, and untimely end. And therefore as thou sat upon the Body merely in order to the receiving light and information into the manner how my Lord's Person came to be destroyed, so if thou hadst not renounced Conscience as well as Courage, thou wouldst have desired a sight of the clothes in subservency and order to the same end. Nor can any rational person otherwise judge, why the Body, was first stripped, and the clothes afterwards with held from the view of the Jury when demanded by one of them to be seen, but because something or other remarkable would have been found upon and about them, which would have overthrown the Informations of Bomenie and Russel, and made appear my Lord's being murdered by others, instead of perishing by his own hands.  
To all that we have hitherto said in vindication of the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having been a F●lon of himself, and in proof that he was most treacherously as well as barbarously murdered by others; we shall in the next place give an account of some remarkable passages which were observed in the Tower that Morning my Lord was killed, which will not only inform us there was something requiring great secrecy then transacting, but will conduct us home to the Authors and Authorizers of that villainous, and ever to be abhorred Assassination. The first thing then remarkable was, That the Gate at the lower end of those Apartments in the Tower where the Earl of Essex and all the other Gentlemen committed for the late pretended Plot, were lodged and secured, and which always used to stand open from Morning to Evening, was all that Morning kept shut till after my Lord of Essex was dead, except that it was once opened to let out my Lord Russel to his Trial, being immediately after he was gone, locked up again. And as this could not escape the sight of the persons who were then confined, so it gave that surprise to some of them, being a thing which had not fallen out before, that one Gentleman in particular called to his Warder and asked him the meaning of it, and received for answer, That there was special Order given for it. Nor is it difficult to guests the reason of the Order, and upon what Motives, and in reference to what end, command was given for keeping the said Gate shut up all that Morning till after the Earl of Essex was killed. For the Stage and Theatre upon which the bloody Tragedy was to be acted, being within that Gate, it was needful to keep people out as much as they could, to prevent the discovery of the Actors, unless it were such as had their parts in some of the Scenes, or would be sure to give their Plaudite to the whole. A second passage very remarkable, which was observed in the Tower that Morning, and which speaks as loud to the matter we are upon as the former, was, that the King and Duke having been at the Lieutenant's house, which is about the middle of the Alley where my Lord of Essex and the rest were imprisoned; and having stood in a Balcony with a few attending them to see my Lord Russel pass by to his Trial; the Duke did soon after, with several waiting upon him, withdraw from the King down into the Alley the Gate whereof was still kept shut. Surely it could not be the pleasure of the walk that made the Duke leave his Majesty at that season, but he had something to give Order about, and to see the managing of, which was of more moment than his Prince's company, and which his heart was infinitely more set upon. The Third and last thing which fell under the observation of divers then in the Tower, was, That the Duke having withdrawn from the King, there were several persons immediately sent and dismissed from his very side towards the Earl of Essex's lodgings, wh● returned not till after the death of that Noble person, that they came and gave an account of the obedience they had paid to his Highness' commands, and that the Earl of Essex was killed, pretending he had cut his own Throat, thereby murdering his Memory after they had assassinated his Person. It may be expected that I should here mention the Names of those that were sent upon that barbarous errand, but there being some of them who may be improved and made serviceable to detect the villainous crime they were assisting to commit, it is but Justice to ourselves as well as to them to conceal their Names: And to publish the Names of the rest, were but to set a mark upon the former, and expose them to the rage and power of St. James' by not proclaiming them in conjunction with the others. But this offer I renew again both to his Majesty and his Ministers of Justice, that if a melius inquirendum into the manner of my Lord Essex's death, may be ordered, and an Indemnity granted to such as shall be willing and able to detect by whom and how he was murdered, then shall the Names not only of the Russians who committed the bloody Fact, but the Names of the Conspirators who were the Contrivers, Authors, and Encouragers of it, he both discovered to his Majesty and judicial Officers, and published to all the World.  
The only thing which remains to be discoursed of, in confirmation of the Earl of Essex's being murdered by others, and that he was not Felo de se, is that of a bloody Razor's being thrown out of his chamber Window before any noise of his Death, or the least intimation that he was killed. And indeed this of a bloody Razors being thrown out of his Window, has already made a great clamour in the World, and was the first thing which raised a suspicion that my Lord had not destroyed himself, but that he was assassinated by others. For as it was impossible that after his Throat was cut he should throw it out himself, so it could not be cast forth by others before the body is pretended to be found, or any declaration made that he was killed, unless it was by such as were present in the Room when he was slain, and who were instrumental in his Murder. Nor can any account be given why they did it, but that God infatuated them, thereby to detect the villainy they had committed. And it seems they had no sooner recollected themselves, but they were sensible it would not serve the end they had designed it unto, namely of making the world believe he had cut his own Throat, and in revenge upon the Instrument wherewith it was done, thrown it away after the deed was performed, and therefore they immediately both caused it to be taken up, and carried back into the Closet, and have had the impudence ever since to deny that ever such a thing was done. Nor can the Story which a certain Gentleman at Whitehal had form for them, stand them in any stead, viz. That Bomeny finding my Lord dead in the Closet, and the Razor which had been the Instrument of his Death, lying by him, and that thereupon being struck with Surprise and Astonishment at so unexpected and deplorable an Accident, he took up the Razor, being acted by Grief and Indignation, and not minding what he did, threw it out of the Window. For besides that the Razor was thrown out of the Window before there was the least noise of my Lord's death; this Gloss and Qualification was invented too late to serve the end it was designed unto, seeing Bomeny's and Russel's Examinations with which it is inconsistent, were public before. Now in proving that a Razor was thrown out of my Lord Essex's Window before the news and tidings of his Death, I would not be thought to acknowledge that it was a Razor wherewith the mortal and deplorable Wound was given him, being well assured that it was with an Instrument much more proper for the purpose than that would have been; but that which I intent by the proof hereof is partly the overthrow and subversion of Bomeny's and Russel's Informations, upon which the inquisition and verdict of the Coroner's Inquest was built, and partly to establish and evidence that antecedently to the noise and report of my Lord's death, there were some persons in the Chamber where he was killed: Which last if once obtained, it will, I suppose, be thence readily granted that they were not there to be idle Spectators of my Lords cutting his own Throat, but that their business was to perpetrate themselves that barbarous Fact upon him, tho' for the concealing their guilt, and avoiding the justice and severity of the Law, they have endeavoured to cast the reproach and infamy of it upon that innocent and injured person. The first who reported and divulged the Story of a bloody Razor's being thrown out of the E. of Essex's Window before there was any news of my Lord's death, was one William Edward's a Youth between thirteen and fourteen years of age, who having heard as he was going to School that the King and Duke were in the Tower, went in to see them, and continuing there sometimes in one place and sometimes in another all that morning, came home about ten of the Clock to his Mother, and told the Earl of Essex was killed; and that while he the said Edward's stood near the Earl's Lodgings looking up towards his Chamber-window, he saw a Hand cast out a bloody Razor, which being going to take up, there came a short Maid or Woman with a white hood on her head cut of Captain Hawley 's House where the Earl lay, and took up the Razor, which she immediately carried into the Captains H●use, and run up stairs, and that soon after he heard one cry out murder▪ All this the B●y hath frequently repeated and averred to his Father, Mother, Sister, and to one Mrs. Burt, as well as to Mr. Braddon, as those four persons deposed upon Oath at Mr. Braddon's Trial, yea, the very B●y himself did confess and acknowledge in Court that he had said and reported it. 'Tis true, that after he had often affirmed it, he was at last by the flatteries of some, and the menaces of others, brought to say he saw no such thing as a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window, but that the whole which he had reported relating thereunto was feigned and invented by himself. For having been told by his Sister, that through persevering in his first Report he would not only ruin his Father and the Family, but that he would bring both himself and his Father to be hanged; he thereupon under the influence of dread and fear retracted what he had before affirmed. But whether there ought not more credit to be given to his Affirmation, than to his Denial, I dare refer it to the judgement of all impartial men, who have either heard of the Methods used towards the Boy at the Council Board, or who have read the carriage and behaviour of my Lord Chief Justice and the Court of King's Bench in this matter at the Trial of Mr. Braddon. And as I was amazed myself on the perusal of the Trial, to observe with what impudence and barefacedness they not only discovered the means used by others to influence the Boy to forswear himself, but the arts and tricks in hussing on the one side, and cajoling on the other, whereby the very Bench drew him into and cherished him in perjury; to I never had the fortune to speak with a man that was wise or honest, but he was forced to acknowledge that the BoysBoys first Report in saying he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window, seemed natural, plain, candid, and true, whilst his denying what he had so often affirmed to have seen, appeared evidently to be wheedled out of him, or by reason of the dread and fear wherewith they had possessed him, wrested and extorted from him. How gross as well as unbecoming was it for my L. Chief Justice, when old Mr. Edward's had upon his Child's being sworn, 
* Braddon's Trial, p. 17.  charged him in the presence of Almighty God to speak the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, I say for my L. C. Justice to bid the Child turn about, and say, Father, be sure you say nothing but the Truth. For as the Father's command to his Son does plainly intimate the jealousy he was under concerning the BoysBoys being wrought upon to perjure himself; so the Reply which my Lord Chief Justice advised the Child to make to his Father, did besides the irreverence towards a Parent whereof it savoured, directly insinuate the apprehensions he had lest the Father's Christian Counsel should fortify the Child to assert the Truth. How palpably as well as shamefully did my Lord Chief Justice betray and reveal their entangling the Boy to swear a lie, by the rage as well as superciliousness wherewith he treated Mr. Wallop (a person not only to whose age honour is due, but who in all the qualifications of a Gentleman, and the accomplishments of a Scholar in all other Learning as well as the Law, infinitely transcends and exceeds his Lordship) and for no other reason but because Mr. Wallop would have asked young Mrs. Edward's 
* Braddon's Trial, p. 43.  whether she had not told her Brother that the King would hang his Father if he did not deny what he had so often affirmed to have seen. And tho' it was a Question, the answering whereof would have unfolded and laid open the means by which the Boy was wrought to retract what he had formerly declared, and would have confirmed the truth of his first Report, yet my L. C. Justice instead of suffering any Answer to be given to it, not only upbraided that ancient, learned, and worthy Gentleman, as if he had intended to have charged the King with a design of hanging men, or else of making them deny the Truth (both which were far from his thoughts and the intention of the Question) but having huffed and hectored him, did threaten him with the animadversion and correction of the Court for reflecting upon and aspersing the Government. Nor is young Edward's the only one who hath declared that he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window before any noise or rumour of his death; but there is also a Girl, one Jane Lodeman, of about thirteen years of age, who being in the Tower that Morning the Earl of Essex was killed, and standing over against his Lodgings, came home and told both her Aunt and others about ten of the Clock, that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat, and that she had seen a hand cast a bloody Razor out of the window where the people said that my Lord lodged. And as this Girl had no acquaintance with or knowledge of the former Boy, and consequently they could not agree together to form and invent a Romantic and fabulous Story, nor to concert the particulars which they were to report; so it is observable that their Relations do harmonise and accord in all the main heads, and only seem to differ in one thing, which the Girls unacquaintedness with the several parts of the house where my Lord lodged led her into a mistake about. For they both agree that there was a Razor thrown out of the Chamber window before Murder cried out, and that this Razor was bloody, and that immediately there came a short Maid or Woman out of the house with a white hood upon her head, who went towards the place where the Razor fell; which as they are all the material things requisite to the confirmation of the Fact, so being wholly strangers to one another, they could not beforehand concert them, nor agree the things they should report. Had one said it was a Knife that was thrown out of the window, while the other had affirmed that it was a Razor; or had one denied it to be bloody, while the other had reported that it was so; or had the one mentioned a Man as having come out of the house towards it, while the other spoke of a Woman, there would have been then some reason for the Ridiculing it as a Fiction, seeing the contradicting one another in the essential circumstances of the Report, would have detected the falsehood of the Reporters. And it must argue great perverseness as well as strange prepossession of Mind, to pretend to disbelieve the Story because the Children seem to vary one from another in a little and minute thing, when in the mean time there is the greatest harmony imaginable between them in all that is of moment for the establishment and assurance of he realty of the Fact. And therefore whereas towards invalidating the Girls Testimony, it was objected by my L. Chief Justice Jeffreys that she should say the Razor was thrown out of the Closet window, when the Boy had said 
† Braddon's Trial, p 69.  that it was thrown out at the Chamber window; this pretended inconsistency between the two may be easily removed to the satisfaction of all rational men, and the eternal reproach and infamy of Sir George Jeffreys. For indeed she said no such thing, nor did she know the Closet window from the Chamber window, nor so much as which was my Lord's Chamber but as she heard declared by the Standards by. All that the Girl did affirm was, that 
* Bradd. Trial, p. 47, 48.  she saw a hand throw a bloody Razor out of a window, which as the people discoursed belonged to the house where the E. of Essex lodged. Nor did the objection arise from what the Child herself deposed in Court, but it was started from the Deposition of one Glasbrook, who informed of the Girls having told her Aunt that the E. of Essex had cut his Throat, and that she was sure of it because she saw him throw the Razor out of the window, and that it was all bloody. Now because the Closet was the place where my Lord was found dead, they would infer that she meant the Closet window, and thereupon conclude the Story to be false, both because of the impossibility that himself should throw the Razor out, and the contrariety which they would have supposed to be in this expression to what the Boy had reported. Whereas the phrase does only show the simplicity of the Child, but does no ways argue the falsity of the Report. And the account which She gave of the place where She stood, namely, 
* Braddon's Trial, p. 47.  in that part of the Tower called the Mount, plainly shows that she could not mean the Closet window, but the window of the Chamber. And had the Court of the King's Bench had but the justice and integrity which became men in their places, one Question of the Judges, and the Child's Answer to it, would have clearly decided whether she meant the Closet window, or that of the Chamber. For had they but asked her, whether the window out of which the Razor was thrown, stood towards the Forestreet or the Back yard, the Objection would have immediately vanished; seeing considering the place where the Child was then standing, she must have answered, that it looked towards the Forestreet; nor was it possible for her to see any thing thrown out of the Closet window, unless she had stood in the Back-yard, which she neither did, nor was so much as ever there. But by the ask such a question, Sir George Jeffreys would have lost the advantage not only of ridiculing the whole matter about the Razor, and of devolving the murder of the Earl of Essex upon himself, but of skreening the Malefactors from Justice, and possibly of ruining Mr. Braddon, which were things of too great concernment to St. James', to let an occasion and pretence of compassing them escape him, especially at the cost of a little Meekness, Patience, and Justice in his Lordship in receiving a Deposition, and examining a Witness. Now this Objection advanced by my Lord Chief Justice against the Truth of the Girls Testimony, being fully and to the satisfaction of all impartial men removed and taken off, all that absurd and nonsensical stuff, which through his having wrested the Child's words, he superstructs upon his own Dreams and Fictions, does of its own accord, and without its being needful for me to interpose any thing by way of remark upon it, fall to the ground. Nor will any man of common sense henceforth imagine that the Coach which the Child says she saw at the Door, must therefore have been in the Back-yard, and consequently been droven through the narrow Entry and Door of the House; seeing it is evident from what hath been here discoursed, that she meant the Fore-door and not the Back, and to that there was no difficulty of access. 
† Bradd. Trial, p. 58. 69.  And with the same ease may all that Captain Hawley and my Lord Chief Justice declare about the height of the Pales, and the impossibility of throwing any thing out of the Closet window over them, and especially of seeing it when thrown over and lying upon the ground, be dissipated and blown away, because it was not the Pales encompassing the Back-yard which the Girl's Testimony referred unto, but those to which her Deposition related, are the Pales which face and sense the forepart and front of the House. O the Chicanery and fraudulency of a mercenary Lawyer, instead of the uprightness and integrity of a just and impartial Judge! Nor could my L. C. Justice have taken a more expeditious and effectual course to proclaim his own Villainy, than he hath done, by endeavouring to ridicule and expose this poor Child's Testimony in the foregoing particular. And whereas 
* Braddon's Trial p. 45.  Mr. Justice Holloway was pleased to except against the De●o●tion of the Girl in another particular, namely, that whilst she swore the Razor fell within the Pales, the Boy had said that it fell without them; I do return this by way of Answer to it: First, that the Reports of the two Children are much more easy to be reconciled, than the Observation of Mr. Justice H●lloway upon this point, is to be reconciled with that of my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys concerning the same. For whereas Justice H●lloway would have the contradiction between the Informations of the Children to lie in this, 
† Bradd. Trial p. 45. compared with p 69.  That the Girl said the Razor fell within the Pales, and the Boy said it fell without; my Lord Chief Justice will have it to lie in the Girl's saying the Razor was thrown on the outside, while the Boy had said it was thrown on the inside. I am sure one of these two Judges must be mistaken, seeing it is impossible that two accounts of the same thing so clearly contradictory the one to the other, can be true. And indeed the mistake lies with my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys (whom passion had transported to that degree, that he neither duly minded what himself or others said) in affirming that the Girl should say, the Razor was thrown on the outside the Pales, when she had expressly sworn that it was thrown on the inside of them. But then, 2. as to the inconsistency between what the Boy informed, and that which the Girl deposed; I say that young Edward's had both in words, and by imitating the posture and motion of the hand out of which the Razor fell, frequently declared that it was cast on the inside of the Pales. His Father, Mother, and several others are ready to depose, that when he first told the Story of the Razor, he expressed it by saying that it dropped out of a hand from the E. of Essex's Window, which did plainly signify that he meant it fell on the inside of the Pales. And whensoever he used to imitate the motion of the hand from which the Razor fell, he did put it into such a downright posture, as that all who observed his imitating what he saw done, concluded that the Razor fell on the inside the Pales. Nor was he ever heard to say that it fell on the outside of the Pales, save only that time that Mr. Braddon took his information in writing, when his Sister by endeavouring to threaten him into a denial of the whole matter he saw, had put him into such a fright, that either he could not remember, or did not mind every little circumstance of what he as well saw as had often reported before. And it is remarkable that neither himself at Mr. Braddon's Trial, where he repeated and acknowledged what he had formerly reported, nor any other Witnesses who appeared at the said Trial to testify what they had heard him say, did in the least mention his having at any time said that the Razor fell on the outside of the Pales; but on the contrary his Mother does so word her Deposition, as serves to prove that she believed he always meant the in side of the Pales; for she swears, 
* Trial p. 40.  that he said he saw a hand out of a Window and a Razor fall down. And as the whole matter of a Razor's being thrown or let fall out of the Earl of Essex his Window immediately before the noise of his death, will be attested by several other persons when there is occasion; so the Sentinel Meak, whom we have formerly mentioned, not only reported it to divers persons both that Morning my Lord was killed, and afterwards, but he added two or three remarkable Circumstances, some whereof the Boy had not taken notice of, nor the Girl observed others. That which Meak then declared to three persons the very day my Lord was killed, and which they are ready to swear when called thereunto, is, That just before the Earl's death was publicly known, there was a bloody Razor thrown out of his Chamber-window, which was seen by some of the Soldiers as well as by others; and whilst a little Boy who had seen the Razor thrown out, run towards it to take it up, a short Maid or Woman that came out of the house where the Earl of Essex lodged, was to quick for the Boy, and snatched up the Razor, and having run with it into the house, Murder was soon after cried out. Thus we have not only a confirmation from a third person, that there was a Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before any tidings of his death, and that a Boy went to take it up, but was prevented by a short Woman from Captain Hawley's house, who took it up and run in with it, the last passage of which the Girl had not observed; but we have also a ratification of a passage the Girl swore, which the Boy gave no account of, namely, that there were divers other persons standing by who saw this bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord of Essex's Chamber-window. Nor is it strange that every little thing should not be equally minded by all, but it is enough to set this business beyond the control of all rational men, that it hath been declared by two besides the Boy, whereof as none of them can be supposed under any prevalent temptation to feign such a Story, so it was impossible that three persons, altogether Strangers to one another, should at one and the same time, and in three different places conspire and agree to report the same thing. But to all these proofs drawn from the testimonies of several persons concerning a Razor's being thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before the news of his death. There is another evidence as convincing as any of them which may be derived from the Razor of itself. And that is the several Gaps or Notches which were sound in it when the Jury saw it, and had the account of its being found by my Lord's Body, and of its being the Instrument wherewith, as they said, he had cut his Throat. For besides one large Gap or Notch at the point, into which a man might almost lay the end of his little Finger, it was for about two inches towards the handle so gapped and notched, that the edge was wholly broken off, and yet all that part of the Razor which extended from the Notch at the point till within two inches of the handle, was so far from being gapped, that it remained very keen and sharp. And this of the Notches in the Razor was so remarkable, that some of the Jury not only observed it, but asked one of the Surgeons who was by, Whether my Lord by cutting his Throat could have made these Notches in the Razor. To which the Chirurgeon answered he might, but whether it was from his being Fool or Knave, or both, I leave others to judge. For I am sure the reason he assigned from the Tremefaction that was in the hand by that time the Razor reached the Neck-bone, is ridiculous in itself, and can satisfy no rational man. And had this ignorant or suborned fellow considered the position and site of the notches, he would have both understood the falsehood of his reply, and how absurd the reason was which he endeavoured to justify and support it by. For admitting at the present that the gap at the point might have been so occasioned, which yet was impossible for reasons assigned before; yet how was it possible that that part of the Razor which was towards the handle, and which must be grasped or held in the hand, otherwise the Razor could not be used, nor the wound given, should be most notched and gapped, seeing all must grant that it was so far from approaching the Neck-bone, that it could not pass beyond the skin and outward part of the Gullet. Surely I, the same part of the Razor could not at one and the same time be held fast within the hand, and be grating also upon, and against the Neck-bone? This is so obvious to every child, that I know not how to ascribe the Surgeon's Answer to his ignorance, but must either impute it to the Consternation which so Tragical an accident had put him into, that he remained not Master of common sense; or it must be resolved into a worse cause, namely, a fear of tracing the murder of that honourable person, to the true and real Actors of it. Nor can the Conspirators against the life of that Noble Peer avoid the strength and evidence of this argument, but that the Razor must have fallen both from some considerable height, and upon some resisting sharp and hard substance, or that otherwise it could never have been gapped a●d notched as it was. And I dare upon this Theme challenge R●ger Lestrange to do his utmost, tho' I know he hath as good a faculty at ridiculing and ●af●ling reasons which he cannot answer, as my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys has at exposing and hectoring Witnesses, the truth of whose testimony he cannot otherwise avoid.  
Thus I have finished what at least I judge fit and proper at this time and juncture to be said concerning the barbarous murder and unparallelled massacre, as well as the violent and untimely end of that honourable and innocent person, Arthur late E. of Essex: And do greatly rejoice that I have been able to do this piece of service to God and my Country, as well as to the memory and virtue of that excellent man. For tho' thy Friends, great Essex! were not so happy as to prevent thy being murdered by the hands of execrable Ruffians, yet it is some relief to them under all their sorrows for thy unfortunate and tragical end, to be in a condition to vindicate thy Name from the infamy cast upon thee of having destroyed thyself. And tho' we have all the light into, & assurance imaginable of divers other things, yet we do not here publish them because that were both to expose divers persons to the like fate & destiny, & to deprive ourselves of the benefit of their testimony at a Bar against the Malefactors. We hope never theless that under all the disadvantages under which welie, there is that account given of matters, circumstances & persons, that none can reasonably doubt of the truth of my Lord of Essex's being perfidiously assassinated. And to set this affair yet farther beyond all question and control, I do challenge those who do think themselves injured or aggrieved, that for their own vindication, and the discovery of that murder, they would put this matter concerning the manner of the E. of Essex's death, into a fair, safe, and legal way of Trial, without danger to them who shall appear as Witnesses, or damage to such as shall have the virtue and courage to undertake to prosecute. But if instead of this they fall upon ruining men by Actions of Scandalum Magnatum, or of assassinating such whom they shall suspect to have detected this bloody and enormous crime, I hope it will be looked upon not as a vindication of their innocency, but as an Argument of their Gild. Nor can any man be brought into trouble for having or reading this Book, but it will be a fresh proof, that there is both a villainous mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death which they would not have known, and that there are persons guilty of, and accessary to it, whom it concerns them to preserve from the Infamy and Punishment thereof. Great Essex! how ungratefully wert thou recompensed for the Loyalty of thy Family, as well as thy own Sufferings and Services in behalf of the Crown? Was this the Reward of thy Father's laying down his Life on a Scaffold, and of all that thou thyself underwent and did for the King and the Government? Is it the Fate of the Capulets either to die for the Royal Family, or to fall by the Treachery & cruelly of some of the Regal Offspring? Virtuous Soul! when thou hadst not Crimes for which they could destroy thee, thy Worth & Integrity became thy capital Offences; When their infamous and perjured Witnesses could not administer ground to those at St. James' to reach thy Life; thy Love to England, and zeal for the Protestant Religion, were sufficient Reasons with a great Man, and some others, to conspire and compass thy Death? And thy declining to join with the Papists to subvert the Laws of the Kingdom, and extirpate the Northern Heresy, was Motive enough, first to hate, and then to destroy thee. And what they despaired to effect by perjured Witnesses, and a packed Jury of Peers, they resolved to accomplish by suborned and hired Assassinates. When they wanted the shadow of Law to arraign thee before thy Peers in a public way, they found Men wearing Stars and Coronets, who undertook to sit privately upon thee and sentence thee to die. Having lived the Patron as well as Darling of thy Country, thou fell at last, through the malice of the Nation's Enemies, a Victim and Sacrifice for its Rights and Liberties. Nor was there any way for thee to have escaped their rage, but either to have been less dutiful to God and thy Country, or less tender to them, and more their open and avowed Enemy. Hadst thou, when time was, unravelled the Popish Conspiracy, as thou both might and should have done, thou couldst have prevented the misery that is fallen upon the Nation, and the deplorable End thou hast been brought unto thyself? But thy Zeal for the greatness of the Monarchy, and thy Love as well as Compassion to a Great Man, have, through the injustice and unthankfulness of that Man whom thou wast so industrious to save, proved an unhappy occasion of our Slavery, and thy own ruin. And though none does more reverence thy memory than I do, yet I cannot but observe how conspicuous the Righteousness of God is, in the injustice of that ungrateful Man. Whilst his Associates are reserved by Heaven to fall with him; they who knew his Designs, but out of pity to his Person as well as love lo his Majesty, thought sit to conceal them, are by an unsearchable, but holy Providence, left and suffered to fall by him. Nor according to the measures of Wisdom, or in consistency with the Principles of true Reason, can any Man be a Friend to Religion and Natural Rights, without being an avowed Adversary to that great Man himself, as well as to his Contrivances? But what do you think, O ye Peers and Gentlemen of England! are not all your Lives threatened in the destruction of this one Nobleman? The Laws that could not protect him, will be as unable to defend you. If the Tower of London, which is his Majesty's Royal Palace as well as the State Prison, could not secure the Earl of Essex from the irruption and violence of Assassinates: Can you either hope for, or promise yourselves safety in your Country Dwellings? For if they want Pretences of destroying you by Persons in Ermine and Scarlet, they have no more to do but commissionate and arm Russians and Banditti against you. And when it may not be found convenient to assault your Lives by Strangers and hired Rascals whom you do not know; they understand the Art of debauching your Valet's de Chamber, and the Servants into whose hands you commit the care of your Persons, to stab or poison you. Into what a deplorable condition are English Gentlemen reduced, being exposed, if they stay in the Nation, to be either sworn out of their Lives by false Witnesses, or murdered by bloody Assassinates; or if they withdraw and retreat into Foreign Countries, made liable to be pursued to Outlawries. And which was never known in any Kingdom of the World, till Sir George Geffry's had given us a Precedent, an Outlawry does as certainly destroy a Man, if the outlawed Party once fall into their hands, as if he had drunk Poison, or were stabbed through the heart with a Stilleto. Of this the unfortunate Sir Thomas Armstrong is an Example of the first impression, who albeit apprehended within the twelfth Month, which is the time the Statute allows for a Person to come in and have the benefit of a Trial notwithstanding an Outlawry, was yet executed by a Rule of the Court of King's Bench, without being allowed a Trial, though he most earnestly demanded it as a right of the Subject, and what the Law of the Land gave him a just claim unto. And which is worthy to be remarked, as showing the different treatment which Protestants meet with, beyond what was measured out to the worst and most criminal Papists. The same Attorney General who opposed Sir Thomas Armstrong's having the liberty and benefit of a Trial, and who required a Rule of Court for his Execution upon the bare Outlawry, did but a few Years before in the case of Levallian and Don O Carney, two of the Ruffians, who in the Popish Conspiracy were to have killed the King at Windsor, not only plead for the Reverse of their Outlawry (though they had been above two Years outlawed, and came not in till they knew there was but one Witness could swear against them, Mr. Bedloe, the other Witness being dead) but he withal told my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton, that there being an Error in the Fact through their absence beyond Sea when the Outlawry was issued out against them, the Reverse of it was a thing of course, which they had a Right to demand, and which the Court was bound by the Duty of their Office and Place to grant. Seeing therefore that those of you, O English Peers and Gentlemen, who remain either faithful to God in the matter of Religion, or true to your Country in the business of Civil Rights, can neither hope to escape the Malice and Rage of your Enemies by staying at home nor by going abroad, is it not time to be at last so far awakened out of your Lethargy, as to demand Justice upon those bold and enormous Malefactors that were the Contrivers and Perpetrators of this horrid Murder upon this Noble and Innocent Lord. Can you believe you have discharged your Duty either to your Maker, your Prince, your Country, yourselves, your Posterity, or to your murdered Friend, till you have filled the Ears of his Majesty with a cry of innocent Blood barbarously shed? and till you have demanded melius inquirendum into the manner of that Noble Man's Death, and have brought the Authors and Instruments of his Assassination to undergo the Justice and Severity of the Law? Let me tell you, O Peers and Gentlemen! that this is both what Heaven and Earth do expect from you. And if you continue to neglect it, you will, in the account of God, be reckoned amongst Accessories to that Gild, and in the Esteem of Men be held for a dastardly and degenerate People. But if all Men shall either prove so intimid, or so supine, as to be regardless of the Command and Authority of God, their own Personal Safety, the Wrath that impends over the Nation upon the cry of innocent Blood: Awake then and stir up thyself thou All-seeing and Righteous Lord, who beholdest Mischief and Spite to requite with thy hand, and make thy Wisdom known in the Detection, and thy Justice in the Punishment of this horrid Crime. For thou hast not only devolved the Inquisition after Murder upon those who are trusted with Rule among Men, but hast charged thyself with it, and hast said, The Blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of Man, and at the hand of every Man's Brother, will I require the Life of Man: and whoso sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. And we do the rather make this Appeal unto thee, O Lord, not only because they who are advanced unto the Seats of Judgement, are either unaccessable, or Patrons of what they should search out and punish; but because they who take upon them to minister in thy holy Things, have profaned thy Name, made contemptible thy Ordinances, and deceived thy People whom they should have informed, both by vindicating the Authors of this bloody Murder from the Gild and Suspicion of it, and by defaming and wounding the Memory of an innocent and guiltless Person. While the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws, have been like Wolves ravening to shed Blood, and to get dishonest Gain; these Mercenary Men have daubed them with untempered Mortar, making the King glad with their Wickedness, and the Princes with their Lies. 'Tis to them that the Enemies of Protestancy and English Rights owe the success of all their Attempts; and it is they whom the Nation ought to accuse, of being the Instruments that have betrayed us to Popery and Slavery. For to omit their other Villainies by which they have fought as well to ruin the Nation, as oblige the Popish Faction; they have endeavoured to ingratiate themselves with that traitorous Party, by becoming Advocates for Assassinates, and Concealers of Massacres. The aspersing this Innocent and Noble Person (whose spital some years ago they were ambitious to lick up) with the Infamy of being Felo de se, and they managing that wicked Fiction to the involving others in the Gild of a Plot, hath been a Year's employment for some of the Clergy to exercise their Talon upon, hoping thereby to pave their way to rich Benefices. Nor is there any thing so base, which some of the Clergy will not prostitute themselves unto and glory in, if it may but serve the Designs of St. James', and prevent the detection of the Crimes whereof a great Man is guilty. A Fresh example we have of this in an ecclesiastics turning Informer, and causing a Soldier to be made run the Gauntlet, and to be cashiered. For a certain high flown Tory being viewing the Tower, did with a kind of pleasure, on the remembrance that the Earl of Essex had there fatally ended his days, asked a common Sentinel where the Chamber was in which my L. of Essex had cut his Throat. To which the Soldier, who was neither a Stranger to the Reports that went concerning the Death of that Noble Person, nor to divers Circumstances importing by what means and hands he had fallen) replied, pointing at the same time to the Room, that is the Chamber where the Earl of Essex was killed. And because the honest Fellow would not own to that inquisitive Person that my L. of Essex had murdered himself, but persevered in saying he was killed in such a place, therefore did the Divine inform against him, and brought him to suffer what I have related. Which as it represents unto us the Principles of the present Clergy, so it confirms the Assassination committed upon that Noble Peer. O therefore thou holy One, to whom Justice belongeth, show thyself, yea, lift up thyself thou Judge of the Earth, cause their Mischief to return upon their own Heads, and for the Violence of their Hands, and the Sin of their Mouth, let them be taken in their Pride, that all Men may know God hath not forsaken the Earth, but that he ruleth in Jacob, even unto the Ends of it.  
FINIS.