A check TO BRITTANICUS, FOR HIS Palpable Flattery and Prevarication, in justifying condemned NAT: FIENNES. Published for the present Necessary Vindication of his traduced judges, Prosecutors, and of Truth and public justice, till an exact Relation of all the Proceedings in that trial be set forth by the council of war, and his Antagonists for their further justification, and satisfaction of the World, so miserably abused with misreports of that Action, for which he was condemned.  IER. 9 3. And they bend their tongues like their Bow for LIES, but they ARE NOT VALIANT for the Truth, upon the Earth; for they proceed from evil, to evil. ISAIAH 28. 15. 16. 17. 
Because ye have said, We have made a Covenant with Death, and with Hell are we at agreement, when the Overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us, for we have made Lies our Refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves;  
Therefore thus saith the Lord, judgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place; And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.  
LONDON, Printed by John Dawson for George Hutton, 1644.   

A check to Britannicus, for his palpable Flattery, and prevarication in justifying condemned NATH. FIENNES.  
We are informed that Britannicus during his last week's silence, hath been visiting Nath: Fiennes late governor of Bristol since his condemnation, at the Lord Cottingtons' Country House; who now not daring to show his head in London for fear of losing it, and despairing of his own credit, after so many false Relations wherewith he hath deluded the world; instead of giving in an Account of his receipts at Bristol, and craving pardon of the Parliament and kingdom in a penitent Recantation, and acknowledgement of his former grand disservices to the State, hath bribed Britannicus, to trumpet forth his unknown eminent deserts, and public virtues to the people; to acquit him from the least imputation of Treachery or cowardice, in his ignoble surrender of the famous strong City and Castle of Bristol, in less than three days' siege, to the Enemy, upon very dishonourable conditions, without the least necessity, (there being not one outfort taken, nor one shot made against the City or Castle walls) upon the entry only of 150. Enemies within the line, who might have been easily cut off; notwithstanding his many promises, to dispute every inch of ground, to hold out the City, and the Castle to the utmost, and when he could no longer keep it, then to lay his bones therein. For which most unsouldierly & unworthy action, (carrying cowardice and Treachery in its very Front, were there no other evidences, as there were store produced at the hearing;) he had this ensuing Judgement pronounced against him, by that very council of war to which himself appealed from the Parliament, after nine days full defence, and seven days' deliberation; which will sufficiently proclaim his guilt, and justify his Judges.  

29. Decemb. 1643.  
Colonel Nath: Fiennes, you have been arraigned and convicted before this honourable council, for surrendering the town and Castle of Bristol, with the Forts, Magazine, arms, ammunition, victuals, and other things thereto belonging, and for not having held the same to the utmost extremity, according as to your duty you ought to have done. For which offence, this honourable council hath adjudged you to be executed according to the tenor of the Article of war, by having your head cut off. God have mercy on your soul.   
Yet Britannicus (the professed Advocate of this Champion) to the unsufferable slander of his Excellency and that honourable council (which showed him more Favour, than ever any Malefactor of that nature received, though he hath most ungratefully requited them, in appealing from their sentence, and raising many ignominious reports against their justice) hath now proclaimed it in print (I know not upon what occasion, it being no ways pertinent to his weekly Intelligence;) That neither the Sentence of death, nor his Pardon do in the least impeach him, either of Treachery or cowardice; and thereupon styles his pretended Pardon, (of which the Parliament which must grant it, is wholly ignorant) a noble Act of his excellency's justice. (Oh strange justiciary! whose very Treason, ex condigno, demerits Pardon,) not of his indulgent mercy. pity is it, but that he should receive Justice in the highest degree, who esteems his undemerited free Pardon a mere act of Right, not Favour. Were not Nath: Fiennes now grown past grace, as well as shame, (as his strange prevarications, and underhand proceedings in this business apparently discover,) he durst not presume so impudently to justify this his dishonourable action in print, even after judgement passed against him, in such a braving manner, as makes some of his best friends conjecture, he hath already lost the best part of his head (his brains) since his judgement; and must even in point of justice lose the residue of it, unless he will so far undervalue not only his well-deserving Prosecutors, and the council of War, whom he causelessly asperseth, but even the High Court of Parliament, and his Excellency, as frantically to opine, they will all now voluntarily hazard their own Honours, justice, and the whole kingdom's safety, (inconsistent with his overdaring practices) to keep his unworthy head upon his shoulders, and uphold his sunk Reputation, to do the republic more ill offices.  
Mercy itself will not, cannot save an impenitent, obdurate, capital Delinquent, who will neither confess, nor recant his offences, but still justify them to the world in despite of justice.  
But Britannicus, out of his foolish pity, pleads thus for him. That it is pity we should bury the eminent deserts, and public virtues of that Gentleman, (in surrendering Bristol to the loss of the West, the hazard of the Kingdom, and seeking to f●ment, if not raise differences between his Excellency, and Sir William Waller, on whom he would translate this damage) in the sepulchre of an unfortunate action: I am sorry to see his Advocate, put to so poor a shift, as thus to transform him into a Roman Catholic, and make him plead Eminent Merits, yet undiscerned; and public virtues (not hitherto visible,) to save h●s Head-pe●ce: It's ill pleading justification by such works, as have already condemned their Author, in a Court of Justice. His ensuing shift is yet more miserable; That we should put a difference in Offences, and sooner pity then prosecute the failings of the best, and not make our sufferings the only Argument of his. For is it not a far grander and more capital crime actually to surrender such a place as Bristol to the Enemy, without necessity, to the kingdom's incomparable prejudice, then only to practise its surrender without success, before it was either fortified or stored? with what justice then can Fiennes (not yet proved the best who put Col: Essex from the government of that place, upon a groundless pretence he would not keep it, & actually executed yeoman's & Butcher only for plotting Bristols surrender before it was fortified, or ammunitioned, though their project proved successless) expect a Pardon, when as himself actually surrendered it, withal the Arms, Ammunition, Magazines, Cannons, colours in it, before any extremity enforced him, or the Enemy had so much as battered the City or Castle walls? If they by his own sentence (though penitent) endured the halter, I am certain he still stouting it, much more deserves the Axe: And for the latter part of his Apology it is so irrational, that every man who hath but common sense or honesty will conclude; that he who hath caused many thousand Innocents, & the whole Kingdom to suffer in the loss of such a place of consequence as Bristol, deserves not to go Scot-free, but to suffer more than the Governor of Beeston Castle, and others put to death for losing places of less importance.  
If he conceit, the nobleness of his blood may apologise for his impunity; though he hath forfeited it in this ignoble action: all understanding men will conclude, that as it aggravates his guilt, and heightens his offence; so it pleads most effectually for his execution: since an exemplary precedent of justice upon an eminent offender of Noble extraction, will strike more terror into, and do more good upon other Governors, then twenty laws, or a thousand executions of inferior persons, for slighter offences; And seeing he hath given the Parliament and kingdom incomparably the most fatal blow, and the enemy the richest booty they ever yet received, in the loss of Bristol; there is little reason or justice, that he should escape after such a public trial, and judgement of his own seeking; the best service he can now do for the Common wealth, being this▪ to become a spectacle and Monument of public justice to Posterity in a military way, as Strafford was in a politic. We read in Meteranus, Grimston, Thuanus, and other Historians a memorable history of justice in this kind upon a young Nobleman of as good or better descent than himself, Van Hemert a Dutchman, who was condemned and lost his head with two of his Captains in the year 1587. by the Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth's direction, notwithstanding the Nobility and greatness of his family, the powerful mediation of his friends, and the confession of his Errors, with promise to expiate it by serving the Queen by Land or Sea at his own charges, only for surrendering the Town of grave, (of far less consequence and strength than Bristol) to the potent enemy, after full 3. months (not 3. days) siege, and that upon honourable terms punctually observed, (the soldiers marching out with their arms and baggage, and the Citizens with their goods) and that when the walls of it with many batteries of the Canon were leveled to the ground, and the town threatened with a present general assault, which made most of the soldiers and Inhabitants to importune him upon their knees with tears, to parley with the Enemy, and to yield the town upon good conditions. This sentence and execution was thought over-severe by some, but the Earl of Leicester, and the wisest men deemed it necessary to reform the ancient neglects of military discipline then much decayed; and to preserve other Forts from over-sudden surrenders before utmost extremity: and the wisest Statesmen, soldiers have affirmed, that the loss of this great man's head was more advantageous to the States in regard of the precedent, than the saving of his, or a thousand men's lives of his rank, in such a case could be. The story needs no application: he who will not adventure his life, to defend his charge, and a place of such importance as Bristol for the kingdom's safety, and keeping out of the Irish Rebels, now actually possessed of it, deserves at least to lose his head for such a cowardice, and cannot do the kingdom greater service, nor Justice more Right, then to suffer for it, and become a precedent for the benefit of Posterity, especially when he grows so obstinately perverse as neither to acknowledge nor lament his Error.  

Certain considerable Queres of public concernment touching colonel FIENNES.  
whether colonel Fiennes being actually attainted and condemned of high Treason against the kingdom, by a reference from the Parliament, can or may be permitted in Law or equity to go at liberty, or to continue a Member of the Commons house? Whether the House Ex officio mero, ought not in Honour and justice to expel him, as well as other less-capital Delinquents? to inquire diligently where he now hides his forfeited Head, and to exact the forfeiture of it, to prevent future cowardice and Treachery in others?  
Whether in case the loss of his headpiece be remitted▪ which cannot possibly be imagined without a public confession, and penitent submission, of which there is not as yet the smallest shadow appearing,) his whole real and personal Estate ought not at least to be confiscated, towards the reparation of those inestimable damages and losses, the whole kingdom, and private Persons have sustained through his cowardly Surrender of Bristol?  
Whether the honourable council of war, openly traduced by him and his, for their just Sentence against him after nine days full hearing, by order from the Parliament, ought not to demand and receive such public satisfaction for this high affront; and his unvoluntary Prosecutors, engaged by himself, such reparation for the slanders raised of them, as may deter others from such bold daring attempts against justice?  
Whether he and his, have not been the principal Authors, and Fomentors of the late unhappy (but now composed) differences between his excellency and Sir William Waller, and their Officers? Seeing his manifold malicious aspersions cast upon Sir William, with his impudent loud-lying averment to the council at the trial, That the prosecution of this Bristol business against him (proceeding only from his own braving motions in Parliament, and public Summons posted up at Westminster, upon hopes to make his prosecutors cry peccavi, or else to come off with Honour by the Potency of his friends, not Honesty of his Cause) came by the instigation and confederacy of Sir William Waller and his Lady, who set it on merely for the great affection, which he and his family did bear, and the good services they had done to my Lord general, his Officers and Army: (a most parasitical seditious calumny) do more than intimate as much.  
Whether he ought not in justice to be forced to give in a speedy account, of all the vast sums of moneys, and plunder received by him and his Officers during his government of Bristol, that so he may not escape Count-free though Head-free; and so prove a gainer by his very capital censure?  
Whether he and his have not caused Mr. William Pryn appointed an Auditor for the grand long-deferred Accounts of the kingdom by the House of Commons, to be raised out of the list of Auditors, in the House of peers, and upon what just grounds of exception (besides his known integrity and impartiality for the public weal,) for which he hath gratis done and suffered much without any pay, or recompense for his losses?) And whether it be just or meet, that Accountants should have a Negative or Affirmative vote in the Election of their Auditors?  
Whether Nath: Fiennes since his good service in surrendering Bristol, and bestowing it on the King beyond expectation, with all the fortifications, Cannons, arms, Magazines, Colours, Wealth, Ships, and Provisions in it, be not far better beloved, and befriended at Oxford, than Sir William Waller? The extravagant testimony of Captain Temple (his own Kinsman and witness) at the trial, with others of that nature, clearly intimating as much? And whether the sparing of his head will not be far more pleasing and advantageous to the King, and his Malignant cavaliers, then to the kingdom and well affected party?  
Whether his Majesty in all probability had not gained the actual possession of all the towns, and Forts through England, ruined the Parliament, yea enslaved us and our Posterity for ever in less than one months' space, had the governors of other besieged Towns (especially Manchester, Gloucester, Hull, Plymouth, Lime, Namptwich, and Warder Castle) made no better or longer resistance of his forces, progress, or showed no more valour, Resolution, and Fidelity, to their Country than Fiennes did at Bristol, (more strong and tenable than most, and of greater consequence than all the forenamed towns,) which he held not 3. whole days, and most cowardly yielded up before any one Outfort taken, or the town or Castle walls once battered or assaulted?  
Whether cowardly and avaricious Governors or Commanders (who aim at nought but pay) do not always prove the greatest Traitors of all others, to those who trust them, in times of danger and extremity? whether such will not rather lose a kingdom, yea and their own● souls, then hazard their lives or estates? And whether it be wisdom to employ any such, or spare them when they grossly betray their trusts, out of a foolish pity or indulgent partiality?  
Whether Col: Fiennes since the wars began, did ever personally for all the pay received by him, perform the least piece of martial service for the state, except his fortifying and furnishing of Bristol for the Enemy? And whether any credit can be given to his words, or reports, who contrary to his own knowledge and Printed Papers, denied colonel Essex or himself to be ever governor of Bristol, or that ever he had a Commission to keep it, or sought for any Commission, though his own witnesses proved, and himself thereupon at last confessed, he hath writ, sent Letters for, and received an independent Commission? which made him so independent both on the Parliament, His Excellency, and God's Protection, as without their privity, and beyond their expectation to surrender up Bristol to the enemy, when they gave themselves for dead men, and many of them retreated thence, with a resolution never to come on again.   
FINIS