MEMENTO MORI   outline of tombstone including emblems of Death which surrounds text  
AN ELEGY On the DEATH of William Lord RUSSEL, Who was Beheaded for High-Treason, in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, July the 21st. 1683.  
A scandalous Copy on him.  
21. July. 1683.  

TO sigh when Rebels fall, or shed a Tear,  
Must, doubtless, make Me Criminal appear;  
Not that I love thy Treason, but thy Name,  
Which all adored, and in the Book of Fame  
Gave thee a place befitting thy Deserts;  
But now thou wound'st all loyal honest Hearts   

Who shall we trust, if such as You Rebel?  
So the great Lucifer from Heaven fell.  
RUSSEEL with Hell and Furies too combine!  
To kill the KING and all the Royal Line!  
Ah me! it is too true! His now lost Head  
Confirms whatever has on him been said.   

O that I live to hear the fatal sound,  
Whose very accent does my Heartstrings wound!  
Is this your Loyalty; Is this your Zeal,  
To damn your Soul for a cursed Commonweal?  
Though once I loved Thee, now I hate thy Name,  
And thus I'll rend it from the Book of Fame,  
That future Ages, when they read thy shame,  
May praise heavens Justice, and abhor thy Name.   

Who, but a Monster, could Rebellions prove  
To such Indulgence, Clemency and Love,  

As our Dread sovereign evermore bestows  
Upon his Friends, nay on his very Foes,  
Which slew his Father, and would Him Depose?    

O that our Island should such Monsters breed,  
Which, Nero-like, delight to see her bleed!  

Look down just Heaven, with Vengeance upon those  
That are our Sov'reigns and our Church's Foes,  
And as thou hast, still all their Plots disclose:   
O let 'em not, although with Hell they join,  
E'er be successful in their damned Design,  

Whose only aim was to find out a way  
To turn our Zion to Acaldema,  
And make all Loyal honest men their Prey.    

Is't thus you would defend the King & Laws?  
Confusion seize you, and your Good Old Cause,  
And save our sovereign from your Bloody Paws.   

Unpityed, therefore, let each Traitor die,  
While all that Loyal are, Amen do cry.    

EPITAPH.  

HEre under lies a Rebel, whose Design  
Was to have murdered all the Royal Line,  
But was prevented by the Power-Divine:  
The great Opposer of our sovereign's Laws,  
Who died a Martyr for the Good Old Cause.  
May Heaven still defend the King and Throne,  
And may such cursed Rebels ev'ry one  
Meet the same Fate; then would our Isle be blest  
With Peace and Plenty, and a Halcyon-rest.    

Printed by Na●h. Thompson at the entrance into the Old Spring Garden near Charing-Cross, 1683.