and sent to request him to fix whatever value he pleased upon it.' Sidney answered, he did not choose to part with it at any price.' The King, unused to such denials, ordered a proper sum of money to be tendered to him, and in the event of his refusing it, the horse to be seized. Upon which, Sidney instantly with his pistol shot the animal, saying, 'It was born a free creature, had served a free man, and should never be mastered by a King of slaves.'

In 1677, the Earl of Leicester, desirous to see his son once more before he died, obtained from the King a special pardon for all past offences; in consequence of which, he returned home* at the critical juncture when the parliament were urging his Majesty to a war against France. As he came last from that country, and took considerable pains to dissuade his countrymen from the measure in question, shallow politicians conceived him to be in the French interest: but he had other motives for giving this advice. He had, in fact, been a spy upon the secret negotiations of the English and French courts, and had authentic intelligence that a good understanding subsisted between the two crowns, and that the pretended avidity of war was only counterfeited for the purpose of raising large supplies to be lavished in corrupting the parliament.† If any one indeed at

His friend the Hon. Henry Savile also, then Embassador at the French court, interested himself very much upon the occasion.

† Or, as Burnet in his History of his Own Times' affirms, "of raising an army, and keeping it beyond sea till it was trained and modelled." This suggestion Burnet, most probably, made on the authority of the Russell family, and that of Lord Essex:

this time was in treaty for a pension from France, it was Charles himself, who cared little how he procured money, provided he procured enough to maintain his mistresses and to keep his favourites in good humour.

Sidney's father dying soon after he arrived in England, he was under no farther restraint with respect to his public conduct. In this state of emancipation, unable to suppress his indignation at the duplicity of the court, he was quickly noticed by the emissaries of government, and a resolution was taken to compass his ruin. The scheme was heartily supported by the Duke of York and his party, who detested his very name, as ominous to their cause. Effectual interest was made to keep him out of parliament in 1678, when he stood candidate for Guildford; and though he carried his election on a second contest, a double return was made through court-influence, and he was rejected by the decision of the House.

Not content with this success, his enemies resolved to sacrifice both him and Lord William Russell to their safety. These two distinguished men were known to be intimate friends; and it was no secret, that they associated with the Earl of Shaftesbury and other malcontents, who frequently assembled to consult upon the measures proper to guard the Church and State from the hazards connected with a Popish sucAt these meetings, some persons had even

cessor.

and as he had previously said, "some took Sidney for a pensioner of France," it may perhaps sufficiently protect the memories both of him and of Russell from the malevolent insinuations of Dalrymple, founded upon their transactions with Barillon-if any such there were.

gone so far, as to propose the exciting of insurrections; and upon this last circumstance was grounded the indictment for high-treason.

Lord William Russell was the third, and at the period of his indictment the only surviving, son of the Earl of Bedford; and, in order to strike the greater terror into their opposers, the court began with him. He had taken an active part in the House of Commons against the Duke of York and the Papists; had carried up a vote against his Royal Highness for the concurrence of the Lords; had presented the Exclusion-Bill* to that House, and upon it's rejection had in a speech at their bar eloquently lamented their conduct, and justified the assembly, of which he was a member, for having given it their approbation and had joined with other friends to the Protestant cause, in presenting reasons to the Grand Jury of Middlesex for indicting the Duke as

* Upon this subject, Colonel Titus in his speech observed, "That to accept of expedients for securing the Protestant religion, after such a King mounted the throne, was as strange as if there were a lion in the lobby, and they should vote that 'they would rather secure themselves by letting him in and chaining him, than by keeping him out!"" This is versified by Bramston in his witty Art of Politics,' in imitation of Horace's Quanto rectius hic, &c.

'I hear a lion in the lobby roar:

Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door,
And keep him there; or shall we let him in,
To try if we can turn him out again?

The poet had previously, in his directions as to preserving consistency and propriety of character, Aut famam sequere, &c., said,

To both the Pelhams give the Scipios' mind.'
N

VOL. IV.

a Papist. These were more than sufficient causes for devoting him to destruction: and an opportunity unhappily offered itself soon after the discovery of the Rye-House Plot, in June 1683.

This plot is said to have been formed by the presbyterians of the republican party, and by some zealots of distinction in the church, who dreaded the Popish succession. The design was, to kill or to seize the King, as he passed through the enclosures of a farm called the Rye-House,' in his way from Newmarket to London, which he usually did to avoid the public road. A fire happening at Newmarket, the King (it is added) returned sooner to London than was expected, and before the assassins were prepared to carry their nefarious project into effect. A proclamation was issued on the twenty third of June, for apprehending Rumbold the owner of the farm, and several officers and gentlemen, who were represented as the principal conspirators; and on the twenty eighth Lord Howard of Escrick, a man of abandoned character, was accepted as crown-evidenceupon his engaging himself to criminate Lord Russell. The latter gentleman was, in consequence, instantly sent to the Tower. Soon afterward, the same noble scoundrel was induced to extend his accusation to Algernon Sidney, who was likewise taken into custody by a messenger, while one of the clerks of the Privy Council seized all his papers.

But, for the reason above-assigned, Russell's trial was expedited without delay. On the thirteenth of July he was indicted at the Old Bailey, for having 'conspired to excite insurrection and rebellion in the kingdom; for having compassed and imagined the death of the King; and for having plotted with other

traitors to seize his Majesty's guards, &c.' In the ferocious determination of the ministry to make sure of their victim, the most unjustifiable precipitation was resorted to. He desired to have his trial put off till the next day, as some material witnesses could not reach London till late at night; or at least that it might be adjourned till the afternoon?' but both these reasonable requests were denied. He challenged the foreman of the jury: in this, also, he was over-ruled. The sole evidences against him were Lord Howard and Colonel Rumsey, another pardoned conspirator; and the whole of their joint evidence only proved, that he had walked up and down in the house of one Shepherd, while some persons held a discourse about seizing the King's guards,' though it was not pretended that he either joined company with them or uttered a single word.

On behalf of Lord Russell the Earl of Anglesey deposed, that about a week previously Lord Howard had declared to the Earl of Bedford in his hearing, that he knew nothing against his son, or any body else concerned in the plot.' This evidence Dr, Burnet corroborated by declaring, that Howard had been with him the night after the plot was discovered, and did then (as he had done before) with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven declare, he knew nothing of any plot, nor believed any, treating it with the most sovereign contempt.' Mr. Howard, a relation of the villainous accuser, related a conversation with him to the same purport, adding these remarkable words; "If my Lord Howard has the same soul on Monday that he had on Sunday, this cannot be true that he swears against my Lord Russell. I am very