734 'Ihe HISTORY of the PuRITANs. Vot. II; Ch~{;! II. of E.Jlex, and ~r. Houb/on were apprehended and ~ent to t~e Tower. !68 3 . War:·ants wer~ Iifued out [o~ feveral ot~ers, who knowmg, that Innocence ~ was m thefe ttmes no fuffictent protechon, abfconded, and went out of the way; but feveral were tried, and executed upon the court evidence ; as Mr. Rumbold, mafl:er of the houfe where the plot was to take place, who declared at his execution in king Jame!'s reign, that he never knew of any deiign againfl: the king ; as did Capt. Walcot and Sir Thomas ArmLd. Ruffel flrong, Rotife, and the refl:. Lord Ru.Jfel was condemned, and beheaded, beheaded. for being within the hearing ot fame treafonable words at Mr. Sbep– Wel. Mem. herd's a wine-cooper in Abchurch-lane. The earl of Effex's throat was P· r6r. cut in the 'J{mJer during lord Ru.Jlel's trial; and AlgerncotJ Sidney was executed for having a Jeditiom libel in hisJludy; of the injufiice of which the parliament at the revolution was fo fenfible, that they reverfed the judgments. A proclamation was i!fued out againfi the duke of Man– mouth, though the king knew where he was; and after the ferment brought him to court. Mr. Eachard obferves, that fame have called this the fanatic, the proteflant, the whiggijh, or prejbyterian plot ; others have called it with more jufiice, a piece of fiate policy, and no better than an impofiure, for it had no other foundation than the rafh and impru– dent difcourfe of fome warm whigs, which in to critical a conjunCture was very hazardous, but no fcheme of a plot had been agreed upon, no preparations made, no arms nor horfes purchafed, nor perfons appointed to execute any d~iign againfi the king or government. However the court had their ends in firiking terror into the whole party. Non·conGreat indufiry was ufed by the court to bring the body of non-conformifts formifis into this plot: It was given out that Dr. Owen, Mr. }dead, and ~harged with Mr. Griflith were acquainted with it; Mr. Mead was fummoned before tt. 8Bur;~~ the council, and gave fuch fatisfaC1ory anfwers to all queflions, that the P· 5 3 ' · king himfelf ordered him to be difcharged. The reverend Mr. Cafiaires, a fcots divine, was put to the torture of the thummikins in Scotland, to extort a confeffion ; both his thumbs being bruifed between two irons till the marrow was almofi forced out of the bones : This he bore for an hour and half without making any confeffion. Next day they brought him to undergo the torture of the boct, but his arms being fwelled with the late torture, and he already in a fever, made a declaration of all that he knew, which amounted to no more than fame loofe difcourfe of what might be fit to be done, to preferve their liberties and the protefiant re– ligion, if there ibould be a cri/is; but he vindicated himfelf and his bre– thren in England, from all a!fafllnating defigns, which he faid, they ab– horred. Dr. South was deiired to write the hifiory of this plot, but Dr~ Sprat, afterwards bifhop of Rochd/er, performed it, though . at the re– volution he difowned it fo far as to declare, that king James had altered
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