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The following tract contains a short narrative of the behaviour of these men at the gallows, who were executed for the gunpowder plot, of which we know not whether there is any other Protestant relation, and therefore have preserved this, though not very valuable either for its elegance or decency, for it is written in a strain of merriment and insult, which the religion, professed by the author, does not teach. However, as one extreme is naturally opposed to another, this pamphlet, in which the cause and sufferings of these wretches are treated with scoffs and derision, may be justly placed in contrast against those writings of their own church in which they are reverenced as martyrs.

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A brief Discourse upon the Arraignment and Execution of the eight Traitors, Digby, the two Winters, Grant, Rookwood, Keyes, Bates, and Johnson, alias Fawkes, four of which were executed in St. Paul's Church-yard, in London, upon Thursday, being the thirtieth of January; the other four in the old Palace in Westminster, over-against the Parliament-house, upon Friday next following.

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OT to aggravate the sorrow of the living in the shame of the dead, but to dissuade the idolatrously blinded, from seeking their own destruction in the way to damnation, I have here briefly set

down a discourse of the behaviour and carriage of the eight persons before named, from the time of their imprisonment, to the instant of their death; the nature of their offence, the little shew of their sorrow, their usage in prison, and their obstinacy to their end. First, for their offence, it is so odious in the ears of all human creatures, that it could hardly be believed, that so many monsters in nature should carry the shapes of men: murder, oh, it is the crying sin of the world, and such an

intended murder, as, had it taken effect, would have made a world cry; and therefore the horror thereof must needs be hateful to the whole world to hear of it.

Men, that saw them go to their execution, did in a sort grieve to see such proper men, in shape, go to so shameful an end; but the end was proper to men of so improper minds, who, to satisfy a blinded conceit, would forget their duties to God and their king, and unnaturally seek the ruin of their native country: they are said to be born unhappy, that are not someway profitable to their country; and then, how accursed are they born, that seek the destruction of the whole kingdom?

Papists will perhaps idly say, it was a bloody execution; but, in respect of their desert, in the blood they intended to have shed, it was a merciful punishment for, if Jezebel, a queen, for seeking the murder of one private man, was thrown out of a window, and fed upon by dogs: how can these people be thought to be cruelly used, that could intend and practice so horrible a villany as the death of so gracious a king, queen, and prince, so noble peers, and the ruin of so flourishing a kingdom?

But since my intent is chiefly to make report of the manner of their demeanors, from the prison to the arraignment, and from thence to execution: I will truly set down what I have gathered, touching

the same.

After their apprehension in the country, and being brought up to London, upon the appearance of their foul treason, before his Majesty's most honourable council, they were, by their commandment, committed to his Majesty's tower of London, where they wanted nothing, that, in the mercy of a christian prince, was thought fit, and, indeed, too good for so unchristian offenders.

For in the time of their imprisonment they seemed to feel no part of fear, either of the wrath of God, the doom of justice, or the shame of sin; but, as it were, with seared consciences, senseless of grace, lived as not looking to die, or not feeling the sorrow of their sins; and now, that no subtle fox, or rather goose, that would fain seem a fox, shall have cause to say or think, that the justice of the law hath not been truly ministered, according to the rules of the divine will, behold here a true report, as I said before, of their behaviour and carriage, from their apprehension, to their imprisonment, and from condemnation to their execution. In the time of their imprisonment they rather feasted with their sins, than fasted with sorrow for them; were richly apparelled, fared deliciously, and took tobacco out of measure, with a seeming carelessness of their crime, as it were daring the law to pass upon them; but the Almighty, and our most merciful good God, first revealed them. His Majesty's and his council's

careful head apprehended them, the law plainly did decipher them, justice gave judgment on them, and death made an end of them; but, to come to their arraignment, and to deliver the manner of their behaviour, after they went from the tower by water, and came to Westminster, before they came into the hall, they made some half hour's stay, or more, in the star-chamber, whither being brought, and remaining till the court was all ready to hear them, and, according to the law, to give judgment on them, it was strange to note their carriage, even in their very countenances: some hanging down the head, as if their hearts were full of doggedness, and others forcing a stern look, as if they would fear death with a frown, never seeming to pray, except it were by the dozen, upon their beads, and taking tobacco, as if that hanging were no trouble to them; saying little but in commendation of their conceited religion, craving mercy of neither God or the King for their offences, and making their consciences, as it were, as wide as the world: and to the very gates of hell, to be the cause of their hellish courses, to make a work meritorious.

Now being come into the hall, and upon the scaffold at the bar, standing to answer to their indictments, they all pleaded not guilty, but were all found guilty. Digby, without craving mercy, or favour, of either God or the King, made only five

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