CHAPTER 1685. 66 66 happy captive, by the intercession of the Queen Dowager, was brought to the King's presence, and fell presently at his feet, and confessed he deserved to die; "but conjured him, with tears in his eyes, not to use "him with the severity of justice, and to grant him a "life, which he would be ever ready to sacrifice for his "service. He mentioned to him the example of several "great Princes, who had yielded to the impressions of clemency on the like occasions, and who had never "afterwards repented of those acts of generosity and 66 66 66 66 66 mercy; concluding, in a most pathetical manner, "Remember, Sir, I am your brother's son, and if you "take my life, it is your own blood that you will shed. "The King asked him several questions, and made him sign a declaration that his father told him he was never married to his mother and then said, he was sorry indeed for his misfortunes; but his crime was of "too great a consequence to be left unpunished, and "he must of necessity suffer for it. The Queen is said "to have insulted him in a very arrogant and unmer"ciful manner. So that when the Duke saw there was "nothing designed by this interview, but to satisfy the "Queen's revenge, he rose up from his Majesty's feet "with a new air of bravery, and was carried back to the "Tower." * Kennet, III. 432. Echard, III. 771. pur The topics used by Monmouth are such as he might naturally have employed, and the demeanour attributed to him, upon finding the King inexorable, is consistent enough with general probability, and his particular character: but that the King took care to extract from him a confession of Charles's declaration with respect to his illegitimacy, before he announced his final refusal of mercy, and that the Queen was present for the pose of reviling and insulting him, are circumstances too atrocious to merit belief, without some more certain evidence. It must be remarked also, that Burnet, whose general prejudices would not lead him to doubt any imputations against the Queen, does not mention her Majesty's being present. Monmouth's offer of changing religion is mentioned by him, but no authority quoted; and no hint of the kind appears either in James's Letters, or in the extract from his Memoirs. CHAPTER III. 1685. execution From Whitehall Monmouth was at night carried to Monmouth's the Tower, where, no longer uncertain as to his fate, he fixed. seems to have collected his mind, and to have resumed his wonted fortitude. The Bill of Attainder that had lately passed, having superseded the necessity of a legal trial, his execution was fixed for the next day but one after his commitment. This interval appeared too short even for the worldly business which he wished to transact, and he wrote again to the King, on the 14th, desiring some short respite, which was peremptorily III. 1695. His preparations for death. refused. The difficulty of obtaining any certainty concerning facts, even in instances where there has not been any apparent motive for disguising them, is no where more striking, than in the few remaining hours of this unfortunate man's life. According to King James's statement in his Memoirs, he refused to see his wife, while other accounts assert positively that she refused to see him, unless in presence of witnesses. Burnet, who was not likely to be mistaken in a fact of this kind, says they did meet, and parted very coldly, a circumstance, which, if true, gives us no very favourable idea of the lady's character. There is also mention of a third letter written by him to the King, which being entrusted to a perfidious officer of the name of Scott, never reached its destination;* but for this there is no foundation. What seems most certain is, that in the Tower, and not in the closet, he signed a paper, renouncing his pretensions to the crown, the same which he afterwards delivered on the scaffold; and that he was inclined to make this declaration, not by any vain hope of life, but by his affection for his children, whose situation he rightly judged would be safer and better under the reigning monarch and his successours, when it should be evident that they could no longer be competitors for the throne. Monmouth, was very sincere in his religious profes * Dalrymple's Memoirs, I. 127. sions, and it is probable that a great portion of this sad day was passed in devotion and religious discourse with the two prelates, who had been sent by his Majesty to assist him in his spiritual concerns. Turner, Bishop of Ely, had been with him early in the morning, and Kenn, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was sent, upon the refusal of a respite, to prepare him for the stroke, which it was now irrevocably fixed he should suffer the ensuing day. They stayed with him all night, and in the morning of the fifteenth were joined by Dr. Hooper, afterwards, in the reign of Anne, made Bishop of Bath and Wells, and by Dr. Tennison, who succeeded Tillotson in the see of Canterbury. This last divine is stated by Burnet to have been most acceptable to the Duke, and though he joined the others in some harsh expostulations, to have done what the right reverend historian conceives to have been his duty, in a softer and less peremptory manner. Certain it is, that none of these holy men seem to have erred on the side of compassion or complaisance to their illustrious penitent. Besides endeavouring to convince him of the guilt of his connection with his beloved Lady Harriet, of which he could never be brought to a due sense, they seem to have repeatedly teased him with controversy, and to have been far more solicitous to make him profess what they deemed the true creed of the church of England, than to soften or console his sorrows, or to help him to that composure of mind so necessary for his situation. He declared himself to be a member of their CHAPTER III. 1685. CHAPTER 1685. church, but they denied that he could be so, unless he thoroughly believed the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance. He repented generally of his sins, and especially of his late enterprize, but they insisted that he must repent of it in the way they prescribed to him, that he must own it to have been a wicked resistance to his lawful King, and a detestable act of rebellion.* Some historians have imputed this seemingly cruel conduct to the King's particular instructions, who might be desirous of extracting, or rather extorting, from the lips of his dying nephew, such a confession as would be matter of triumph to the royal cause. But the character of the two prelates principally concerned, both for general uprightness, and sincerity as church of England men, makes it more candid to suppose, that they did not act from motives of servile compliance, but rather from an intemperate party zeal for the honour of their church, which they judged would be signally promoted, if such a man as Monmouth, after having throughout his life acted in defiance of their favourite doctrine, could be brought in his last moments to acknowledge it as a divine truth. It must never be forgotten, if we would understand the history of this period, that the truly orthodox members of our church regarded monarchy not as a human, but as a divine institution, and passive obedience, and non-resistance, not as political maxims, but as articles of religion. * Burnet, II. S30. Echard, III. 772. |