Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/268

 232 THE CECILS

injuries. 1 Charles also met with a sad end, being set upon in the streets of Rome and murdered, in 1702.

The Earl's misfortunes were not yet at an end, for in 1692 he became involved, through no fault of his own, in a charge of conspiracy to restore James II., and was again committed to the Tower. It was, however, soon discovered that the document to which his signature and those of Marlborough, Cornbury, Sancroft and Sprat were appended was a forgery drawn up by Robert Young, of whose enterprising career Macaulay has given an interesting account, and the incriminated persons were released.

Lord Salisbury died in October, 1694, at the age of twenty-nine, leaving a son about three years old to succeed him in his title and estates. Macaulay sums him up in these words : " Salisbury was foolish to a proverb. His figure was so bloated by sensual indulgence as to be almost incapable of moving, and this sluggish body was the abode of an equally sluggish mind." To which repulsive portrait we may append the following verses, fixed to his door in 1686, which serve to show what the populace thought of him.

" If Cecil the wise

From his grave should arise And see this fat beast in his place, He would take him from Mass And turn him to grass, And swear he was none of his race." a

1 Cal. S. P. Dont., March ijth, 1691.

a De la Pryme's Diary, p. 94. Slightly different versions are given in Poems on Affairs of State, Part II. 1697 an d 1716.

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