Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/251

Rh prayers of the widow and orphan poured out to her. It happened that one of the rebels found ſhelter in her houſe; ſhe ſuffered him to be ſcreened there; ſhe fed and cloathed him. The King had often declared that he would rather pardon thoſe who were found in arms, againſt him, than the people who harboured or ſecretly encouraged them. This miſcreant, who ſometimes ventured out at night to a public houſe, was informed, that the King had made ſuch a declaration, and it entered into his baſe heart to betray his benefactreſs. He accordingly went before a magiſtrate, and lodged an information, upon which the lady was ſecured, brought to a trial, and upon the evidence of this ungrateful villain, caſt for her life. She ſuffered at a ſtake with the moſt reſigned chearfulneſs for when a, woman is convicted of treaſon, it ſeems, ſhe is ſentenced to be burnt. The reader will eaſily judge what fort of bowels that King muſt have, who could permit ſuch a puniſhment to take place upon a woman ſo compleatly amiable, upon the evidence of a villain ſo conſummately infamous, and he will, we are perſuaded, be of opinion that had his Majeſty poſſeſſed a thouſand kingdoms, he deſerved to loſe them all for this one act of genuine barbarity.

Lord Lanſdowne, who did not conſider, or was not then capable of diſcovering, the dangers to which this prince expoſed his people, wrote the following letter to his father, earneſtly preſſing him to permit his entering voluntarily into king James’s ſervice. ‘,