Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/26

16 ever ſuffer on her account. The general aſked her, how ſhe ſhould like to be confined in New-gate? to which ſhe anſwered, that ſhe would rather lye in a priſon, after having diſcharged her conſcience, than riot in a palace under its reproaches. The general upon this replied, that theſe things founded very heroic, but there was a great difference between real and imaginary ſufferings, ‘that ſhe had choſen to declare herſelf for the Tories, a party, who never could keep their own, nor other people’s ſecrets, and were ever forgetful of ſuch as ſerved them; that the moſt ſevere critics upon the Tory writings, were the Tories themſelves, who never conſidering the deſign, or honeſt intention of the author, would examine the performance only, and that too with as much ſeverity, as they would an enemy’s, and at the ſame time value themſelves upon being impartial againſt their friends. Then as to gratitude, or generoſity, the Tories did not approach to the Whigs, who never ſuffered any man to go unrewarded, however dull, or inſignificant, provided he declared himſelf to be for them; whereas the Tories had no general intereſt, and conſequently no particular, each perſon refuſing to contribute towards the benefit of the whole; and if it ſhould happen, that ſhe ſhould periſh, through want, in a jail, they would ſooner condemn her folly, than pity her ſufferings.’

This did not deter our poeteſs from voluntarily preſenting herſelf before the Court of King’s-Bench, as the author of the Atalantis.

When ſhe was examined before the ſecretary (then lord Sunderland) he was aſſiduous to know from whom ſhe had got information of ſome particulars, which they imagined were above her own intelligence. Her defence was with much humility and ſorrow, at the ſame time denying that any perſons were concerned with her, or that ſhe had a farther