ndy, and
Oliver le Dain, the favourite of Lewis the Eleventh of France, had been
accused of the same crime. Cintio had taken it for the subject of a
romance. Whetstone had made out of Cintio's narrative the rude play of
Promos and Cassandra; and Shakspeare had borrowed from Whetstone the
plot of the noble tragicomedy of Measure for Measure. As Kirke was not
the first so he was not the last, to whom this excess of wickedness
was popularly imputed. During the reaction which followed the Jacobin
tyranny in France, a very similar charge was brought against Joseph
Lebon, one of the most odious agents of the Committee of Public
Safety, and, after enquiry, was admitted even by his prosecutors to be
unfounded. [439]

The government was dissatisfied with Kirke, not on account of the
barbarity with which he had treated his needy prisoners, but on account
of the interested lenity which he had shown to rich delinquents. [440]
He was soon recalled from the West. A less irregular and more cruel
massacre was about to be perpetrated. The vengeance was deferred during
some weeks. It was thought desirable that the Western Circuit should not
begin till the other circuits had terminated. In the meantime the gaols
of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire were filled with thousands of captives.
The chief friend and protector of these unhappy men in their extremity
was one who abhorred their religious and political opinions, one whose
order they hated, and to whom they had done unprovoked wrong, Bishop
Ken. That good prelate used all his influence to soften the gaolers, and
retrenched from his own episcopal state that he might be able to make
some addition to the coarse and scanty fare of those who had defaced his
beloved Cathedral. His conduct on this occasion was of a piece with his
whole life. His intellect was indeed darkened by many superstitions and
prejudices: but his moral character, when impartially reviewed, sustains
a comparison with any in ecclesiastical history, and seems to approach,
as near as human infirmity permits, to the ideal perfection of Christian
virtue. [441]

His labour of love was of no long duration. A rapid and effectual gaol
delivery was at hand. Early in September, Jeffreys, accompanied by four
other judges, set out on that circuit of which the memory will last as
long as our race and language. The officers who commanded the troops
in the districts through which his course lay had orders to furnish him
with whatever mi