litary aid he might require. His ferocious temper needed
no spur; yet a spur was applied. The health and spirits of the Lord
Keeper had given way. He had been deeply mortified by the coldness
of the King and by the insolence of the Chief Justice, and could find
little consolation in looking back on a life, not indeed blackened
by any atrocious crime, but sullied by cowardice, selfishness, and
servility. So deeply was the unhappy man humbled that, when he appeared
for the last time in Westminster Hall he took with him a nosegay to hide
his face, because, as he afterwards owned, he could not bear the eyes of
the bar and of the audience. The prospect of his approaching end seems
to have inspired him with unwonted courage. He determined to discharge
his conscience, requested an audience of the King, spoke earnestly
of the dangers inseparable from violent and arbitrary counsels, and
condemned the lawless cruelties which the soldiers had committed in
Somersetshire. He soon after retired from London to die. He breathed
his last a few days after the Judges set out for the West. It was
immediately notified to Jeffreys that he might expect the Great Seal as
the reward of faithful and vigorous service. [442]

At Winchester the Chief Justice first opened his commission. Hampshire
had not been the theatre of war; but many of the vanquished rebels
had, like their leader, fled thither. Two of them, John Hickes, a
Nonconformist divine, and Richard Nelthorpe, a lawyer who had been
outlawed for taking part in the Rye House plot, had sought refuge at
the house of Alice, widow of John Lisle. John Lisle had sate in the Long
Parliament and in the High Court of Justice, had been a commissioner of
the Great Seal in the days of the Commonwealth and had been created
a Lord by Cromwell. The titles given by the Protector had not been
recognised by any government which had ruled England since the downfall
of his house; but they appear to have been often used in conversation
even by Royalists. John Lisle's widow was therefore commonly known as
the Lady Alice. She was related to many respectable, and to some noble,
families; and she was generally esteemed even by the Tory gentlemen of
her country. For it was well known to them that she had deeply regretted
some violent acts in which her husband had borne a part, that she had
shed bitter tears for Charles the First, and that she had protected and
relieved many Cavaliers in their distress. The same woma