s
just to say that, during many generations, no English government,
save one, has treated with rigour persons guilty merely of harbouring
defeated and flying insurgents. To women especially has been granted,
by a kind of tacit prescription, the right of indulging in the midst of
havoc and vengeance, that compassion which is the most endearing of
all their charms. Since the beginning of the great civil war, numerous
rebels, some of them far more important than Hickes or Nelthorpe, have
been protected from the severity of victorious governments by female
adroitness and generosity. But no English ruler who has been thus
baffled, the savage and implacable James alone excepted, has had the
barbarity even to think of putting a lady to a cruel and shameful death
for so venial and amiable a transgression.

Odious as the law was, it was strained for the purpose of destroying
Alice Lisle. She could not, according to the doctrine laid down by the
highest authority, be convicted till after the conviction of the rebels
whom she had harboured. [443] She was, however, set to the bar before
either Hickes or Nelthorpe had been tried. It was no easy matter in such
a case to obtain a verdict for the crown. The witnesses prevaricated.
The jury, consisting of the principal gentlemen of Hampshire, shrank
from the thought of sending a fellow creature to the stake for conduct
which seemed deserving rather of praise than of blame. Jeffreys was
beside himself with fury. This was the first case of treason on the
circuit; and there seemed to be a strong probability that his prey would
escape him. He stormed, cursed, and swore in language which no wellbred
man would have used at a race or a cockfight. One witness named Dunne,
partly from concern for Lady Alice, and partly from fright at the
threats and maledictions of the Chief Justice, entirely lost his head,
and at last stood silent. "Oh how hard the truth is," said Jeffreys, "to
come out of a lying Presbyterian knave." The witness, after a pause
of some minutes, stammered a few unmeaning words. "Was there ever,"
exclaimed the judge, with an oath, "was there ever such a villain on
the face of the earth? Dost thou believe that there is a God? Dost thou
believe in hell fire. Of all the witnesses that I ever met with I never
saw thy fellow." Still the poor man, scared out of his senses, remained
mute; and again Jeffreys burst forth. "I hope, gentlemen of the jury,
that you take notice of the horribl