hundreds of ignorant
peasants whose skulls and quarters were exposed in Somersetshire. But
Grey's estate was large and was strictly entailed. He had only a life
interest in his property; and he could forfeit no more interest than he
had. If he died, his lands at once devolved on the next heir. If he
were pardoned, he would be able to pay a large ransom. He was therefore
suffered to redeem himself by giving a bond for forty thousand pounds to
the Lord Treasurer, and smaller sums to other courtiers. [462]

Sir John Cochrane had held among the Scotch rebels the same rank which
had been held by Grey in the West of England. That Cochrane should be
forgiven by a prince vindictive beyond all example, seemed incredible.
But Cochrane was the younger son of a rich family; it was therefore only
by sparing him that money could be made out of him. His father, Lord
Dundonald, offered a bribe of five thousand pounds to the priests of the
royal household; and a pardon was granted. [463]

Samuel Storey, a noted sower of sedition, who had been Commissary to the
rebel army, and who had inflamed the ignorant populace of Somersetshire
by vehement harangues in which James had been described as an incendiary
and a poisoner, was admitted to mercy. For Storey was able to give
important assistance to Jeffreys in wringing fifteen thousand pounds out
of Prideaux. [464]

None of the traitors had less right to expect favour than Wade,
Goodenough, and Ferguson. These three chiefs of the rebellion had fled
together from the field of Sedgemoor, and had reached the coast in
safety. But they had found a frigate cruising near the spot where they
had hoped to embark. They had then separated. Wade and Goodenough
were soon discovered and brought up to London. Deeply as they had been
implicated in the Rye House plot, conspicuous as they had been among the
chiefs of the Western insurrection, they were suffered to live, because
they had it in their power to give information which enabled the King
to slaughter and plunder some persons whom he hated, but to whom he had
never yet been able to bring home any crime. [465]

How Ferguson escaped was, and still is, a mystery. Of all the enemies of
the government he was, without doubt, the most deeply criminal. He was
the original author of the plot for assassinating the royal brothers.
He had written that Declaration which, for insolence, malignity, and
mendacity, stands unrivalled even among the libels of those sto