al flames, and make thee drop into the bottomless lake of
fire and brimstone, if thou offer to deviate the least from the
truth, and nothing but the truth. According to the command of
that oath that thou hast taken, tell us who employed you, when
you were employed, and where? Who caused you to go on this
message, and what the message was? For I tell thee God is not to
be mocked, and thou canst not deceive him, though thou mayst us.
But I assure you if I catch you prevaricating in any the least
tittle (and perhaps I know more than you think I do; no, none of
your saints can save your soul, nor shall they save your body
neither) I will be sure to punish every variation from the truth
that you are guilty of.

Now come and tell us, how you came to be employed upon such a
message, what your errand was, and what was the issue and result
of it?

Dunne then proceeds to depose that a man came to his house to desire him
to go with a message to Lady Lisle; he came on a Friday, after the
battle; he was a short black man, and promised a good reward. On
Saturday Dunne went to Moyles Court, and Lady Lisle agreed to receive
Hicks on Tuesday evening. He was pressed as to whether she asked if he
knew Hicks--

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Why dost thou think that she would entertain
any one she had no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr.
Dunne! Mr. Dunne! have a care, it may be more is known of this
matter than you think for.[56]

DUNNE--My Lord, I tell you the truth.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Ay, to be sure you do, do not let me take
you prevaricating!

DUNNE--My Lord, I speak nothing but the truth.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Well, I only bid you have a care, truth
never wants a subterfuge, it always loves to appear naked, it
needs no enamel, nor any covering; but lying and snivelling, and
canting, and Hicksing, always appear in masquerade. Come, go on
with your evidence.

Dunne then proceeds--he went home, arriving on Sunday, and gave his
message to the man he first saw, and on Tuesday morning he, and a 'full
fat black man,' and a 'thin black man,' came to his house at seven in
the morning. Starting with two of them whom he had not seen before, but
identified as Hicks and Nelthorp, at eleven, he took them by way of
Deverel, Chilmark and Sutton to Salisbury Plain, where one Barter met
them to guide them on, by Chalk, Rochesborne and Fo