is and on the blessing of having asked so steadfast
a supporter of the Church of England as James II., he proceeds to
discuss the actual facts of the case.

This person, Mrs. Lisle, the prisoner at the bar, she is accused
for receiving and harbouring this person: and gentlemen, I must
tell you for law, of which we are the judges, and not you, That
if any person be in actual rebellion against the King and
another person (who really and actually was not in rebellion)
does receive, harbour, comfort and conceal him that was such, a
receiver is as much a traitor as he who indeed bore arms: We are
bound by our oaths and consciences, to deliver and declare to
you what is law; and you are bound by your oaths and consciences
to deliver and declare to us, by your verdict, the truth of the
fact.

Gentlemen, that he [Hicks] was there in rebellion, is undeniably
and unquestionably proved: That there are sufficient testimonies
to satisfy you that this woman did receive and harbour him, is
that which is left to your consideration; and, for that the
proofs lie thus: And truly I am sorry to have occasion for
repeating the circumstances of the proof; I mean the great art
that has been used to conceal it; how difficult a thing it was
to come at it; what time has been spent in endeavouring to find
out truth in a fellow, that in defiance of all admonition,
threats and persuasion, would prevaricate and shuffle to conceal
that truth; nay lie, and forswear himself to contradict it. But
out of pure Christian charity, as I told him, so I tell you I
do heartily pray, and all good Christians I hope will join with
me in it, to the God of infinite mercy that He would have mercy
upon his soul, upon which he hath contracted so great a guilt by
the impudence of his behaviour and pertinacious obstinacy in
those falsehoods which he hath made use of in this case.

Gentlemen, I would willingly forget all his prevarications, but
I must take notice of them in short, to come to the truth. First
he says, he came upon an errand from a man, he knows not whom,
to my Lady Lisle's house; and thither he is brought by one
Barter; and when he comes there he tells her, he comes in the
name of one Hicks, who desired to be entertained there. Then she
asks the question, whether Hicks had been in the army; and he
told her he di