stronger proof of
the fury of the times, than that Lord Russel, notwithstanding the virtue
and humanity of his character, seconded in the house this barbarous
scruple of the Sheriffs.

In the interval between the sentence and execution, many efforts were
made to shake the resolution of the infirm and aged prisoner, and to
bring him to some confession of the treason for which he was condemned.
It was even rumored that he had confessed; and the zealous partymen,
who, no doubt, had secretly, notwithstanding their credulity,
entertained some doubts with regard to the reality of the Popish
conspiracy, expressed great triumph on the occasion. But Stafford, when
again called before the house of peers, discovered many schemes, which
had been laid by himself and others, for procuring a toleration to the
Catholics, at least a mitigation of the penal laws enacted against them:
and he protested, that this was the sole treason of which he had ever
been guilty.

Stafford now prepared himself for death with the intrepidity which
became his birth and station, and which was the natural result of the
innocence and integrity which, during the course of a long life, he
had ever maintained: his mind seemed even to collect new force from the
violence and oppression under which he labored. When going to execution,
he called for a cloak to defend him against the rigor of the season.
"Perhaps," said he, "I may shake with cold; but, I trust in God, not
for fear." On the scaffold, he continued, with reiterated and earnest
asseverations, to make protestations of his innocence: all his fervor
was exercised on that point: when he mentioned the witnesses, whose
perjuries had bereaved him of life, his expressions were full of
mildness and of charity. He solemnly disavowed all those immoral
principles, which over-zealous Protestants had ascribed without
distinction to the church of Rome: and he hoped, he said, that the time
was now approaching, when the present delusion would be dissipated; and
when the force of truth, though late, would engage the whole world to
make reparation to his injured honor.

The populace, who had exulted at Stafford's trial and condemnation, were
now melted into tears, at the sight of that tender fortitude which shone
forth in each feature, and motion, and accent of this aged noble.
Their profound silence was only interrupted by sighs and groans:
with difficulty they found speech to assent to those protestations of
innoce