nce which he frequently repeated: "We believe you, my lord! God
bless you, my lord!" These expressions with a faltering accent flowed
from them. The executioner himself was touched with sympathy. Twice he
lifted up the axe, with an intent to strike the fatal blow; and as often
felt his resolution to fail him. A deep sigh was heard to accompany his
last effort, which laid Stafford forever at rest. All the spectators
seemed to feel the blow. And when the head was held up to them with
the usual cry, "This is the head of a traitor," no clamor of assent was
uttered. Pity, remorse, and astonishment had taken possession of every
heart, and displayed itself in every countenance.

This is the last blood which was shed on account of the Popish plot; an
incident which, for the credit of the nation, it were better to bury in
eternal oblivion; but which it is necessary to perpetuate, as well to
maintain the truth of history, as to warn, if possible, their posterity
and all mankind never again to fall into so shameful, so barbarous a
delusion.

The execution of Stafford gratified the prejudices of the country party;
but it contributed nothing to their power and security: on the contrary,
by exciting commiseration, it tended still further to increase the
disbelief of the whole plot, which began now to prevail. The commons,
therefore, not to lose the present opportunity, resolved to make both
friends and enemies sensible of their power. They passed a bill for
easing the Protestant dissenters, and for repealing the persecuting
statute of the thirty-fifth of Elizabeth: this laudable bill was
likewise carried through the house of peers. The chief justice was very
obnoxious for dismissing the grand jury in an irregular manner, and
thereby disappointing that bold measure of Shaftesbury and his friends,
who had presented the duke as a recusant. For this crime the commons
sent up an impeachment against him; as also against Jones and Weston,
two of the judges, who, in some speeches from the bench, had gone so far
as to give to many of the first reformers the appellation of fanatics.

The king, in rejecting the exclusion bill, had sheltered himself
securely behind the authority of the house of peers; and the commons
had been deprived of the usual pretence, to attack the sovereign himself
under color of attacking his ministers and counsellors. In prosecution,
however, of the scheme which he had formed, of throwing the blame on the
commons in c