eing thrown into prison, and dreading the severe and
arbitrary spirit which at that time met with no control, was obliged to
buy his liberty of Jefferies at the price of fifteen thousand pounds;
though he could never so much as learn the crime of which he was
accused.

Goodenough, the seditious under sheriff of London, who had been engaged
in the most bloody and desperate part of the Rye-house conspiracy, was
taken prisoner after the battle of Sedgemoor, and resolved to save his
own life by an accusation of Cornish, the sheriff, whom he knew to
be extremely obnoxious to the court. Colonel Rumsey joined him in the
accusation; and the prosecution was so hastened, that the prisoner was
tried, condemned, and executed in the space of a week. The perjury of
the witnesses appeared immediately after; and the king seemed to regret
the execution of Cornish. He granted his estate to his family, and
condemned the witnesses to perpetual imprisonment.

The injustice of this sentence against Cornish was not wanted to disgust
the nation with the court: the continued rigor of the other executions
had already impressed a universal hatred against the ministers of
justice, attended with compassion for the unhappy sufferers, who, as
they had been seduced into this crime by mistaken principles, bore their
punishment with the spirit and zeal of martyrs. The people might have
been willing on this occasion to distinguish between the king and his
ministers: but care was taken to prove, that the latter had done nothing
but what was agreeable to their master. Jefferies, on his return, was
immediately, for those eminent services, created a peer; and was soon
after vested with the dignity of chancellor. It is pretended, however,
with some appearance of authority, that the king was displeased with
these cruelties, and put a stop to them by orders, as soon as proper
information of them was conveyed to him.[*]

* Life of Lord Keeper North, p. 260. K. James's Memoirs, p,
144.

We must now take a view of the state of affairs in Scotland; where the
fate of Argyle had been decided before that of Monmouth. Immediately
after the king's accession, a parliament had been summoned at Edinburgh;
and all affairs were there conducted by the duke of Queensberry the
commissioner, and the earl of Perth chancellor. The former had resolved
to make an entire surrender of the liberties of his country; but was
determined still to adhere to its religion: the