tvnilAM AND MABY.

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not have deferred the execution one day. But those who hadPreston in their power were not unwilling to spare him oncertain conditions. He was privy to all the counsels of the dis-affected party, and could furnish information of the highestvalue. He was informed that his fate depended on himself.The struggle was long and severe. Pride, conscience, partyspirit, were on one side; the intense love of life on the other.He went during a time irresolutely to and fro. He listened tohis brother Jacobites; and his courage rose. He listened to theagents of the government; and his heart sank within him. Inan evening when he had dined and drunk his claret, he fearednothing. He would die like a man, rather than save his neckby an act of baseness. But his temper was very different whenhe woke the next morning, when the courage which he haddrawn from wine and company had evaporated, when he wasalone with the iron grates and stone walls, and when thethought of the block, the axe and the sawdust rose in his mind.During some time he regularly wrote a confession every fore-noon when he was sober, and burned it every night when hewas merry.* His nonjuring friends formed apian for bringingSancroft to visit the Tower, in the hope, doubtless, that theexhortations of so great a prelate and so great a saint wouldconfirm the wavering virtue of the prisoner.** Whether thisplan would have been successful may be doubted: it was notcarried into effect: the fatal hour drew near; and the fortitudeof Preston gave way. He confessed his guilt, and namedClarendon, Dartmouth, the Bishop of Ely and William Penn,as his accomplices. He added a long list of persons againstwhom he could not himself give evidence, but-who, if he couldtrust to Penn’s assurances, were friendly to King James.Among these persons were Devonshire and Dorset.*** There is

* Narcissus LuttreU’s Diary; Durnet, ii. 71 .

** Letter of Collier and Cook to Sancroft among the Tanner MSS.

*** Caermarthen to William, February 3. 169^; Life of James, ii. 443.