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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

enAp. and magnify God’s holy name for this, that I stand here, not~ 6S5 ' for any wrong that I have done, but for adhering to his causein an evil day. If every hair of my head were a man, in thisquarrel I would venture them all.”

Both at his trial and at his execution he spoke of assassina-tion with the abhorrence which became a good Christian and abrave soldier. He had never, he protested, on the faith of adying man, harboured the thought of committing such villany.But he frankly owned that, in conversation with his fellowconspirators, he had mentioned his own house as a placewhere Charles and James might with advantage be attacked,and that much had been said on the subject, though nothinghad been determined. It may at first sight seem that thisacknowledgment is inconsistent with his declaration that hehad always regarded assassination with horror. But the truthappears to be that he was imposed upon by a distinction whichdeluded many of his contemporaries. Nothing would haveinduced him to put poison into the food of the two princes, orto poniard them in their sleep. But to make an unexpectedonset on the troop of Life Guards which surrounded the royalcoach, to exchange sword cuts and pistol shots, and to takethe chance of slaying or of being slajn, was, in his view, alawful military operation. Ambustfades and surprises wereamong the ordinary incidents of war. Every old soldier, Ca-valier or Roundhead, had been engaged in such enterprises.If .in the skirmish the King should fall, he would fall by fairfighting and not by murder. Precisely the same reasoningwas employed, after the Revolution, by James himself andby his most gallant and devoted followers, to justify a wickedattempt on the life of William the Third. A band of Jacobiteswas commissioned to attack the Prince of Orange in his winterquarters. The meaning latent under this specious phrase wasthat the Prince’s throat was to be cut as he went in his coachfrom Richmond to Kensington. It may seem strange that