"Great was the expectation of its issue; it being doubtful at that time whether there were more that believed there was a plot to take away the King's life by the Papists, or not. The trial was by way of impeachment by the Commons, and they chose this lord to try first, believing him weaker than the other Lords then in the Tower for that crime, and so less able to make his defence. However, he pleaded for himself to a miracle. The three chief witnesses against him were Dr. Oates, Dugdale, and Turberville. The first swore he had brought him [i.e. Stafford] a commission, signed by the Pope, to be paymaster of the army to be raised against the King; the second, that his lordship offered him five hundred pounds to kill the King; the third, that he [Stafford] had offered him a reward for the same thing, but at another time. They seemed so positive in this and other dangerous evidence, that myself that sat and heard most of the trial knew not what to believe, had the evidence been men of any credit; but such incoherences, and indeed contradictions (in my judgment), appeared towards the latter end of the trial, that for my own part I was satisfied at last of its untruth, However, the party was so strong that pursued the cause against him more than the man, that he was voted guilty, there being fifty-four lords affirmative, and thirty-two for negative or not guilty. He heard his accusers, and defended himself with great resolution, and received his sentence with no less courage, which stayed by him till he laid his head on the block, protesting his innocence to the very last. My lord Halifax was one of the thirty-two lords, and the King, that heard all the trial, seemed extremely concerned at his hard and undeserved fate" (J. A. Cartwright's edition of The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, written by Himself, 1875, p. 197).

On December 29th 1680, Viscount Stafford was beheaded on Tower Hill," where he absolutely denied the crimes for which he suffered, and after so convincing a manner, that all that saw him believed it."—(Ibid.)

As to the first of the two tunes named to this ballad of Lord Stafford's execution :

We have never found any broadside ballad beginning "Fair Phillis, your prevailing charms," but we believe there must have been such a one circulating shortly before 1679, and that it was, at most, a popular amplification of the Song or Ode here given; the author of which was Thomas Carew, who died about 1638, and the music (lost, we fear) to it was composed by his friend Henry Lawes. The words are preserved in at least two manuscripts; an imperfect one,

1 Bramston says that fifty-fire and thirty-one were the numbers (p. 181 of Autobiography), in this agreeing with Rapin and Tindal. Stafford was sixtyeight years old. Evelyn writes, "Yet I can hardly think that a person of his age and experience should engage men whom he never saw before (and one of them that came to visite him as a stranger at Paris), point blang to murder the King: God onely who searches hearts can discover the truth." But it is our business to accept reason in judging of such vile and incredible evidence. Let it never be forgotten, to the lasting condemnation of William of Orange and his satellites, that after the Revolution they rewarded the infamous Titus Oates with a large pension and public favour!

In the Editor's own large collection of the original folio Narratives and Trials concerning the alleged Popish Plot, the seven days' Tryal of William Viscount Stafford, 168, fills 218 large pages, of which pp. 209, 210, hold the several names and separate verdicts given, with 31 "not guilty," and 55 "guilty." This division is further confirmed by a MS. list in the same possession.

giving the first eight lines only, being the Harleian MS. 6057, fol. 6 verso and 7. where the early copyist has subscribed "T. Car." The other MS., "To Phillis," is part of the collection made by Catherine Gage, of Sussex, the Right Honble. Lady Aston, forming the chief attraction of Tixall Poetry, in Staffordshire. This charming Ode was worth our tracing, and we may yet find the music :Ode: To Phillis.

PHillis, though thy powerfull charmes
Have forc'd me from my Celia's armes,-
That sure defence against all powers
But those resistless eyes of yours;
Think not your conquest to maintaine

By rigour, or unjust disdaine:

In vaine, faire Nymph, in vaine you strive,
Since Love doth seldom Hope survive.
Although I languish for a time,
Whilst all your glories in their prime
Doe justifie your crueltie,

By that same force that conquered me;
Yet Age will come, at whose command
Those Troups of Beauties must disband:

A Tirant's strength once tooke away,
What Slave so dull as to obay?
These threatening dangers to remove,
Make me believe at least you love;
Dissemble well, and, by that Art,
Preserve and governe well my h[e]art:
But if you'll learne a nobler way
To keep your Empire from decay,
And so for ever fix your Throne,

Be kind, but kind to me alone.

8

16

24

The second-named Tune, "A Fig for France and Holland too," belonged to a ballad on the Dutch War of 1665: on which see a later page, when we come to the "Group of Naval Ballads."

[This cut belongs to our p. 230, left-hand.]

J.W.E.

[Roxburghe Collection, III, 76, 77.]

The Papists' Lamentation

for the loss of their Agent William Viscount Stafford, together with the dread they are possessed with, fearing that more will quickly follow him the same way.

Preparations will be made

For those that cursed Plots have laid,
For to be brought to Tryal fair,

And now they'r filled with despair.

TUNE OF, Fair Phillis, your prevailing charms, or, A Fig for France [and Holland too].

London, printed for J. Conyers at the Black Raven in Duck-lane.

[In Black-letter. Four woodcuts, one given on p. 228. Date, Dec., 1680.]

Another Ballad on Stafford's Execution.

"Alas!" he said, "an evil time,
When simple truth is civil crime,
And God's Anointed goes in quest
Of foolish mirth and ribald jest ;
And the high task of rule
Falls to or knave or fool.

"A King that only cares for pleasure,
A Court that dances to his measure,
A policy of passing shifts,

A Parliament that, thoughtless, drifts
With any tide to-day

On any evil way."

-The Bishop's Walk: by Orwell.

AMONG the verses called forth by the execution of Viscount

Stafford, one of the chief was that dated Feb. 1682, and entitled "Stafford's Ghost." It begins,

Is this the heavenly Crown? Are these the Joys
Which bell'wing Priests did promise with such noise ?
Charming my fears with such leud words as these,
A Saint, a Martyr, bliss, eternal ease?
Such promis'd glories were for meaner deeds,
He's trebly blest by whom our Monarch bleeds.
Curst Priests did me with other Fools delude,
Brib'd with their gifts of the Beatitude.
Had I that Life so unadvis'dly lost,

'Tis not your fawning Jesuitish host

Should e'er prevail on my misguided sense,

To smother Guilt with Vows of Innocence: etc.

This is of the stately and dull order. The ballad which follows, being intended for the multitude, needed quicker movement and stronger spice.

Most of the Plot-Discoverers met death in a manner well suited to the infamy of their lives. They each one deserved the gallows, no doubt, far more than any of the Catholics whom their falsewitness conducted thither. But it seemed that the ladder which had been trodden by better men was too good for these perjured reprobates, whom greed and malice linked together in villainy. They did not escape a different sort of punishment. Their own evil conscience had been hardened in vice, but still remained capable of feeling the stings of remorse, although devoid of penitence. The earliest to break down was Bedloe, dying at Bristol in August, 1680. He had not the courage to confess his impostures, while surrounded by those whom he had duped, but died with a lie in his mouth, and faced eternity with his condemnation richly merited. Soon afterwards Edward Turberville perished miserably, haunted by horrible phantoms (as his former colleague Stephen Dugdale had been); imploring the bystanders to "take away Stafford! take