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been only temporary. For the usual arts to gaining, older than their mistress; so that no persons parliaments can hardly be applied with success after the election against a majority at least of three in four, because the trouble and expense would be too great, beside the loss of reputation. For neither could such a number of members find their account in point of profit, nor would the crown be at so much charge and hazard, merely for the sake of governing by a small party against the bent and genius of the nation. And as to all attempts of influencing electors, they would have been sufficiently provided for by the scheme intended. I suppose it need not be added that the government of England cannot move a step while the house of commons continues to dislike proceedings or persons employed; at least in an age where parliaments are grown so frequent and are made so necessary; whereas a minister is but the creature of a day, and a house of lords has been modelled in many reigns by enlarging the number as well as by other obvious expedients.

The judicious reader will soon comprehend how easily the legislature at that time could have provided against the power and influence of a court or ministry in future elections, without the least injury to the succession and even without the modern invention of perpetuating themselves; which, however, I must needs grant to be one of the most effectual, vigorous, and resolute proceedings that I have yet met with in reading or information. For the long parliament under king Charles I., although it should be allowed of good authority, will hardly amount to an example.

I must again urge and repeat that those who charge the earl of Oxford and the rest of that ministry with a design of altering the succession of the crown in favour of the pretender will perhaps be at some difficulty to fix the time when that design was in agitation; for if such an attempt had begun with their power is not easy to assign a reason why it did not succeed; because there were certain periods when her majesty and her servants were extremely popular, and the house of Hanover not altogether so much, upon account of some behaviour here and some other circumstances that may better be passed over in silence; all which however had no other consequence than that of repeated messages of kindness and assurance to the elector. During the last two years of the queen's life her health was in such a condition that it was wondered how she could hold out so long: and then as I have already observed it was too late and hazardous to engage in an enterprise which required so much time, and which the ministers themselves had rendered impracticable by the whole course of their former proceedings, as well as by the continuance and heightening of those dissensions which had early risen among them.

The party now in power will easily agree that this design of overthrowing the succession could not be owing to any principle of conscience in those whom they accuse; for they know very well, by their own experience and observation, that such kind of scruples have given but small disturbance of late years in these kingdoms. Since interest is therefore the only test by which we are to judge the intentions of those who manage public affairs, it would have been but reasonable to have shown how the interest of the queen's ministers could be advanced by introducing the pretender before they were charged with such an intention. Her majesty was several years younger than her intended successor; and at the beginning of that ministry had no disorders except the gout, which is not usually reckoned a shortener of life; and those in chief trust were, generally speak-'

had ever a fairer prospect of running on the natural life of an English ministry; considering likewise the general vogue of the kingdom, at that time in their favour. And it will be hard to find an instance in history of a set of men in full possession of power so sanguine as to form an enterprise of overthrowing the government without the visible prospect of a general defection, which (then at least) was not to be hoped for. Neither do I believe it was ever heard of that a ministry in such circumstances durst engage in so dangerous an attempt without the direct commands of their sovereign. And as to the persons then in service, if they may be allowed to have common sense, they would much sooner have surrendered their employments than hazard the loss of their heads at so great odds before they had tried or changed the disposition of the parliament; which is an accusation that I think none of their libellers have charged upon them, at least till toward the end of their ministry; and then very absurdly, because the want of time and other circumstances rendered such a work impossible, for several reasons which I have already related.

And whoever considers the late queen, so little enterprising in her nature, so much given to delay, and at the same time so obstinate in her opinions (as restiness is commonly attended with slowness), so great a pursuer of peace and quiet, and so exempt from the two powerful passions of love and hatred, will hardly think she had a spirit turned for such an undertaking; if we add to this the contempts she often expressed for the person and concerns of the chevalier her brother, of which I have already said enough to be understood.

It has been objected against the late queen and her servants, as a mark of no favourable disposition toward the house of Hanover, that the electoral prince was not invited to reside in England; and at the same time it ought to be observed that this objection was raised and spread by the leaders of that party who first opposed the counsel of inviting him; offering among other arguments against it the example of queen Elizabeth, who would not so much as suffer her successor to be declared, expressing herself that she would not live with her grave-stone always in her sight; although the case be by no means parallel between the two queens. For in her late majesty's reign the crown was as firmly settled on the Hanover family as the legislature could do it; and the question was only whether the presumptive heir of distant kindred should keep his court in the same kingdom and metropolis with the sovereign, while the nation was torn between different parties, to be at the head of that faction which her majesty and the body of her people utterly disapproved; and therefore the leaders on both sides, when they were in power, did positively determine this question in the negative. And if we may be allowed to judge by events, the reasons were cogent enough; since differences may happen to arise between two princes the most nearly allied in blood; although it be true indeed that where the duty to a parent is added to the allegiance of a subject the consequence of family dissensions may not always be considerable.

For my own part I freely told my opinion to the ministers; and did afterward offer many reasons for it in a discourse intended for the public, but stopped by the queen's death, that the young grandson (whose name I cannot remember) should be invited over to be educated in England; by which I conceived the queen might be secure from the influence of cabals and factions; the zealots, who affected to

believe the succession in danger, could have no pretences to complain; and the nation might one day hope to be governed by a prince of English manners and language, as well as acquainted with the true constitution of church and state. And this was the judgment of those at the helm before I offered it; neither were they nor their mistress to be blamed that such a resolution was not pursued. Perhaps, from what has since happened, the reader will be able to satisfy himself.

I have now said all I could think convenient (considering the time wherein I am writing) upon those two points which I proposed to discourse on, wherein I have dealt with the utmost impartiality, and I think upon the fairest supposition, which is that of allowing men to act upon the motives of their interests and their passions; for I am not so weak as to think one ministry more virtuous than another, unless by chance or by extraordinary prudence and virtue of the prince; which last, taking mankind in the lump, and adding the great counterbalance of royal education, is a very rare accident; and where it happens is even then of little use when factions are violent. But it so falls out that, among contending parties in England, the general interest of church and state is more the private interest of one side than the other; so that whoever professes to act upon a principle of observing the laws of his country may have a safe rule to follow by discovering whose particular advantage it chiefly is that the constitution should be preserved entire in all its parts. For there cannot, properly speaking, be above two parties in such a government as ours; and one side will find themselves obliged to take in all the subaltern denominations of those who dislike the present establishment in order to make themselves a balance against the other; and such a party, composed of mixed bodies, although they differ widely in the several fundamentals of religion and government, and all of them from the true public interest, yet whenever their leaders are taken into power under an ignorant, unactive, or ill-designing prince, will probably, by the assistance of time or force, become the majority, unless they be prevented by a steadiness which there is little reason to hope; or by some revolution, which there is much more reason to fear. For abuses in administration may last much longer than politicians seem to be aware of, especially where some bold steps are made to corrupt the very fountain of power and legislature; in which case, as it may happen in some states, the whole body of the people are drawn in by their own supposed consent to be their own enslavers; and where will they find a thread to wind themselves out of this labyrinth or will they not rather wish to be governed by arbitrary power after the manner of other nations? For whoever considers the course of the Roman empire after Caesar's usurpation, the long continuance of the Turkish government, or the destruction of the Gothic balance in most kingdoms of Europe, will easily see how controllable that maxim is that res nolunt diu malè administrari; because, as corruptions are more natural to mankind than perfections, so they are more likely to have a longer continuance. For the vices of men, considered as individuals, are exactly the same when they are moulded into bodies; nor otherwise to be withheld in their effects than by good fundamental laws, in which when any great breaches are made, the consequence will be the same as in the life of a particular man, whose vices are seldom known to end but with himself.

A TRUE NARRATIVE

OF WHAT PASSED AT THE EXAMINATION OF

THE MARQUIS DE GUISCARD,
AT THE COCKPIT, MARCH 8, 1710-11;
FOR HIS STABBING MR. HARLEY; AND OTHER PRE-
CEDENT AND SUBSEQUENT FACTS, RELATING
TO THE LIFE OF THE SAID GUISCARD.

"YESTERDAY was sent me a narrative printed, with all the cir cumstances of Mr. Harley's stabbing. I had not time to do it myself; so I sent my hints to the author of the Atalantis ; and she has cooked it into a sixpenny pamphlet, in her own style; only THE FIRST PAGE IS LEFT AS I WAS BEGINNING IT. But I am afraid of disobliging Mr. Harley or Mr. St. John in one critical point about it, and so would not do it myself. It is worth your reading, for the circumstances ARE ALL TRUE." Journal to Stella, April 16, 1711. "Guiscard, and what you will read in the Narrative, I ordered to be written. Ibid. April 28. The facts in this Narrative are confirmed by several other passages in the dean's works; particularly in the Examiner, No. 33, and the share he had in it is acknowledged in " Memoirs relating to the Change in the Queen's Ministry."

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THERE is nothing received with more pleasure in history than the minute passages and circumstances of such facts as are extraordinary and surprising. We often lament to see an important accident nakedly told, stripped of those particularities which are most entertaining and instructive in such relations. This defect is frequent in all historians, not through their own fault but for want of information. For while facts are fresh in memory nobody takes care to record them, as thinking it idle to inform the world in what they know already; and by this means the accounts we have of them are only traditional, the circumstances forgotten, and perhaps supplied with false ones or formed upon probabilities according to the genius of the writer.

But beside the informing posterity on such occasions there is something due to the present age. People at distance are curious and concerned to know the particulars of great events as well as those in the metropolis, and so are the neighbouring nations. And the relations they receive are usually either very imperfect or misrepresented on purpose by the prejudice of party in the relaters.

I shall endeavour to avoid both these errors in the fact I am going to relate; and having made use of some good opportunities to be informed from the first hands of several passages not generally known, I hope it will be in my power to give some satisfaction to the public. About six years ago there came into England a French papist, the younger brother of a noble family in that kingdom, called Antoine de Guiscard, abbot de Borly, near the Cevennes in France. And as it is the usual custom for cadets of quality there to betake themselves to the army or the church, Guiscard chose the latter and had an abbey given him of a considerable revenue; but being of a vicious and profligate nature he fell into the most horrible crimes that a man can commit. Among other instances, it is said that he seduced a nun. It is likewise reported that he and his younger brother, suspecting their receiver had cheated, got

■ Mrs. Manley was also employed by Dr. Swift in " A learned Comment upon Dr. Hare's excellent Sermon, preached before the Duke of Marlborough, on the Surrender of Bouchain:' "A true Relation of the several Facts and Circumstances of the intended Riot and Tumult on Queen Elizabeth's Birthday;" and in "A modest Inquiry into the Reasons of the Joy expressed by a certain set of People, upon the spreading a Report of Her Majesty's Death;" and wrote " A New Vindication of the Duke of Marlborough, &c. ;" see Journal to Stella, Nov. 3, 1711.— Beside these four tracts she was supposed to have written “A Letter to the Examiner, concerning the Barrier Treaty vindicated (by Dr. Hare);' and "An Answer to Baron Bothmar's Memorial;" from hints suggested by the dean,

the highest offence: but want of shame is one part of an ill man's character, as another branch is that he can submit to the meanest things.

Monsieur de Guiscard had the misfortune to sink under his character, even to those great men who at first had most indulged him. His parts were too mean to balance or uphold him against a just contempt; he was found a useless villain whose inferior understanding could not answer expectation. Proving unserviceable he was consequently discountenanced, dropped by degrees, and afterward totally neglected, his pension ill paid, and himself reduced to extremity. This put him upon making his peace with France: a common practice of such villains, whose only business being to support an infamous life in fulness of luxury, they never weigh what stands between them and the end.

the poor man to their house and put him to the tor- | juries, and against whom they have been guilty of ture to force a discovery from him. Beside keeping a serrail in his abbey, when he used to receive a sum together from his revenue, his custom was to go to Tholouse and lavish it in all sorts of excesses. A young lady of a good family was so unhappy to be prevailed on, to her dishonour, by his brother. Monsieur de Guiscard was afterwards employed to steal her from her father; but falling in love with her himself, he carried her off from his rival into Switzerland. Satiety not long after succeeding, he was so inhuman to poison the poor unfortunate lady. After his flight, he was hanged in effigy by the magistrates at the principal town in Rouergue for his intended rebellion. It is agreed on all hands that upon account of his many enormities (but, as himself terms them in his Memoirs,a “private domestic concerns and the crying injustice done his family"), he withdrew to his own lands in the province of Rouergue, contiguous to that part of Languedoc called The Cevennes; where he endeavoured to raise insurrections among the discontented people, of which he has published a very foolish account; but having neither credit nor ability for such an undertaking his success was answerable. He was forced to fly into Switzerland, without taking any measures for the safety of those poor wretches involved with him, and who had been so unhappy to be wrought by his insinuations. Thirty of the Roman catholic persuasion (seduced by Guiscard into the design of rebelling for liberty, not religion) fell under the sentence of the magistrate, and were broken upon the wheel; though it is said if Monsieur de Guiscard, upon whom they depended for intelligence, had but delayed his flight only so long as to send notice to those gentlemen of the danger impending, they might all, or at least the greater number of them, have escaped as well as himself.

The marquis de Guiscard had an early, an undoubted propensity to mischief and villany, but without those fine parts useful in the cabinet; he had not capacity to conduct a design, though he might have brain enough to form one; was wholly unacquainted with war, had never been in the army, a profligate abbot, who knew nothing of the soldier. Yet this man we find immediately made a colonel of a regiment of horse, and lieutenant-general, with a pension as it is said from Holland as well as from

us.

To do all this for one wholly ignorant of a camp was foolish as well as scandalous.

Nor had adversity made any impression upon his manners. His behaviour here was expensive, luxurious, vicious; lavishing at play and upon women what was given him for his own support. Beside his continual good fortune with other ladies, he kept two in constant pay, upon whom he made a profuse and regular expense: one of those creatures was married, whom, that he might possess with the greater ease, he procured her husband to be pressed and sent away into the service: a transcript of that state cunning sometimes practised by great politicians (when they would disencumber themselves of an incommode) in affairs of the like emergency.

At first there was none more caressed than our foreign favourite. A late minister seldom saw a levee without him, though we admit that is not always a proof of being a favourite of those to whom they make their court. There are who crowd themselves where they have done the most sensible in

"Authentic memoirs, being secret transactions in the southern provinces of France, to rescue that nation from slavery; dedicated to the queen of Great Britain. By the marquis de sent descent,"

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The marquis de Guiscard had no religion, knew nothing of principles, or indeed humanity: brutish, bold, desperate, an engine fit for the blackest mischief; revengeful, busy to design, though full of inconsistencies and preposterous in his management; his schemes impracticable to any less rash and inconsiderate, as may be seen at large in those his illformed projects of rebellion against his prince; his aspect gloomy and forbidding, no false indication of the malignancy within. Nor could the evil in his nature be diverted by benefits. The present ministry, regarding him as a man of family, one who had been caressed in England, though they liked neither his principles nor his practice, thought it against the glory of the queen (who is the sanctuary of distressed foreigners) to let a gentleman of such birth want the supports of life, and therefore entered upon measures to pay him four hundred pounds a-year as part of that pension which at first was granted him and had been for some time discontinued. He could no longer with any pretence be a malecontent, but he would not forego his treacherous design nor his desire to make his peace at home. Mr. Harley discovered his correspondence: he knew he had wrote three letters to France with advice of our affairs. This discovery was made a fortnight before Monsieur de Guiscard's seizure. Mr. Harley was willing to convict him under his own hand, and accordingly took all necessary precaution to have what letters he should write brought to the secretary's office. In the mean time persons were employed that should give an account of all his motions; such who played with him, drank with him, walked with him, in a word those who under the pretence of diversion and friendship should never lose sight of him till that day, when he went to a merchant of his acquaintance to the city, and gave him a letter with this request," that he would be pleased to forward it and let it be sent away with his own foreign letters."

This letter was brought to Mr. Harley; where he read Monsieur Guiscard's advice to the ministers of France, "That they should invade England as soon as possible, whether they succeed or no, because the mischief it would do us would be irreparable : it would disconcert and divide us, ruin our credit, and do us a vast deal of hurt," &c.

On the 8th of March, the queen's inauguration day, Monsieur de Guiscard, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon was seized in the Mall in St. James's Park, by a warrant of high treason form Mr. secretary St. John, and carried by the queen's messengers to the Cockpit. He seemed then to have taken his resolution, and to determine that his ruin should be fatal to those persons who occasioned it,

Guiscard, Lieutenant-General of the Forces gone upon the pre-by desiring leave to send for a glass of sack, some

VOL. I.

2 L

bread and butter, and a knife. The woman of the coffeehouse sent him all but the knife, which was accidentally omitted. He was brought into the clerks' room, and kept there till the cabinet council was assembled; in that room he found a penknife, and took it away unperceived; which as it is supposed he hid in his sleeve, for there was none found in his pockets, which were searched before his examination.

There were present at the committee of cabinet council, the lord keeper, lord president, duke of Ormond, duke of Newcastle, duke of Buckingham, duke of Queensberry, earl Poulet, lord Dartmouth, Mr. Harley, Mr. secretary St. John.

[Mr. Tilson, Mr. Hare, under-secretaries, sat at a table by themselves.]

Monsieur de Guiscard being brought in to be examined, Mr. secretary St John, whose business it was to interrogate him, asked him some questions about his corresponding with France, and whether he had not sent letters thither? Monsieur de Guiscard denied it boldly: mean time his colour came and went. Earl Poulet, before he was brought in, had desired Mr. St. John to change places with Mr. Harley, that Guiscard's face might be full in the light, and his countenance better perceived in any alteration that might happen at the questions that should be asked him.

The presence of that august assembly, the obligations the criminal had to some in particular who had honoured him with their favour, and to all in general, as they were of the first rank among a people who had so generously refuged him in his misfortunes; his own guilt and dread of being detected; might well cause an emotion in the mind and face of the most resolved, most hardened person. He flushed and turned pale, the posture of his feet restless and unassured, his hands in perpetual motion, fumbling in his pocket; which some of that noble assembly reflecting on, could yet well account for by remembering it was his usual manner: a French air which has been long since received in England, among some of our fine gentlemen, to a great degree of imitation.

Could one have looked into Guiscard's guilty soul, how terrible at that moment had been the prospect! His dread of conviction, his ingratitude, his treachery, his contempt or desire of death, his despair of heaven, his love of his native country, his spirit of revenge, embroiled his thoughts, fermented his blood, roused his shame, and worked up his resolution to a pitch of doing all the service to France and mischief he could to England. Like falling Sampson, to involve in his fate the strength of the enemy yet he would make one push for life, and till proof were produced not give up a cause he could defend so easily as by denying the crime he was charged with; which he did with an undaunted assurance, till Mr. secretary asked him "If he knew such a gentleman?" naming the merchant with whom he had left the letter. At that Guiscard rolled his eyes, assured of his ruin, yet surprised and shocked at the approach. The same question being repeated, he answered "Yes, what of that?" Being pressed again to discover what he knew of his corresponding with France, he continued obstinate in his pretended ignorance; when Mr. secretary St. John produced his letter, and with a force of eloquence inseparable from what he speaks represented to Monsieur de Guiscard the baseness, the blackness of his crime; "to betray the queen, his benefactress ; Britain, the country that had refuged, supported, trusted, honoured him by the command of her troops with such noble confidence, that made it double vil

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lany in him to be a villain:" exhorting him "yet to be sincere, and give up to their information what he knew of the treacherous design he had formed."

While the secretary's words were making an irresistible impression upon every mind but his to whom they were addressed, the criminal formed to himself the destruction of those two dreadful enemies of France, Mr. Harley and Mr. St. John. It seemed to him too hazardous to attempt the design at the full board; not in regard of his own life (that was already devoted), but lest they should not be both involved. It appeared reasonable to him, that if upon the pretence of discovery, he could get Mr. St. John to withdraw, Mr. Harley might possibly be of the party, and he have a chance to murder both before they could be assisted. Accordingly, when he was pressed to discover, he desired to speak with Mr. St. John apart. The secretary told him, “That was impracticable: he was before the whole committee as a criminal, and what he had to say must be said to all." Upon Guiscard's persisting to speak only to the secretary, they went to ring the bell, to call in the messengers to carry him away; which he observing, cried out "That is hard! not one word! pas un mot!" and stooping down, said "J'en veux donc à toi. Then have at thee!" so stabbed Mr. Harley. Redoubling the stroke the penknife broke, which he was not sensible of; but rushing on toward Mr. St. John, overthrew the clerks' table that stood between. Mr. St. John saw Mr. Harley fall; and cried out "The villain has killed Mr. Harley!" Then he gave him a wound, as did the duke of Ormond and the duke of Newcastle. Mr. St. John was resolved to have killed him, but that he saw Mr. Harley got up and walking about, and heard earl Poulet cry out, "not to kill Guiscard." The messengers laid hold of him and tore his coat. He raged, he struggled, he overthrew several of them with the strength of one desperate or frantic, till at last they got him down by pulling him backward by the cravat. Like a lion taken in the toils, he foamed, he grinned, his coun tenance seemed despoiled of the aspect of anything human; his eyes gleamed fire, despair, and fury. He cried out to the duke of Ormond, whilst they were binding him, amid his execrations and his raving, "My lord Ormond, Pourquoi ne moi dépêchez vouz? Why do you not dispatch me?" The noble duke made this memorable answer, "Ce n'est pas l'affair des honnêtes gens; c'est l'affair d'un autre. It is not the work of gentlemen; it is the work of others."

Let us turn our eyes from so detestable an object to another not less surprising, though of a quite different kind; where we shall behold a gentleman, arrived by long practice to that difficult attainment of possessing his soul in all conditions, in all accidents, whether of life or death, with moderation. This is the man that may truly be said to know himself, whom even assassination cannot surprise; to whom the passions are in such obedience, they never contend for sway nor attempt to throw him from his guard Mr. Harley, falling back in his chair by the redoubled stroke that was given him, and seeing them busy about taking Guiscard, by whom he imagined himself killed, did not call or cry

Monsieur Mesnager says, Mr. Harley was stabbed "by un scélérat François, a French miscreant, at the council-board, where that wretch was brought to be examined;" and adds, in a strain of national vanity, "They may take notice in England how good judges we are of men in France, and believe they have reason to be wary how they entertain any, whom the wisest prince on earth, than whom none sees further into the merits of men, has determined to be worthless and not fit to be employed."-Extracted from the Negotiations of Mesna

ger.

for help; but getting up as well as he could of himself, applied his handkerchief to the wound to stop the blood and keep out the air, walking about the T room till they had time to come to him, not complaining nor accusing, nor encouraging them to revenge him upon Guiscard; his countenance serene, unaltered; so that from his own behaviour, all his friends, particularly his tenderest, Mr. St. John, hoped he was but slightly hurt. When Busiere, the surgeon, searched the wound, they were all surprised to find it so dangerous; the penknife was struck aslant and buried in the wound, which Mr. Harley himself took out, wiped, called for the handle, and said "They belong to me." He asked "if the wound were mortal, as he had affairs to settle." Even in our incredulous age, we may term his escape a miracle: the blow was struck exactly upon his breast-bone, which broke the knife; had it been an inch lower, it had touched the diaphragma, and all the world could not have saved his life: or a nail's breadth deeper it would have reached his heart. I have heard it affirmed, "that if one should attempt a thousand times at an imitation of Guiscard's design, without his rage and force, not once in that thousand times would it be probable that a life could escape the blow, as Mr. Harley's has done." He had a double deliverance, first from the knife striking upon the breast-bone and then from its breaking there; he must else have infallibly been murdered by the repetition of the blow. Neither was the cure less doubtful; the contusion was more dangerous than the wound itself: about a week after the bruised blood fell down, which held his life in suspense. He had been ill for some time before, and was not as yet recovered.

As soon as Mr. Harley was dressed he ordered the surgeon to take care of Monsieur de Guiscard; and was himself carried home in a chair, followed by the lamentations and prayers of the people for his recovery, who attended him to his own door with their sighs and sorrows.

The bold marquis, though subdued, was still untamed his fury, despair, and desire of instant death made him use his efforts to prevent the good intentions of the surgeon and the assistants. They were forced to keep him down by strength of hand whilst his wounds were searched and dressed, after which he was sent to Newgate, where he continued in the same violence of mind. He begged to die, he strove to die by rubbing the plasters from his wounds; to prevent which there were persons perpetually employed to watch on each side the bed.

If we read his sentiments in his own Memoirs we may find they were always disposed to violence. Speaking to those whom he would draw into a confederacy against the king, "That it was better to die once for all, than to die in a manner a thousand times a-day, always at the mercy of men who made it their business to embitter their life and make it insupportable."-p. 8. In another place, "How can we better spend some few and uncertain days, which every moment are ended by some disease, by misfortune or old age, than by making our name famous and immortal?"-p. 14. And thus, "Pusillanimous men, who for want of courage dare not attempt anything at their peril, will never see an end of their misfortune."-p. 46.

These being his avowed tenets may give us some light into a design so execrable that it were sin to look into it with any other eyes but detestation. Monsieur de Guiscard was to reconcile himself to France, which could not probably be done but by something more notorious than his disaffection. Upon his deathbed examination he told the lords

"There was something horrible he had to tell them! -for which he ought to be torn in pieces!-something inconceivable !-exceeding all barbarity!"There he stopped as if for breath, a reanimation of spirits, or to recollect what he had to say. After awhile, seeing he did not proceed, they reminded him to go on. He repeated those and many more such expressions. Being pressed to proceed, he fell into something very trifling, which he knew they knew already; said, "It was no matter-contentcontent"-meaning to die.

Upon their examination of him in Newgate he seemed to boast his resolution and performance; bade them "judge what he was able to do in a good cause had they thought fit to employ and trust him, since he could go so far in an ill one." The vanity of his nation kept him company to the last he valued himself upon his intrepidity, his contempt of death, and thirst of honour, &c. The last time the lords were with him, he desired Mr. St. John's hand, and said "Pardonne, pardonne." Mr. St. John replied, "Je vous pardonne-Dieu vous pardonne!"-Guiscard repeating, "Content-content" -he became delirious.

The roughness of his nature seems to have hindered him from encouraging that remorse which approaching death might occasion, else we should doubtless have had disclosed the blackest scene that

any age has shown. It is very well known the eager desire he had for some time expressed to see the queen alone; the pretence of that audience he so earnestly importuned was, "To get his pension assured." He was of late often found in the antechamber and at the back stairs. He generally carried a bottle of poison about him, supposed to answer the disappointment of some foreseen event. This compared with his own words and several letters from France and Holland at that time, mentioning it was expected they should hear of a coup d'éclat en Angleterre, makes it almost past doubt that he did design to kill the queen, and failing of his attempt there stabbed Mr. Harley, as by his own confession he would have done Mr. St. John, because they were the two important lives that gave dread and anguish to that monarch who has so long and often been the terror of others.

The queen, all merciful and saintlike as she is, had herself the goodness (notwithstanding appearances were against him in the supposition of his horrible intentions to destroy her) to appoint two surgeons and two physicians to attend him in Newgate, with whatever was befitting a man of family. This gracious treatment could depart only from a mind so conversant with heaven, so near of kindred, as that of our pious queen.

Her cares and prayers were the balm that healed Mr. Harley's wound. The honour that was done him by the address of parliament will never be forgotten, nor her majesty's gracious answer. It is remarkable that when it was brought into the house of lords the Whigs all went out except one, who raised a weak objection "that Monsieur de Guiscard was not a papist convict."

Notwithstanding the surgeon's and physician's art and care, Monsieur de Guiscard died in Newgate. His wounds, of which he received four in the forepart of his body, were cured; the fifth was in his back, which the surgeons deposed was not mortal. The jury gave in their verdict "That his bruises were the cause of his death." It appeared upon the examination of Mr. Wilcox, the queen's messenger, that it was he that wounded the marquis in the back and gave him those bruises of which he died. sieur de Guiscard in struggling with Wilcox threw

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