Gentlemen of the Jury, look upon the prisoner. How say ye? Is he Guilty of the treason whereof he stands indicted, and hath been arraigned, or Not Guilty? Foreman. Guilty. Solicitor-Gen. My Lords,-Upon this verdict against the prisoner I humbly move, that we may have judgment given. Court. Mr. Harrison, what do you say for yourself why judgment should not pass against you? Harrison. I have nothing further to say, because the Court have not seen meet to hear what was in my heart to speak. I submit to it. L. C. Baron. You that are the prisoner at the bar, you are to receive the sentence of death, which sentence is this: The judgment of this Court is, and the Court doth award, That you be led back to the place from whence you came, and from thence be drawn upon an hurdle to the place of execution; and there you shall be hanged by the neck, and being alive shall be cut down', and your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four quarters, and head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King's Majesty; and the Lord have mercy upon your soul! 1 The more revolting parts of this old sentence against traitors are here omitted. The sentence is abolished by 54 Geo. 3. c. 146.; and the sentence now is, that the culprit shall be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, and hanged by the neck till he is dead, and afterwards the head shall be severed from the body, and the body divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as the King shall think fit. His Majesty has power to dispense with the drawing on a hurdle, and to order the convict to be decapitated instead of hanged. THE TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. October 13. at the same Bar. Clerk of the Crown. Set Hugh Peters to the bar. [Which was done accordingly.] Clerk. Hugh Peters, hold up thy hand; thou standest indicted, &c. If you will challenge any of the Jury, you must challenge them when they come to the book, before they are sworn. L. C. Baron. Mr. Peters, you may challenge to the number of thirty-five peremptorily, but beyond that you cannot, without good cause shown; and you may have pen, ink, and paper. Peters. My Lord, I shall challenge none. The Jury were then sworn. Sir Edward Turner. Gentlemen, You have often heard repeated to you, that the substantial part of the charge is the compassing and imagining the death of the King, and all the rest will be but evidence to prove that imagination against the prisoner at the bar, whom we will prove to be a principal actor in this sad tragedy, and next to him whom God hath taken away, and reserved to his own judgment; and we shall endeavour to prove, that he was a chief conspirator with Cromwell at several times, and in several places; and that it was designed by them: we shall prove that he was the principal person to procure the soldiery to cry out, "Justice, justice!" or assist or Several others of the prisoners were tried before Peters. desire those for the taking away the life of the King. He did make use of his profession, wherein he should have been the minister of peace, to make himself a trumpeter of war, of treason, and sedition, in the kingdom: he preached many sermons to the soldiery, in direct terms for taking away the King, comparing the King to Barabbas : he was instrumental when the proclamation for the High Court of Justice (as they called it) was proclaimed, directing where it should be proclaimed, and in what place. The next day after the King was brought to trial he commends it : you shall hear all out of the mouth of the prisoner, therefore I say no more; call the witnesses. Dr. William Young sworn. Counsel. Tell my Lords and the Jury what the prisoner at the bar has declared to you concerning the contrivance of bringing the King to trial. Dr. Young. My Lords, and Gentlemen of the Jury,- It was near about the month of July, 1648, since we came first acquainted, when he went over to Ireland; it was about the siege of Pembroke Castle; but afterwards, in the year 1649, we renewed our acquaintance; he went over to Ireland, with that usurper, the late Protector, as he was called, after the town of Wexford was taken. Coming over he fell sick of the flux, and said he received it by infection, praying over Captain Horton. Coming into Milford, that captain sends a summons to me to come on board; that was to fetch this prisoner at the bar, who was sick. I found him there grovelling upon the deck, and sick he was indeed; with much difficulty we got him on shore; within a very few days, to the best of my remembrance five days, I perfected his cure we became very familiar; I observed to him that he had some secret thoughts that I could not well discover, neither well understand; whereupon I thought it might tend to my security that I should so much sympathise with him, to get within him to know his intentions. After some weeks, (for he continued with me ten weeks, or thereabouts), he began to enlarge his heart to me. Many times I should hear him rail most insufferably against the Blood Royal; not only against our martyred King, but against his offspring we would sit up discoursing till about twelve or one of the clock at night very often, about these unhappy wars late in England. At last, he began to tell me how he came into England, and upon what account he came out of New England. First, he told me, (discoursing of New England and the clergy there, and much of the clergy here in England,) that for the driving on of this interest of this Reformation, he was employed out of New England for the stirring up of this war, and driving of it on: and, secondly, that some time after he was come into England he was sent over into Ireland by the Parliament to drive on the design, to extirpate monarchy: saith he, I did dispend a great deal of my own money, yet never had that satisfaction from them which they promised me; they promised 2000l. or 3000l. for my journey, and yet they have given me no more but only a small pittance of land out of my Lord of Worcester's estate in Worcestershire. I have seen his letters directed to his X - -- kinsman here in London, his name was Parker, advising him for the settling of his land, and selling it. Thirdly, my Lord, by way of vilification of the monarchical government, I have found him jocundarily scoffing at it: he would ordinarily quibble in this manner, "this Commonwealth will never be at peace till 150 be put down." I asked him what this 150 was; he told me three L's, and afterwards interpreted the meaning to be the Lords, the Levites, and the Lawyers: with that, said I, we shall be like Switzers, Tinkers, and Traitors. Now, my Lord, we are come to the last particular: we discoursing thus frequently, and withal he was then a Colonel, and had a commission under that usurper Oliver, and brought over his commission for raising of soldiers to foment that war in Ireland; that it was so I appeal to his own conscience, and whether he did not press me very importunately to accept of a commission of Major, or a Captain; he did issue forth two commissions under his own hand-one of them to bring over from Devonshire two foot companies unto Cork. My Lord, because we were militarily affected, amongst the discourses of our unhappy wars, we were discoursing concerning our martyred King, as then we called him, and of his imprisonment in Holmby House, which I wondered at; he told me the story how they had used him at Holmby; and at last came up to this, when he was taken away from Holmby House1, the Parliament had then a design to have 1 It appears from Whitlock, that shortly after King Charles I. was removed by Joyce from Holmby to New |