by
stronger proofs than the accusation of Lady Bellingham, and the
probabilities suggested by Morgan, he need not fear permitting justice
to mount her regular seat, and hold her balance in the public eye. No
charge of cruelty or persecution could then be brought against him; and
the public odium would be transferred to the episcopalians and
Loyalists. He attended the first examination of the Doctor before the
Council of State, on the ostensible accusation of assisting the King,
and saw, in his behaviour, an enlightened opposer of tyranny, and a
conscientious adherent to the old government. Such a man, he resolved,
should either be cut off, or prevented from doing him any injury. The
best policy, therefore, was to defer his trial, and to send down some
active emissaries to Ribblesdale to examine minutely into his past
conversation, and discover whether any ground of accusation existed
against him. At least to ascertain that Sedley had really been cut off,
and that Dr. Beaumont had no evidence to disprove his being concerned in
the transaction.

Dr. Beaumont was therefore remanded into close confinement. His family
had gathered round him, and were supported by the generous contributions
of those Loyalists who had hitherto escaped persecution, but made a
common cause with their suffering brethren, and liberally ministered to
their distresses. Colonel Evellin was concealed in an obscure lodging
near the Marshalsea, where Dr. Beaumont was imprisoned. Constantia and
Isabel, with patient fortitude, ministered to their respective fathers,
while Williams carried on a confidential intercourse with the noble and
worthy friends by whom they were supported. Some of these were in the
confidence of Lord Falconberg, the accepted lover of one of Cromwell's
daughters, and who was thought by many to have sought that alliance with
the view of mediating for the persecuted victims to a cause which
himself and his family had ever decidedly espoused.

Affairs were in this situation when Jobson arrived in London, and
produced Dr. Lloyd's letter, which, confirmed by his own testimony,
fully verified the existence of Eustace, the safety of De Vallance, and
their welfare and comparative happiness. What a weight of anguish was
removed from these amiable victims of tyranny by the intelligence!
Imprisonment, poverty, dependence, personal infirmity, were all
supportable evils. But for a complete exemplification of the extreme
limit of human misery,