n "a stout soldier." These particulars were given by
one of the divines who attended him, to the writer of the MS.
letter.[250]

The character of Felton must not, however, be conceived from this
agonising scene of contrition. Of melancholy and retired habits, and one
of those thousand officers who had incurred disappointments, both in
promotion and in arrears of pay, from the careless duke, he felt,
perhaps, although he denied it, a degree of personal animosity towards
him. A solitary man who conceives himself injured broods over his
revenge. Felton once cut off a piece of his own finger, inclosing it in
a challenge, to convince the person whom he addressed that he valued not
endangering his whole body, provided it afforded him an opportunity of
vengeance.[251] Yet with all this, such was his love of truth and rigid
honour, that Felton obtained the nickname of "honest Jack," one which,
after the assassination, became extremely popular through the nation.
The religious enthusiasm of the times had also deeply possessed his
mind, and that enthusiasm, as is well known, was of a nature that might
easily occasion its votary to be mistaken for a republican.

Clarendon mentions that in his hat he had sewed a paper, in which were
written a few lines of that remonstrance of the Commons, which appeared
to him to sanction the act. I have seen a letter from Sir D. Carleton to
the queen, detailing the particulars; his lordship was one of those who
saved Felton from the swords of the military around him, who in their
vexation for the loss of their general the duke, which they considered
to be the end of the war, and their ruin, would have avenged
themselves. But though Felton, in conversation with Sir D. Carleton,
confessed that by reading the remonstrance of the parliament it came
into his head, that in committing the act of killing the duke he should
do his country a great good service; yet the paper sewed in his hat,
thinking he might have fallen a victim in the attempt, was different
from that described by Clarendon, and is thus preserved in this letter
to the queen by Sir D. Carleton. "If I be slain, let no man condemn me,
but rather condemn himself. Our hearts are hardened, and become
senseless, or else he had not gone so long unpunished.[252] He is
unworthy the name of a gentleman or soldier, in my opinion, that is
afraid to sacrifice his life for the honour of God, his king, and
country. JOHN FELTON".[253]

Felton's mind ha