being this letter must
be seen by those that keep me. Therefore, sir, I shall make an end in
begging of your majesty to believe so well of me, that I would rather
die a thousand deaths than excuse anything I have done, if I did not
really think myself the most in the wrong that ever a man was, and had
not from the bottom of my heart an abhorrence for those that put me
upon it, and for the action itself. I hope, sir, God Almighty will
strike your heart with mercy and compassion for me, as he has done
mine with the abhorrence of what I have done: wherefore, sir, I hope I
may live to show you how zealous I shall ever be for your service; and
could I but say one word in this letter, you would be convinced of it;
but it is of that consequence, that I dare not do it. Therefore, sir,
I do beg of you once more to let me speak to you; for then you will be
convinced how much I shall ever be, your majesty's most humble and
dutiful

"MONMOUTH."

The only certain conclusion to be drawn from this letter, which Mr.
Echard, in a manner perhaps not so seemly for a Churchman, terms
submissive, is, that Monmouth still wished anxiously for life, and was
willing to save it, even at the cruel price of begging and receiving it
as a boon from his enemy. Ralph conjectures with great probability that
this unhappy man's feelings were all governed by his excessive affection
for his mistress and that a vain hope of enjoying, with Lady Harriet
Wentworth, that retirement which he had so unwillingly abandoned, induced
him to adopt a conduct, which he might otherwise have considered as
indecent. At any rate it must be admitted that to cling to life is a
strong instinct in human nature, and Monmouth might reasonably enough
satisfy himself, that when his death could not by any possibility benefit
either the public or his friends, to follow such instinct, even in a
manner that might tarnish the splendour of heroism, was no impeachment of
the moral virtue of a man.

With respect to the mysterious part of the letter, where he speaks of one
word which would be of such infinite importance, it is difficult, if not
rather utterly impossible, to explain it by any rational conjecture. Mr.
Macpherson's favourite hypothesis, that the Prince of Orange had been a
party to the late attempt, and that Monmouth's intention, when he wrote
the letter, was to disclose this important fact to the king, is totally
destroye