ver spoke dishonourably of
the King. He did try to escape, but it was to save his life; and he
feigned illness at Salisbury, but it was in the hope of being able to
work upon the King's pity. He forgave the Frenchman, Le Clerc or La
Chesnee, and Sir Lewis Stukeley, 'for I have received the Sacrament this
morning of Mr. Dean of Westminster, and I have forgiven all men; but
that they are perfidious, I am bound in charity to speak, that all men
may take heed of them,' Stukeley, 'my keeper and kinsman,' had said that
he had told him that Carew and Doncaster had advised him to escape; but
this was not true; and it was needless that they should so tell him, for
he was left as much as ten days together at liberty to go where he
would. He had not offered Stukeley any money to procure his escape. So
far was it from being the case that he was brought by force into
England, his soldiers mutinied, and forced him to take an oath that he
would not go there till they would; and it was only by great exertions
that he persuaded them to go to Ireland, and then to England. He had
only L100 with him when he started for Guiana, and of that he gave his
wife L25. 'It is said that I should be a persecutor of the death of the
Earl of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he
suffered, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. God I take to
witness, I shed tears for him when he died; and as I hope to look God in
the face hereafter, my lord of Essex did not see my face when he
suffered, for I was afar off in the Armoury when I saw him, but he saw
not me. I confess indeed I was of the contrary faction, but I know my
lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and that it would be worse with me
when he was gone; for I got the hate of those who wished me well before,
and those that set me against him afterwards set themselves against me,
and were my greatest enemies, and my soul hath many times been grieved
that I was not nearer him when he died; because, as I understood
afterwards, that he asked for me at his death to have been reconciled
unto me.' And then proclamation having been made, he took leave of the
lords, knights, and gentlemen on the scaffold, particularly of Lord
Arundel, and asked to see the axe, and when it was brought to him, he
felt along the edge of it, and smiling, said to the sheriff, 'This is a
sharp medicine, but it is a physician that will cure all diseases.' He
then prayed a little, and having made the sign, the exe