shall not
now let blood to divert this distemper," said he to Dr. Burnet, who
attended him; "that will be done to-morrow." A little before the
sheriffs conducted him to the scaffold, he wound up his watch: "Now I
have done," said he, "with time, and hence forth must think solely of
eternity."

The scaffold was erected in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a place distant from
the Tower; and it was probably intended, by conducting Russel through so
many streets, to show the mutinous city their beloved leader, once the
object of all their confidence, now exposed to the utmost rigors of the
law. As he was the most popular among his own party, so was he ever the
least obnoxious to the opposite faction; and his melancholy fate united
every heart, sensible of humanity, in a tender compassion for him.
Without the least change of countenance, he laid his head on the block;
and at two strokes, it was severed from his body.

In the speech which he delivered to the sheriffs, he was very anxious to
clear his memory from any imputation of ever intending the king's death,
or any alteration in the government: he could not explicitly confess the
projected insurrection without hurting his friends, who might still be
called in question for it; but he did not purge himself of that design,
which, in the present condition of the nation, he regarded as no crime.
By many passages in his speech, he seems to the last to have lain under
the influence of party zeal; a passion which, being nourished by a
social temper, and clothing itself under the appearance of principle, it
is almost impossible for a virtuous man, who has acted in public life,
ever thoroughly to eradicate. He professed his entire belief in the
Popish plot: and he said that, though he had often heard the seizure of
the guards mentioned, he had ever disapproved of that attempt. To which
he added, that the massacring of so many innocent men in cool blood
was so like a Popish practice, that he could not but abhor it. Upon the
whole, the integrity and virtuous intentions, rather than the capacity,
of this unfortunate nobleman, seem to have been the shining parts of his
character.

Algernon Sidney was next brought to his trial. This gallant person, son
of the earl of Leicester, had entered deeply into the war against the
late king; and though nowise tainted with enthusiasm, he had so far
shared in all the counsels of the Independent republican party, as to
have been named on the high court of