t confessed his being engaged
in a conspiracy for an insurrection, and even allowed that he had heard
some discourse of an assassination, though he had not approved of it, he
thought it more expedient to throw himself on the king's mercy. He was
executed, persisting in the same confession.

Sir Thomas Armstrong, who had been seized in Holland, and sent over by
Chidley, the king's minister, was precisely in the same situation with
Holloway: but the same favor, or rather justice, was refused him. The
lawyers pretended, that unless he had voluntarily surrendered himself
before the expiration of the time assigned, he could not claim the
privilege of a trial; not considering that the seizure of his person
ought in equity to be supposed the accident which prevented him. The
king bore a great enmity against this gentleman, by whom he believed the
duke of Monmouth to have been seduced from his duty; he also asserted,
that Armstrong had once promised Cromwell to assassinate him; though
it must be confessed, that the prisoner justified himself from this
imputation by very strong arguments. These were the reasons of that
injustice which was now done him. It was apprehended that sufficient
evidence of his guilt could not be produced; and that even the partial
juries which were now returned, and which allowed themselves to be
entirely directed by Jefferies and other violent judges, would not give
sentence against him.

On the day that Russel was tried, Essex, a man eminent both for virtues
and abilities, was found in the Tower with his throat cut. The coroner's
inquest brought in their verdict, self-murder; yet because two children
ten years old (one of whom, too, departed from his evidence) had
affirmed that they heard a great noise from his window, and that they
saw a hand throw out a bloody razor, these circumstances were laid hold
of, and the murder was ascribed to the king and the duke, who happened
that morning to pay a visit to the Tower. Essex was subject to fits
of deep melancholy, and had been seized with one immediately upon his
commitment: he was accustomed to maintain the lawfulness of suicide: and
his countess upon a strict inquiry, which was committed to the care of
Dr. Burnet, found no reason to confirm the suspicion: yet could not
all these circumstances, joined to many others, entirely remove the
imputation. It is no wonder, that faction is so productive of vices of
all kinds; for, besides that it inflames all the