chery; she
was burned alive for her charity.

Lady Lisle was widow of one of the regicides, who had enjoyed great
favor and authority under Cromwell, and who having fled, after the
restoration, to Lauzanne, in Switzerland, was there assassinated by
three Irish ruffians, who hoped to make their fortune by this piece of
service. His widow was now prosecuted for harboring two rebels the day
after the battle of Sedgemoor; and Jefferies pushed on the trial with
an unrelenting violence. In vain did the aged prisoner plead, that these
criminals had been put into no proclamation; had been convicted by no
verdict; nor could any man be denominated a traitor, till the sentence
of some legal court was passed upon him: that it appeared not by any
proof, that she was so much as acquainted with the guilt of the persons,
or had heard of their joining the rebellion of Monmouth: that though she
might be obnoxious on account of her family, it was well known that her
heart was ever loyal; and that no person in England had shed more tears
for that tragical event, in which her husband had unfortunately borne
too great a share: and that the same principles which she herself had
ever embraced, she had carefully instilled into her son; and had, at
that very time, sent him to fight against those rebels whom she was now
accused of harboring. Though these arguments did not move Jefferies,
they had influence on the jury. Twice they seemed inclined to bring in
a favorable verdict: they were as often sent back with menaces and
reproaches; and at last were constrained to give sentence against
the prisoner. Notwithstanding all applications for pardon, the cruel
sentence was executed. The king said, that he had given Jefferies a
promise not to pardon her; an excuse which could serve only to aggravate
the blame against himself.

It might have been hoped that, by all these bloody executions, a
rebellion so precipitate, so ill supported, and of such short duration,
would have been sufficiently expiated: but nothing could satiate
the spirit of rigor which possessed the administration. Even those
multitudes who received pardon, were obliged to atone for their guilt by
fines which reduced them to beggary; or where their former poverty made
them incapable of paying, they were condemned to cruel whippings or
severe imprisonments. Nor could the innocent escape the hands, no less
rapacious than cruel, of the chief justice. Prideaux, a gentleman
of Devonshire, b