nd bully the corporations, beginning with London; or, as
Jeffreys himself elegantly called it, 'to give them a lick with the rough
side of his tongue.' And he did it so thoroughly, that they soon became
the basest and most sycophantic bodies in the kingdom--except the
University of Oxford, which, in that respect, was quite pre-eminent and
unapproachable.

Lord Shaftesbury (who died soon after the King's failure against him),
LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL, the Duke of Monmouth, LORD HOWARD, LORD JERSEY,
ALGERNON SIDNEY, JOHN HAMPDEN (grandson of the great Hampden), and some
others, used to hold a council together after the dissolution of the
Parliament, arranging what it might be necessary to do, if the King
carried his Popish plot to the utmost height. Lord Shaftesbury having
been much the most violent of this party, brought two violent men into
their secrets--RUMSEY, who had been a soldier in the Republican army; and
WEST, a lawyer. These two knew an old officer of CROMWELL'S, called
RUMBOLD, who had married a maltster's widow, and so had come into
possession of a solitary dwelling called the Rye House, near Hoddesdon,
in Hertfordshire. Rumbold said to them what a capital place this house
of his would be from which to shoot at the King, who often passed there
going to and fro from Newmarket. They liked the idea, and entertained
it. But, one of their body gave information; and they, together with
SHEPHERD a wine merchant, Lord Russell, Algernon Sidney, LORD ESSEX, LORD
HOWARD, and Hampden, were all arrested.

Lord Russell might have easily escaped, but scorned to do so, being
innocent of any wrong; Lord Essex might have easily escaped, but scorned
to do so, lest his flight should prejudice Lord Russell. But it weighed
upon his mind that he had brought into their council, Lord Howard--who
now turned a miserable traitor--against a great dislike Lord Russell had
always had of him. He could not bear the reflection, and destroyed
himself before Lord Russell was brought to trial at the Old Bailey.

He knew very well that he had nothing to hope, having always been manful
in the Protestant cause against the two false brothers, the one on the
throne, and the other standing next to it. He had a wife, one of the
noblest and best of women, who acted as his secretary on his trial, who
comforted him in his prison, who supped with him on the night before he
died, and whose love and virtue and devotion have made her name
imperishable