ing.
Lord! in what a miserable condition shall this kingdom be (the only
famous nation for hospitality in the world) if our tables should become
such a snare, as that none could eat without danger of life, and that
Italian custom should be introduced among us! Therefore, my Lords, I
charge you, as you will answer it at that great and dreadful day of
judgment, that you examine it strictly, without layout, affection, or
partiality. And if you shall spare any guilty of this crime, God's
curse light on you and your posterity! and if I spare any that are
guilty, God's curse light on me and my posterity for ever!"

The imprecation fell but too surely upon the devoted house of Stuart.
The solemn oath was broken, and God's curse did light upon him and his
posterity!

The next person arrested after Sir Jervis Elwes, was Weston, the
under-keeper; then Franklin and Mrs. Turner; and, lastly, the Earl and
Countess of Somerset, to which dignity Rochester had been advanced
since the death of Overbury.

Weston was first brought to trial. Public curiosity was on the stretch.
Nothing else was talked of, and the court on the day of trial was
crowded to suffocation. The "State Trials" report, that Lord Chief
Justice Coke "laid open to the jury the baseness and cowardliness of
poisoners, who attempt that secretly against which there is no means of
preservation or defence for a man's life; and how rare it was to hear
of any poisoning in England, so detestable it was to our nation. But
the devil had taught divers to be cunning in it, so that they can
poison in what distance of space they please, by consuming the nativum
calidum, or humidum radicale, in one month, two or three, or more, as
they list, which they four manner of ways do execute; viz. haustu,
gustu, odore, and contactu."

When the indictment was read over, Weston made no other reply than,
"Lord have mercy upon me! Lord have mercy upon me!" On being asked how
he would be tried, he refused to throw himself upon a jury of his
country, and declared, that he would be tried by God alone. In this he
persisted for some time. The fear of the dreadful punishment for
contumacy induced him, at length, to plead "Not guilty," and take his
trial in due course of law.

[The punishment for the contumacious was expressed by the words onere,
frigore, et fame. By the first was meant that the culprit should be
extended on his back on the ground, and weights placed over his body,
gradually incr