reat intrepidity and composure. He owned his purpose of going to
France in pursuance of a promise he had made to general Worden, who,
on his death-bed, conjured him to go thither and finish some affairs of
consequence which he had left there depending, as well as with a view
to recover a considerable sum of money due to himself. He denied that he
was privy to the contents of the papers found upon him; he complained of
his having been denied time to prepare for his trial; and called several
persons to prove him a protestant of exemplary piety and irreproachable
morals. These circumstances had no weight with the court. He was
brow-beaten by the bench, and found guilty by the jury, as he had the
papers in his custody; yet there was no privity proved; and the whig
party themselves had often expressly declared, that of all sorts of
evidence that of finding papers in a person's possession is the weakest,
because no man can secure himself from such danger. Ashton suffered with
equal courage and decorum. In a paper which he delivered to the sheriff,
he owned his attachment to king James; he witnessed to the birth of the
prince of Wales; denied his knowledge of the contents of the papers that
were committed to his charge; complained of the hard measure he had
met with from the judges and the jury, but forgave them in the sight of
heaven. This man was celebrated by the nonjurors as a martyr to loyalty;
and they boldly affirmed, that his chief crime in the eyes of the
government was his having among his baggage an account of such evidence
as would have been convincing to all the world concerning the birth
of the prince of Wales, which by a great number of people was believed
supposititious.* Lord Preston obtained a pardon; Elliot was not tried,
because no evidence appeared against him; the earl of Clarendon was
sent to the Tower, where he remained some months, and he was afterwards
confined to his own house in the country--an indulgence which he owed to
his consanguinity with the queen, who was his first cousin. The bishop
of Ely, Graham, and Penn, absconded; and a proclamation was issued for
apprehending them as traitors.

* To one of the pamphlets published on this occasion, is
annexed a petition to the present government in the name of
king James's adherents, importing, that some grave and
learned person should be authorized to compile a treatise,
showing the grounds of William's title; and declaring, th