184 Records of the Rising in the West, A.D. 1655. 
the moment of death, for the time is neer at hand, that as I have a great load of 
sins, so I may have the wings of your prayers to help those angels, that are to 
convey my soul to heaven, there to rejoyce with the saints and angels for ever- 
more.” 
Who can tell whether Lucas was hanged or beheaded? The latter 
process has the best authority. To the eternal honour of the Lord 
Protector let it be remembered “ that they were to be spared all other 
pains but beheading or hanging.” 
The speech above set out and some that follow, though they shew 
us a corner of the mind of the times, which could write and read 
such compositions; were possibly never written or spoken by the 
persons, to whom they are attributed. There is a laconic criticism 
upon them in the Perfect Diurnall, which may be read with advantage 
here. 
‘‘False copies of speeches will be largely set forth to little purpose and I fear 
less truth.” 
And so John Lucas passes from us and with our unfeigned respect, 
for he sacrificed life, property, and the comforts of a home in the 
pleasant Kennet vale, for a cause, he believed to be right. His 
solace in death, if he had any, “ Dulce et decorum est pro patrid mori.” 
There were appeals too for his comrade Kensey. 
Mr. Nathaniel Manton writes (London, April 15th,) to Thurloe 
to intercede, telling him that Kensey was drawn into the rising 
by Mason, a desperate fellow;! and had nothing to do with the 
design, but had simply ridden 50 miles with them; and that he would 
not have been condemned had he not confessed. ? 
It is also clear from the Attorney-General’s letter that he confessed. 
And there is a letter about him from Alderman Robert Tichborne, 
the orthography of which reminds us of a famous trial of to-day. 
Sir 
By reason of my attendance this day on the Lord Maior, I am ne~ 
cessitated to writt; other wise should personally a waited on you, to have 
intreated your favor in the behalf of on John Kansey, whoe is on his own con- 
fession condemned at Sanlisborrow to die for treason. I should not move in his 
behalfe, but that I am credibly informed, hee is an object fitt for his highness 
his merey, his case beeinge thus. Hee was betrayed by a friend to goe with him. 
1 No doubt the Robert Mason not in custody. 
23 Th., 380. 
