ANTIQUITIES. 
measures, I strongly solicited to be 
permitted to see ‘my Lord; which 
they refused to grant me, unless [ 
would remain confined with him in 
the Tower. This I would not sub- 
mit to; and alleged for excuse, 
that my health would net permit 
me to undergo the confinement. 
The real season of my refusal was, 
Hot to put it out of my power to ac- 
‘complish my designs. However, by 
bribing the guards, | often contrived 
to see my Lord, till the day upon 
which the prisoners were  con- 
‘demned ; after that we were al- 
lowed for the last week to see and 
take our leave of them. 
By the help of Evans, I had pre- 
pared every thing necessary to dis- 
guise my Lord, but had the utmost 
difficuliy to prevail upou him to 
make use of them. However, I at 
length succeeded, by the help of 
Almighty God. j 
On the 22d of February, which 
fell on a Thursday, our petition was 
to be presented to the House of 
Lords; the purport of which was, 
to interest the Lords to intercede 
with his Majesty to pardon the pri- 
‘soners. We were, however, dis- 
‘appointed the day before the peti- 
‘tion was to be presented; for the 
Duke of St. Alban’s, who had pro- 
mised my Lady Derwentwater to 
present it, when it came to the 
“point, failed in his word. However, 
-as she was the only English Coun- 
tess concerned, it was incumbent 
“upon her to have it presented. We 
‘had but one day left before the exe- 
cution, and the Duke still promised 
“to present the petition ; but for fear 
“he should fail, I engaged the Duke 
“of “Montrose, to secure its being 
Wdone by the one or the other. I 
‘then went in company of most of the 
YJadies of «quality ~who were ‘then 
AYS 
in town,’to ‘solicit the interests -of 
the Lords as they were going to the 
House. They all behaved to me 
wih great civility, but particularly 
my Lord Pembroke, who, though 
he desired me sot to speak to him, 
yet promised to employ his interest 
in our favour, and honourably kept 
his word; for he spoke in the House 
very strongly in our behalf. The 
subject of the debate was, Whe- 
ther the King had the power to par- 
don those who had been cond: mned 
by Parliament? And it was chiefly 
owing to Lord Pembroke’s speech 
that it passed in the affirmative: 
however, one of the Lords stood 
up and said, that the House would 
only intercede for those of the pri- 
sonets who should approve them- 
selves worthy of their intercession, 
but not forall of them indiscrimi- 
nately. This salvo quite blasted all 
my hopes; for I was assured ‘it 
aimed at the exclusion of those who 
should refuse to subscribe to the pe- 
tition, which was a thing I knew 
my Lord would never submit to; 
nor, in fact, could I wish to preserve 
his life on such terms. 
As the motion bad passed gene- 
rally, I thought I could draw some 
advantage in favour of my design. 
Accordingly, I immediately left the 
House of Lords, and hastened to 
the Tower, where, affecting an ‘air 
of joy and satisfaction, I told all the 
guards I passed by, that I came to 
bring joyful tidings to the prisoners. 
1 desired them to Jay aside their 
fears, for the petition had passed the 
House in their favour. I then gave 
them some money to drink to the 
Lords ‘and his Majesty, tho’ it »was 
but trifling ; for I thought, that if I 
were ‘too liberal on the occasion, 
‘they might suspect my designs, and 
that-giving them something would 
gain 
