COUNTESS OF SOMERSET. 1 83 



Winchester, Cobham and Grey, were attainted and 

 corrupted, but not spilt or taken away ; but that 

 they remained rather spectacles of justice in their 

 continual imprisonment, than monuments of justice 

 in the memory of their suffering. 



It is true, that the objects of his justice then 

 and now were very differing. For then, it was 

 the revenge of an offence against his own person 

 and crown, and upon persons that were malcon 

 tents, and contraries to the state and government. 

 But now, it is the revenge of the blood and death 

 of a particular subject, and the cry of a prisoner. 

 It is upon persons that were highly in his favour ; 

 whereby his majesty, to his great honour, hath 

 shewed to the world, as if it were written in a 

 sun-beam, that he is truly the lieutenant of Him, 

 with whom there is no respect of persons ; that his 

 affections royal are above his affections private : 

 that his favours and nearness about him are not 

 like popish sanctuaries to privilege malefactors : 

 and that his being the best master of the world 

 doth not let him from being the best king of 

 the world. His people, on the other side, may say 

 to themselves, &quot; I will lie down in peace ; for God 

 and the king and the law protect me against 

 great and small.&quot; It may be a discipline also 

 to great men, especially such as are swoln in for 

 tunes from small beginnings, that the king is as 

 well able to level mountains, as to fill valleys, if 

 such be their desert. 



