HISTORY OF HARTING. 99 



pardoned him as the betrayer of rebels. But there is 

 no trace of this in the records of the time, nor does 

 such a theory agree with the fact that the Whigs 

 immediately advanced Grey when they returned to 

 power three years after Sedgemoor. A man who had 

 betrayed his party in battle would not have been made 

 Earl of Tankerville by that party a few years after- 

 wards. This suspicion of treachery, then, is a purely 

 modern invention : Whigs and Tories alike smiled at 

 the man who led the simple folk to the enemies' line 

 and then turned tail ; but there was no charge of 

 wilful treachery. Further, the purport of Grey's secret 

 Confession to James II. shows him to have been true 

 to the rebel cause while it lasted, though at the same 

 time weak, like his grandfather, Sir Edward Ford, in 

 the field. Stating that his Majesty's command for the 

 confession has been delivered by Lord Lumley as 

 though it were to his Sussex neighbours and captors 

 that he owed his life he makes a full statement of his 

 concern in the Ryehouse Plot and in Monmouth's re- 

 bellion, and concludes in these piteous words : 



" . . . . If the shedding of my blood can be for your 

 Majesty's interest, I shall be very willing to part with 

 it : and only desire I may have the satisfaction to 

 know that it will be an atonement for the crimes I 

 have committed against you : but if y r - Majesty out of 

 y r - great clemency shall think fit to save me, I hope 

 you will believe that (beside the ties of honour, justice, 

 and gratitude) my own inclination will ever oblige me 

 to sacrifice the life you give to your service when you 

 please to command it. I lie, Sir, at your Majesty's 

 feet, where, though I cannot expect, yet it is a pleasure 

 to beg for mercy. The consideration of myself destroys 

 all hopes of that kind, but the observation of your 

 Majesty's universal goodness affords me many. I pray 

 God bless your Majesty with a long and happy reign 



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