154 Records of the Rising in the West, A.B. 1655. 



spirit, which often mclteth his sorrow into tears. These gentlemen and all others 

 that are in the same predicament, both in the West and in the North, had the 

 earnest prayers of divers congregations in and about London, put up to Almighty 

 God for them the last Lord's day." 



This is evidently from a friendly Cavalier pen ; is it that of J ohn 

 Martin, the Chaplain of Compton ? 



Penruddock perchance saw many loved ones during his stay at 

 Salisbury, amongst others it may be, his wife and children, and that 

 for the last time on earth, unless we picture them as appearing to 

 the sad cortege, passing westwards : John holding himself erect 

 and cheerful, Jones downcast, midst their stern puritan guard. 

 Looks, or it may be words, hurried, full of deep earnest feeling, and 

 J ohn leaves his wife and children, his friends and home, and the land 

 of his boyhood and his life, to face death. 



" Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens uxor." — Hor. 

 Mr. Nutley, in writing from Exeter on the 16th of April, men- 

 tions that Penruddock arrived there Friday the 13th. 1 



Leaving him with his associates at Exeter, we must notice other 

 preparations for the trial of the prisoners. 



Disbrowe having made as many arrests as he thought judicious, 

 both of those whom he suspected as having joined, or even favoured 

 the rising, and those whom he knew had actually engaged in it, 

 returned to London. 2 During his stay in the west he had personally 

 conducted the examinations of several of the prisoners; the in- 

 formation thus obtained no doubt found its way to Mr. Attorney 

 General and his colleagues. 3 



Boteler, now a Major- General, was at Marlborough, full of thought 

 for the coming trials in Wiltshire, ably seconded by High Sheriff 

 Dove, on the other side of the plain. 



Both the following letters are so characteristic of the men and the 

 times, and open our eyes to the events as they really happened, that 

 I give them here in their entirety : — 



^Th., 381. 2 Ibid, 308, 



3 "We may rejoice that this system of examining prisoners as to their crimes, 

 which is pursued in France, has not survived to us. Commissary Reynolds, 

 one of the Government examiners at Shrewsbury, not obtaining all the infor- 

 mation desired, suggests torture. 3 Th , 298. 



