354 
COLONEL BLOOD. 
After living a considerable time among the malcontents in Ireland, 
he went to Holland ; where he became intimate with some of the 
principals of the republic, particularly the famous De Ruyter. He 
returned thence to England, with recommendations to the republican 
party ; whence he went to Scotland, where he contributed much to 
the breaking out of the insurrection, and was present in the action of 
Pentland hills, Nov. 27, 1666; in which the insurgents were killed. 
He returned to England, where he rescued his friend Captain Mason 
from a party of soldiers who were conducting him to trial. 
In 1671 Blood formed a design of carrying off the crown and regalia 
from the Tower : a design to which he was prompted, as well by the 
surprising boldness of the enterprise, as by views of profit ; and was 
very near succeeding. He had bound and wounded Edwards the 
keeper of the jewel-office, and had got out of the Tower with his prey, 
but was overtaken and seized, with some of his associates. One of 
them was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond ; 
and Blood was immediately concluded to be the ringleader : when 
questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise, but refused to discover 
his accomplices : *‘The fear of death,” he said, “ should never engage 
him to deny an offence, or betray a friend.” All these extraordinary 
circumstances made him the subject of conversation, and the king 
was moved with an idle curiosity to see and speak with a person so 
noted for his courage and his crimes. Blood wanted not address to 
improve this opportunity of obtaining a pardon. He told Charles 
that he had been engaged, with others, in a design to kill him with a 
carabine about Battersea, where his majesty often went to bathe; that 
the cause of this resolution was the severity exercised over the con- 
sciences of the godly, in restraining the liberty of their religious 
assemblies; that when he had taken his stand among the reeds, full 
of these bloody resolutions, he found his heart checked with an awe 
of majesty, and he not only relented himself, but diverted his associ- 
ates from their purpose ; and that he had long ago brought himself to 
an entire indifference about life, which he now gave up for lost, yet he 
could not forbear warning the king of the dangers which might attend 
his execution ; that his associates had bound themselves by the 
strictest oaths to revenge the deaths of any of their confederacy, and 
that no precaution nor power could secure any one from the effects 
of their desperate resolutions. Whether these considerations excited fear 
or admiration in the king, they confirmed his resolution of granting a 
pardon to Blood ; but he thought it a point of decency first to obtain 
the duke of Ormond’s consent. Addington came to Ormond in the 
king’s name, and desired that he would not prosecute Blood, for rea- 
sons which he was commanded to give him. The duke replied, that 
his majesty’s commands was the only reason that could be given; and 
being sufficient, he might therefore spare the rest. Charles carried 
his kindness to Blood still farther, and granted him an estate of five 
hundred a year in Ireland ; he encouraged his attendance about his 
person, shewed him great countenance, and many applied to him 
for promoting their pretensions at court. And while old Edwards, 
who had been wounded in defending the crown and regalia, was neg- 
lected, this man, who deserved to be hanged, became a favourite. 
