IH E N G I 
prefented him with a pair of colours, accompanied with 
a copy of the Bible. There he affumed the title of 
king, and was proclaimed with great folemnity. His 
numbers had now increafed to fix thoufand men ; and he 
was obliged every day, for want of arms, to difmifs many 
of tiiofe who crowded to his ftandard. He entered 
Bridgewater, Wells, and Frome, and was proclaimed in 
all thofe places ; but he loft the feafon of action, by re¬ 
ceiving and claiming thefe empty honours. 
The king was not a little alarmed at his invafion ; but 
ftill more at the fuccefs which appeared to attend him. 
Six regiments of Britilh troops were called over from 
Holland, and a body of regulars, to the number of three 
tboufancl men, were fent, under the command of the earl 
of Feverfhatn, to check the progrefs of the rebels. 
They took poft at Sedgemore,.a village in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Bridgewater, and were joined by the militia of 
the country in confiderable numbers. It was there that 
Monmouth refolved-, by a defperate effort, to lofe his life, 
or gain the kingdom. The negligent difpofition made 
by Feverfham invited him to the attack ; and his faithful 
followers fliewed what courage and principle could do 
againft difcipline and fuperior numbers. They drove the 
royal infantry from their ground, and were upon the point 
of gaining the vidlory, when the mifcondudt of Mon¬ 
mouth, and the cowardice of lord Gray, who commanded 
the horfe, brought all to ruin. This nobleman fled foon 
after the fir ft onfet; and the rebels, being charged in 
flank by the king’s army, gave way, after three hours’ 
conteft. About three hundred were killed in the en¬ 
gagement, and a thoufand in the purluit ; and thus ended 
an eriterprife ralhly begun, and indolently conduced. 
Monmouth rode from the field of battle till his horfe 
funk under him ; lie then exchanged clothes with a (hep- 
herd, fled on foot, attended by a German count, who 
had accompanied him from Holland. Being quite ex- 
haufted with hunger and fatigue, they both lay down in 
a field, and covered themfelves with fern. The (hepherd 
being found in Monmouth’s clothes by the purfuers, in¬ 
creafed the diligence of the fearch : and, by the means 
of blood-hounds, he was traced to his nuferable fituation, 
with raw peafe in his pocket, which he had gathered in 
the fields to fuftain life. He burft into tears when feized 
by his enemies, and petitioned, with abject fubmiflion, 
for life. He wrote the moll fubmiflive letters to the 
king ; and that monarch, willing to feaft his eyes with 
the miferies of a fallen enemy, gave him audience: At 
t la is interview the duke fell upon his knees, and begged 
la is life in the rnoft pathetic terms. He even figned a 
paper, offered him by the king, declaring his own illegi¬ 
timacy ; and then the ftern tyrant allured him, that his 
crime was of fucli a nature as could not be pardoned. 
The duke, perceiving that he had nothing to hope from 
the clemency.of his uncle, recollefted his fpirits, rofe 
up, and retired with an air of difdain. He was followed 
to the fcaffold with great companion from the populace. 
He warned the executioner not to fall into the fame error 
which he had committed in beheading lord Ruffel, where 
it had been neteffury to redouble the blow. But this 
only increafed the feverity of his p'unifhment; the man 
was feized with an univerfal trepidation, and he ftruck a 
feeble blow ; upon which the duke railed his head from 
the block, as if to reproach him: he gently laid down 
his head a (econd time, and the executioner ftruck again 
and again to no purpofe. He at laft threw down the axe ; 
but the fheriff compelled him to refume the attempt, and 
at two blows more the head was fevered from the body. 
Such was.the unfortunate end of James duke of Mon¬ 
mouth. He was brave, (incere, and good-natured, open 
to flattery, and conlequently (educed into an enterprife 
which exceeded his capacity. 
But it had been well lor the caufe of humanity, if the 
blood thus (lied had been thought a fufficient expiation 
for the late offence. The victorious army behaved with 
the molt favage cruelty to the prifoners taken after the 
, A N D. 
battle. Feverfham immediately luing up above twenty 
prifoners ; and was proceeding in his executions, when 
the bifiiop of Bath and Wells warned him that thefe un¬ 
happy men were by law entitled to a trial, and that their 
execution would be deemed a real murder. Nineteen 
were put to death in the fame manner at Bridgewater, by 
colonel Kirke, a man of a favage and bloody difpofition. 
This vile fellow, pra&ifed in the arts of (laughter at 
Tangier, where he (erved in garrifon, took a pleafure in 
committing every kind of wanton barbarity. He ordered ' 
a certain number of the prifoners to be put to death, 
while he and his company were drinking the king’s 
health. Obferving their feet to drake in the agonies of 
death, he cried that they (bould have mu'fic to their 
dancing, and ordered the trumpets to found. He ravaged 
the whole country, without making any difiinedon be¬ 
tween friend or foe. His own regiment, for their pecu¬ 
liar barbarity, went by the name of Kirke’s Lambs. A 
ftory is told of his offering a young woman the life of her 
brother, in cafe (he confented to his defires, which, when 
(he had done, he took her to the window, and (hewed her 
her brother hanging! 
Yet thefe infamous feyerities of the military were tri¬ 
vial, when compared with the (laughters committed by 
judge Jefferies, who was fent down to try the delinquents. 
The natural brutality of this man’s temper was inflamed 
by continual intoxication. He told the prifoners, that if 
they would fave him the trouble of trying them, they 
might expeCl fome favour, otherwife he would execute 
the law upon them with the utmo'ft feverity. Many poor 
wretches were thus allured into a confeffion, and found 
that it only haftened their deftrutlion. No lefs than 
eighty vvere executed at Dorchefter ; and, on the whole, 
at Exeter, Taunton, ana Wells, two hundred and fifty- 
one are computed to have fallen by the hand of this in¬ 
human judge. Women were not exempted from the ge¬ 
neral feverity, but fu'ffered for harbouring their neared 
kindred. Lady Lifie, though the widow of a regicide, 
was herfelf a loyalift. She was apprehended for having 
dickered in her houfe two fugitives from the battle of 
Sedgemore. Site proved that (lie was ignorant of-their 
crime when (lie had given them protection, and the jury 
feemed inclined to compaffion : they twice brought in a 
favourable verdiCt ; but they were as often fent back by 
Jefferies, with menaces and reproaches, and at laft were 
conftrained to give a verdiCt againft the prifoner. But 
the fate of Mrs. Gaunt was (till more terrible. Mrs. 
Gaunt was noted for her beneficence, which (he had ex¬ 
tended to perfons of- all profefiions and perfuafions. One of 
the rebels, knowing her humane character, had recourfe to 
her in his diftrefs, and was concealed by her. The aban¬ 
doned villain, hearing that a reward and indemnity was 
offered to fucli as informed againft criminals, came in, and 
betrayed his proteCtrefs. His evidence wasinconteltable ; 
the proofs were ftrong againft her ; he was pardoned for 
his treachery, and (lie burned alive for her benevolence ! 
Jcileries, on liis return from this bloody inquifition, was 
created a peer, and inverted with the dignity of chancellor. 
The next (tep, A. D 1686, was to fecure a catholic in- 
terelt in the privy council. Accordingly, four catholic 
lords were admitted ; Powis, Arundel, Bellafis, and Do¬ 
ver. The king made no fecret of his delires to have his 
courtiers converted to his own religion. In thefe 
fchemes, James was entirely governed by the counfels of 
the queen and of his confeffor, father Peters, a jefuit, 
whom he created a privy-counfeller. Even in Ireland, 
where the duke of Ormond had long fupported the royal 
caufe', this nobleman was difplaced, as being a proteftant; 
and lord Tyrconnel, a violent Roman-catholic, was ap¬ 
pointed in his (lead. The king, in his zeal to convert 
his CubjeiSls, (looped fo low as to a(k colonel Kirke ; but 
this daring fioldier told him that he was pre-engaged ^ 
for he had promifed the king of Morocco, when lie was 
quartered at Tangiers, that, if he ever changed his reli¬ 
gion, he would turn Mahometan. 
It 
