I cannot hope that all my readers will take the same view of Brown that I do; but I assure them, from long acquaintance with his character, that the more they know it the more they will honor it. As for the conspiracy in which he lost his life, should any imagined regard for the reputation of persons living or dead tempt kinsmen or friends to disown the share of any man in this affair, let them remember what Sir Kenelm Digby says of his father. "All men know," pleads the fair Stelliana, "that it was no malitious intent or ambitious desires that brought Sir Everard Digby into that conspiracy, but his too inviolable faith to his friend that had trusted him with so dangerous a secret, and his zeal to his country's antient liberties."
Concord, June 2, 1885.
