The True Patriot/No. 3.
THE
TRUE PATRIOT.
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No. 3. TUESDAY, November 19, 1745.
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- — Furit ensis et ignis
- Quo que caret flammâ scelerum est locus.
THE rebellion having long been the universal subject of conversation in this town, it is no wonder that what so absolutely engages our waking thoughts should attend us to the pillow, and represent to us in dreams or visions those ideas which fear had before suggested to our minds.
It is natural, on all occasions, to have some little attention to our private welfare, nor do I ever honour the patriot the less (I am sure I confide in him much the more) whose own good is involved in that of the Public. I am not, therefore, ashamed to give the Public the following dream or vision, though my own little affairs, and the private consequences which the success of this rebellion would produce to myself, form the principal object; for, I believe, at the same time, there are few of my readers who will not find themselves interested in some parts of it.
Methought I was sitting in my study, meditating for the good and entertainment of the Public, with my two little children (as is my usual course to suffer them) playing near me; when I heard a very hard knock at my door, and immediately afterwards several ill-looked rascals burst in upon me, one of whom seized me with great violence, saying, I was his prisoner, and must go with him. I asked him for what offence. Have you the impudence to ask that, said he, when the words True Patriot lie now before you? I then bid him shew me his warrant. He answered, there it is, pointing to several men, who were in Highland dresses, with broad swords by their sides. My children then ran towards me, and bursting into tears, expressed their concern for their poor papa. Upon which one of the ruffians seized my little boy, and pulling him from me, dashed him against the ground; and all immediately hurried me away out of my room and house, before I could be sensible of the effects of this barbarity.
My concern for my poor children, from whom I had been torn in the above manner, prevented me from taking much notice of any objects in the streets, through which I was dragged, with many insults. — Houses burnt down, dead bodies of men, women and children, strewed every where as we passed, and great numbers of Highlanders, and Popish priests in their several habits, made, however, too forcible an impression on me to be unobserved.
My guard now brought me to Newgate, where they were informed that jail was too full to admit a single person more. I was then conducted to a large booth in Smithfield, as I thought, where I was shut in with a great number of prisoners, amongst whom were many of the most considerable persons in this kingdom. Two of these were in a very particular manner reviled by the Highland guards (for all the soldiers were in that dress), and these two I presently recollected to be the A-chb-sh-p of Y-k, and the B—p of Win—r.
As there is great inconsistency of time and place in most dreams, I now found myself, by an unaccountable transition, in a court which bore some resemblance to the court of King's Bench; only a great cross was erected in the middle; and instead of those officers of justice who usually attend that court, a number of Highlanders, with drawn swords, stood there as sentinels; the judges too were persons whose faces I had never seen before. I was obliged, I thought, to stand some time at the bar, before my trial came on, the court being busied in a cause where an abbot was plaintiff, in determining the boundaries of some abbey land, which they decided for the plaintiff, the chief justice declaring, it was his majesty's pleasure, in all doubtful cases, that judgment should be in favour of the church.
A charge of high-treason was then, I dreamed, exhibited against me, for having writ in defence of his present majesty King George, and my paper of the True Patriot was produced in evidence against me.
Being called on to make my defence, I insisted entirely on the statute of Hen. 7. by which all persons are exempted from incurring the penalties of treason, in defence of the King de facto. But the chief justice told me in broken English, That if I had no other plea, they should presently overrule that; for that his majesty was resolved to make an example of all who had any ways distinguished themselves, in opposition to his cause.
Methought I then replied, with a resolution which I hope every Englishman would exert on such an occasion, THAT THE LIFE OF NO MAN WAS WORTH PRESERVING, LONGER THAN IT WAS TO BE DEFENDED BY THE KNOWN LAWS OF HIS COUNTRY; and that if the King's arbitrary pleasure was to be that law, I was indifferent what he determined concerning myself.
The court having put it to the vote (for no jury, I thought, attended), and unanimously agreed that I was guilty, proceeded to pass the sentence usual in cases of high treason, having first made many eulogiums on the Pope, the Roman Catholic religion, and the King, who was to support both, and be supported by them.
I was then delivered into the hands of the executioner, who stood ready, and was ordered to allow me only three hours to confess myself, and be reconciled to the Church of Rome. Upon which a priest, whose face I remember to have seen at a place called an oratory, and who was, for his good services, preferred to be the ordinary of Newgate, immediately advanced, and began to revile me, saying, I was the wickedest heretic in the kingdom, and had exerted myself with more impudence against his majesty and his holiness, than any other person whatsoever: but he added, as I had the good fortune to make some atonement for my impiety by being hanged, if I would embrace his religion, confess myself and receive absolution, I might possibly, after some expiation in purgatory, receive a final pardon.
I was hence conducted into a dungeon, where, by a glimmering light, I saw many wretches my fellow-prisoners, who, for various crimes, were condemned to various punishments.
Among these appeared one in a very ragged plight, whom I very well knew, and who, the last time I saw him, appeared to live in great affluence and splendour. Upon my inquiring the reason of his being detained in that region of horror, he very frankly told me it was for stealing a loaf. He acknowledged the fact; but said he had been obliged to it for the relief of his indigent family. I see, continued he, your surprise at this change of my fortune; but, you must know, my whole estate was in the funds, by the wiping out of which I was at once reduced to the condition in which you now see me. I rose in the morning with 40,000l. I had a wife whom I tenderly loved, and three blooming daughters. The eldest was within a week of her marriage, and I was to have paid down 10,000l. with her. At noon I found a royal decree had reduced me to downright beggary. My daughter hath lost her marriage, and is gone distracted. My wife is dead of a broken heart, and my poor girls have neither clothes to cover them, nor meat to feed them: so that I may truly say,
- — Miser, O miser, omnia ademit
- Una dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae.
Here methought, he stopped, and a flood of tears gushed from his eyes. I should perhaps have been a greater sharer in his sorrow, had not the consideration of his children's ruin represented to me the situation of my own. Good gods! what were the agonies I then felt, though in a dream? Racks, wheels, gibbets were no longer the objects of terror. My children possessed my whole mind, and my fearful imagination ran through every scene of horror which villains can act on their fellow-creatures. Sometimes I saw their helpless hands struggling for a moment with a barbarous cut-throat. Here I saw my poor boy, my whole ambition, the hopes and prospect of my age, sprawling on the floor, and weltering in his blood; there my fancy painted my daughter, the object of all my tenderness, prostituted even in her infancy to the brutal lust of a ruffian, and then sacrificed to his cruelty. Such were my terrors, when I was relieved from them by the welcome presence of the executioner, who summoned me immediately forth, telling me, since I had refused the assistance of the priest, he could grant me no longer indulgence.
The first sight which occurred to me as I passed through the streets (for common objects totally escape the observation of a man in my present temper of mind), was a young lady of quality, and the greatest beauty of this age, in the hands of two Highlanders, who were struggling with each other for their booty. The lovely prize, though her hair was dishevelled and torn, her eyes swollen with tears, her face all pale, and some marks of blood both on that and her breast, which was all naked and exposed, retained still sufficient charms to discover herself to me, who have always beheld her with wonder and admiration. Indeed, it may be questioned whether perfect beauty loses or acquires charms by distress. This sight was matter of entertainment to my conductors, who, however, hurried me presently from it, as I wish they had also from her screams, which reached my ears to a great distance.
After such a spectacle as this, the dead bodies which lay every where in the streets (for there had been, I was told, a massacre the night before), scarce made any impression; nay, the very fires in which Protestants were roasting, were in my sense, objects of much less horror; nay, such an effect had this sight wrought on my mind, which hath been always full of the utmost tenderness for that charming sex, that for a moment it obliterated all concern for my children, from whom I was to be hurried for ever without a farewell, or without knowing in what condition I left them; or indeed, whether they had hitherto survived the cruelty which now methought raged every where, with all the fury which rage, zeal, lust, and wanton fierceness could inspire into the bloody hearts of Popish priests, bigots, and barbarians. Of such a scene my learned reader may see a fine picture drawn by Silius Italicus, in his second book, where he describes the sacking the brave city of Saguntum by a less savage army.
I then overheard a priest admonish the executioner to exert the utmost rigour of my sentence towards me; after which, the same priest advancing forwards, and putting on a look of compassion, advised me, for the sake of my soul, to embrace the holy communion. I gave him no answer, and he turned his back, thundering forth curses against me.
At length I arrived at the fatal place which promised me a speedy end to all my sufferings. Here, methought, I saw a man who by his countenance and actions exprest the highest degree of despair. He stamped with his feet, beat his face, tore his hair, and uttered the most horrid execrations. Upon inquiring into the circumstances of this person, I was informed by one of the bye-standers, that he was a non-juror, who had lent considerable assistance to the Pretender's cause, out of principle; and was now lamenting the consequences which the success of it had brought on such honest gentlemen as myself. My informer added, with a smile, the wise man expected his majesty would keep his word with heretics.
The executioner then attempted to put the rope round my neck, when my little girl entered my bedchamber, and put an end to my dream, by pulling open my eyes, and telling me that the tailor had brought home my clothes for his majesty's birthday.
The sight of my dear child, added to the name of that gracious Prince, at once deprived me of every private and public fear; and the joy which now began to arise, being soon after heightened by consideration of the day, the sound of bells, and the hurry which prevailed every where, from the eagerness of all sorts of people to demonstrate their loyalty at this season, gave me altogether as delightful a sensation as perhaps the heart of man is capable of feeling; of which I have the pleasure to know every reader must partake, who hath had good-nature enough to sympathize with me in the foregoing part of this vision.