greater sum ready in some hand, to make use of for gaining others to our interest, as perhaps the affairs will require. I need not say more, but commit my fortune to your conduct, who am Sluys, April 1, 1690. Sir, Your faithful and humble Servant, These confessions of both Jacob Martinet and of Cornelius Reolands being again read in open court, they both of them received sentence in these words: Forasmuch as you Jacob Martinet, and you Cornelius Reolands, are by your own confession, and other legal proofs and letters, found guilty of holding a correspondence with Monsieur Rayon, colonel of a French regiment in the French king's army, and with Monsieur de Terry, secretary of war under the Marshal Duke of Laxemburgh, in order to betray the garison and town of Sluys to the French for a sum of money, agreed to be paid by the said Mon sieur de Terry, to you Jacob Martinet, and to you Cornelius Reolands, for doing thereof. By which action the whole province of Holland and neighbouring provinces would have been in eminent hazards of being thereupon ruined by the French army; therefore the court does hereby adjudge you the said Jacob Mar. tinet, to be taken back to prison, and thence, upon the sixth of May, instant, to be drawn upon a cart to the publick market-place of this town, and there to be hanged up by the neck on a gibbet, and, being near dead, to have your bowels ripped up, and there after, being fully dead, to have your body divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as the court shall afterwards think fit, and your head to be severed from your body, and affixed upon the very same gate of this town which you designed to open to the enemy. Likewise the court adjudges you the said Cornelius Reolands, to be taken back to the prison, and, upon the said sixth of this instant May, to be taken to the said market-place of this town of Sluys, and there to be hanged up by the neck 6 upon a gibbet until you be dead. And this we give for a final sentence against you both, wishing God may shew mercy to your 'souls.' According to this sentence, upon the said sixth day of May instant, the said Jacob Martinet was brought to the place of execu tion, where he behaved himself very impenitently, and refused to speak to the people, and had the sentence executed upon him as aforesaid. After him came Cornelius Reolands, who, both in prison, and at the place of execution, carried himself very devoutly and penitently: And, asking leave if he might speak to the people, he expressed himself in words to this purpose, a copy whereof he had given before. hand to the sheriff or scapen that attended him. "Good Christian People, I am brought here justly, for designing to betray my country o a foreign enemy for a sum of money. I confess myself guilty of the crime, and I beg God's forgiveness and your forgiveness for it, and am willing to die for it, as I justly deserve. I must say, Í did for some months resist the offers that were made me by the un6 happy man that is gone before me; but at length my wants prevailed with me to accept what I thought would rid me out of them. This I do not say to excuse myself in the least; God forbid I should. And as I consented to betray this town, so I did promise to do another villainy, which indeed I forgot to tell my judges at my tryal; and it was, to see if I could prevail with any captains of ships, to be. 6 tray their ships to the French, for which I was to receive money from the French secretary of war to give to those captains. I hope your displeasure against me for so villainous designs will end, when I have satisfied justice with my blood. I earnestly beg the assistance of your prayers for me, in this my agony; and I commit my soul to God, hoping to be saved by the merits of Christ, my redeemer.' 6 Having delivered himself thus, and heard the minister that waited on him pray, and having prayed himself, he was just going to be turned off, when, pulling up the handkerchief that was over his eyes, he said, Good people, there is one thing my conscience obliges me to tell you with my last breath, and it is this: I am afraid there 6 are many such designs in hand, up and down this country, like this, for which I suffer; and I wish there may be some effectual 6 means to prevent them; for I assure you the French agents are very busy every where, and they spare no money to obtain their ends. I have no more to say, but again beg earnestly the assistance of 6 your prayers: and I commit my soul to God.' Having thus said, he was turned over the ladder, and his body afterwards, by order of the magistrates, was given to his friends to be buried. Thus we have one sad example more of the ill effects of the French money towards our country and commonwealth; but we hope God will disappoint all their designs, and bring their accomplices to just punishment. laid out their money in ruffs and farthingals, as to have put it into that bottomless pit, the chamber. Franc. A place somewhat resembling Michael Angelo's picture of hell, from whence the pope himself could not redeem a cardinal there painted. But, not to run too far from your question, the reasons of the practice were, at first, intentionally good and pions; for Aurel. So were religious houses in the times of the primitive per. secutions, but posterity improved the matter into monasteries and nunneries, though, since, nurseries of luxury and idleness. Franc. Your digression is pithy enough, madam; but, pray, give me leave to proceed. As to the authority, by which it is demanded, it is well known, that, the city of London being, by virtue of Magna Charta, a body corporate, they have a power or commission to enact petty laws and customs among themselves, as they shall see most fit, for the better government of the city Aurel. Yes, sir, such as ordering the assize of bread, or penny loaves, for the use of school-boys and journeymen taylors. Franc. Still you will be facetious. But to proceed. Amongst other customs, this was enacted by common-council, no doubt, that every freeman dying, and leaving a widow and children behind him, for the better security of what he left them (lest, having their for. tunes in their own power, they might embezzle it, or else be betrayed to very unequal, if not scandalous matches :) The money, I say, was paid into the chamberlain's-office, the sum registered, and his note given for security; the lord mayor, for the time being, and the court of aldermen, becoming guardians or trustees to the said widow and orphans, either of which were not to marry, without their con sent first had and obtained. Aurel. With submission to their authority, I shall never trouble them with the question. Franc. Heaven be praised, at present the condition of that obli gation is void; I Thomas may take thee Abigail, without that license; nay, invite the aldermen to dinner, and they never be offended at it. Aurel. But, granting the intention was good and pious, did it ever answer the end proposed ? Franc. Yes, unquestionably, for several scores of years; for I love to do justice to the memory of the dead. Aurel. I wish my thoughts would allow me that liberty to the living. But how comes it to pass, sir, that the bank is not in that reputation as formerly, the city being much more rich and populous ? Franc. Now, madam, you ask a very knotty question; but, to the best of my memory, the exchequer, being shut up some time be fore the bank you speak of, languished in esteem about the year 1681; yet, with submission, I believe we may go higher, even as far the year 1641, London being esteemed by some at Westminster, what was said of England formerly at Rome, that it was puteus inexhaustus, a well never to be drawn dry: Something went to the maintaining that unnatural war, besides bodkins and thimbles. The prosecuting of the then miscalled godly cause calling for vast sums from the chamber, which all the since received money could not re. pay again; they being oftentimes forced to pay one man's interest with another's principal. And, though the fatal consequences were not known till of late, yet some observators about Guildhall disco. vered, that a late chamberlain, famous for his skill in military discipline, finding a cloud gathering at court, and that he was like to fall under the displeasure of a great man at Whitehall, gave private notice to some of his own party to draw out their money; and those who wanted that kind intelligence are the chief, if not the only suf ferers now; for, you know, it is like the practice of bankers, who being blemished in their repute, their creditors coming in so thick upon them to call in their money, they are forced to stop their payments, in order to a composition. Aurel. But, sir, I have been told, that those, who come a little nearer to our memories, tell us, they have observed a tall building upon Fish Street Hill, a ditch not far from Ludgate, and several con. duits, to be built with mortar tempered with a sort of brackish water, known to the virtuosi, by the name of widows and orphans tears. Franc. No, madam, that was not so, your judgment has been misinformed, those publick structures being wholly built at the city charge, by money raised by a tax upon coals, &c. Aurel. I could have wished the wisdom of the city would have converted those funds into other uses. For the payment of the orphans would have eternised their memories more, than if they had erected monuments and mum-glasses in every street of the city. Franc. For my part, though I would have the second day of September never to be forgotten, yet I have wondered what that monument was intended for, except by day for a land-mark for travellers, that lost their way upon Shooter's Hill; and it is pity that some invention is not found out to make a lanthorn of that flaming ball at top, for poor people cannot go to the price of Hemmings's new lights; and coals, they say, will be very dear this winter. Aurel. I heard, sir, that a gentleman the other day, asking his friend, what that streight bodied thing might cost building, was told about eighteen thousand pounds. Did it so, says the other; I know a gentleman of my acquaintance has lent the city just such I think they had best make a mortgage of it to him for secu▾ a sum, rity. Franc. And very good security too. Well, let the monument stand till a country fellow wants two-pence to see it, I care not; and what a pretty acount that ditch you speak of comes to, after so many thousand pounds expended in the building it, when the vaults and cellarage belonging to it, are now offered to be rented for one-hundred pounds per annum? A very pretty interest for so large a principal. Nay, I am told, that a certain conduit, near Foster-lane, has already gotten a rheumatism, for want of a night-cap. There have been some fine treats at Guildhall, and, supposing there wanted a little sum to buy shrimps and oysters for a dish of fish, I hope it was no such great crime for the caterer to put his hand into the orphans bag to purchase them, Aurel. But, methinks, it, would have been civil, to have invited us to eat part of the fish, when our money paid for the sauce. Franc. No, no, there are meaner provisions suitable to our condition. Lord! Madam, I smile to think how we laugh till our hearts ake, and divert ourselves with our very misfortunes; as prosperity never exalted our thoughts, neither does adversity depress them. It is a practice of philosophy, which few attain to, and the little proficiency, I have made in it, is wholly owing to your generous and sprightly conversation. Aurel. Sir, I would return your compliment, but at present I am out of stock.- -For my part, I know no divine nor human law forbids innocent raillery; if the worst come to the worst, it is but reasonable losers should have leave to speak, though it is dear jesting at the rate of eight thousand pounds. But to be serious, is it not deplorable, that a gentleman, well born and educated, should, for want of that money of his which lies in the chamber of London, be exposed to all the indignities of fortune, accept of some mean office, to keep him from starving, list himself a common sentinel, to stave off his importunate creditors; or, perhaps, take the highway, and make his life as desperate as his fortune: Whereas, if he enjoyed what was justly his own, he might make no contemptible figure in the world, where he now lies wind-bound for want of money. Franc. To shew you the reverse of the medal. Is it not pity that a young gentle-woman, whom nature and education have made a finished piece, for want of those bags which lie sleeping in the chamber, betake herself to some mean employ, or at best to wait upon some finical lady, who, excepting her fortune, is not worthy to be named with her for accomplishments; or, at last, it may be she is married to some inferior fellow; or, if I durst be familiar with female virtue, perhaps, by reason of her poverty, exposed to the sollicitations of unlawful love, from which attempts the possesion of her fortune would secure her. Aurel. I have wanted neither lawful nor unlawful offers; for the first, I am resolved never to disgrace my father's ashes by a sorry marriage; and from the latter Heaven will, I hope, de. fend me. Franc. As despicable as my fortune may be at present, I am resolved not to be despicable in my own thoughts: And I will for once, Madam, make you so far my confessor, as to assure you, I loved a mistress, fair, rich, and virtuous; nor was I, pardon my vanity, treated with contempt, and we had certainly married, had not fortune, on my side, forbid the banes. Aurel. But is there no hopes of recovering our fortunes? Franc. Much such hopes as a dying patient has, when he sees his physician shake his head; but, however, we do not absolutely despair. Aurel. I heard the city were about selling some of their lands, in order to raise a fund for the payment of their debts; did that come to any thing? |