he offer'd to his Majefty; he faid, He would not ftudy to justify them all, fince he was far from the Vanity of magnifying his own Counfels; but all he could answer for, was his good Intention, which was not to be meafur'd by Succefs.

As for his disclosing the King's Defigns to his Enemies, Hell could have devifed nothing far ther from Truth: For not only does the Silence of all his Letters that are in my Hands refute that but when fome afterwards, who had been leading Men in the Covenant, broke with him, with fuch Animofity, and when by fome of thofe much Pains was taken to poffefs the King with Jealour fies of him, it is not to be doubted, but if there had been a Shadow of Truth for those Imputations, fome Particular would have appear'd, or Tome Letters had been preferv'd to have justify'd these Infinuations. But nothing was fo much as ever pretended for this, beyond Whispers and get neral Stories.

P

If all his Friends were not at all times fo fixed to their Duty as they ought to have been, that left no Blame upon him; for no Man can be: lir able for his Friends, nor charg'd with the Fanits of other Men: But when any of them ftrayed from their Duty, his Friendship made him not the lefs, but the more fevere to them; and many of them being yet alive, have witneffed with what honeft Zeal he always ftudied to engage them to a cordial Adherence to the King's Service. But to fum up all, thofe, who after they fee how, in his laft Speech, delver'd at his Death, he begs Pardon and Mercy from God, as he hath been a faithful Servant to his Mafter, and do still retain their Jealoufies, are beyond the Cure of any Perfuation; for none but a defperate Atheist could have adventur'd fo far with a defiled Confcience. Neither can it be alledged here, that all in those

Times pretended to be for the King: For per baps many thought the Methods they took were the best for fecuring and fettling his Throne. But had the Duke been faulty, as the World accus'd him, it must not have been a Miftake in his Thoughts, but a Crookedness of his Heart, a betraying of his Truft, and a falfifying of his Engagements: And who can fuppofe that the Parties, who were prevalent both in England and Scotland at the time of his Death, and purfued him and his Memory with all the Exceffes of Malice, would not have difcover'd fuch Treachery, to load him with the greater Infamy, if there had been any Grounds for it, fince they were the Perfons who must have known it beft?

As for that ridiculous and devilish Forgery of his pretending to the Crown of Scotland, never any were alledged to have heard a Hint of it from himself, no not in Raillery; and certainly if fo great a Defign had ever been discover'd to any Perfon, it must have been to his Friends, and he must have taken Pains to have made fome Party fure for it: But for this nothing was ever whifper'd but Surmifes, and thofe hanging fo ill together, that they retain'd not fo much as the Shadow of Probability.

For his Country, as he had as great Intereft in it as any Subject, fo his Affection yielded to none : And it is certain, that if his Counfels to the King feem at any time to fall fhort of the higher Ways of Authority, nothing but his Affection to his Country gave him the Biafs; for, he confeffed, the thing in the World at which he had the greateft Horror, was the engaging in a Civil War with his Countrymen.

He was far from any Defigns of engroffing cither Power or Places of Advantage to himself, and his Friends; nor was he ever the Occafion of

any

any Burden to the Country; for the Affignments he had upon fome Taxations, were only for Payment of the Debts he had contracted by his Majesty's Command for his Expedition to Germany. And fo little fond was he of being the King's Commiffioner in Scotland, that in divers of his Letters he propos❜d others to his Majefty for that Truft, protesting it was a Place of all other he hated moft; and when he faw Jealoufies taken at his being in that Truft, as if the King had been to govern Scotland by a Commiffioner, he preffed his Majefty to change him; fo careful was he to avoid every thing which might be a Grievance to his Country, and retard the King's Service.

He was the great Patron of Scotish Men in the Court, which drew, on several Occafions, a large Share of Malice upon him: As appear'd particularly in the Cafe of one Colonel Lesley, whom Colonel Sanderfon's Friends were pursuing in the Court, alledging that Lefley had kill'd that Colonel unworthily in Mufcovia. The Crime was not committed in the King's Dominions, and Lesley was legally acquitted of it in Ruffia, who upon a national Account, being a Scotish Man, laid Claim to the Duke's Protection; but this irritated Colonel Sanderfon's Brother (who pretends to have written The Hiftory of King Charles I.) into fo much Rage against him, that forgetting the Laws of History, he breaks out, on all Occafions, into the most paffionate Railings, that his fpightful, but blunt and impotent Malice could devife. And the best of all is, he bewrays his Ignorance as well as his Paffion, in all the Accounts he gives of the Scotish Affairs; fo that it is hard to fay, whether his Folly in attempting to write a Hiftory on fuch flen-, der Informations, or his Impudence in forging or venting Lies with fuch Confidence, deferves the feverer Cenfure.

And fince I mention this Leftey, I fhall only add, that tho' Sander fon tells a formal Story of the fignal Judgments of God on him in his Death, he was alive many Years after that Book was publith'd, which can be well proved by many who knew him.

The Duke was very fumptuous and magnificent in his Way of Living, but abhorred that debauch'd Cuftom of Entertainments by Drinking, and was an Example of Temperance; which coft him dear in Denmark, where he refufing the ordinary Entertainments of that Court in Drinking, was not only ill us'd, but made to pay a great Sum, under the Pretence of Paffage-dues: Temperance was particularly recommended to him by his Majefty, when he went to Germany; and his returning from that Court without tranfgreffing thefe Laws, was fuch an Evidence of his obferving them, that afterwards few would tempt him to thofe Exceffes.

Of all Virtues he esteem'd Ingenuity and Candor moft, as that which was the Ground of all Confidence, and the only Security among Men; and therefore recommended it chiefly to others, and ftudied to obferve it moft himself. I confefs, when I confider his whole Method of framing and carrying on his Defigns, how ftrait and candid they were; if I oft admire his Invention, I do much more efteem the Ingenuity of his Proceedings: for I never find him veiling Truth with a Lie, nor carrying on Bufinefs with a Cheat: And to speak freely, the greatest departing from thefe Rules appear'd in the Declaration emitted in April, 1648; where, among other Things, the Parliament declar'd, They would not admit his Majefty to the Exercife of his Royal Authority, till he by Oath obliged himself to fwear, and ratify the Covenant. The Duke ftuck long e're he

would

would give way to this; at length finding the vio lent Party that crofled the Engagement implacable; and being defirous to withdraw from them all Colours or Pretences for oppofing that Defign,he yielded to it; and at that time faid to a Friend of his, that the Prefervation of the King went fo near his Heart, that he could refufe nothing which might make way for that. But it was far from his Thoughts to feclude the King from the Exercife of his Royal Power, and therefore it was excufed at the fame time, both by the Letters his Brother wrote to the King, and in the Inftructions fent by Sir William Fleeming to the Queen and . Prince, and by Sir William Bellenden to the Prince of Orange. I have alfo a Journal, which he took with his own Hand, of what paffed in that Parliament, wherein he wrote, when that Act was put to the Vote, that (though he gave his Vote to it) it was not his Opinion. And thus I lay open both his Fault, and the Temptation that led him to it, fo that if ever any officious Lie was of a venial Guilt, fure this was: Yet who knows, if among the many and wife Councils, for which God might have permitted that Army's Miscarriage, as a Punishment for our other Sins, we not being ripe for a Deliverance, this departing from the fevere Rules of Ingenuity and Virtue might not have been one procuring Caufe? But this is the only Inftance of this Nature I have met with, in the whole Survey of his Actions and Papers.

As for the Mildness and Gentlenefs of his Nature, no Day went over' him without giving new -Discoveries of it. For it was very hard to provoke him, but no lefs eafy to appeafe him: He was not unequal in his Humor, but as one left him they found him, being always chearful and ever the fame. And whatever Afpirings might have

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