A TRUE NARRATIVE AND MANIFEST Set forth by Sir Robert Walsh KNIGHT and Ba TT Which he is ready all manner of ways to justify as relating unto Plots Designs Troubles and Insurrections which were intended to have been set a Foot towards the Subversion of His Most Excellent Majesties Laws and Government not by a private Information or other but before any Court of Justice Discipline Either in the Civil Common or Marshal Law and to reply or disanul the Printed Paper in part of Edmund Everard an Irish man who was so long Prisoner in the Tower AND To make out why he was so detained nothing relating to the Plot but was for his intent to have Poysoned the Duke of Monmouth as shall more Amply be made out in this Manifest Printed for the Author 1679. AS truth is truth those who persist therein are the Sons of God and such as to the contrary go doubtlesly time will show the effects what is due to God let us pay and in what is our Anointed Kings let us obey I am his Subject and renounce his Grace if disloyalty can be laid to my face Religion leads me unto this tenent so should it Man-kind the great Turk hath his Law to keep his Subjects in due awe Give Caesar his due that is the thing from which Loyalty doth spring our Sacred King is just and above all may give the Law to rise or fall in the protection of his true Subjects a true Protestant he is out of all doubt any thinks other is but a Lout Her Gracious good Majesty is our Queen our duty to her should be seen and own'd so as no malignant tongue may not lead us along but into what is just in Religions many opinions there be His Majesty strives to let us see that the Protestant Religion he will uphold if we in duty do not grow cold weowing Allegiance unto our King so let us pay him and his as in true Religion we are bound unto let criminals their fate endure and Innocents receive their cure As so what is it we Subjects can groan under let us but consider and look of our Neighboring Subjects their Poverty Slavery and Misery then look upon the now Subjects of His Sacred Majesties King Charles the second and upon the happiness of his Reign have we wanted either in trade or splendid subsistance when most of the world have been in war and full of misery and our Alarums in breading confusions O the disatisfaction of man when not contented never comprising when he is well this I intend not to prevent or avoid precautions our Sacred King is most certainly our Head and where can lodge his interest surety or safety but in the uphold protection and preservation of his Loyal and good subjects for as he is the Head the Body cannot subsist but in him and by him would not the son and true heir of a Subject think it a hard usage and dealing that he should last the effects of a crime and hazard a conviction therein ere he where summond to appear or answer if this may be allowed how much more doth it regard the true interest of a Prince is undeniable why did Pilate condemn Christ but because he stayed not to hear the truth O what can be said of the times but strange his Royal Highness being brought on the Stage whose Name Fame Glory Vallor and Gallantry hath esclatted through Europe He from his Minority did never refrain from the hazard of his most Royal Person fairly to win all applause nay his subsistance in Foreign Countries what hath not he done for the safety honor and Glorious preservation both by Sea and Land of his Nation and His Sacred Majesties good Subjects If there be any who knoweth not this sure he is a sleep but they are not who are Villains and Impudent Rascals that most libellously set forth in Pamphlets to ecclipse his due and rights such who take that liberty what would they not be at to emote troubles and disturbances in His Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions Were I summond to appear before the face of Justice or Persons in Power I could attest prove that in the year 72. and 73. how some of His Most Excellent Majesties Subjects have been trampling indeavoring and abetting to raise insurrections tumults and disturbances in His Most Excellent Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions to the intent of subverting His Majesties Fundamental Laws and Government and I am ready to prove that his Royal Highness was so much a stranger and unknowing in the said intermedlings as nothing could be more some malignant spirits will sensure what I hear say to be a Paradox to the contrary I am ready to make appear nay more that if the said insurrections had proceeded or gone on I will make out or forse it my head If that his Royal Highness would not be the first that would hazard his Life and person to oppose and suppress the said intendments had I been interrogated when I was in the Moneth of May last 79. summond to appear as I have at the Bar of the Honorable House of Commons as I was before summond nay carried Prisoner to the Black Rod and appeared before their Most Honorable Committee of the House of Lords I would not have stuck to have made mention of what came within my knowledge as I am ready to do and maintain what is here adjoyning set forth in my manifest may I but be allowed the true liberty of a Subject I come not in as an Informer but to pay my Loyalty without pretence of Benefice or Promotion Honor enough I have the mark of which I carry at my Breast for which I have His Majesties of Blessed Memory's Commission to carry wear in any colour Blue Green or Black in the later I do not having never been guilty of any action of the colour for the sins of my Youth I have for which I ask God only pardon As unto the honor of my Knight-hood some when they want discourse and to derogate from me vvill say that it vvas Sir John Smith vvho vvas Knighted the day of Battle at Edge-hill and so he was vvho vvell deserved it that Royal Prince of the Blood his Highness Prince Rupert I am confident vvill please to remember as unto this vvhat I say in my manifest his Highness being the Person that introduced me unto his Majesty upon the top of Edge-hill vvhere his Majesty did then honor me vvith the title of Knight-hood Thousands of Prints are cryed up and down but they will nâ—t as I do subscribe their names to their Prints to justifie in Justification of their malignity as I do of my Loyalty In this my Manifest may be read part of Sir Robert Walsh his life carriage actions and sufferances Enemies enviously and ungroundedly he hath had who now are disbanded into the other world yet if any particular man carry any animosities against him he knowing not of any ground or Subject he hath given
he is ready to satisfie any that may pretend to the contrary leaving those who read this to judge the hardness of the measure he hath met with wishing he may be the sole or only in this Age who may find the Effects of the like Injustice as he hath TO THE READER THis manifest of Sir Robert Walsh doth declare that he cant out of France into England in the Year 1675. not without order as he can make it appear where his Loyalty and Duty did obliege him and also to declare what malignant designes and insurrections were Ingendring in France where he lived most of his time these Thirty and odd years towards the subversion of His Most Excellent Majesties Government and Fundamental Laws and he hath here continued these Four Years and above to make out what his manifest doth thereunto relating set forth Remonstrating nothing but what came within his knowledge and what he is ready to justifie not only by Oath but by the Laws of any Courts of Justice as either in the Civil Common or Marshal Law to the face of any Subject any French Dutch or Forreigner And is ready to declare if summond thereunto how that in 72. 73. and 74 some of his Majesties Subjects have been intermedling therein presuming that they may be countenanced and upheld by a greater person then yet hath been quoted or named to have fomented in the said Troubles Sir Robert Walsh having taken his dismiss and pass from the French Kings service being in no trust of his Sir Robert by His Most Excellent Majesties permission and orders of some of his chief Ministers of State did keep Intelligence out of France with Mr. Edward Progers one of his Majesties grooms of the Bed-chamber as shall be made amply out in this manifest As also how this Everard and for what he was made Prisoner in the Tower which he chargeth the Lady Anne Gordon Collonel Richard Talbot and his Brother to have been the Contrivers of his Imprisonment some particulars in his depositions shall be proved most false and he hath no way to Justifie himself Unless that as he doth profess himself to be very dextrous in his weapon that by that he may second his Oath In all Kingdoms some Subjects are good and some not 2. What Subject in this Age hath proved more true then the Duke of Ormond give him his due some are bad and yet I hope there may be made a true difference in some particulars it may be demonstrated the marks of their Loyalty conferred upon some Irish as thus There is the Lord Coorsy who by His Majesties Authority is ordered and permitted to wear his Hat in His Majesties Presence certainly it was for his Loyalty that that honor was conferred on him of which this day the young Lord Coorsy may be covered before His Majesty which is for the acceptable service he hath rendred the King and Crown Nor hath Sir Robert Walsh the priviledge of wearing His Majesties of Blessed Memory His Effigies and that of his dearest Son Prince Charles of the one side of his Golden Medal and the form of His Majesties Royal Bannor of the Reverse but for the Acceptable Service he hath rendered at the Battle of Edge-Hill in the year 43. as his Commission for wearing the same from His Majesty of Blessed Memory now Exstant can witness he having received the Dignity and Honor of Knight-hood upon the Top of Edge-Hill Sir Robert being Born in Ireland I hope may not pass for a Crime though some of the Follies of his Youth may be thrown in his Dish as the sin of the Flesh and Gaming yet never was any crime of Dis-Loyalty The first of his Name that went from England into Ireland for His Majesties Service in King Edwards Time was Sir Patrick Walsh who to Attack the City of Lymberick caused a Hundred Horse and Men to swim over the River of Shannon and so Surprized and Took Limberick as the Chronicle of England and Ireland more largely Expatiates upon But Sir Patrick a Horse-Back swimming over the River Bows and Arrows then being in Vse he shot a Swan Flying through the Breast so as ever since the flying Swan hath been his Crest with the Arrow through the Swans Crest and his Armes three Arrows Heads which hath so continued to his line and Name as now they do in me which I give with an addition of the flowers De-luce which I give by the right of having Married an Heiress and I being in France then in command having a Regiment in His Christian Majesties Service and His Most Excellent Majesty then being in Paris and in the Louure some Theses being dedicated at the Colledge of Cerbone unto the Noblest and best of His Most Excellent Majesties Subjects There was one Dedicated to me by one of the Doctors in Theology of the said Colledge and my Arms being set forth and displayed carrying the Flowers De-luce and my name being Valois and so was when in the Conquest the name came out of France into England which here is turned to Walsh by time the Duke De Anguleme being De Valois which name have been Kings of France some being curious sent to the Louure to know if I was not de La Maison de Valois as some Noble-men now here may please to remember then heard the question propounded so as some who grumbled that I should be named Valois may here be satisfied upon what ground I went by the said name and not as un nom de guere some who may read this will understand why I thus Expatiate Another thing Summons me to this Manifest some whom I cannot call better than Lyars Cowards and Villains who if any of them be living and read this they will swallow my Expression Those I mean who have villainously and most falsly invented that I was hired by Cromwel and the Lord of Brohill now Earl of Orery to Kill my Sacred and Anointed King as I at large set out in my Manifest I having been Murderously detained Prisoner in Bruxels Thirty Three Months upon that false pretention I renouncing the least Grace or Favâ—r from His Sacred Majesty then as now I do if any Dis-Loyalty could or can be laid to my Charge 3. If I herein be prolix pray Noble Reader pardon it and consider if that my unjust and non-parell sufferances in those days may not plead my excuse and withal that in this my following Manifest or Remonstrance doth not carry in it a word of untruth nor other then what I am ready to justifie with my life and fortune unto my new or late representments I may add some old which may not be unremarkable as one at the Battle of Edge-Hill in the Year 43. It lay fully in my power to have ended then that unhappy war of England and for the supream advantage of my King you will say why I did not do it and I say when you read what followeth you will own me not condemnable As
to pay that considerable allowance yet for the time of Thirty three months I never received but Ten pound or about the Value I do not say this to upbraid Sir Steven for I believe him an honest Gentleman but that mony was then not over plenty in his Treasury I being forced to address unto the King of Spain he set me at liberty and payed my Costs as here aforesaid else I had there perished XV. I appeal unto my Most Gracious King for Justice who never did deny it unto any of his Subjects and I shall ever as now I do submit unto his will and pleasure I having ever served under his Royal Banner and never had a hand in the War of Ireland I had many of my Kings Letters and Orders to have my Estate not to be made liable unto new Quit Rents and years Value which never had or took the least effects I have payed ever since His Majesties happy Restauration for yearly Quit Rents at Two pence Farthing an Acre out of my Estate an Hundred and Three pound odd mony yearly as is certified under the Auditor Generals hand out of Ireland which amounts not far in the time from being 1900 l. and the years full Value for one year of my Estate besides Morgages upon my Estate of above a Thousand pound which I engaged for to bring Horse and Foot for His Majesties Service out of Ireland I must attribute it to my fate or the want of meeting with Justice whereas I am put in Ballance with such as were in Actual Arms and Service against their Majesty Nay a great many of such have had their Estates struck out of charge and their Quit rents taken off yet mine still stand charged His Majesties Orders and Letters as to my particular meeting with no obedience If loosers may speak sure none can blame me for this my Declaration having never had the least compensation gift or grant nor other usage than what herein is specified only One hundered pound from the Privy Purse To this my Vindication or Declaration I set my hand and am ready to justifie it by either Common Civil or Military Law or place of Justice against any man that dare to my face contradict what I here have said let him be Subject French Dutch or any Forreigner If any be here he may find the lie given him and he will swallow it or give his appearance to charge me XVI Sir Robert Walsh hath been detained Three years Prisoner to the French King in the Bastil and never any thing laid to his Charge but for being of the Prince of Conde's party Then he came for England and was made Prisoner in the Tower by the Usurper never any thing laid to his Charge Then was made Prisoner in Bruxels by his Kings Ministers and never any thing laid to his Charge before Justice These Imprisonments were all you I hope will say hard here lately made Prisoner to the Black Rod and nothing laid to his Charge in 79. Is this the liberty of the Subject XVII One thing more I may with Justice add I being in Paris about the year 72. or 73. or thereabouts I had by the means of Monsieur de Mumbas my ancient Acquaintance who was Brother in Law unto miniere de Grote alias Grotius then Embassador for the States of Holland an entrance unto this Embassador so as that I did discover that the French King and the States of Holland were then upon the point and but very little difference between them of coming unto an agreement or Joyning His Grace the Duke of Buckingham then having His Majesty's Ear I immediatly writ to him that it would be of very great consequence to prevent the said junction by an agreement with the States which as I take did very soon issue France and Holland having until of late continued in a War my Letter unto his Grace I addrest to Sir John Hanmer who did tell me since my coming into England that such a Letter he did receive from me and that he believe it did still lye by him I writ at the same time to Mr. Progers to the same purpose who I am sure did show or produce it unto His Majesty unto whom I sent Miniere Grotius his Letter to me in Mr. Montegue his Packet as may be judged by the effects of the accommodation then we made with the States and Mr. Edward Progers his Letter was to have me come in Person into England XIX The Year of His Majesties happy restauration the Marquis de Gudance was commissioned by the French King to come unto His Most Excellent Majesty to London upon some pretext from the French King Dunkerk then in the Lord Lockerts time of Government there and newly rendered unto His Most Excellent Majesty the Marquis de Gudance made it his work to gain some Officers of the Garison of Dunkerk to surprise the Garison for the French King and had contracted a Treaty with them for that purpose Sir Robert Walsh then living at Berge St. Venox a League from Dunkerk this Marquis came to Berge often he and Sir Robert came acquainted so as the Marquis did communicate his design upon Dunkerk to Sir Robert sounding him that knew the humor of the English how he might so confide in the English and to prevent and be precautioned that he may not be trapanned he offering Sir Robert an assurance of Five Thousand Pistols If he would contribute by his advice and conduct Which Sir Robert did consent to yield unto reserving to himself to do his duty to his King immediatly hereupon he humbly addressed a Letter to His Majesty whereupon His Sacred Majesty immediatly writ to Sir Robert in his own hand immediatly to repair unto him with all speed and privacy Unto which Sir Robert quit his House dwelling and interest in Berge St. Venox and immediatly came to His Majesty The now Earl of Arlington being then Secretary of State His Majesty did Order Sir Robert to make his address unto him and to communicate all particulars unto him which Sir Robert so doing my Lord gave thereunto a hearing answerable and did receive Sir Robert with expressions very kind of the sense he had of Sir Roberts service in that particular and that he would in Order thereunto give His Majesty an account unfortunately soon after Sir Robert was arrested for a Hundred Pound and committed Prisoner to the Fleet under Chancellor Hide his Verge who made such use of his power carrying an animosity against Sir Robert that notwithstanding Sir Robert had put in good security he could not obtain a day writ Sir Jeremy Witchcot being so much the Chancellors Creature until the Lord Arlington who was not so writ to the Warden of the Fleet Sir Jeremy Witchcot that it was His Majesties pleasure Sir Robert should have a day writ which Letter Sir Robert this day hath and upon which his day writ was had and His Majesty a little time after did order Sir Robert
thus at the said Battle as those who were there do know as the most Honorable Valiant Lord Gerart Edward Earl of Barkshier and Collonel Edward Villers Sir Edward Brett Sir Thomas Daniel and others and the Lord Warton can also witness that our left wing of Horse then Commanded by the most Loyal and Royal Earl of Brandford Henry the Lord Wilmot and Commissary General of the Horse did clearly beat and put to flight the right wing of the Enemies pursuing them through the Village of Kinton which lay in the rear of the Enemies Army being a long Village consisting of thatched Houses between which then lay the Enemies Ammunition some Cannon and their Waggons we pursuing the Enemy further our foot in body and the Enemies then hotly ingaged order came to our Horse not to pursue the Enemy further but to return to our Army Our reserve of Horse unpremeditatedly coming with us in the pursuit In our return through Kington Village it came into my head that the burning of that Village and their Ammunition would have rendered us that days victory Whereupon I ordered my Horse men a foot and to fire the Village and their Ammunition and just as they begun to set fire the Honorable and Worthy Brave Lord Carnarvan and that Worthy Commander Sir Charles Lucas being my Superior Officers commanded me from putting my resolution in Execution Saying that the day was ours as also that Ammunition and Village Vnto which I made answer that the Armies being then in fight fortuna de la guere may be Subject to change the face and State of Affairs and that the Burning of their Ammunition could not but assuredly render his Majesty Supream Victory yet notwithstanding I was forced to give obedience so as by the said Ammunition and Cannon we were forced to retreat and quit the Field However I then brought from Kington Two Pieces of their Cannon into the Kings Army and the Waggon of my Lord of Essex which was so compleat and made Coffin way that in our next two days march our Army called it Essex his Coffin but I would it had been the next Waggon which was to it covered with Spits and Frying-pans for there lay all the Armies money and pay as one Pudcy who was Chamber-man unto Essex who writ to me for his Lords necessaries some days after did assure me 4. Though many more deservedly then I might in the day of Battle have attained to the Dignity of the Mark of Honor I carry at my Breast I am confident that there is not many who can show as ample a Commission of his Majesties of Blessed Memory for the like as I have now Extant which in this particular it hath profited me in Where all Noblemen and Knights are liable to pay pole mony I having sent my badge Title and Commission unto those worthy Commissioners who were intrusted in the assessment of the Pole-money they then sitting at Hicks ' s Hall in May 1678. They were civily pleased to discharge me from the payment for my Dignity and that I should pay only a Shilling for my Pole signed by two of the Commissioners and sealed whom I yet never to my knowledge did see Sir Ed. Abney and William Beversham Commissioners the 29. May 1678. So in paying a Shilling I was quit READER pray be so justly favorable I being forced in Honor and Loyalty to make this publication who am no Orator to judge but with an indifferent eye according to the proofs I offer which I will maintain stand unto and will justifie by Common Civil or Marshal Law unto all Persons and in all respects and in particular against this Everard as in any thing wherein he doth bring in my name he is a person that I have known of a long time as also his condition not by the qualification he assumes to himself in the title Esquire in his prints as so he hath subscribed his name which I cannot imagine on what account and I must conclude that he hath as much right so to name himself as unto the contrary he hath to have brought my name in question as to suppress the discovery of the Plots in such as he hath mentioned me in If he will but take example in following my Rule as now I find it not unnecessary to explain my quality and Title and that he may truly so demonstrate his whereby the world may censure or give applause which as unto their judgments may seem fit This Everard doth set forth in his said depositions that in the Year 1673. being in Paris that he did discover unto me some designs and disturbances which were intended towards the prejudice of his Most Excellent Majestie 's Kingdom which as he saith he came to the knowledge of from the Lady Anne Gourdon a Lady that to my remembrance I never spoke unto but heard of her as of a Lady of great Judgment Birth and quality whose Family hath always been adorned with the endowments and Characters of Loyalty of which some of late have given dmonstration and Testimony of as that Noble Person my Lord Donbarton and his Brother so as if this Lady should so fall off as to intermeddle in the like unseemly intermedlings certainly she hath degenerated and rendered her self to be much sensurable and to have done it unto such a Person as this Everard it could render her no less than ridiculous But malice and invention hath so powerful an influence in this Age. Quod nihil plus I speak not as to take this Ladies part nor to excuse her weakness as I believe not should she be guilty But when I consider that man reduced to poverty Extremity want and misery as sometimes this Everard subject to search after all manner of resorse for his relief I will not take on me to Judge of the sequel Now as unto what he hints as having in the Year 1673. discovered unto one Sir Robert Walsh I knowing no other may presume he darts at me Though he mentions not my stile or quality pardon Noble Reader If for reasons I think it not incongruous but rather inducing to consequence that it might be allowed my precations grounded upon Honor may not be involved in other then in duty and Loyalty unto my Anointed King in whose service I have had the Honor to have born very considerable charges and imployments since the Year 1639. in the first Northern service under the Command of the now Lord Stafford having ever since served my Kings Honorably and Faithfully which no body can deny and particularly in the Battle of Edge-Hill in the Year 1643. Where fate was no less favorable unto me then fortunate in inabling me to render my King acceptable service so as that he was then graciously pleased in the Field to honor me with the dignity of Knight-hood then giving his Royal Commands that when he should arrive in Oxford that a Medal of Gold should be made for me with his own Effigies and that of His Dearest
replied that I first would address unto the Duke of Ormond to see if I could make my peace and be admitted to Court which my Lord Brohill gave me some time to do And then I writ to the same tenure unto his Grace of Ormond and an other Letter in private unto his Grace of what past and was to pass and upon what termes I was to obtain my liberty I showing the return to the Lord Brohil he procured me my liberty Fifty or Sixty pound upon my word I know not which upon the Faith of a Christian this was all that past betwixt my Lord of Orery and me or from any other of the Usurpers Creatures I never having spoke to the Usurper only once he Landing at White-Hall-staires out of a Pair of Oares coming from Lambert and I entring into a Pair of Oars he asked who I was and called me to him asked me whether the Island near Waterford was not mine I said of right it was but that his Highness did take it from me and gave it Collonel Vernon who had been his quarter Master General so parted and I never saw him since As unto my Lord of Orery I would take the Sacrament that he never spoke one word or syllable unto me of my King in the whole course of our transaction but as heretofore I have mentioned soon after I Landed in Flanders and went to Gant there was casually his Grace of Ormond unto whom I presently made my address but he being busie with the Lord Culpepper that time was not convenient the next day I waited on his Grace to give him the account of my Transactions in England representing all I could gather only that I would make it out how some near His Majesty did betray his Secrets unto the Usurper and his Creatures I offering upon pain of the loss of my Head to give evident proofs of the said intelligence My Lord said he would give his Majesty who was then in Bruges an account of what I said some Two days after the Earl of Clancarthy came to Gant from his Grace of Ormond and brought me this message that it was His Majesties Pleasure that I should appear before His Majesty and Council to answer what was to be laid to my charge unto which I replied that I was ready to appear and the next day I being going into the Boat from Gant to Bruges in obedience as I conceived to His Majesties Pleasure I received an other message from his Grace that I should immediatly leave the low Countries by His Majesties positive Order so expressed or that I should run the hazard of what should follow I answered I would in all things obey my Kings Command though I well know that this Order was procured by those who knew themselves guilty how I would have accused them of their keeping intelligence with the Usurper Next day from Gant I took my journey towards Germany to get unto his Highness Prince Rupert and took the City of Bruxels in my way which was not much out of it the Lord Digby and Sir Edward Hyde were then hand and glove the world hath seen what they have been afterwards Truly I was at a defiance with either so as the true liberty of the Subject had been allowed me for I neither would creep or cringe to either the Lord Digby was then immediatly by Sir Edward Hyde dispatched and Imployed after me to Bruxels it being well known that I had entrance so with the Prince of Conde who was then in Bruxels so as to bring me to his Catholick Majesties State Ministers and Governors there where I would have declared of the Treacheries done to my King but the Lord Digby and Sir Edward Hydes joyning their heads so contrived that the Governors Don John d' Austrea and Marquis de Carassenas were informed and possessed that I was then imployed by the Usurper and Earl of Orery to Kill my King so the next Morning after my arrival in Bruxels my Son and Servant and I ready to take Horse the grand Provo Casteneda comes with Forty at his heels shewing me no Order conveyes my Son and I to the Prison called Urinate and Orders that none should come to speak unto us which so continued for six Months we starving with hunger and cold after which I found means to address unty my Sacred King who was so indulgently just that he did authorize the Judge Millitary of Flanders to examine the proceedings as also to determine who so did as heretofore is declared which comprises his Catholick Majesties Orders to pay the charges of my imprisonment who had nothing to do with it and to put me at liberty that was made Prisoner sine culpa To give an allay unto my unjust sufferances this Order did not a little solace me XIII One thing Noble Reader I being admitted Pen and Ink be pleased to observe I did ever renounce my Kings Grace or Favour should I be made guilty of Disloyalty I would neither beg desire or take my Kings Pardon I never having sinned against him his Interests or Service nor would I my Gods pardon had I no more sinned against him than I have against my King I then in my time of Imprisonment did represent unto my King that a time would come that the Lord Digby and Sir Edward Hyde would be Cashier'd and Banished from his Court and that I who was then Tyrannically made Prisoner by their false Informations and Suggestions should be at liberty to stand at His Majesties Elboe to see them both in disgrace and so I have and seen them and seeing I could not then there possess the true liberty due to a Subject I would I may here which hitherto I have not I may implore nay press for it Conscientia mille Testes I fear no man upon Earth my Duty to my King not comprised nor no Laws either My King I am sure cannot in himself err So good I am sure he is I cannot nor will I say that Ministers of State who govern the consciences of Kings and who are to answer may not err This I intend unto the Ministers of Forraign Kings XIV You must know Noble Reader that the City of Bruxels have it by their Charter that no stranger made Prisoner there is to be detained above Twenty four hours without he be Examined his Charge given in against him and the Cause of his Imprisonment Examined and that besides if any make a Prisoner upon Informations that they should secure to make a party against the Prisoner who by their Law in Bruxels are to allow the Prisoner a daily subsistence according to the Quality of the Prisoner else the Prisoner not to be detained Upon which it was ordered that I and my Son and servant by His Most Excellent Majesties then Councel that Twenty pence a day should be given us The World may judge whether that was a proportion fit and I having lain Thirty three months Prisoner Sir Steven Fox being ordered
a Hundred Pound which was brought him to the Fleet and the Lord Arlington did also make Sir Robert a present of Twenty Ginneys unto my Lord Arlington the Lord Chancellor a thing not unknown was then no great friend yet the Lord Arlingtons Loyalty Fidelity and duty to his King hath so preserved him as to be now what he hath deserved and is and so may all taste as they deserve if not in this world in the next they must and will but as unto Dunkerk such order was then given as that the French Kings design took not until it was sold him which I wish had never been Sir Robert could say more but hates to trample upon the dead This was after Sir Roberts being kept Prisoner in Bruxels by the instigation of Chancellor Hyde and the instrument he made use of to have Sir Robert then made Prisoner was one that ingratiated himself with Don John D' Austrea who was then Governor of Planders which was thus he was an English man and a degree above a Knight he being some years servant unto an English Dame who had had Three or Four Children he had her received by Don John for a Maid and so past her for unto him and some Five or Six Hundred Pistols was gained that way this was not ill mis-trip as some that read this well may remember the passage herein such qualified persons not constant in Religion Protestant or Papist were the instruments of Sir Robert Walsh his Murderous Imprisonment for Three and Thirty Months in Bruxels but they never would come as witnesses in this age do whereby to maintain their accusations either by right or wrong those who Treacherously under hand to gain them a little favor were accusors of Sir Robert Walsh he could name Six of them since gone unto a worse World then this and few or none now living XX. Now Noble Reader this Everard dashing at me that I should be a subduer of Discoveries Animosities Plots or Designs intended towards the subversion of His Majesties Laws and Government to prove how far from truth that is I appeal to what my King knoweth as coming from me in 1675. 76. 77. 78. And what I did communicate unto the now Honorable Lord Chancellor the Lord Arlington and other Ministers in or about the said years whose names I now mention not as unwilling to add calamity unto calamity I doubt some whom I would have named in 1675. were I thereunto summon'd are no small Incendiaries or Promotors in Disturbances Unto which had I been heard in time prevention might have been given the World cannot but Judge and so shall that my interest is soly in my Sovereigns and that of his good Subjects I having staid here these Four years in expectance that my Representments should be verified and so allowed as now they are and to my great cost I have my Labor for my pains sed Tempus edax rerum XXI Now Noble Reader pardon if I give you the trouble of reading how the Sieur Grimings was put to death who was the Receiver General of Planders a Person then most High and Eminent would make Princes attend their having Audience whiles he stayed to see his Daughters dance the Tricote his Pallace in Bruxels not much inferior to Dunkerk or Clarendon house the reason why I trouble you your Reading his end is that I was nominated in bringing him to it he then being a Prisoner in the same which I was in at Bruxels in the year 1658. that I was the Person who next his demeanor of not being capable to account for the vast summs he had received of his Catholick Majesties Subjects that I was the person who hindered his escape a thing I then did own and now do which none living can or will blame me for when they here the truth as now here they may of the passages thereof yet did Sir Edward Hide and his then Creatures falsely asperse me in giving out that I betrayed this Grimings the passages were as thus which is the Real truth of it this Grimings being a close Prisoner in a ground Chamber seeing me walk in the Yard had the opportunity of asking me why I was there a Prisoner I replied I did not know and withal that I renounced the Grace or Favor of all Kings or Law for any thing that could be laid to my charge upon which he said that the Kings grace was not to be denied and I replied not for them who had use thereof of which number I did conclude he was one and so we parted his Lady was then confined to his Pallace in Bruxels and a Hundred Soldiers there every Night in Guard she hearing that I was a person of Honor and a Prisoner which lay in the Chamber above her Husband she disguises herself and comes to my Chamber throws herself at my feet which very much did surprize me I made her rise which she was unwilling unto she declaring that I was the only person that could relieve and serve her I said that sure she was mistaken and that she took me for some other more considerable Person that might be a Prisoner she cryed no that it was I and none other else that could serve her and declares unto me how which was as thus my Husband lyeth here under your Chamber and I can no way contrive a Communication with him but by your means help and assistance If that you may please so far to be charitably oblieging towards me as to contrive his having a Billet from me for all his Wealth lyeth placed in convents and particular places that without my having an account from him how and where I and my Children are ruined for ever Unto which I replied that I lay Prisoner I knew not for what and for to render my self to be guilty of Intermedling in a concern of that Nature could shew no Judgment or wisdom in me but she so did importune me that she prevailed and I did contrive to convey her Billets to her Husband and his to her by which means she found where and how all his Wealth lay upon which she got his Wealth which were Millions of Livers and so conveyed herself into Holland out of the King of Spains Dominions without making me the least return but by divers of her Letters which are yet extant Grimings being put upon the Rack confessed contrary to his Vows and promises that it was by my means that he corresponded with his Wife upon which his Catholick Majesty sent Commissioners to examine me who indeed were very civil I did not deny my guilt saying why did his Catholick Majesty detain me Prisoner and upon what grounds The Commissioners said I had given great Treasures out of His Majesties Cophers soon after Grimings his Wife run away I writ to Grimings that I had served him in the trust his Wife imposed in me and desired him that he would give his Billet to his son for me to receive a Hundred Pistols I being
in distress which he would not do then I writ to him that he should never expect any favor at my hand but to the contrary as he found by the loss of his Head For he being just ready to have made his escape I did discover it to Don John d' Austrea and to the Marquis de Carassenas being in no trust for Grimings for he intended to have got into the French quarters and being a person that was in so considerable an Imployment and posture as he was he would have disserved his Catholick Majesty to a greater value then the vast summs of his Majesties that he could not account for which I prevented and made His Catholick Majesty amends for what I formerly did for Grimings who as unto his being ungrateful did meet the due return by my means in which he did not intrust me I long since made a Declaration of this matter the Year of His Majesties happy restauration who was graciously pleased to write unto me to come into England all in his own hand which I did obey I then declared that the Chancellor of Poland for his ill managing the Kings Conscience being chief Minister was degraded Soe was Monsieur Fouquet in France that was Treasurer Then how Grimings in Flanders lost his head and I did foresee that the next bordering Minister should take example in being precautioned I addressing the same to the Lord Clarendon who had me Prisoner under his Lash in the Fleet I then shewed my Declaration unto that Honorable Person the Lord of Anglisey Lord Privy Seal not to conceal the sight thereof from my Lord Clarendon which my Lord of Anglisey did not so as in a little time after my Lord Clarendon proved not so vehement in the Execution of his Power Falix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum XXII This is to declare the Ingratitude of the said Grimings and what his not Provoyance did bring him unto he having been put on the Torture did confess that it was by my means that his Wife did beget a Correspondence with him to attain unto his wealth as she hath I being Examined therein by His Catholick Majesties Commissaries who shewed me how Grimings did own it was I who gave the Expedient and they carrying themselves very civilly towards me I did own that I was if it was a Guilt The helper of giving the Access of her Billets to her Husband and his unto her saying why did His Catholick Majesty keep me a Prisoner without producing my Charge what had he to say against me I renounced either Grace or Favour from him I demanded Justice withal declaring that the Tyranny of my so being kept Prisoner might have given me scope to have served all Prisoners as supposing that they might be as guiltless as I was This Grimings after his being put to the Torture designs to endeavour making his escape and begets an understanding with one that was then there Prisoner to help him unto Files to file the Iron Barrs of his Grate which he did I having disserved His Catholick Majesty and willing to repair the same I lodging above Grimings in the Night I could hear him file the Iron Barrs and taking notice thereof I did walking in the Yard discover the Bar of Iron he worked upon and was very near effecting his design I lying under His Catholick Majesties displeasure I did calculate that if I made a Discovery of his intent to have escaped it might have allayed the former disobligement I had layed on His Catholick Majesty and I being not satisfied with the ingratitude of Grimings and his Wife so as I writ unto Don John d' Austrea how Grimings was to have made his escape Whereupon he sent to find the Utiles and to search every corner of his Chamber but found no visibility of what I had represented his having sent Commissaries and a Glasier to sound the Bars but they could discover no appearance so Don John sent to me that I represented what was not true I returned to Don John that those he sent were Fools and gave them direction how to discover the truth of what I represented and so they did You must know that when they came with a Key to sound the Iron Bars the Bars did sound all sound which in a cut Bar is not ordinary But Grimings as soon as he filed did fill the Oraphis with wax and Tobacco-powder and until I gave the Key of this discovery they could not find it out but having found it he was soon Executed and all the favour he could obtain who was once the Great Grimings was to have his head chopt off in the said Prison and was not carried to the Common Place of Execution XXIII I must a little here display in part what return or reward I met with for my coming out of France with my Representments of the disturbances which were intended towards the deturnment of His Sacred Majesties Laws and Government I having been for many Years out of England upon my arrival here in London I was introduced to the Widow of a Hamborow Merchant by Name E. I. now O. B. she was represented for a very Rich Widow we falling into acquaintance she very much did importune me to lodge at her House which I did for a week not without representing unto her that it would bring her name under a sensure seeing that there was no concern as unto any thing of Marriage in the point for instead of every Thousand Pounds said she had that proved but Four or Five great Sons and a Daughter which I finding as also discovering her Gossoping and Frolicking qualities I withdrew in my visits and frequency with her whereupon she grew most outragiously inveterate against me and whereas her Letr ers of which I have a Bushel declare that my sheets should be well aired and I should be kept warm and that all her all was mine and in her Letters declaring that she pretended not to have the honor of marrying a person of my quality only coveting my Company The cruel usage of hers as followeth may admit my thus expatiating though a thing contrary to my nature towards that venerable Sex It 's true that in the time of our converse I did tell her that there would be great disturbances and troubles ingendred in England I soon after refraining giving her my visits she grew passionately desperate run out one night out of her House into the street stopt my Coach she half naked and swore if I came not in and stay all night that she would kill herself I not staying as being unwilling thereunto she a little after went in her passion to my Lord Chief Justice and made a most pernitious and false affidavit that I robbed her of a Hundred Pounds worth of Plate and that I had pawnd it unto Mr. John wallis a Gold-smith in Lombard street at the sign of the Angel who can witness that I never did pawn any Plate unto him a Person in