MEeting with a Pamphlet, intituled the Lord George Digbies Apologie for himselfe; and being well acquainted with the excellent gifts and naturall indowments of the man, I could not choose but with a great deale of de­sire venter on the perusall of the said Pamphlet, which indeed began with so much modesty and harme­lesnesse, that I did begin to entertaine a very good opinion of the rest; but therein the said Lord plaid his master­piece of craft, to make his sufferings, as it were, the pre­amble to that Discourse; so to beguile the mindes of the vulgar Readers, and allure them to commiserate his mis­fortunes, by the displaying and protesting his innocency, and consequently his injuries: and surely so subject is mans nature, especially the wavering multitudes, to pity misfortunes, even in the most desperate malefactors, whom before in their wishes they had devoted to a thou­sand deaths and torments; that when they evidently see [Page 4] them suffer, they are very apt to compassionate their di­st [...]. So I believe it is with this young Lord, who having with his faire andspecious Apologie, as the ancient used (even their capitall offenders) provare ad populam appealed to the peoples censure, hee ho [...]es) hee shall by the winning and imploring language of his said Apologie, intice and perswade them to an absolute be­liefe of his innocence, nothing being more uncertaine then the mindes and votes of that giddie and blatant beast, the multitude.

But to judicious and discerning eyes, who weigh every circumstance by judgement, not passion, this his Apologe­ticall discourse will rather appeare an absolute accusation then a disingagement of him from his crimes, that goodly and verdant grasse being not of heigth enough to hide the swelling and invenomed Serpent that lurks under it, which in spight of my Lords fained modestie will breake out and declare the rankour of his heart towards the good of the Common-wealth, and the proceedings of the honourable the High Court of Parliament of which hee sayes, hee was once a Member, and demeaned himselfe with that free and just deportment for the good and advancement of the publique affaires, that hee had gained a very good opinion whilest hee was in the lower House, still asso­ciating himselfe with such of the said House, as were most forward in the Common-wealths cause. That he did all this, is confessed: For men can never gaine any thing by detracting from an enemy; and that hee did proceed with much zeale and diligence in that which befitted him in the publique affaires; in especiall, about the trienniall Parliament, and the businesse of my Lord of S [...]fford, against whom hee declaimed with much judgement and discretion, but afterwards in that very businesse which with so much acrimony and and courage he had pursued, to wit, the att [...]inder of the said Earle, he fell off, even [Page 5] against his owne conscience, being then touched with that first some of the Angells, ambition, which makes men like poysoned Rats, who, when they have once swallowed the pleasing bane, rest not untill they drinke, and then can rest much lesse, untill they burst with it: For about this time, divers of those subtill Malignants, taking spe­ciall notice of the growing vertues and admirable abili­ties of that young L [...]rd, thought it advantagious for their purpose, by drawing him with the line of honour to their purpose, to withdraw him from the service of his Coun­trey, which he had so couragiously undertaken; and there­fore intimating to his Majesty his abilities, hee was in­stantly by writ called out of the lower House, where he was by election a Burgesse, into the upper House, where by that new creation hee was to sit as a Baron and a Peere of the Realme. Besides, as himselfe confesses in his Apologie, there was notice taken, and advisement given him by a friend, that hee was lost in the opinion of ma­ny by his frequenting the Court; and indeed, hee was so, for then the young mans nature being wrought up­on by the perswasions and promises of those subtile Ma­lignants, and puft up by their manifesting his immense de­serts and hopes of a signall and sudden preferment, hee then turned recreant to his former vertue and care of the Common-wealth, declining it, in regard of his private ad­vancement and profit; and then, to the wonder of all, and griefe of most good men, hee fell off from his opinion in that case of which hee had formerly beene so great a patron, and then made that infamous and unhonou­rable Speech, so much detested of all true lovers of the Common-wealth, which by order from the honourable the high Court of PARLIAMENT was publikely burned by the common Hang-man; a Speech indeed de­serving no better destiny, then to be sacrificed by the fire to oblivion; and neither the finenesse of my Lord Digbyes [Page 6] wit, nor the comptnesse of his phrase, can by both their endevours excise that Speech of absolute apostasie to his former integrity; nor incite to believe that so many honourable and wise men as were then resident in the House of Commons, would have condemned that Speech to so much infamy, and proscribed the Author incapable of honour and office in the common-wealth, had it not beene stuft with unpardonable and apparent abuses, both to the honour and utility of the State; and therefore to no reasonable man can my Lords Vindication of that Speech appeare valid. But not to insist too long upon this Article, let us descend to the examination of that which declared him a professed enemy to the State, namely, the businesse at Kingston, whither he protests hee onely went by his Majesties command, to deliver a mes­sage to some Souldiers and Cavaliers, not with any in­tention or act of hostility, or rankour against the Parlia­ment: Let us but rightly consider the men with whom he went to treat, and out of that will appeare my Lords equivocation at least, if not absolute falshood in this point: First, these forty men hee talkes of, were at least eight score, all of them of the Commanders that were in the Northerne expedition, men for the most part of as de­sperate soules as fortunes; and that these men were drawne thither, either by the Lord Digby's perswasions, or some others of his stampe and condition, is evident, in that the said Commanders were destined as a leife guard to his Majesty, into whose head my Lord Digby, and such other Malignants, had subtilly instilled feares and jealousies of his sacred persons securitie, against which no man would ever be so audacious as to have a thought of harme; and so got his Majestie to entertaine those Cavaliers, being indeed aptly to be resembled to those desperate Gladiators among the Romans.

And whereas my Lord excuses himselfe, or at least [Page 7] thinks hee does so, of all these machinations and practi­ses, by alledging hee is not of his Majesties Councell; grant it, yet having his Majesties eare as well as Master Porter and the rest of his Cabinet-councellors, it is cer­ [...]ine his Lordship might give as dangerous advices as the most perverse Malignant among them: Vertuous men, when they once decline to vice, are of all others the most vicious: as among the Turkes none are so deadly and desperate enemies to the Christians as Christian Run­negadoes; and whereas my Lord sayes, if hee had been of the Councell he could have detected divers, who said the King was not worthy to live, and words of the like barbarous and disloyall consequence; why did not his Lordship declare and appeach those persons, that they might have beene given up to the Lawes punishment, which certainly the honourable the High Court of Par­liament would have seene with all severity inflicted on them. And though his Lordship does so much stomack his being called and declared Traytor to the King; if he had committed nothing else, cerrainly this concealment so long of the author of such words is safficient to con­vince him of Treason; but if actually to levie warre a­gainst the Kings people, be Treason against the King, as my Lord apparently did at Kingston, then is my Lord Digby guilty of Treason, not otherwise; if to be the au­thor and abetter of ill counsells to the King, and dange­rous and destructive to the peace of the Kingdome, as is evident my Lord is, by his intercepted Letters, where­in hee required his Majesty to withdraw to some place of strength and safety from this Parliament, be to be a Traytor, then is my Lord so, otherwise innocent. And for his Lordships withdrawing by the Kings licence out of his discontents into Holland, in hope that tract of time might reconcile him to the good opinion of the people, and abo­lish the memory of his disgraces; the falshood of this [Page 8] pretension is more apparent them any of the former; and that my Lord went over meerely as an agent to promote and advance the distractions betweene his Majesty and his Parliament, by procuring forraigne ayds, which by his owne Letters is testified against him, that hee ende­voured both in the Netherlands, and in other parts; as also by the information of sundry Merchants of good cre­dit from thence, my Lord desiring to have himselfe writ­ten unto by the name of Baron of Sherburne. Next from whence came all those supplies of ammunition and armes to Newcastle, but from my Lord Digby and his accom­plices. Finally, there is nothing in all my Lords well-penned Apologie, that is worthy any judicious mans be­liefe or pity, unlesse they may in Christian charity grieve that so many rare [...] and excellent parts as are in the man, should be so mis-imployed: for past question by this that is here set downe in answer to his said Apologie, it is manifested perspicuously how ill a title my Lord can lay to innocence, and how evidently malicious guilt hath beene contiguated with all his actions, since his revolt from his duty to his mother the Common-wealth, from whom hee can deserve no better a [...] stile then that which the honourable the High Court of Parliament hath af­fixed upon him.