whom the King would extend the favour of a pardon, let it be particular and express. After all, the disadvantage they were under, was but the payment of some fees to officers, which was compensated for by their enjoying exemption from serving in chargeable offices.[130] [Sidenote: 1684.] Guilford thought that in this way he outwitted his adversary, and accounted his manœuvre the most memorable act which he had ever performed. The report shows, that from personal inclination, or from a wish to gratify the King, and the Duke of York, he evinced especial hatred to Protestant Nonconformists in general, when he recommended mercy to some Popish recusants in particular; and, whatever might be his motive on the occasion, the speech which he delivered, and his entire relation of this Cabinet secret, discloses to us very plainly the characters of the men who then guided public affairs, and the contemptible feelings which influenced their conduct. One Nonconformist sufferer at that time demands a passing notice. William Jenkyn, of St. John’s, Cambridge, ejected from the Vicarage of Christ’s Church, London, where he had been exceedingly popular, was, on September the 2nd, 1684, seized by a soldier,--he being at the very time engaged in prayer with his friends. Refusing to take the Oxford Oath, he was committed to prison; and to a petition for release founded on a medical certificate that his health would be endangered by confinement, no answer could be obtained but this,--“Jenkyn shall be a prisoner as long as he lives.” As his end drew near, he said to those around him, “Why weep ye for me? Christ lives; He is my friend, a friend born for adversity, a friend that never dies.” “May it please your Majesty,” remarked a nobleman, when he heard of his death, “Jenkyn has got his liberty.” “Aye,” rejoined Charles, “who gave it him?” “A greater than your Majesty, the King of Kings.” The Confessor was followed to Bunhill Fields, by a procession of a hundred and fifty coaches. Even gay Courtiers looked sad, and the reckless King seemed concerned. “L’Estrange,” in his _Observator_, “alone set up a howl of savage exultation, laughed at the weak compassion of the Trimmers, proclaimed that the blasphemous old impostor had met with a most righteous punishment, and vowed to wage war not only to the death, but after death, with all the mock saints and martyrs.”[131] [Sidenote: CHARLES’ COURT.] Nor should it be forgotten, that whilst Nonconformists were suffering all kinds of hardships, the King and his Court were indulging in unbridled licentiousness, so that the contrast drawn by the poet of the mysteries of Providence then appeared in our own country as vividly as it ever did in any part of the world:--