Gascogne vehemently denied what Wye had sworn to, and ‘to which he stuck close in general with great assurance.’ The duchess supported Gascogne with calm dignity. The hostile counsel could neither break down her self-possession, nor get the better of her woman’s wit. Sir William’s name, she said, was doubtless mentioned when Mr. Gascogne and the other gentleman were in her closet. Bayonne? ‘Well, that place might also have been referred to.’ As to the raising of an insurrectionary force, and as to other particulars, she could remember nothing of them,――nay, on being hard-pressed, her grace affirmed that she ‘could almost be positive there were no such things said.’ Lady Emily Butler deposed, generally, that what the duchess had said, was true, and that her own knowledge went no further. ‘It seemed possible,’ says ‘Mercurius,’ ‘that some affairs of a very great consequence might at that time employ her grace’s thoughts, so that she might not exactly remember or observe all that passed.’ Gascogne, against whom a warrant had been issued, on Wye’s information, as long ago as the 2nd of November, tried to damage that worthy’s reputation. Wye rejoined that he could have deposed to many particulars that would have damaged Gascogne’s reputation, but ‘he chose to omit them because he would not aggravate things against him.’ Things, indeed, were grave enough. Gascogne struggled against them as long as he could. In vain he endeavoured to show that he had gone from Bath northward without any intention of joining the Jacobite army, and that he was ultimately arrested by some of its soldiers and carried to head-quarters. Once there, however, he could not deny that he was well received, well entertained, and actively employed by General Forster. The usual result followed. Found guilty, he had to listen to all the horrible details of the sentence of death in cases of high treason. He suffered with becoming dignity. In a paper, handed to the sheriff, he gently complained of――and he heartily forgave――the witnesses who had brought him to death by false testimony. In modest terms he expressed an uncommon ardour or zeal in his duty to his ‘most injured and royal sovereign, King James III.’ Gascogne added, ‘My loyalty descended to me from my ancestors, my father and grandfather having had the honour to be sacrificed in doing their duties to their kings, Charles I. and James II.’ Gascogne gloried in being a Roman Catholic. The paper ended by an expression of thankfulness to God ‘for enabling me to resist the many temptations I have had frequently in relation to a Gentleman, upon whose account, I presume, they have taken my life, because I would not concur to take _his_ life.’ [Sidenote: _CHRISTIAN FEELING._]