[Sidenote: _CONCLUSION._] Earl Cowper artfully turned the silly, almost base, plea of the lords,――that they had been drawn into rebellion without thinking of it,――into a charge of insane eagerness to commit treason. It was not so well to represent these rebels of quality as men more concerned to live on in this world than to prepare for the next. It was in worse taste to enjoin those whom he was despatching to that farther realm, to cast off――if they were Roman Catholics――such comfort as their own Priests could bring them, and to commit themselves to the richer solace they might obtain from Protestant ministers! To the Protestant lords, he exclaimed, with a ‘good God!’ to give force to his sentiment, that they must surely be covered with confusion when they reflected that they had entered upon this treasonable enterprise, without even stipulating for a faint promise of toleration for the Protestant religion. At the conclusion, the Lord High Steward said, he must sentence them in the terms used towards the lowest-born traitors, but, that ‘the most ignominious and painful parts’ were usually remitted to persons of their quality! Thus, the more ignorant rank and file of the rebels would be disembowelled before they were half hanged; but the leaders, being ‘of quality,’ would enjoy a happy and honourable dispatch under the edge of the axe! [Sidenote: _LORD COWPER’S SPEECH._] The principal actors in this tragic drama were quietly withdrawn, but not without formal courtesy passing between them and their judges. The audience broke up as from a popular spectacle, more or less moved. Lady Cowper was absent, as one of the condemned, Lord Widdrington, was her cousin. The Countess says, in her Diary, ‘that the Prince of Wales was there, and came home much touched with compassion for them. What pity it is that such cruelties should be necessary!’ Yet one thing gratified her. She was delighted beyond measure that her lord’s speech, on pronouncing sentence, was universally commended. ‘But,’ says the lady, ‘I esteem nobody’s commendation like Dr. Clarke’s, who says, “that it is superlatively good,” and that “it is impossible to add or diminish one letter, without hurting it.”’ [5] _History of the late Rebellion._ [Illustration: Leaves] [Illustration: Decorative banner] CHAPTER VIII. (1716.)