State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
History
State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
Trials -- Great Britain
LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Very well. Now mark what I say to you,
friend: I would not by any means in the world endeavour to
fright you into anything, or any ways tempt you to tell an
untruth, but provoke you to tell the truth, and nothing but the
truth, that is the business we come about here. Know, friend,
there is no religion that any man can pretend to, can give a
countenance to lying, or can dispense with telling the truth:
Thou hast a precious immortal soul, and there is nothing in the
world equal to it in value: There is no relation to thy
mistress, if she be so; no relation to thy friend; nay, to thy
father or thy child; nay, not all the temporal relations in the
world can be equal to thy precious immortal soul. Consider that
the Great God of Heaven and Earth, before whose tribunal thou,
and we, and all persons are to stand at the last day, will call
thee to an account for the rescinding his truth, and take
vengeance of thee for every falshood thou tellest. I charge thee
therefore, as thou wilt answer it to the Great God, the judge
of all the earth, that thou do not dare to waver one tittle from
the truth, upon any account or pretence whatsoever: For though
it were to save thy life, yet the value of thy precious and
immortal soul is much greater, than that thou shouldst forfeit
it for the saving of any the most precious outward blessing thou
dost enjoy; for that God of Heaven may justly strike thee into
eternal flames, and make thee drop into the bottomless lake of
fire and brimstone, if thou offer to deviate the least from the
truth, and nothing but the truth. According to the command of
that oath that thou hast taken, tell us who employed you, when
you were employed, and where? Who caused you to go on this
message, and what the message was? For I tell thee God is not to
be mocked, and thou canst not deceive him, though thou mayst us.
But I assure you if I catch you prevaricating in any the least
tittle (and perhaps I know more than you think I do; no, none of
your saints can save your soul, nor shall they save your body
neither) I will be sure to punish every variation from the truth
that you are guilty of.
Now come and tell us, how you came to be employed upon such a
message, what your errand was, and what was the issue and result
of it?
Dunne then proceeds to depose that a man came to his house to desire him
to go with a message to Lady Lisle; he came on a Friday, after the
battle; he was a short black man, and promised a good reward. On
Saturday Dunne went to Moyles Court, and Lady Lisle agreed to receive
Hicks on Tuesday evening. He was pressed as to whether she asked if he
knew Hicks--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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