Clifford, who yet stood by what he considered his right, was now subjected to a number of petty persecutions. His wife went to England, leaving him her attorney, and he began to pester the Governor to remove the illegal arrest on his estate. At last this importunity led to his arrest, and he was sentenced by this same Court of Justice to be hanged, as a mutineer and disturber of the public peace. But, being "more inclined to clemency than to carry things to the utmost rigour of justice," they commuted this sentence to imprisonment for seven years, with a fine of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds of sugar. As may be supposed, this arbitrary judgment only made Clifford more exasperated. He still went on petitioning and protesting that he was not a Dutch subject, as he had refused to take the oath of allegiance, and that therefore he was only standing up for his rights. However, he was imprisoned in the fort, where every effort was made to prevent his communicating with England or the English colonies. Notwithstanding these precautions he managed to send several letters, meanwhile threatening the Court that if they kept him any longer he would be forced to use such means of relief as he should be advised. After some delay his communications reached Barbados, Jamaica, and New York, from whence they at last reached King William, who soon got him released. But even then Clifford could not get back his estate, and although he went to London and petitioned the king, who directed inquiry of the ambassador at the Hague, he could never get any redress. For seventy years he, and his heirs after his death, kept up a stream of petitions and memorials, without result, in the end claiming for illegal detention, damages, and interest, over half a million pounds. During the short peace which followed the treaty of Westminster attention was again directed to the buccaneers, who were now called pirates, and treated as such even in Jamaica, with the result that many of them settled down. It has been stated that Charles the Second shared in their gains even after he had issued proclamations against them, but this sort of thing now came to an end. The French continued their depredations up to the year 1680, when the king issued a proclamation, forbidding the further granting of commissions, and recalling those which had been issued, at the same time ordering that those who persisted in the trade should be hanged as pirates. This tended to bring the less audacious to settle down, but even to the beginning of the present century piracy was still known in the West Indies.