ever. Instead of damaging them and embarrassing William, he had fatally damaged himself. As for Godolphin, who was the only tory in the ministry, they contrived to get him to offer his resignation, which, unlike that of Shrewsbury, was accepted, so that the whigs had now a ministry wholly of their party. Russell was loud in his demands of vengeance, and William, at the suggestion of the whigs, sent for Fenwick, and insisted that he should give him some further information as to the real conspirators, whom he had evidently and purposely screened. Fenwick declined, and William gave him to understand that he had nothing more to expect from him.
The stubbornness of Fenwick soon received an explanation. His wife had managed to corrupt Goodman, the second witness against him. An annuity of five hundred pounds a year had been offered him to abscond, accompanied by the menace of certain assassination if he refused. He consented to flee, and was accompanied by an agent named O'Brien to St. Germains. Fenwick now believed himself safe, as no man could be condemned on a charge of high treason upon one single witness. But the vengeance of his enemies was not thus to be defeated. Sir John might have recollected how often the end in such cases had been obtained by a bill of attainder. Fenwick himself had been a zealous advocate for such a bill against Monmouth. When it became known that Goodman was spirited away, the exasperation of the commons was extreme. On the 6th of November Russell vehemently demanded of the house that it should examine and decide whether the accused parties were guilty or not. Before proceeding to extremities the commons, however, called Sir John before them, and offered to intercede with the king on his behalf if he made a full and immediate confession. But he would not consent to become the informer against his own party, and was remanded. It was then resolved, by a hundred and seventy-nine votes to sixty-one, that a bill of attainder should be brought in. The two parties put forth all their strength, and the bill was not carried till the 26th. For twenty days all the eloquence and influence of the house was in violent agitation. The tories were seen now contending for the liberty of the subject, which they had so often overridden by such bills, and the whigs as vehemently pressed on the measure as they had formerly denounced similar ones when directed against those of their own party.
During the debates the depositions of Goodman made before the grand jury, fully implicating Sir John in the conspiracy, were laid before the house in support of the evidence of Porter; Goodman's absence was proved, to the satisfaction of the house, to be owing to the inducements and exertions of Fenwick's friends; and two of the grand jurymen were examined, and detailed the evidence received by them from Goodman on his examination, fully agreeing with that sent in writing. Some petty jurymen, also, who had decided the case of another conspirator, confirmed this evidence. The commons had proof enough of his guilt, though it it might want the legal formality of two direct witnesses.
In the lords the earl of Monmouth made an adroit movement in favour of Sir John. He defended him warmly, at the same time that he sent to him in prison, through the duchess of Norfolk, his cousin, a scheme for defeating his enemies. He advised him to assert positively the truth of his confession; to declare that he derived his information from high quarters, and to pray the king to demand of the earls of Portland and Romney whether the information in their possession against these noblemen did not correspond with his own; that the king should be prayed to lay before parliament the evidence on which he had suddenly dismissed Marlborough, and any letters intercepted on their way from St. Germains to these parties. This would have been a thunderbolt to the government and the accused, and Monmonth awaited in exultation its effect. But Sir John disappointed him. He feared to exasperate further the king and his judges the lords, to whom the accused belonged, and did not take the hint. Monmouth, incensed, then turned against him himself. Marlborough exerted himself with all his power to condemn him, even getting the prince of Denmark to go and vote against him. The bishops remained, and voted eight of them against the passing of the bill. Burnet and Tennison, however, both spoke and voted for it, with little regard to the practice that the prelates should take no part in advocating measures of blood. The lords Godolphin and Bath, though both amongst those accused by Fenwick, voted in his favour, and Shrewsbury absented himself from the debate. The duke of Devonshire, too, to whom he had carried his confession, voted against the bill. Sir John offered to make a full disclosure on condition of receiving a full pardon, but this was not accorded him, and he refused further confession on any other terms. At length, on the 27th of December, the bill was carried, but only by a majority of seven, sixty-eight votes to sixty-one. Forty-one lords, including eight bishops, entered a protest on the journal against the decision.
Unfortunately for Monmouth, the friends of Sir John were so incensed at his turning round against him, that the earl of Carlisle, lady Fenwick's brother, produced to the house the papers which he had sent to Sir John in prison, and stated the censures on the king with which he had accompanied them. A tempest suddenly burst over his head of indescribable fury. The whigs were exasperated at his endeavouring to sacrifice Russell and Shrewsbury to save Fenwick, and the tories at his endeavouring to sacrifice Marlborough and Godolphin, and at his treacherously deserting Sir John for not following his advice. He was committed to the Tower, deprived of all his places, and his name erased from the list of privy councillors.
Parliament, having passed this act, adjourned for the Christmas holidays, and every exertion was made to obtain a pardon for the condemned. His wife threw herself at the feet of William, but he only replied that he must consult his ministers before he could give an answer. On the 11th of January he put his signature to the bill. When parliament met again she presented a petition to the house of lords, praying them to intercede with the king to commute the sentence to perpetual banishment, but without success. On the 28th of January he was conducted to execution on Tower Hill. On the scaffold he delivered to the sheriff a sealed paper, in which he complained of the irregularity of the proceeding against him, denied any participation in the plan of assassination, but confessed his attachment to king
