Born in 1622, died in 1683; wounded at the Battle of Marston in 1644; elected to Parliament in 1645; Lieutenant-General of horse in Ireland in 1646; Counselor of State in 1659; lived on the Continent after the Restoration until 1677; falsely arrested and condemned to death for high treason in 1683.
Men, Brethren, and Fathers; Friends, Countrymen, and Strangers:—It may be expected that I should now say some great matters unto you; but the rigor of the season and the infirmities of my age, increased by a close imprisonment of above five months, do not permit me. Moreover, we live in an age that maketh truth pass for treason; I dare not say anything contrary unto it, and the ears of those that are about me will probably be found too tender to hear it. My trial and condemnation sufficiently evidence this.
West, Rumsey, and Keyling, who were brought
- ↑ Spoken in London on the scaffold, December 7, 1683. Sidney (Algernon) was tried at King's Bench before the notorious Jeffreys who, says C. H. Firth, "wrangled with the prisoner and browbeat him in his usual fashion." When Sidney came to the scaffold, Evelyn says, "he told them only that he had made his peace with God; that he came not thither to talk but to die; put a paper into the sheriff's hands and another into a friend's; said one prayer as short as a grace, laid down his neck and bid the executioner do his office."
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