The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-05-28
4 Selected Gale.
ALICE LISLE.
A SKETCH FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.
ny MRS. CAROLINE H. BUTLER.


There l., perhaps no data in the annal of
English History marked with more bloody
significance of the fearful extent to which the
evil passions of mankind will reach, when not
held In check by religious or civil discipline,
than that characterized as the Bloody Assizes,"
in the reign of James the Second, l6S5-which,
even from out the lapse of two centuries, still
stands forth in loathsome and horrible distinct.
ness. When the savage and bloody.minded
Jeffreys, empowered by vindictive and arbi.
trary monarch, stalked like a demon through
the land, tracing his passage with blood and
tears, while the music of this Internal march
was the groans and death h-shrieks of his victims.
Aud as he strobe onward-behind him he left
horrible, eye-blasting, soul narrowing proofs
of his cruelty-corpses swinging in the wind
at the corners of the cross roads--gibbets stuck
up in the market place-and blackening heads
impaled, even before the windows of the house
of God!
Such was the more than brutal ferocity with
which this fiend In human shape, George JEFF
freys, Chief Justice of the Court of King Bench,
prosecuted his commission.
Through all those districts where the inhab
itants had either taken up arms in the Mon.
mouth Rebellion against the king, or who had
been known five years before to have received
the unfortunate duke with favor and homage,
when assuming the rank of rightful prince be
passed with almost legal triumph through the
land, did Jeffreys and his well picked myrmid-
ons pursue their murderous track, sparing nei.
ther sex nor age--the death blow descending
alike upon the silver head oftottering age or
lisping, helpless infancy. "And," says Ma
caulay, "his spirits rose higher and higher as
the work went on. He laughed, shouted, joked
and swore in such manner that many thought
him drunk from morning till night, but in him
it was not easy to distinguish the madness pro.
duced by evil passions, from the madness pro.
duced by brandy"
In such frame of mind he entered South.
ampton and proceeded toward Winchester,
which, although not the scene of any warlke
encounter with rebel and royalst, had never
theless, been resorted to by many of the for.
mer as place Of safety, among whom was
their unhappy leader, the infatuated Monmouth
himself. 1t was here, near the borders of the
New Forest that the unfortunate man was t.
ken prisoner. Worn out by fatigue - crushed
by disappointment-his hig III hopes blasted by
defeat, the ill.tated son of Charles was discov-
cred concealed in ditch, where all through a
long day, and weary night, without food or
driuk, the unhappy fugitive had vainly hoped
to evade the search of his pursuers.
Hither, then, came Jeffrey, tainting the air
with pestilence, and causing greater terror
and dismay, particularly among the peasantry,
no one knowing who next might be the victim
of the tyrant's nsatiate thirst for blood.
He was now, however. in hot pursuit Of two
men-one Nonconfor,nist divine, name Hicks;
the other lawyer, who had made himself OBJ
noxious by being concerned in the Rye House
plot. These men it was needless to say, JET.
freys was resolved to pursue to the death.
In fine old mansion, encompassed by
closely wooded park of century's growth,
dwelt the Lady Alice Lisle. She was the wild
ow of John Lisle, who had held a commission
under Lord Cromwell, and had also sat in the
Long Parliament. He had had been created
Lord by Cromwell, and the title Of Lady was
still courteousty assigned to his widow, for
she was greatly beloved by all persons and
parties, both Wing and Tory, for her many ex.
cellent qualities, and was also nearly allied to
many noble families.
1t was near the close of beautiful autumn
day, that the Lady Alice, clad in deep mourn
ing weeds, might be seen passing slowly be-
meath the dark foliage of those venerable trees
stretching in such primeval grandeur far on
either side of her domain. The chastening
radiance of the setting sun here and there bur.
nished the almost motionless leaves with gold,
or stealing athwart the mossey trunks, and over
the deep green sward, mildly lumined the for
est aisles, seeming thereby as paths angels might
love to tread. The only companion of the la
dy was child-a beautiful boy of perhaps six
years old-an orphan, whom the kind Lady
Alice had taken under her protection, and who
now, far from partaking in the seriousness of
his benefactress, skipped and gamboled before
her in wild and happy recklessness--now
springing like q fawn into the path before her
from behind some leafy screen, where for mo.
ment he had lain concealed, or striving to at
tract attention by his childish prattle as he boan-
ded playfully at her side.
As needless to the deepening twilight as she
seemed to all else around her, the Lady Alice
had proceeded further into the depths of the
wood than was her usual custom, when she
was suddenly aroused to the lateness Of the
hour by a scream from her little Edwin, who,
bnrying his face in the folds of her mantle, cried
40 run, dear lady, run-bad men--ah, they
will kill us!'