A Check to Brittanicus, Title page
A CHECKE TO BRITTANICUS, FOR HIS Palpable Flattery and Prevarication, in juſtifying condemned NAT: FIENNES. Publiſhed for the preſent Neceſſary Vindication of his traduced Iudges, Proſecutors, and of Truth and Publique Iuſtice, till an exact Relation of all the Proceedings in that Triall bee ſet forth by the Councell of Warre, and his Antagoniſts for their further juſtification, and ſatisfaction of the World, ſo miſerably abuſed with Miſ-reports of that Action, for which he was condemned.
IER. 9. 3.
And they bend their tongues like their Bow for LIES, but they ARE NOT VALIANT for the Truth, upon the Earth; for they proceed from evill, to evill.
ISAIAH 28. 15. 16. 17.
Becauſe ye have ſaid, We have made a Covenant with Death, and with Hell are we at agreement, when the Overflowing ſcourge ſhall paſſe through it ſhall not come unto us, for we have made Lies our Refuge, and under falſhood have we hid our ſelves;
Therefore thus ſaith the Lord, judgement alſo will I lay to the line, and righteouſnes to the plummet: and the haile ſhall ſweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters ſhall overflow the hiding place; And your covenant with death ſhall be diſanulled, and your agreement with hell ſhall not ſtand.
LONDON, Printed by Iohn Dawſon for George Hutton, 1644.
A Checke to Brittannicus, for his palpable Flattery, and prevarication in juſtifying condemned NATH. FIENNES.
WEE are informed that Brittannicus during his laſt weekes ſilence, hath beene viſiting Nath: Fiennes late Governour of Briſtoll ſince his condemnation, at the Lord Cottingtons Country Houſe; who now not daring to ſhew his head in London for feare of loſing it, and deſpairing of his owne credit, after ſo many falſe Relations wherewith he hath deluded the world; inſtead of giving in an Account of his Receits at Briſtoll, and craving pardon of the Parliament and Kingdome in a penitent Recantation, and acknowledgement of his former grand diſſervices to the State, hath bribed Brittannicus, to trumpet forth his unknowne eminent deſerts, and publicke vertues to the people; to acquit him from the leaſt imputation of Treachery or Cowardize, in his ignoble ſurrender of the famous ſtrong City and Caſtle of Briſtoll, in leſſe then three dayes Seige, to the Enemy, upon very diſhonourable conditions, without the leaſt neceſſitie, (there being not one Out-Fort taken, nor one ſhot made againſt the City or Caſtle walls) upon the entry onelyonly of 150. Enemies within the line, who might have been eaſily cut off; notwithſtanding his many promiſes, to diſpute every inch of ground, to hold out the City, and the Castle to the utmoſt, and when he could no longer keepe it, then to lay his bones therin. For which moſt unſouldierly & unworthy action, (carrying Cowardize and Treachery in its very Front, were there no other evidences, as there were ſtore produced at the hearing;) he had this inſuing Judgement pronounced againſt him, by that very Councell of Warre to which himſelfe appealed from the Parliament, after nine dayes full defence, and ſeven dayes deliberation; which will ſufficiently proclaim his guilt, and juſtifie his Judges.
29. Decemb. 1643.
Collonel Nath: Fiennes, you have beene arraigned and convicted before this honourable Councell, for ſurrendring the Towne and Caſtle of Briſtoll, with the Forts, Magazine, Armes, Ammanition, Victualls, and other things therto belonging, and for not having held the ſame to the utmoſt extremity, according as to your duty you ought to have done. For which offence, this honourable Councell hath adjudged you to bee executed according to the tenor of the Article of Warre, by having your head cut off. God have mercy on your Soule.
Yet Brittannicus (the profeſſed Advocate of this Champion) to the unſufferable ſlander of his Excellency and that honourable Councel (which ſhewed him more Favour, then ever any Malefactor of that nature received, though hee hath moſt ungratefully requited them, in appealing from their ſentence, and raiſing many ignominious reports againſt their juſtice) hath now proclaimed it in print (I know not upon what occaſion, it being no wayes pertinent to his weekly Intelligence;) That neither the Sentence of death, nor his Pardon doe in the leaſt impeach him, either of Treachery or Cowardize; and therevpon ſtiles his pretended Pardon, (of which the Parliament which muſt grant it, is wholy ignorant) a noble Act of his Excellencies Iuſtice. (Oh ſtrange Iuſticiary! whoſe very Treaſon, ex condigno, demerits Pardon,) not of his indulgent mercy. Pitty is it, but that hee ſhould receive Justice in the higheſt degree, who eſteemes his undemerited free Pardon a meere act of Right, not Favour. Were not Nath: Fiennes now growne paſt grace, as well as ſhame, (as his ſtrange prevarications, and underhand proceedings in this buſineſſe apparantly diſcover,) hee durſt not preſume ſo impudently to juſtifie this his diſhonourable action in print, even after judgement paſſed againſt him, in ſuch a braving manner, as makes ſome of his beſt friends conjecture, hee hath already loſt the beſt part of his head (his braines) ſince his Iudgment; and muſt even in point of juſtice loſe the reſidue of it, unleſſe he will ſo farre under-value not onelyonly his well-deſerving Proſecutors, and the Councel of War, whom he cauſeleſly aſperſeth, but even the High Court of Parliament, and his Excellency, as frantickly to opine, they will all now voluntarily hazard their owne Honours, Iuſtice, and the whole Kingdomes ſafety, (inconſiſtent with his over-daring practiſes) to keepe his unworthy head upon his ſhoulders, and uphold his ſunke Reputation, to doe the Republike more ill offices.
Mercy it ſelfe will not, cannot ſave an impenitent, obdurate, capitall Delinquent, who will neither confeſſe, nor recant his offences, but ſtill juſtifie them to the world in deſpight of Iuſtice.
But Brittannicus, out of his fooliſh pitty, pleads thus for him. That it is pitty we ſhould bury the eminent deſerts, and publike vertues of that Gentleman, (in ſurrendring Briſtoll to the loſſe of the Weſt, the hazard of the Kingdom, and ſeeking to f…ment, if not raiſe differences between his Excellency, and Sir William Waller, on whom he would tranſlate this dammage) in the Sepulcher of an vnfortunate action: I am ſorry to ſee his Advocate, put to ſo poore a ſhift, as thus to transforme him into a Roman Catholike, and make him plead Eminent Merits, yet undiſcerned; and publike vertues (not hitherto viſible,) to ſave h…s Head-pe…ce: Its ill pleading Iuſtification by ſuch workes, as have already condemned their Author, in a Court of Juſtice. His enſuing ſhift is yet more miſerable; That wee ſhould put a difference in Offences, and ſooner pitty then proſecute the faylings of the beſt, and not make our ſufferings the onelyonly Argument of his. For is it not a farre grander and more capitall crime actually to ſurrender ſuch a place as Briſtoll to the Enemy, without neceſſity, to the Kingdomes incomparable prejudice, then onelyonly to practiſe its ſurrender without ſucceſſe, before it was either fortified or ſtored? with what juſtice then can Fiennes (not yet proved the beſt who put Col: Eſſex from the government of that place, upon a groundles pretence he would not keep it, & actually executed Yeomans & Butcher only for plotting Briſtols ſurrender before it was fortified, or ammunitioned, though their project proved ſucceſſeles) expect a Pardon, when as himſelf actually ſurrendred it, withall the Arms, Ammunition, Magazines, Cannons, Colors in it, before any extremity enforced him, or the Enemy had ſo much as battered the City or Caſtle walls? If they by his own ſentence (though penitent) endured the halter, I am certaine he ſtill ſtouting it, much more deſerues the Axe: And for the latter part of his Apology it is ſo irrationall, that every man who hath but common ſence or honeſty will conclude; that he who hath cauſed many thouſand Innocents, & the whole Kingdom to ſuffer in the loſſe of ſuch a place of conſequence as Briſtoll, deſerves not to go Scot-free, but to ſuffer more then the Governor of Beeſton Caſtle, and others put to death for loſing places of leſſe importance.
If he conceit, the Noblenes of his blood may apologize for his impunity; though he hath forfeited it in this ignoble action: all underſtanding men will conclude, that as it aggravates his guilt, and heightens his offence; ſo it pleads moſt effectually for his execution: ſince an exemplary Preſident of juſtice upon an eminent offender of Noble extraction, will ſtrike more terror into, and doe more good upon other Governors, then twenty Lawes, or a thouſand executions of inferiour perſons, for ſleighter offences; And ſeeing he hath given the Parliament and Kingdome incomparably the moſt fatall blow, and the enemy the richeſt booty they ever yet received, in the loſſe of Briſtoll; there is little reaſon or juſtice, that hee ſhould eſcape after ſuch a publique triall, and judgement of his owne ſeeking; the beſt ſervice he can now doe for the Common wealth, being this▪ to become a ſpectacle and Monument of publike Iuſtice to Poſterity in a military way, as Strafford was in a Politick. Wee read in Meteranus, Grimſton, Thuanus, and other Hiſtorians a memorable hiſtory of juſtice in this kind upon a yong Nobleman of as good or better deſcent then himſelfe, Van Hemert a Dutchman, who was condemned and loſt his head with two of his Captains in the yeare 1587. by the Earle of Leiceſter and Queen Elizabeths direction, notwithſtanding the Nobility and greatnes of his family, the powerfull mediation of his friends, and the confeſſion of his Errors, with promiſe to expiate it by ſerving the Queen by Land or Sea at his own charges, onelyonly for ſurrendring the Town of Graue, (of far leſſe conſequence and ſtrength then Briſtol) to the potent enemy, after full 3. months (not 3. daies) ſiege, and that upon honourable termes punctually obſerved, (the ſouldiers marching out with their arms and baggage, and the Citizens with their goods) and that when the walls of it with many batteries of the Canon were levelled to the ground, and the town threatned with a preſent generall aſſault, which made moſt of the Souldiers and Inhabitants to importune him upon their knees with teares, to parly with the Enemy, and to yeeld the Towne upon good conditions. This ſentence and execution was thought over-ſevere by ſome, but the Earle of Leiceſter, and the wiſeſt men deemed it neceſſary to reforme the ancient neglects of military diſcipline then much decayed; and to preſerve other Forts from over-ſudden ſurrenders before utmoſt extremity: and the wiſeſt Stateſmen, ſouldiers have affirmed, that the loſſe of this great mans head was more advantagious to the States in regard of the Preſident, then the ſaving of his, or a thouſand mens lives of his ranke, in ſuch a caſe could be. The ſtory needs no application: he who will not adventure his life, to defend his charge, and a place of ſuch importance as Briſtoll for the Kingdomes ſafety, and keeping out of the Iriſh Rebels, now actually poſſeſſed of it, deſerves at leaſt to loſe his head for ſuch a Cowardize, and cannot doe the Kingdome greater ſervice, nor Juſtice more Right, then to ſuffer for it, and become a Preſident for the benefit of Poſterity, eſpecially when he growes ſo obſtinatly perverſe as neither to acknowledge nor lament his Error.