This ingenious device was frustrated by his hardhearted keepers.

He was put to the bar in his ordinary clothes, convicted and sentenced to death.

[341] He had previously tried to ransom himself by offering to raise a fine troop of cavalry, all highwaymen, for service in Flanders; but his offer had been rejected.

[342] He had one resource still left.

He declared that he was privy to a treasonable plot.