HIS ARTICLES OF ARRAYGNMENT.
Yea to bee a most savage monster agaynste all kynde,
In seking the deathe of my Queene, the Lord's anoynted,
Ambition so stonge me, that I was stroke blynde,
In pluckinge her downe that God had appoynted,
And the unitie of the realme in sonder to have joynted;
To have made kings and rulers at our pleasure;
To have exceeded in vyllanye without rule or measure.
To have made suche lawes as wee thought beste;
To have turned the state quyte upside downe;
The nobles to have slayne and clene dispossest;
And on a stranger hedd have placed the crowne;
Herein we weare resolute, but fortune did frowne,
No twas God woulde not suffer our villanyes take place;
But unlookte for retornde them to our shamefull disgrace.
Farther our intente was to poyson the ordinance of the realme;
A most haynouse matter as ever was invented,
Whoe ever hath harde of trecheries so extreame,
Concluded, agreed upon, and fullye consented?
An wofull matter of all to be lamented.
All court rolls and records we mente to have raced,
And them to have burned spoyled and defaced.
The faire cittie of London wee also mente to rifell,
To have rob'de the rich, and killed eke the poore;
Theis thinges in effecte we counted but a trifell;
In all places of the lande have sett an uprore;
The wealthie to have bereavde both of life and store,
No state nor degree we weare mente to spare,
But if hee would resiste deathe should be his share.
Theise weare our intents, with mischiefs many more,
Even confusion to the whole realme to have brought,
Confederates we had, and that no small store;
Which ruyne and destruction weare readie to have wrought;
We either mente to make or bringe all to noughte.
Nought ne nought indeede, for nought weare our happs,
For desperate myndes doe feare no after clapps:
So forwarde weare that the verye daye was sett
To murther our good queene, that God had preserved;
Barnewell and Savage should have done the feate;
But justice rewarded them as they well deserved,
Being twoe monstrose traytors that from duty swerved;
The daggs and all things weare redye preparde,
But in the nett they layde, they themselves weare snared.
And Ballarde, that beast, hee into England was come,
A Jesuite, a prieste, and a semynarie vilde;
Hee brought with him our absolution from Roome,
Promysinge good successe, wherein he was beguyled;
So that from our hartes all pitye hee exilde;
And still he incoraged us in my myscheife to precede,
Egging us forwarde wherein there was no neede.
But God woulde not suffer us so closelie to worke,
But that all our doyngs laye open in his sight:
Revealinge those myscheifs, that in our hartes did lurke,
When wee suspected not, he brought the same to light.
Then must wee hyde our hedds, or scape awaye by flight;
But when wee had inklinge our treasons were descryde,
Away awaye in haste twas then no tyme to byde.
Then watche and warde was made in everye coaste,
Then weare wee taken, eache houre of the daye;
My selfe was once taken, but whie shoulde I boaste,
Howe that I made a scape and so gott awaye,
Not knowinge where to goe nor have perfitt staye;
But to Harrow on the Hill my selfe I convayde,
There in Bellamyes howse a little tyme I stayde.