Twenty years after, 1704, his Plea was republished, with his narrative, by one of his fellow-prisoners, who had been released, and who calls it "an elaborate piece"! He adds, that De Laune, being unable to pay
"the seventy-five pound, his children, his wife, and himself were imprison'd, and all dy'd in New-gate; of which myself was an eye-witness, and a companion with him for the same cause in the same prison, where I continued above a year after his death."
E. F. Woodman.
P. S.—Query, What is the meaning, in the foregoing, of the expression "at the next execution-day"? Have we any instance on record of the execution of a malefactor in front of the Royal Exchange? and, if not, did the hangman come from Newgate, after "doing duty" there, and burn the book at the Exchange?
In 1611 the books of Conrad Vorstius were publicly burnt in St. Paul's Churchyard and both the universities by the king's order. (Wilson's Life and Reign of James I., p. 120.)
On Sunday, November 21, 1613, the books of Francis Suarez, the Spanish Jesuit, were publicly burnt at St. Paul's Cross. (Court and Times of James I., vol. i. pp. 279, 280.)
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge.