And these mischievous, malicious, scandalous, and seditious sentences, in these English words following, viz.
Debauchery in this Expence is a Sin before God, and were it known, would be a scandal in the sight of Man; as appears in that of Three thousand Pounds Expence in all manner of ways, above Five hundred Pounds is in Wine; when a Lord, or Gentleman that formerly lived at the rate of Ten or Twelve thousand Pounds per annum, did not, as is well known (but thirty years ago) spend an hundred Pounds in Wine.
To the great Scandal and Contempt of our said Lord the King, to the great Reproach and Scandal of the Authority of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs, of the City aforesaid; to the great Disturbance of the Peace of our said Lord the King, to the Evil Example of others in the like case offending, and against the Peace of the said Lord the King, his Crown and Dynasty, &c.
A copy of this pamphlet is preserved in the Guildhall Library, London.
252.
Malice defeated: or a brief relation of the accusation and deliverance of Elizabeth Cellier, wherein her proceedings, both before and during her confinement, are particularly related, and the mystery of the Meal Tub fully discovered. 1680.
For writing, printing, and publishing this book, Mrs. Elizabeth Cellier, was tried at the Old Bailey, in September, 1680, and found guilty. She was sentenced to a fine of £1000, and to be imprisoned until payment; and also to stand on the pillory three times, the first time at the Maypole, in the Strand, the second time in Covent Garden, and the third time at Charing Cross; and her books were to be burnt by the Common Hangman.
The indictment against her is as follows:—
Juratores pro domino rege super sacramentum suum præsentant quod Elizabetha Cellier uxor —— Cellier de parochia Sancti Clementis Dacorum in comitatu Middlesexiæ generosi, eadem Elizabetha existente religionis papalis, Deum præ oculis suis non habens sed instigatione diabolica mota et seducta et falso et malitiose machinans et intendens serenissimum Dominum nostrum Carolum Secundum Dei gratia Angliæ, Scotiæ, Franciæ et Hiberniæ Regem et gubernationem suam hujus regni Angliæ necnon veram religionem protestantem infra hoc regnum Angliæ lege stabilitatam, in odium, infamiam et contemptum inducere et inferre, et scandalum et infamiam imponere super quibusdam personis qui producti fuissent testes et testimonium dedissent ex parte dicti domini regis contra prædictam Elizabetham Cellier et alias personas de alta proditione indictatas primo die Augusti anno regni dicti domini regis tricesimo secundo apud prædictam parochiam Sancti Clementis Dacorum in Comitatu Middlesexiæ prædicto falso malitiose et seditiose scripsit et publicavit et scribi imprimi publicari causavit quendam fictum falsum et scandalosum libellum intitulatum Malice defeated: or a brief relation of the accusation and deliverance of Elizabeth Cellier, wherein her proceedings both before and during her confinement are particularly related, and the mystery of the Meal-Tub fully discovered. Together with an abstract of her arraignment and tryal, written by herself, for the satisfaction of all lovers of undisguized truth. In quo quidem libello continentur hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba et figuræ sequentia, scilicet. I hope it will not seem strange to any honest and loyal person, of what way or religion soever, that I being born and bred up under Protestant Parents, should now openly profess myself of another Church. (Ecclesiam Romanam innuendo). For my education being in those times, when my own Parents and Relations, for their constant and faithful affection to the King and Royal Family, were Persecuted, the King himself Murthered, the Bishops and Church destroy'd, the whole Loyal party merely for being so, opprest and ruin'd; And all as was pretended by the Authors of these villanies, for their being Papists and Idolaters, the constant Character given by them, to the King and his friend, to make them odious, they assuming to themselves, only the Name of Protestants, making that the Glorious title by which they pretended right to all things. These sort of Proceedings, as I grew in understanding, produc'd in me more and more Horror of the party that committed them, and put me on Inquiry into that Religion, to which they pretended the greatest Antipathy, wherein I thank God, I found my Innate Loyalty, not only Confirm'd, but Incourag'd, and let Callumny say what it will; I never heard from any Papist as they call them, Priests nor lay-man, but that they and I, and all true Catholicks, owe our lives to the defence of our Lawful King, which our Present Soveraign, Charles the Second is, whom God long and happily preserve so. These sorts of Doctrines agreeing to my Publick Morralls, and no way as ever I was taught, contradicting my Private ones, Commending at the same time to me, Charity and Devotion, I without any scruple, have hitherto followed Glorying to myself to be in Communion with those (papistas innuendo) who were the humble Instruments of his Majesties happy Preservation, from the fatall Battel at Worcester, and whom though poor, no Temptation could invite, to betray him to those, who, by a pretended Protestant principle, sought his Innocent blood. These truths I hope may satisfy any indifferent person in my first Change, nor can they wonder at my continuance therein, notwithstanding the Horrid Crimes of Treason and Murther laid to the charge of some persons considerable, for their quallity and fortunes in that party. For when I reflected who were the witnesses, and what unlikely things they deposed, and observ'd, that many of the chiefest Sticklers for the Plot, were those, or the Sons of those, that acted the principal parts in the last Tragedy, which History told me too, had the Prologue of a pretended Popish Plot. I say, these things made me doubtful of the whole; and the more I search'd for Truth, the more I doubted that the old Enemies of the Crown were again at work for its destruction. I being fully confirm'd in this, thought it my duty, through all sorts of hazards, to relieve the Poor Imprison'd Catholicks, who in great numbers were locked up in Gaoles, starving for want of bread, and this I did some months before I ever saw the Countess of Powis or any of those Honourable persons that were accused, or receiving one penny of their mony directly or indirectly, till about the latter end of January, (78) the Prisoners increasing very much. Et in alia parte ejusdem libelli (inter alia) continentur hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba scilicet. About this time I went daily to the prisons to perform those offices of Charity I was oblig'd to, And on Thursday, January the 9th, (78) I Din'd in Newgate in the Room called the Castle on the Master's side Debtors, and about four in the afternoon, I came down into the Lodge with five Women, of which three were Protestants, and we all heard Terrible Grones and Squeeks which came out of the Dungeon, called the Condemned Hole. I asked Harris the Turnkey, what Dole-full cry it was, he said, it was a Woman in Labour. I bid him put us into the Room to her, and we would help her, but he drove us away very rudely, both out of the Lodge, and from the door; we went behind the Gate, and there lissened, and soon found that it was the voice of a strong man in Torture, and heard, as we thought, between his grones, the winding up of some Engine: these cries stop'd the passengers under the Gate, and we six went to the Turner's shop without the Gate, and stood there amaized with the Horror, and dread of what we heard; when one of the officers of the Prison came out in great hast, seeming to run from the Noise. One of us catcht hold of him, saying, Oh! What are they doing in the Prison? Officer. I dare not tell you. Mistres. It's a Man upon the Rack, I'le lay my life on't. Officer. It is something like it. Cellier. Who is it Prance? Officer. Pray Madam do not ask me, for I dare not tell ye, but it is that I am not able to heare any longer: Pray let me go, with that he run away toward Holborn as fast as he could. We heard these grones perfectly to the end of the Old Bayly, they continued till near seven of the Clock, and then a person in the habit of a Minister, of middle stature, Gray hair'd, accompanied with two other Men, went into the Lodge, the Prisoners were locked up, and the outward door of the Lodge also, at which I set a person to stand, and observe what she could; and a Prisoner loaded with Irons, was brought into the Lodge, and examin'd a long time, and the Prisoners that came down as low as they could, heard the person Examined with great vehemency, say often, I know nothing of it, I'me innocent: he forc'd me to bely myself, What would you have me say? Will you murther me because I will not bely myself and others? Several other such like expressions they heard spoken as by one in great Agony. About four of the clock the next morning, the Prisoners that lay in a Place above the hole, heard the same cry again two houres, and on Saturday Morning again, and about Eight a Clock that morning a person I employ'd to spy out the truth of that affair, did see the Turn keys carrying a Bed into the hole, she asked whoe it was for, they told her, it was for Prance, who was gone Mad, and had tore his bed in pieces. That night the Examiners came again, and after an houres Conference Prance was led away to the Press-yard: This, and many things of the like nature, made me very Inquisitive to know what passed in the Prison. Soon after this Francis Corral a Coachman, that had been put into Newgate, upon suspicion of carrying away Sir Edmond-Bury-Godfrey's body, and lay there 13 weeks and three days in great missery, got out, I went to see him, and found him a sad spectacle, having the flesh worn away, and great holes in both his legs, by the weight of his Irons. And having been chain'd so long double, that he could not stand upright; he told me much of his hard and cruel usage, as that he had been squeez'd and hasped into a thing like a Trough, in a dungeon under ground; which put him to inexpressible torment, insomuch that he soonded, and that a Person in the habit of a Minister stood by all the time. That a Duke beat him, Pull'd him by the Hair, and set his drawn Sword to his breast three times, and swore he would run him through; and another great Lord, laid down a heap of Gold, and told him it was five hundred Pounds, and that he should have it all, and be taken into the aforesaid Duke's house, if he would confess what they would have him; and one F. a vintner, that lives at the sign of the Half Moon in Ch—— St—— by whose contrivance he was accused, took him aside, and bid him name some person, and say, they Imploy'd him to take up the dead body in Somerset-yard, and gave him mony for so doing; that if he would do this, both F. and he, should have mony enough. He also told me, that he was kept from Thursday till Sunday without victualls or drink, having his hands every Night Chain'd behind him, and being all this time locked to a staple which was driven into the Floor, with a chain not above a yard long, that in this great extremity, was forc'd to drink his own water; and that the Jaylor beat his wife, because she brought victuals, and prayed that he might have it, and threw Milk on the ground, and bid her be gone, and not look at him. Et in altera parte ejusdem libelli continentur (inter alia) hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba sequentia scilicet My arraignment, which (in confidence of my own innocence) I continually prest for. Not but that I knew the danger, as to this Life, of encountering the Devil in the worst of his Instruments, which are PERJURERS INCOURAGED to that degree as that profligated Wretch quendam Thomam Dangerfield testem productum ex parte domini regis contra prædictam Elizabetham Cellier pro alta proditione innuendo was, and has been since his being exposed to the World in his true colours both at mine, and at another's Tryal. Et in altera parte ejusdem libelli continentur hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba sequentia scilicet Nor have I since received anything towards my losses, or the least civility from any of them. Whilst Dangerfield (prædictam Thomam Dangerfield iterum innuendo) (when made a Prisoner for apparent Recorded Rogueries,) was visited by and from Persons of Considerable Quality, with great Sums of Gold and Silver, to encourage him in the new Villanies he had undertaken, not against Me alone, but Persons in whose Safety all good Men (as well Protestants as others) in the three kingdoms are concerned. Et in altera parte ejusdem libelli vocati A Postscript to the impartial reader continente hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba sequentia scilicet And whensoever his Majesty pleases to make it as safe and honourable to speak truth as it is apparent it hath been gainful and meritorious to do the contrary, there will not want witnesses to testify the truth of more than I have written and persons that are above being made the hangman's hounds for weekly pensions, or any other considerations whatsoever. In malum et perniciosissimum exemplum omnium aliorum in tali casu delinquentium contra pacem dicti domini regis coronam et dignitatem suas. By a Treasury warrant, dated May 16th, 1687, Mrs. Cellier was discharged from the judgment which had been pronounced against her.[213]