Page images
PDF
EPUB

bedchamber; but the three gentlemen sat up together, for security, during the remainder of the night.

On the morrow the criminals were delivered to the proper authorities, and the process with such atrocious offenders being very summary, they were executed, before sunset, in divers places about the province. For the most part, they were suspended on lofty wooden gibbets; but the body of Spinello, in order to make the greater impression, was hung up on the very same Chestnut Tree that had led to his defeat.

THE

FAIR MAID OF LUDGATE.

O, she is sweeter than the rose

Now bathed among the balmly rain;

And I maun gang to yon town,

And see the lovesome maid again.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

THE

FAIR MAID OF LUDGATE.

THE reign of King Charles the Second of England was marked by two great public calamities the first of them, that memorable Plague which devastated London; and then followed that deplorable Fire which destroyed such a large portion of the same devoted metropolis.

It happened shortly before the pestilence, that the King had a design to serve in the city; wherefore he rode that way on horseback, attended only by the Lord Rochester, and one or two gentlemen of the Court. As they were riding gently, in this manner, up the

« PreviousContinue »