Their insatiable greediness has been fed by constant plunder; and, alike cruel and rapacious, nothing but the ruin and absolute destruction of their victims would content them.

Merciless as creditors, they have ground their unfortunate debtors to the dust.

The tears of the widow they have robbed of her husband and her means of existence--the despair of the orphan, whose fair prospects they have blighted--have failed to move them.

Utterly unscrupulous as to the means of obtaining possession of property, they have forged wills, deeds, and other documents.

Their ingenuity has been taxed to devise new means of unjust gain; and, imposing upon the King's Majesty by false representations, they have succeeded in obtaining his letters patent for certain monopolies, which they have so shamefully abused, as to bring his sovereign authority into discredit." "Hold!" cried Sir Giles Mompesson.