[248] With Alsop was joined Thomas Rosewell.

Rosewell had, during that persecution of the Dissenters which followed the detection of the Rye House Plot, been falsely accused of preaching against the government, had been tried for his life by Jeffreys, and had, in defiance of the clearest evidence, been convicted by a packed jury.

The injustice of the verdict was so gross that the very courtiers cried shame.

One Tory gentleman who had heard the trial went instantly to Charles, and declared that the neck of the most loyal subject in England would not be safe if Rosewell suffered.

The jurymen themselves were stung by remorse when they thought over what they had done, and exerted themselves to save the life of the prisoner.