The trial of Coningsmark and his accomplices took place in Hicks's Hall. The Count, after some hesitation, was acquitted, while the other three, according to sentence passed upon them, were executed on the 10th of March, in Pall Mall. There is extant a curious tract, entitled "An Account of the Deportment of Captain Vratz, Lieutenant Stern, and George Borotski, the murderers of Thomas Thynne, Esq., both in prison and at the execution." It was drawn up, and evidently with some care, by Bishop Burnet, who attended the criminals in their last moments. Stern and Borotski confessed their crime, and died penitent. Vratz, however, notwithstanding the admission of his associates, insisted to the last that he had merely intended to challenge Thynne to single combat, and that the fact of Borotski having fired the blunderbuss was entirely from a misapprehension of his orders. When Burnet expostulated with him on the heinousness of his offence, and urged him to confess his guilt ;—" he considered it to be sufficient," he said, "if he confessed his sins to God;" adding ingeniously, that "he thought it was a piece of popery to press him to confess." His demeanour, and the state of his mind, seem throughout to have puzzled the Bishop. It was his firm conviction, he said, that he should be "received into eternal happiness;" adding, as his opinion of a future state, that the only punishment of the damned would be their exclusion from the presence of God, and their seeing others happier than themselves. To Dr. Horneck, a foreign minister of religion who attended him, he expressed similar eccentric opinions. "He was confident," he said, "that God would consider a gentleman, and deal with him suitably to the condition and profession he had placed him in; and that he would not take it ill, if a soldier, who lived by his sword, revenged the affront offered to him by another." Burnet had more than once warned him against a false affectation of courage, which, he said, would certainly desert him at the last. And yet, when they finally met at the place of execution,-" He smiled on me," says Burnet, "and said, that I should see it was not false bravery, but that he was fearless to the last."—"It is certain," adds the Bishop, "that never man died with more resolution and less signs of fear, or the least disorder. His carriage, both in the cart, as he was led along, and at the place of execution, was astonishing: he was not only undaunted, but looked cheerful, and smiled often. When the rope was put about his neck, he did not change colour nor tremble; his legs were firm under him: he looked often about on those that stood in balconies and windows; and seemed to fix his eyes on some persons: three or four times he smiled; he would not cover his face as the rest did, but continued in that state, often looking up to heaven, with a cheerfulness in his countenance, and a little motion of his hands." Reresby also bears witness to his intrepidity. "The Captain," he says, "died without the least symptom of fear; and seeing me in my coach as he passed by in the cart, he made a bow to me with the most steady countenance, as he did to several of the spectators he knew, before he was turned off." Stern, on the scaffold, complained that he died for "a man's fortune whom he never spoke to; for a woman he never saw; and for a dead man, whom he never had a view of." * In allusion to the peculiar circumstances which led to * Scott's Dryden, vol. ix. p. 292. the assassination of Thynne, the following Epitaph, or rather Epigram, was in vogue at the time : "Here lies Tom Thynne of Longleat Hall, Who never would have miscarried, Had he married the woman he lay withal, "Two anecdotes," says Walpole, "are attached to these lines. Miss Trevor, one of the Maids of Honour to Catherine of Portugal, wife of Charles the Second, having discovered the Duke of Monmouth in bed with a lady, the Duke excited Mr. Thynne to seduce Miss Trevor. She was the woman he lay withal. The woman he married was the great heiress, to whom he was affianced, when he was killed by Count Coningsmark, in Pall Mall." This story is corroborated by a passage in Archdeacon Echard's History. After the death of Thynne, Lady Ogle became the wife of Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset, by whom she had three sons ;—Algernon, who succeeded his father in the Dukedom, and Percy and Charles, who both died unmarried. The Duke of Monmouth seems to have sincerely lamented his friend. He sat up with Thynne during the whole night that preceded his dissolution, and exerted himself in the most indefatigable manner to bring the assassins to justice. It was, perhaps, a satisfaction to the Duke, that Coningsmark was arrested by his own servant. Monmouth openly and loudly expressed his dissatisfaction at the escape of the Count. Destined himself to perish on the public scaffold, the Duke is mentioned as having been a spectator of the execution of the murderers of his friend. Thynne was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his monument of white marble, representing the tragedy in bas-relief, is well known. LUCY WALTERS. The first Mistress of Charles-Her Lineage Her Influence over the young King-Her Son, the Duke of Monmouth-Doubt whether the King was his Father-Infidelities of Lucy Walters-Her Manner of living at the Hague-Returns to England and is sent by Cromwell to the Tower-Her examination before the Council -Reported to have been married to Charles-Her miserable Death. LUCY WALTERS, the mother of the unhappy Duke of Monmouth, and the ancestress of the Dukes of Buccleugh, was apparently the first passion of Charles, whose mistress she became in 1648, when he was only eighteen. She seems to have been no less beautiful in person, than reckless in conduct and abandoned in morals. Her story, unfortunately, is the tale of many a fair face and broken heart. In her particular case, however, the moral is rendered peculiarly affecting, in consequence of the contrast between the splendid prosperity of her early life, and the misery which attended its close. Although, during her brief life-time, the beautiful girl was generally addressed as Mrs. Barlow, her maiden name was Walters. According to Anthony Wood, she was a native of Pembrokeshire. King James also tells us, in his Memoirs, that she was born of a gentleman's family in Wales, whence she came to London to seek her fortune. In corroboration of her having been born of respectable parents, we have her own somewhat doubtful evidence that her mother bequeathed her a considerable fortune. Evelyn, on the contrary, speaks of her as the 66 daughter of some very mean creatures." The Peerages, possibly with more complaisance than truth, style her daughter of Richard Walters, Esquire, of Haverford West, in Pembrokeshire. The feeling of Charles for his early mistress, as is generally the case with first attachments, appears to have been paramount and absorbing. "She was so perfect a beauty," says Madame Dunois, "and so charmed and transported the King, when he first saw her in Wales, that amidst the misfortunes which disturbed the first years of his life and reign, he enjoyed no satisfaction nor pleasure, but in loving and being beloved by this charming mistress. This being his first passion, the equipage he allowed her, the care he took to please her, and the complaisance he had for her, were so exceeding great, that it made the world believe he had promised her marriage." Even when her notorious infidelities had compelled the King to separate from her, we find him still keeping a jealous watch over her actions, and liberally supplying her wants. According to Lord Clarendon, (who speaks of her as "a private Welshwoman of no good fame, but handsome,”) she expressly transplanted herself to the Hague, in the hopes of winning the heart of the young King. This was certainly not the case. Algernon Sidney assured the Duke of York, that when he was an officer in Cromwell's army, he had agreed with her for "fifty broad pieces," as the price of her virtue, but that being hastily ordered away with his regiment, he missed his bargain. He added, that she afterwards went over to Holland, where she fell into the hands of his brother, Colonel Robert Sidney, with whom she lived for some time, till the fame of her exceeding beauty having reached the King's ears, he found means to entice her into his |