And so on, and so on. But it was Jeffreys' 'Western
Circuit,' as it was called, that filled up the cup of his infamy--an
infamy, say the historians, that will last as long as the language and
the history of England last. The only parallel to it is the infamy of a
royal house and a royal court that could welcome home and promote to
honour such a detestable miscreant as Jeffreys was. But the slaughter in
Somerset was only over in order that a similar slaughter in London might
begin. Let those who have a stomach for more blood and tears follow out
the hell upon earth that James Stuart and George Jeffreys together let
loose on the best life of England in their now fast-shortening day. Was
Judge Jeffreys, some of you will ask me, born and bred in hell? Was the
devil his father, and original sin his mother? Or, was he not the very
devil himself come to earth for a season in English flesh? No, my
brethren, not so. Judge Jeffreys was one of ourselves. Little George
Jeffreys was born and brought up in a happy English home. He was
baptised and confirmed in an English church.
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