he surrendered, being resolved, as he expresses it, “to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather than that others should be ruined for his mistakes.”  In July, 1703, he was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks.  He underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with unreasonable severity.  So far was he from being ashamed of his fate himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding to his accusers: 

     Tell them, the men that plac’d him here
     Are scandals to the times;
     Are at a loss to find his guilt,
     And can’t commit his crimes.

Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dunciad (probably from no other reason than party difference) characterises him in the following line: 

     Earless on high stood unabash’d De Foe.

[Footnote 1:  St. James’s, January 10, 1702-3.  “Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled ‘The shortest Way with the Dissenters:’  he is a middle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in London, and for many years was a hose-factor, in Freeman’s Yard, in Cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex; whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe, to one of her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State, or any of her Majesty’s Justices of Peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of 50_l_. which her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery.”

London Gaz.  No. 3679.]

This is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so frequently occur in the Dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the author than on the parties traduced.  De Foe lay friendless and distressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of deliverance, till Sir Robert Harley, who approved of his principles, and foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the Queen, and at length procured his release.  The treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent a considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his fine and the expense of his discharge.  Gratitude and fidelity are inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that prompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered, by violence.