P. 579. Burnet.  The King [Charles II.] had published a story all about the court, ... as the reason of this extreme severity against Armstrong:  He said, that he was sent over by Cromwell to murder him beyond sea; ... and that upon his confessing it he had promised him never to speak of it any more as long as he lived.  So the King, counting him now dead in law, thought he was free from that promise.—­Swift.  If the King had a mind to lie, he would have stayed till Armstrong was hanged.

P. 583. Burnet.  It ended in dismissing Lord Aberdeen, and making Lord Perth chancellor, to which he had been long aspiring in a most indecent manner.—­Swift.  Decent and indecent, very useful words to this author.

P. 585. Burnet.  I saved myself out of those difficulties by saying to all my friends, that I would not be involved in any such confidence; for as long as I thought our circumstances were such that resistance was not lawful, I thought the concealing any design in order to it was likewise unlawful.—­Swift. Jesuitical.

Ibid.  Burnet says, after relating how the thumb-screws were applied to Spence and Carstairs:—­Upon what was thus screwed out of these two persons, etc.—­Swift.  Witty the second time.

P. 586. Burnet, Baillie suffered several hardships and fines for being supposed to be in the Rye-house Plot; yet:—­seemed all the while so composed, and even so cheerful, that his behaviour looked like the reviving of the spirit of the noblest of the old Greeks or Romans.—­Swift.  For he was our cousin.

P. 587. Burnet, speaking of Baillie’s execution, says:—­The only excuse that was ever pretended for this infamous prosecution was, that they were sure he was guilty.—­Swift.  Bishop of Rochester.

P. 588. Burnet, Lord Perth wanting to see Leightoun, I writ so earnestly to him, that he came to London; and, on—­his coming to me, I was amazed to see him at above seventy look so fresh and well.... [Two days afterwards] Leightoun sunk so, that both speech and sense went away of a sudden:  And he continued panting about twelve hours; and then died without pangs or convulsions.—­Swift.  Burnet killed him by bringing him to London.

Ibid.  Burnet Leightoun ... retained still a peculiar inclination to Scotland.—­Swift.  Yet he chose to live in England.

P. 589. Burnet, speaking of Leightoun’s views of the Church of England, says:—­As to the administration, both with relation to the ecclesiastical courts, and the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of the most corrupt he had ever seen.—­Swift.  Very civil.

Ibid.  Burnet.  There were two remarkable circumstances in his [Leightoun’s] death.  He used often to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn; it looking like a pilgrim’s going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it.—­Swift. Canting puppy.