inquire “if on the 20th of November and some daies afore & since in the 17 yea of his Ma^ties reigne at Gravesend in Comit Kent in England” the accused “not having the feare of God before his eies, but instigated thereunto by the instigation of the divill & example of other traitors of his Ma^tie traiterously & as an enemy did levie war & beare armes ag^st his ma^tie and accept & exercise the comand & captainship of the town of Gravesend,” and by the third bill they were to inquire if Ingle did not, on April 5th in the eighteenth year of Charles’ reign, on his vessel in the Potomac river, near St. Clement’s island, say, “that Prince Rupert was a rogue or rascall.” If the rest of the testimony was no stronger or more conclusive than that of Hardige, it is not surprising that the jury replied to all the bills “Ignoramus.”[14] Another jury was impannelled to investigate the charge of Ingle’s having broken from the sheriff, and they returned a like finding. In the afternoon the first jury were given two more bills, first, to find “whether in April 1643 Ingle, being then at Mattapanian,[15] St. Clement’s hundred, said ‘that Prince Rupert was Prince Traitor & Prince rogue and if he had him aboard his ship he would whip him at the capstan.’” This bill met the fate of the others, but the second charging him with saying “that the king (meaning o^r Gover L. K. Charles) was no king neither would be no king, nor could be no king unless he did ioine with the Parlam^t,” caused the jury to disagree and no verdict having been reached at 7 P. M., they adjourned until the following Saturday.[16] On that day, February 3rd, at the request of the attorney-general the jury were discharged and the bill given to another jury who returned it “Ignoramus.”[17] In spite of the unanimity of all the juries in finding no true indictment, another warrant was issued for the arrest, by Parker or Ellyson, of Ingle for high treason, and after a fruitless attempt to secure by another jury a different finding, Ingle was impeached on February 8th, for having on January 20th, 1643/4, committed assaults upon the vessels, guns, goods, and person of one Bishop, and upon being reproached for these acts, having threatened to beat down the dwellings of people and even of Giles Brent, and for “the said crimes of pyracie, mutinie, trespasse, contempt & misdemeanors & every of them severally.”[18] If Ingle did commit these depredations he was, no doubt instigated by the proceedings instituted on that day against him, and moreover by the fact that Henry Bishop had been among the witnesses to be summoned against him.

Nothing more was done in the matter, for from a copy of a certificate to Ingle under date of February 8th, it is learned that “Upon certaine complaints exhibited by his Lo^ps attorny ag^st M^r R. Ingle the attending & psequution whereof was like to cause great demurrage to the ship & other damages & encumbrances in the gathering of his debts it was demanded by his Lo^ps said attorny on his Lo^ps behalfe that the said R. I. deposite in the country to his Lo^ps use one barrell of powder & 400 l of shott to remaine as a pledge that the said R. I. shall by himself or his attorny appeare at his Lo^ps Co^rt at S. Maries on or afore the first of ffebr next to answere to all such matters as shalbe then and there obiected ag^st him * * * * and upon his appearance the said powder & shott or the full value of it at the then rate of the country to be delivered to him his attorny or assigne upon demand.”[19]

What a change of policy, from charging a man with treason, the penalty for which was death, to offering him the right of bail for the appearance of his attorney, if necessary, to meet indefinite charges! In view of all the facts, it seems probable that the Maryland authorities were committed to the King’s cause by the commission granted by him to Leonard Calvert in 1643, and by their action in seizing Ingle; that after his arrest it was thought to be injudicious to go to extremes, and that they made little resistance to, if they did not connive at, his escape. Certainly, efforts to recapture him must have been very feeble, for when the sheriff demanded the tobacco and cask due him from the defendant for summoning juries, witnesses, &c., it was found that Ingle had left in the hands of the Secretary the required amount.[20] In arresting Ingle for uttering treasonable words, the palatine government was not only placing itself upon the side of King Charles, but was preparing to do what he had been prevented from doing a few months before. For when at his command some persons who had acted treasonably were condemned to death, parliament declared that “all such indictments and proceedings thereon were unjust and illegal; and that if any man was executed or suffered hurt, for any thing he had done by their order, the like punishment should be inflicted by death or otherwise, upon such prisoners as were, or should be, taken by their forces,” and their lives were saved.[21] The authorities of Maryland themselves show why Ingle was allowed to escape. On March 16th, Lewger showed that “whereas Richard Ingle was obnoxious to divers suits & complaints of his Lo^p for divers and sundry crimes all w^ch upon composition for the publique good & safety were suspended