surrender'd and to aggrandize the Merriment there comes over some great Personages from France and were very much pleased with the Court and the secret Devices suddenly to be put in execution after the next meeting of Parliament was agreed on all was well with you the Whores â—risking about Nell and her Mistris and the rest were as merry as the Maids and all your roguing Banditti hugg'd themselves with the great Happiness they were to enjoy Well Sir I do believe they were merry about their Mouths and they had a great deal of reason for all things went on in a sweet harmony and so it did at Belshazar's Feast till the Hand appear'd writing upon the Wall and then they were all confounded and amazed So it was with you for in the midst of all your Merriment in the Month of August all on a sudden a black Cloud appear'd which did prognosticate a Storm to fall upon you even in the height of all your Expectations and tho' it seem'd to you and your Cut-throats to be but a Triâ—le and small at the beginning yet by degrees it encreased extreamly and that was the most secret Devices of you and your Conspirators for your introducing Popery and Arbitrary Government came in some small measure to be discover'd by an old hearty Friend of yours but you had your Penniworths out of his Carcass for his Service in that particular Well to be plain with you it was my own dear self that makes this modest Address to you and if any one say that ever I gave you one good word in my Life I will be his humble Servant that proves it Before I quit this Point I must answer two Questions that have been ask'd me by several persons 1. What was the Opportunity I had of making this Discovery and 2. Why or to what end I made the Discovery 1. What the Opportunity was that I had of making the Discovery And truly this I must say and take Shame to my self the course I took to get into the Secrets of the Jesuites was no way warrantable from the Word of God for I dissembled my self to be a Papist and yet was none one that pretended Zeal for their Religion and at that time was an avowed Enemy to them and their Religion I have asked God forgiveness and all true Protestants I am sure God hath pardon'd the Sin of his Servant since he had no other thing before his Eyes but the Good of his Country and the Honour of God tho' I confess to do the least Evil that the greatest Good might come of it is unlawful and I am sure there is no true Protestant in England but what will not only forgive my doing that Evil in joyning with the Church of Rome to discover the Designs carried on by you and your Conspirators but will stand by my Truth that I did at that time discover I have reason to bless God for that they have given good Testimony of their Zeal for the Cause of God upon my account and reliev'd my Necessities and visited me when sick and in Prison and were not asham'd of my Chain But I would not have any man to think that tho' God was pleas'd to bless my poor Labours for the good of the Publick to follow my Example in joyning with that cursed Communion tho' his design be never so honest lest God in Justice leave him to the Counsel of their own Wills But it may be you are impatient and therefore I shall hasten to my intended business which is to declare my self fully to you concerning the Opportunities I had of discovering the cursed Intrigues of the Jesuites and the cursed Plot you carried on for the destruction of our Laws Liberties and Religion I must tell you that the acquaintance I had with some considerable Papists in the Year 1670 made me suspect a Design carried on by them to advance their Religion and to pull down ours but I little thought they had a design of murdering the King which in process of time I found out there was one Cotton that was at Mr. Guildford's in Kent this Gentleman was a free-spoken man and would be often tempting me to come over to their Church For said he it will not be long before you must either burn or turn therefore come over to us in time that your Coming may be meritorious This Cotton I in time found out to be a Priest of the Jesuites Order and one that was engaged in the Popish Plot and when I was engaged Sir with your Coleman and the Society I had with him a better acquaintance From him at first I found that the Popish Party had a Design then on foot to promote their Religion and were making what Proselytes they could in order to enlarge their Interest and Power in this Kingdom I from that time had a great desire to get into them to see whither their Designs tended being very fearful that they design'd no less than the total subversion of our Religion and Government for this Cotton had the Impudence to tell me That your Brother was engag'd with you and the Catholick Party to advance your Cause and Religion and was resolv'd to bring in Popery it being a Religion that was most consistent with Monarchy and that your Brother was resolv'd to be like his Neighbour Princes This was in the Year 1670 about Christmas which Discourse I discover'd to Mr. Walter Drury whom I did assist in the Service of his Cure at Sandhurst in the County of Kent and he told me that Mr. Cotton had talked as plainly or rather worse to him but he had sufficiently told him his own so that Cotton was shy of having any farther Discourse with him about those matters and withal Mr. Drury having threatned to complain of him Mr. Cotton did withdraw from that Family and another came in his room In the Year 1672 I was acquainted with one Keimash who used very perswasive Arguments to me to have brought me over to their Church he then frequented Arundel House in the Strand and was a Fellow that had insinuated himself into the acquaintance of several Divines of the Church and bragged That he had reconciled above thirty Ministers of the Ch. of England but I found him a debauch'd lewd fellow and so my acquaintance ceased with him for it was a hard matter unless in a Morning to find him â—ober I found him afterwards to have been Chaplain to the old Countess of Arundel with whom he liv'd several Years under the notion of her Steward In the Year 1672 I left Mr. Drury's Cure and held a Living of my own upon which I resided for some time call'd Bobbing in Kent and from thence I went and serv'd the King at Sea as a Chaplain where I found many difficulties by reason of sickness of Body I refreshed my self at Tangier where was one Gerard an Irish Dominican that upon the first sight of me enquir'd whether the Catholick Religion was establish'd in England
and that Greasy Guts had been Speaker to have supplied their extraordinary occasions and that you had entrusted your Brothers old friend with t'other two hundred thousand pound too be paid to them for secret service Truly Sir this they call secret service and very well they may good men for it 's all over secret only their Character Names Places of Abode their Persons and their Business are known we could and can easily find them and take them up when we please without the charge of a Kingston or a Fuller to discover them the former you will do well to return to his Trade of a Taylor and the latter to that of a Coney-wool-cutter You will say what is this Kingston Truly Sir an humble poor Cur of yours that a friend of yours in the Kings Bench Court helped to the use of a Pulpit in the Diocess of Bristol where the good man exercised his Talent and run down the Popish Plot with all the shreds of Learning he had in time the Bp. of the Diocess came to understand that this fellow had never been ordained by either Bp. or Presbyter but that he had been only a broken Taylor that had impudence enough without any colour of Law to get up into the Pulpit the Bp examined the matter and dismissed my Spark from his preaching Well what then Truly the next thing he took up was to be a Spy upon a Party to betray them as if Sir Simkin had laid his hands upon him for that purpose without the help of a Scotch Bp. here and truly there was no manner of need of his service for your Crew were as secret as Noon-day had these people managed as your Jesuits managed with you the Popish Plot we had then stood in need of forty Spies whereas in your last managed designs there was no need of one for every man did so plainly see the foolish behaviour of your Conspirators that they must have been blind had they not seen their designs Who would be plagued with such a pack of Scoundrels I advise you to write to Sir Sweetface Tellpenny that â—e pay off the Rogues that plot so foolishly that they are the reproach of a Conspiracy for they mind nothing but eating and drinking as if they had been Consecrated for that work by Sir John Greasyguts in a pretty Chapel a mile or two out of Town but if the Gentleman pay them off I pray let him do it without account lest he should be forced to reduce his Books as he once was upon another account but showing of Books and cutting of Books and betraying our Masters is as much out of fashion at Court as the Mass it self and Royal Pimping left Whitehall when your Brother went to his place and you in a decent manner left the Government being quietly driven from it by the perjured people of England If Sir Sweetface Tellpenny should not be at leisure to dischaâ—ge your Pensioner Plotters I pray be so gracious as to let Honest Tom the Exchequer man do it that s a Loyal Our Plâ—asâ—ure you one that if he was well examined hath not only the talent of Sir John Greasyguts but he hath a great deal of Sir Sweetface Tellpenny so that he may in a most humble manner serve to cheat you as both the other have done your dearest Brother of pious memory they are all in pretty good Posts not Whipping-posts and have a fair opportunity through mercy to cheat a third Monarch if he shall be so graciously pleased without the least danger of standing in the Pillory for that acceptable piece of service But you say what would men have you to do Truly I have nothing for you to do but to recollect with your self what a set of Rogues you have rely'd on and they have all failed you and above all to call to mind how they pretended Loyalty to you tho they knew you ascended the Throne by fraud perjury violence and murther and when you were driven from us they struck in with the Government of a Prince that ascended the Throne by the voice of the people and pretend to have a great esteem for his Justice and Valour but in truth it s for the Money-getting imployments they have met withal I say remember these things and if you had but a grain of sense you would do that to you self you caused to be done to the truly noble and never to be forgotten Earl of Essex 4. I have a fourth thing to observe to you you have a number of fools that run up and down and brags of their Commissions and foreign correspondence shewing of Letters c. and sometimes they will prate of you and your worthy Ministers at St. Germains as Harry Higden and the Town Bullies used to talk of a Constable and his Watch and let the subject be what it will the Scene is St. Germains the Cypher it runs still in the old way of Trade and Law-suits with a Clause at the end of all to this effect I hope to see you suddenly for my Uncle's Cause will come to a hearing the next Term. Now this is a vail every body sees through and the deep mystery lies as open and intelligible as a Proclamation nay one would think that Sir Simkin was amongst these people and was incognito as he was once you know where and so had betray d them and exposed their pretences to the Government and so you are once more betrayed in spight of your Teeth Well if you are I can't help it if I should cry my eyes out you must give them more caution for the time to come but upon the whole you may see that your Rascally Crew have neither Brains nor Interest nor Fortune but have struck into a vein of intelligence by themselves and for want of better security they are forbid to vouch for one another they all sing the same song and use the same authority for every thing they say and do and all this while not a Drawer in the Tavern they frequent but can call every one by his right Nick-name and tell what post he hath or was to have enjoyed in your service had your simple designs taken effect Do but observe how these Vermin live in a great measure by spunging upon your sweet Self or your credulous friends nay rather than the Rogues will be idle they will fall into Distress to be helped out again and spend what they get in guttling and fuddling and as for those that have done you good service they sham off with a God-damn ye And are these things so Yes truly and so they will be as long as they have an unfortunate Prince for whose Cause they contend and as long as they are managed by those whose Loyalty consists in Drinking and Swearing and Whoring too or else they would not be liked of They now and then will make a man of some Figure privy to their Intreague then poor Cur in his own defence he is forced to
you desire more truly Sir it was not well enough yet for not only Arlington put a great many tricks upon you and your French Pensioners had not been so close to you as they might have been if they would have put on Courage enough these you thought you might have weathered but alas Sir here was a Parliament yea a Parliament in the way that had done a thousand Rogueries against you and your party Truly Sir I pity you much what was to be done in this case I have you much in my heart for all your barbarous civilities you have shewed me yet I cannot in the abundance of my grief for you forbear laughing to see what a sad pickle you were in but as angry as you were with Arlington you could not avoid grinning at your tools to see what a distress you had brought them to for if they left you you were resolved to destroy them and if they engaged with you the Parliament would do the like therefore nothing could save you and your interest but the dissolution of that haughty Parliament Come chear up in the midst of these troubles and afflictions the old enemy of mankind stood by you for the Cause was not so low but you found a revivate you know that the French King did dispatch Letters to your Brother and pressed him to a dissolution of the Parliament and promised him a good Pension provided he would never call another was not here a friend at a pinch well what did you do in return of this favour Truly you make him a French Grimace and promise that you will improve this Royal favour of his truly it was but fit you should for there was a necessity that you should be rid of the Parliament for your Pensioners had plaid you several Jades tricks and had been very resty for several Sessions so that you could neither make them lead nor drive therefore by the advice of your Council at St. James's the French King was heartily applied to and pressed with much earnestness to write his thoughts freely to the King your Brother which you know he did and a summ of Money was sent as an earnest of the French Kings affection to your Brother and now you were in hopes all would do well but April comes and the Parliament met and no Parliament dissolved but another prorogation you upon this was very warm with your Brother upon the matter and how could he answer this to the French King At last your Brother dealt freely with you as the French King had done with him and told you that he could not tell which way to incline the Arguments indeed you and your party had used as also the French King for the dissolution were exceeding strong and not well to be answered and the Arguments for its continuance were as strong but to your great grief there was one standing Argument that carried the King your Brother on to continue them and that was this if he did try them once more they might give him Money if they did then your Brother would have gained his point and Portsmouth hers if they did not then your Brother told you he could dissolve them upon their refusal and be as he was so that he told them he was in a possibility of getting Money by their continuance But did you not see the cheat of your Brothers Argument and if you had had any Brains you would have turned the Argument upon him and have told him plain that a dissolution would have certainly procured Money and the certainty of three hundred thousand pound a year was better than the bare possibility of getting Money by the continuance of the Parliament Your Brother repented of his refusing the French Kings offer for in the year 1676 a gracious Compliance of Governing without Parliaments a la mode de France But the French Kings Maw was not set that way at that time but you good man according to your Propositions got what you aimed at in order to have your party ready to rise to do the work and tho the French King could not dissolve the Parliament he went thorow-stitch with you to dissolve both our Religion and Government this was the first great support you had 2. You had the General of the Jesuits that was another great support in your design for you did not only make application to the French King but also to him the said General of the Jesuits divers Letters were written at which time the state of the Jesuits was such that they could not contribute much they were content to part with what they were able but there was a necessity of a great Sum to begin the War to which end they were very confident that his most Christian Majesty notwithstanding the great and chargeable War in which he was ingaged against the Confederates would do what in him lay for the Restauration of the Catholick Religion in England and that therefore his Reverence was applied to do his part you may remember that Coleman your Secretary not only in your name but I suppose also by your Order did make application to his Reverence about the same Affair you did not wait long but you had the Sum of Eight Hundred Thousand Crowns that was transmitted to Coleman your Secretary by Bills under the name of Dr. Gibbs a Physician that lived at Rome and they was paid at four payments the Bills were received by one Busby a Merchant then living in London and some other of your faithful Crew in that City and at that time you may remember that the said General of the Jesuits was with much difficulty perswaded to take upon himself the Signing Commissions that were to be Issued for the Offices both Civil and Military and Ecclesiastical too so that no damage might accrue to you in case any should be so wicked as to discover the Design and that this thing might appear in its self improbable and at the time of the advice of the Monies being returned he was pleased to signifie the same to Barrillon at which you were much offended that he had not done it to your Secretary this particular passage may satisfie all mankind that you were resolved to quit the Cause with as much Honour as you could but notwithstanding when the Plot was discovered the Word saw that it was not the General of the Jesuits that was so much the leader of this Conspiracy tho' heartily engaged in it as your self and the French King and that his Signing the Commissions was but a blind to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation and also to defend your Villainous Ally from the vengeance of the whole Protestant Interest of Europe in which quarrel those Princes that were not of the Romish Church would have not have stood neuters in so Just a Cause 3. The Bishop of Rome was another Support for when the said General of the Jesuits had undertaken the point relating to Money and had transmitted the same he
thrive since you had the benefit of such admirable assistance so that reasonably you could expect nothing less than the extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the total overthrow of England's Liberties 4. You had a certain Queen that had received very great affronts from you know who her Bed invaded and defiled by a parcel of Whores and it was high time for her to declare her resentments by engaging her self in the Conspiracy especially since Mother Church was to be advanced and Heresie which had so long domineered in these Northern Countries to be extirpated she knew what assistance you had from aboard and therefore Good Lady she would not be behind hand at home especially since she could no otherways be revenged for all the wrong that had been done her She was brought upon the Stage for it but he that was most concerned thought he could do no less in point of Honour to preserve her though it was from the publick Justice of the Nation 5. You had your Female Companion which was pinn'd upon the Nation by the Advice and Counsel of Lewis your Ally who in order to secure your Brother and you to his Cause and Interest adopted her a Daughter of France and was to pay her Portion she was a main instrument to encourage Popery and Slavery and what intercourse there was between you and the See of Rome upon the Marriage with that hopeful piece of Houshold-stuff I have already shewed you in my first memorial the band of Pensioners had such a foresight of the sad consequences of that Marriage that they made many Votes and did Address the King your Brother to prevent the consummation thereof as appears in the Journals of the said Parliament and her carriage when she was Dutchess of York and when she wore the Name Stile and Title of Queen was a sufficient proof of her intentions to advance the design of subverting our Religion and changing the Government and murthering the King the Jesuits your trusty friends can well tell to this day 6. You had the standing Court-Whores that were engaged with you for this let me tell you that whoring and consuming the Treasure of the Nation were Crimes that were to be pardoned but their being State-Whores was the thing that rendered them in their day to be a greater grievance to the Nation for they were put upon your Brother to betray his Councils to Rome and France and it was by their aid and assistance that you compleated that mighty part of converting these Kingdoms by poysoning him for though he was a Papist yet not Papist enough to hold the Throne and what steps you took in his time you took by their assistance and sometimes you met with unexpected delays so that you could not preserve alive the work that was upon your hands and therefore it was resolved that he must dye that the work of the time might go on without contradiction or delay your Jesuits resolved upon it in the years 1676 1677 and 1678 the Whores agreed to it in 1677 8 upon the Marriage of the Prince of Orange with your Daughter 7. You had your Brother engaged with you in the whole design but that of his own life and I suppose you could not expect his consent to that part of the Conspiracy and therefore to prevent his Jealousie of that you forged a plot upon the Dissenting party and began with the Lord Claypoole who was committed to the Tower and you had two of your Popish Cut-throats ready cut and dried to have sworn him out of his life and several others so that you might destroy the King and lay his Death at the door of the Dissenting Protestants and in this Sir you happily failed when I appeared to take your Cause and Design and laid it before the Parliament who were willing to save your Brother's Reputation if it had laid in their power and his Life if he himself had been pleased graciously to consent to it but he would not and therefore through the blessing of God you did his business as effectually as if Sir George Wakeman had done it himself This I put down to shew you that since he would not let the Parliament preserve his life the destroying of which was one of the two good things that ever you did the other was your running away 8. You had our high Church brokers that through their folly and madness against poor Dissenters turn'd Pimps for nay prostituted themselves and their Cause to Rome and France rather than the Honest Party of England should escape the gracious Vengeance you designd for them Did they not to serve your Cause and Interest preach Sedition and villiâ—ie the Reformation promote Popery assert Popish Principles decry the Popish Plot and turn'd the same upon the Protestants and endeavour'd to subvert the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments In a word many of these Devils brokers they appear'd to all sober thinking men a very scandal and reproach to their Function And that I may clear this point I will instance in some of them by Name that the World may see these sort of Rogues how they help'd on Popery and Arbitrary Power to which they were by your Brother and you engaged and for the doing of which they had your Brother's Countenance and yours 1. The first I shall bring upon the Stage was old Sheldon a whoring wicked Fellow and in his younger days was as lewd as his Gown could make him It is well known that there was none greater than he and your Servant Coleman none more ready to satisfie your former Dutchess that she might turn Papist without any danger to her Soul This Sir was at your instance And to him 2. We joyn Morley that wicked Bishop of Winton that urged the Dutchess with the necessity of obeying her Husband and that there was but little difference between the two Religions and he hoped to live to see an Accommodation between the Church of Rome and the Church of England 3. Your old Friend Gunning he was a Fellow of rare Principles and of him I shall say nothing he having shewed himself in his own colours in the House of Lords in his time 4. Let me add old Cosins that met with his Friend a Papist after the Meeting at the Savoy upon the Return of your Brother and you to the ruine of the Nation and swore God damn me Old Boy we have sav'd Bell and the Dragon and we will not be long before we make your Church and ours to meet that we may be revenged of these Fanatick Rogues And 5. I will instance in Guy Carlton the Bishop of Chichester that said at the Bishop of Ely's Table in the hearing of Bishop Gulston and Gunning He had rather have Poperty than Presbytery in England for the Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome might be composed but it was impossible that ever the Presbyterians and the Church of
Deponent saying your Brother the said Messenger replied we are off that thing now therefore he desired me me not to speak of it to any body afterwards the said Butler came to this Deponent 's Shop and told the Deponent that he had received great Anger in that he had told the Deponent of what Messenger was to Attempt This Deponent further saith that some what above half a year since he heard Mr. Walliston Paston say that young Sir Henry Beddingfield of Oxburrough Hall in Norfolk was to have a Commission form my Lord Arundel for a Troop of Horse in the Army to be raised by the Papists Also about the time that the four Lords that were in the Tower that is the Duke of Buckingham my Lord Shaftsbury the Lord Wharton and the Lord Salisbury that one Mr. Knightly came to me and greatly rejoycing at their Imprisonment said that now is the time for promoting the Catholic Religion because of the difference that was amongst the Lords and that if the Duke of York did but follow the business closely which the Catholics had ground to believe he would they did not doubt but that it would be settled in that juncture of time Your Friend Mr. Prance gave in another Information on the 22. of March which is as follows IN the Month of August 1678 I having occasion to write to a Friend in the Country but could not tell well how to send I went to Mr. Pastons who lodged at one Bambers a Taylor in Duke-street who gave me an Account where to send to him and we immediately fell into Discourse concerning the present posture of Affairs and he bid me not to fear for we should suddenly have better times for in the first place he said that the King was a great Heretick and that the Lord Bellasis and Lord Arundel and Lord Powis and the Lord Petre would have a very good Army for the Deposing of the King and the suppression of the Hereticks and then the Catholick Religion should be established and flourish in this Nation he also said that the above named Lords had given out Commissions already to some Gentlemen in the Country whom he named to me who were Mr. Talbot of Longford and Sir Henry Beddingfield of Oxborow Hall in Norfolk and one Mr. Stone who lives within four or five miles of Kingston upon Thames Also about two years ago one Townley of Townley in Lancashire came up to London with his two Sons whom he was carrying over to Doway he also brought along with him his two Brothers to keep him Company they took Lodgings at Ayries house in Drury-Lane where Fenwick lodged and in a short time two of them went over to Doway with the two Lads and left the other here who in the absence of his Brothers declared very often to my Wifes Brother and to Adamson that when his Brothers came back again from Doway they expected Commissions from the above named Lords for the raising of Men for the Carrying on the Catholick Cause this my Brother and Adamson often told me at Pettleyes in Veres-street where we had a Club very often of none but Papists Now Sir we have given you an account of what Mr. Prance swore before the Parliament concerning the Popish Plot in which you may see your self engaged for you had a business upon your hands and that business was to be followed closely and then the Catholick Religion would flourish and you know to what a degree of Zeal and Piety you were converted as not to regard any thing in the world in comparison of God Almighty's Glory and the Salvation of your own and the conversion of this poor Kingdom which hath been a long time oppressed and miserably harassed with Heresie and Schism nay your Zeal was such That Coleman could sâ—arce believe himself awake when he thought on it I will now put you in mind of what he discovered upon Oath concerning the said Popish Plot at the Tryals of several of your Villains I begin with the Tryals of the five Jesuites where the said Prance did with all chearfulness declare That Harcourt the Jesuit and one of your Councellors at St. Jameses told Prance that there was a design of killing the King and St. Ireland Fenwick and Grove who was one of your Popish Messengers and Firers of the Borough of Southwark told him of 50000 Men that were to be raised for the carrying on of the Catholick Cause and to settle the Catholick Religion which Affair was to be managed by the Five Lords that were for that Conspiracy committed to the Tower who as well as Whitebread were to grant Commissions for Officers nay had actually granted several and to incourage this Prance who though he had but a little Sense yet he had so much as to dread a Civil War told him that he need not fear he should have Church Work enough It will not be unnecessary to make some Observations upon Mr. Prance his Testimony before we come to another and in it here are five or six things worthy of your Consideration 1. Here is expresly sworn That Popery was to be introduced which you know is High Treason your Priests all expected to see the Romish Religion setled and that then all things would do well and your Priests should have fat Parsonages and then all things would go right 2. This Religion was to be brought in by an Army you know that your Dragooning Apostles here might have planted Religion in as an effectual way as they ruin'd the poor Protestants in France 3. Here is the King your Brother declared an Heretick and therefore by your Popish Army to be deposed and by Messenger to be destroyed 4. Here is your selâ— having a work in hand which you were to follow closely 5. Here are your Popish Party all engaged and you at the Head of them 6. Here is all the Incouragement in the World to prevent them from fainting in the Cause for fear of a Civil War they should have Trade enough what can be plainer let all the World judge 4. A Fourth Witness that proved the Popish Plot was the Testimony of Mr. Robert Jenison the manner of his coming in was thus upon the 15th of June 1679 Mr. Chetwind of Westminster who had some Discourse with one Mr. Griffith a Gentleman of Grays Inn about the five Jesuites that had been condemned on the day before and their attempt â—o prove William Ireland alias Ironmonger executed some time before for High Treason to have been in Staffordshire and on his Journey thither from the fifth of August 1678 till the seventh of September following and not to have been within that time in London as I had with others sworn him to have been there between the eight and the twelfth of August and to be returned again thither on the beginning of September whereupon Mr. Griffith told Mr. Chetwynd that Sir Michael Wharton of Beverley in the County of York then a Member of Parliament told him