this 17th day of January 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City Middle Westm. ss THis Informant saith that he waited on Robert Howard of Horecross in the said County of Stafford Esq to the House of the Lord Aston at Tixall in the said County of Stafford on the 12th of September 1678. and then and there saw William late Lord Viscount Stafford talking with Mr. Stephen Dugdale And on the 13th day of the said month of September 1678. this Informant stepping by accident into a Room there called the little Dining-Room or little Parlour some time before Dinner he then and there saw the said William late Viscount Stafford and the said Stephen Dugdale talking and discoursing together in private no other person then being in the said Room besides themselves whereupon this Informant soon withdrew lest he should interrupt their Conference And this Informant is most assured of the Premisses by a certain Memorandum which he then wrote down in his own Pocket Book which at the time of this Information is produced And he likewise saw the said William late Viscount Stafford and the said Stephen Dugdale discoursing together in Tixall Park in the Buck season of the same year 1678. no other Person being with them while the Gentry then Assembled were hunting the Buck in the said Park And this Informant further saith that as he was walking in Tixall Hall about the 18th or 19th day of September 1678. he observed the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford go into a Room called the great Parlour or the Dining-Room which adjoyned to his Lordships Lodging Chamber and immediately the said Stephen Dugdale followed him into the said Room and this Informant saw them two alone discoursing together but how long they continued there or what their Discourse was he knoweth not And by these and other Observations this Informant did believe that the said Stephen Dugdale was in good esteem and in some trust with the said late Viscount Stafford And he further saith that the said Stephen Dugdale was then Steward to the Lord Aston and had great Power and Command in the said Lord Astons Family at Tixall and bought and sold all things relating to the Family or Estate at Tixall and was the Chiefest man in the Lord Astons Family and paid the Wages of Labourers and had a very good Name and Reputation among the Gentry of that Countrey as well Papists as Protestants and was frequently termed Honest Stephen Dugdale And this Informant further saith that he hath observed the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford own the said Stephen Dugdale with respect calling him Mr. Dugdale at Dinners and Suppers before the said Lord Astons face both when they did eat in private and when they did eat in publick with other Gentry and Persons of Quality in the said House to which there was great resort in that year And this Informant likewise observed the said Stephen Dugdale was well respected and very civilly treated by the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford in other Companies and Places where they Occasionally met And further saith not William Skelton Jurat ' die Anno supradict ' coram me Edm. Warcupp Vera Copia Ex ' per me Edmond Warcupp The Information of Walter Collins of the Burrough of Stafford Gent. taken upon Oath the 19th day of January 1680. before Tho. Blacks and Sampson Byrch his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said Burrough Stafford Burrough ss WHo saith that in or about the year of our Lord Christ 1678. he saw the late Lord Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale walk together in the Court Yard belonging to Tixall Hall between the Gate-house and the said Hall about the space of a quarter of an hour and that no other Person did walk with them or was in hearing of them Wal. Collins Signed in presence of William Southall Jurat ' die Anno predict ' coram Tho. Blake Sam. Byrch Thomas Jordan of Little-Haywood in the County of Stafford Gent. one of the High-Constables for the said County Staff ss SAith that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred seventy and eight on a Thursday being a Bowling day at Tixall in the said County he this Informant saw the Lord Stafford and the Lord Aston stand together on the side of the Bowling-Green a distance from the rest of the Company there and out of their hearing And while their Lordships stood at that distance this Informant saw Mr. Stephen Dugdale go to their Lordships and stand with them in that place out of hearing of the rest of the Company about a quarter of an hour and their Lordships and Mr. Dugdale did Discourse together all that time as this Informant verily believes this Informant being in their sight all that time but not in their hearing Thomas Jordan 15 die January 1680. Signed then in the presence of Thomas Whitbey Edward Foden The Information of William Suelson of Great-Haywood Nailer taken upon Oath before Sir Bryan Broughton Knight and Barronet Jan. 13. 1680. WHo saith that about Michaelmas was two years he saw the Lord Stafford walking alone with Mr. Stephen Dugdale upon Tixall Bowling-Alley And this Informant saith that he knew the Lord Stafford as well as the one hand from the other for he hath often seen him at Tixall William Suelson Jurat ' coram me B. Broughton The Information of Richard Parkin of Shutburrough in the County of Stafford taken upon Oath in Stafford before James Lewes of the Burrough of Stafford and Thomas Blake and Sampson Byrch Justices of the said Burrough Staff ss WHo upon his Oath saith that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord Christ 1677. he saw William late Viscount Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale together by themselves and none else with them in the Court at Tixall betwixt Tixall Hall and the Stables there And also that he this Informant saw the said Lord Stafford and the said Mr. Dugdale together and none else with them upon a Hempland belonging to Walter Eld of Tixall Rich. Parkin his A Mark Signed in the presence of William Southall 15. Jan. 1680. Jurat ' coram James Lewes Tho. Blake Samp. Byrch Vera Copia The Information of Tho. Creswell of Little-Haywood Cordwayner Januar. 11. 1680. Staff WHo saith that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord 1676. he was at Tixall to ride Horses and about a month before Michaelmas the Lord Stafford took him to be his Page with whom he lived a year and a quarter within that time my Lord Stafford was three or four times at Tixall and staied sometimes two or three nights together and three or four mornings he hath sent this Informant to see for Stephen Dugdale and bid him come to him for to speak with him And this Informant saith that he hath seen him at the least three times go into the Parlour to my
these Depositions that he had not only more than an ordinary Reputation in my Lord Aston's Family the management of my Lords chiefest Concernments being entrusted with him but that he was highly valued by the whole Countrey for Candor Integrity Justice and Truth beyond what other Papists under all the Recommendation of Birth Breeding and Inheritance could arrive unto And as to be accounted and stiled Honest Mr. Dugdale was the greatest honour that a virtuous ambition could make him aspire unto so his Temper and whole Conduct since called forth to appear on a more publick Theatre do proclaim him every way worthy of that Compellation And this Character which he obtained in Staffordshire doth so correspond with what we have seen and observed of him in London that all impartial men do readily acknowledge the justness of it And whereas my Lord Stafford protested in the presence of God that as he was never with him alone so he never spake to him but once and that only concerning a Foot-man Here are proofs neither to be distrusted nor contradicted that he had both frequent conversation with him and admitted him into those privacies which others were debarred and shut out from And indeed by the familiarity he entertained him with and the sequestring themselves from all other Company whensoever they discoursed together we may easily imagine what was the Subject they treated about For what else should recommend another Persons Servant to those Privacies which my Lord Stafford vouchsafed Mr. Dugdale or prefer one of so mean a Rank to be selected from among the company of the best Gentlemen to be discoursed with apart but that there was some important Design on foot of which they two were particularly conscious And could this in probability be any other than the mighty Affair of destroying the King and overthrowing the Protestant Religion which the whole Papal Party had so long designed and were at that time filled with the highest confidences of accomplishing § 12. The next thing that lies before us is the consideration of this late Lords renouncing all knowledge of Mr. Turbervill and with what solemnity he abjured the having so much as at any time seen him For having at his Trial not only declared that he never saw him before in his life he repeats it in his Speech upon the Scaffold and withall avers upon his Death and Salvation that he never spake one word to Mr. Turbervill or to his knowledge ever saw him until his Trial. Some possibly may be ready to believe that my Lord Viscount Stafford had the gift of forgetfulness and that the Papists by a peculiar Donation remember nothing that may either asperse themselves or the interest of the Catholick Cause But as they can not tell us where such a priviledge is bequeathed unto them so we shall make it appear by irrefragable Testimonies that he was well acquainted with Mr. Turbervill and that the spring of this misadventure in denying it was not the weakness of his Memory but the badness of his Conscience Nor shall I insist upon the Testimony of Mr. Mort who being produced at the Trial of my Lord Stafford deposed that being acquainted with Mr. Turbervill at Paris the said Turbervill did to the best of his remembrance tell him that his Brother who was a Monk had introduced him into the favour of my Lord Stafford and that once being in company with Mr. Turbervill the said Mr. Turbervill withdrew from him to speak with that Lord and that he the said Mort walk'd about Luxemburg-house till his return For though this Testimony doth mightily strengthen Mr. Turbervills Evidence being agreeable in several circumstances with what he declared yet forasmuch as the whole is to be found in the Printed Relation of my Lord Staffords Trial together with the great and convincing improvement which an excellent Person made of it I shall therefore decline enlarging upon it and shall proceed to advance two other Depositions demonstrative of this late Lords insincerity and falsehood in renouncing before God and men the having had any former knowledge of Mr. Turbervill The Information of John Showter Gent. one of the Clerks in the Crown-Office in Chancery taken upon Oath this 3th day of January 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City Middl. Westm. ss THis Informant saith that about six or seven years ago he did frequently resort to the Chappel at Tart-Hall to Mass the then House of William late Viscount Stafford and one of those times he met there one Mr. Glassie who asked this Informant a List of the Names of the Justices of the Peace in Shropshire which List some few days afterwards this Informant carried to Tart-Hall and delivered it to the said Glassie who in kindness invited this Informant to drink a Glass of Wine in the Cellar and two other Gentlemen went to drink with them and after some time this Informant asked the said Mr. Glassie who a Tall thin Gentleman was who was then one of the Company who answered his name was Turbervill and that he belonged to the Lady Molineux and this Informant cannot positively say that Mr. Edward Turbervill now produced was the same Person then in his Company but believes he may be the same by his stature and thinness only his Hair did then look like a Perriwig and was much longer than it is now And he further saith that he verily believes he saw the said Mr. Turbervill at least forty times in the said House up and down so commonly that he believed the said Turbervill to be one of the Lord Staffords Family and did likewise see him several times at Mass at the said House John Showter Jurat ' die Anno supradicto coram me Edmond Warcupp Vera Copia Ex ' per me Edmond Warcupp The Information of Colonel John Scott taken upon Oath the 13th day of February 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City Middl. Westm. ss THis Informant saith that he was at Paris in France in the month of November 1675. and there met William late Viscount Stafford whom this Informant was well acquainted with in a Cedan in the Street called Rue de Neuf Fosse about the 18th or 20th of the said November who called to this Informant inviting him to his Lodgings which he then said was in a Street called La Rue de Pornoung at a Corner House at the lower end of that Street the upper end whereof is fronted by Luxemburgh-house to which Lodging this Informant went the next day and was introduc'd into his Lordships Chamber who complain'd of a lameness which the Informant judg'd to be the Gout and this Informant visited him several times afterwards in his Chamber which was a lower Room in the said Corner House about the latter end of the said month of November 1675. when a certain Person
England the rooting out the Protestant Religion and destroying of Hereticks § 8. But to make a nearer approach to the present Plot can there be a greater Evidence of the Papists readiness to forswear their own guilt than the many Examples of hiring and suborning persons to perjure themselves to make the Innocent Criminal A design more horrid in itself and more destructive to Government and the safety of Mankind than for one that is guilty to protest his Innocency with the highest Execrations For by the Arraignment of one innocent person upon a countenanced subornation all who deserve the same character are virtually indicted and the whole Law becomes perverted from its true end which is to justifie the guiltless and is turned into an Engine to condemn the Innocent And it will prove of such fatal consequence should it be connived at or allowed that all the ligaments of society will become dissolved and all obligations not only between man and man but betwixt Rulers and People finally cancelled For who can be so innocent that it is not in the power of a suborned Villain to slander or so Loyal whom on the encouragement of a Reward and at the suggestion of a prompter he will not brand for a Traitor And we may be sure that they who are so void of all Conscience as to undertake so horrid an Employment will be furnished with Impudence to swear any Charge that their Masters dictate and prescribe unto them And what a damnable Religion must that be that at once inspires them to seek the destruction of Protestants and justifies them in all kind of subornations and falshoods for the accomplishing of it Now besides many Instances not yet come to light of this treacherous and Romish Practice we have several accounts of their endeavours of this kind which deserve our observation and remark The first is that of Netternille an Irish Papist his attempting to corrupt Mr. William Brooks one of the Aldermen of Dublin and Captain Bery to swear what should be prescribed unto them for the fixing of scandalous Crimes on Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe and charging the Plot on Dissenting Protestants The next is Readings Attempt upon Mr. Bedloe to have obtained of him the renouncing all the material part of his Depositions against the Lords in the Tower for which he promised him in Money and Estate a great Reward The third is Mr. Price's and Mr. Tasbrough's labouring to persuade Mr. Dugdale to recant whatsoever he had said concerning the Plot and to call the Almighty God to witness that no motive had induced him to retract the Testimonies he had given but remorse of Conscience for the Mischiefs which he had done though they were in the mean time to give him a great sum of money in hand besides a further Reward which they assured him of afterwards The fourth is their suborning Thomas Knox and John Lane to swear such Crimes against Dr. Oats as they supposed would not only weaken the Credit of all his Evidence but bring him under a sentence of Death and so rob the Nation of the most considerable Witness in reference to the Plot. A fifth is Longmores and Draxtons endeavouring to bribe Simon Wright to declare upon Oath that Mr. Dugdale had promised to protect him and give him money as one of the King's Evidence if he would swear against Sir James Symons and Mr. Gerrard The last which I shall mention is their Employing Mr. Dangerfield to charge a Plot on the Presbyterians wherein they intended to involve most of those that appeared active and zealous for the Protesant Religion and English Liberty And to conclude Instances of this nature at present I shall only add two Depositions which may serve to instruct us that they still persevere in the Practice of the same Villany The Tenor of the first is as followeth The Examination of Edward Howcott of the City of Lichfield taken at the said City the first day of Jan. 1680 1 before me Francis Bayly one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace forth County of the said City The said Examinant upon his Oath saith That Joseph Salt of Utoxeter Feltmaker about the month of June last told this Deponent that one John Murrall a Barber in Rugby in the County of Stafford would have had the said Joseph Salt to have gone with him to London and be a witness against Mr. Stephen Dugdale one of the King's Evidence in the late Horrid Plot the said Murrall pretending as the said Salt told this Deponent that he knew as much of the Plot as Mr. Dugdale did and if he would but testifie three or four words which Murrall would direct him to swear against Mr. Dugdale he should live better than ever he did in his life telling the said Salt that he now lived meanly but if he would do what he desired him he should never want whilst he lived for in this Juncture of time the Oath of a Protestant would be better accepted than twenty Oaths of a Papist And further this Deponent saith That the said Murrall had sworn him never to confess what he said to him and threfore Salt said He would be hanged and drawn and quartered before he would discover the saying of Murrall And this is not only sworn by Edward Howcott but by his Wife Mary Howcott and by one Edward Blakesly who were all present when Salt declared and acknowledged as is above deposed The second Information declarative also of the like Practices is that of Thomas Lander of Shutborrow in the County of Stafford as it was taken upon Oath the 24 of Decemb. 1680 1. before Edmund Warcupp Esq one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex c. This Informant saith that having been employed as a workman several times at the house of my Lord Aston at Tixall in the County aforesaid he was solicited by Mr. Francis Hind Steward to the Lord Aston to become a Witness against Stephen Dugdale any way to invalidate or take off his Evidence in relation to the Popish Plot and he served this Informant with a Supena to come up to London for that purpose at the late intended Tryal of the late Lord Aston in June last past But before his coming up the said Hind Francis Aston Son to the Lord Aston Thomas Sawyer servant to the said Lord Aston sent for this Informant into a private room in the said Lord Aston's house and there told him That if he would swear such things as should be dictated to him by the Persons aforesaid to invalidate or take away the Evidence of the said Mr. Dugdale he should have such reward as should be to his own content and not want for Money or house as might become a man of better quality than himself Can any man now have horror enough for that Religion which doth at once both authorise and sanctify such subornations and treacheries or can we without abandoning our
who hath a Dispensation for it And surely if a Papal Dispensation may make Incest lawful it may make Lying and Perjury lawful also But so much hath been said on this Subject by others that I shall wave enlarging on that particular Sect. 17. And as if it had not been enough to obtrude Maxims on the World by which a man may speak dissonantly to what he knows and believes and yet not lye and by which a man may be guilty of lying and perjury and yet not sin They have also made provision that what they themselves both acknowledge to be a lye and confess to be a sin yet that it shall no ways endanger the Salvation of him who contracted such a guilt And surely what the Papists may do without the hazard of future blessedness and in subserviency in the mean time to many great and secular ends they will not much scruple the doing of it Now the provisions which that tender and compassionate Church hath made for her Children by vertue of the benefit of which they may be as wicked as they can desire and yet be in no danger of the Vindictive Justice of God or Eternal Punishments are such as these 1. She allows them the benefit of Absolution Now the nature and end of Absolution is not to render a thing to be no sin which in it self is a sin but the making that which is sin not be punishable by the Divine Tribunal It doth not make a man to be free from having done that which he hath done but it secures him from the Justice of God though he did it Though a Papal Pardon doth not make that not to be which is yet it renders the Person as safe as if it were not or never had been And guilt implying an obnoxiousness to punishment they reckon that being by absolution discharged from all obnoxiousness to punishment they are no more guilty than if they had never committed such a Fact And so they aver themselves to be as Innocent as the Child unborn not of the Fact but with respect to the demerit of it How far this Popish Engine hath served the interest of the Papal Party and emboldned them to deny that which they were justly accused of hath been abundantly declared by many learned Pens and therefore my further pains about it are superseded by the foregoing labours of others 2. The second provision of this kind made by the Church of Rome for the Votaries of the Triple Crown and the Subjects of the Infallible Head is that of Indulgences by which whole Orders and many Families as well as Individual Persons are pardoned not only of all the sins that they have committed but of all that they shall commit as well for ages as years to come No doubt but they who could give Indulgences of all sins to such as heretofore fought in favour of the Pope and the Court and Church of Rome against Emperors or Kings that quarrelled with his Highnesses Usurpations or that listed themselves under the Papal Banners for the extirpation of Hereticks but that they will be as ready to give Indulgences of the same form and extent to such as are engaged for the rooting out of the Northern Heresie which hath so long tyrannised over these Kingdoms 3. To this we may subjoin their Doctrine of Purgatory Supererogations Masses for the dead which are all calculated to secure the everlasting happiness of Papists though they dye in known sins 4. Of Alliance to this is their opinion concerning the vertue and Power of the Eucharist which being received though only with attrition justifieth any one that is in Mortal Sin And for securities sake they may keep it by them and administer it to themselves if they should fail of an opportunity of having another to administer it to them And this course took Mary Queen of Scots Lastly Their Doctrine that Martyrdom doth Ex opere operato confer grace is highly useful and subservient to the same purpose And what a blessed condition are our Tyburn and Tower-hill Martyrs in though the last things they did was the forswearing of themselves and the invoking God to bear witness to falshood as an authentick and solemn Truth And it is but hanging or losing ones head for the interest of the Triple Crown and all is safe And may many of them have the good fortune to go this secure way as they believe to Heaven FINIS See his Examination in his last Sickness p. 10. See Ireland's Tryal p. 10. p. 28. Dugdal's further Information p. 16. The Papists Oath of Secrecy by Mr. Robert Bâ—leron printed by Order of the House of Commons This is to be had Printed by it self being fold by Rich. Baldwin in Boult-Court near the Black Bull in Old Baily See the new Plot p. 74. and the Compendium p. 75. See the Trval of William Viscount Stafford pag. 53. and p. 200. In Catalog Scriptorum societ Jesu p. 377. in Biblioth script societ Jesu In his book against the Oath of Allegiance called The Discussion of the Answer p. 22 23. * Idem Apology p. 151. Hist. An. 1605. Pap. 4. Pap. 9. See the Proceedings against the Traitors See the Proceedings against the Traitors Ibid. Abboti Antilogia p. 110. See the proceedings against the Traitors See his Papers published in the end of the late Editions of the proceedings against the Traitors See the proceedings compared with Digby's Papers See the Proceedings against the Traitors Bellarmin's Opinion Published and approved of by the holy See See the Narrative of this Deposition See Reading's Tryal See the Tryal of Mr. Tasbrough See the Tryal of Knox and Lane and Dr. Oats's Printed Narrative See my Lord Staffords Tryal p. 158. See Coll. Mansfield's Narrative and Mr. Dangerfield's Narrative The City of Lichfield See Coleman's Letters in his Tryal p. 69. and Published since by Sir Geo. Treby See the Tryal of the five Jesuits See Mr. Gauans Speech before his Execution at Tyburn In Epist. ad conciliarios Reginae Augliae p. 22. Alegambe in Biblioth script societ Jesu p. 258. In defens fidei lib 6. n. 14 c. Aphorism p. 115. de Instit. Tom. 4. T. 3. disp 6. Vid. Less de Instit lib. 2. c. 9. dub 4. See Mr. Serjeants and Mr. Morrices Informations See the Speeches of the five Jesuits See my Lord Staffords Tryal p. 134 135. See my Lord Stafford's Tryal p. 141 142. Ibid. p. 142 158. Ibid. p. 158. Ibid. p. 158. See his Speech up-the Scaffold See Page 78. See Page 50. See the said Trial Page 151. See Page 181.
ruine of the Protestant Party as his Letter to the Nuncio bearing date the 9th of August testifieth If there had not been a general Confederacy among all the Papists in England to cut off and extirpate those modern Hereticks Or is it possible to fasten any other sense upon Father Irelands Letter from St. Omers wherein he tells his Correspondents here that all things were in a readiness there as soon as the Blow should be given here but that they had both projected the murdering of the King and having once accomplished that to proceed immediately to the extirpation of the Protestants I should not have published the foregoing Letter but that the safety as well as the Honour of the King and the Vindication of the Justice of the Nation upon this Traiterous Malefactor exacted it of me And I wish some Persons may be advised and instructed how they behave themselves in reference to Papers and Informations which arrive with them for the future seeing they may hereby find and observe that their carriages and transactions lie not so hid and concealed as they may to their own ruine at last though to our danger at present believe and imagine But let us in the next place consider how many Witnesses have testified my Lord Stafford's share and part in the Plot and you will possibly be astonished how he durst shut up his dying Speech in saying with so little concernedness with relation to the righteous Tribunal he was immediately to appear before I do with my last breath truely assert my Innocency and hope the Omniscient All-seeing just God will deal with me accordingly Were they not so many that for any to hope to be acquitted upon bare denying what such a number have Deposed were to make the Conviction of Malefactors and Criminals a thing wholly impossible And were they not all Papists and purposed so to live and dye if the consideration of this Plot had not filled them with horror concerning a Religion that justified so Execrable a Conspiracy Nor was it originally any hatred against the Popish Religion that made them accuse the principal Members of the Roman Communion of those Villanies and Crimes but it was the Treasons which the Roman Catholicks were engaged in that made them renounce that Religion which put them upon it and whose Principles made it Meritorious to prosecute it with Fire and Sword Besides these Witnesses were Persons whom this Lord is never said to have disobliged so that they can not be thought to have accused him out of Malice and Revenge And which is very material for obtaining belief to their Testimony they were wholly Strangers one to another till after the Discovery of the Plot so that the charging my Lord Stafford and others with such and such Crimes was not any contrivance among themselves nor a thing they can be supposed to have concerted between them And if we consider the nature and quality of their Evidence it is such that it is impossible any man should have ever ventured upon the giving of it unless it had been true and that they had personal and particular knowledge of all the Circumstances of it For they not only declare all with the greatest plainness and distinctness but whensoever there was any attempt to distract or entangle them by cross Questions they both persevere to answer with the greatest presence and sedateness and by their Replies to reflect further light and certainty on what they said before For as the particulars they insisted upon are too many for the most fertile Imagination to have invented so as to be able to make them cohere much less to cause one of them support and fortifie another So notwithstanding the number of the things they have Deposed and that there was no previous acquaintance amongst them yet they have in nothing contradicted one another nor hath any one by endeavouring to support the truth of what himself said undermined or supplanted the certainty of what others have alledged Or can it be supposed that though they had been never so wicked and would not have scrupled the destroying the lives of innocent Persons in order to profit and advantage that yet they should not only be such fools but so perfectly mad as to assault the lives of so many of the chiefest Peers of the Nation and so befriended not only in their numerous Relations but in the interest which they had as well in his Majesty as those of greatest Authority about him Surely nothing but an assured knowledge of the things which they inform concerning and a conscientious desire to prevent the mischiefs which these great persons in combination with others were hastning to involve the Nation under could have ever prevailed with them to expose themselves to so many visible dangers as they must needs have foreseen the accusing so many Peers would make them obnoxious and liable unto § 11. But this is not the only particular wherein we shall detect and lay open this false and perjured Person and therefore we hasten to a second thing wherein this late Viscount hath prostituted his Conscience by asserting that for a truth which we shall prove by undubitable Testimony to be a gross and impudent falshood And it is some advantage that we can deal with the Papists on a subject that relates wholly to matter of Fact for here both the meanest and those of the narrowest Understanding are as capable of being Umpires betwixt us and them and of comprehending what is proved or what is not as those of a more elevated Condition and improved Abilities This Lord then having both protested upon his Tryal that he never spake with Mr. Dugdale but once and averred it upon his Death and Salvation that he never spake unto him of any thing save about a Foot-boy or Foot-man or Foot-race and never was then alone with him We shall therefore by some of the many undeniable Depositions which we could produce demonstrate that he hath been often with him and that at times and seasons when there could be no occasion to discourse of any such affair or business betwixt them And this Viscount having also upon his Tryal solemnly attested God that he detested Dugdale as so mean a Knave that often and often when dry at my Lord Aston ' s Table he would not call for Drink when he saw him by him but often refused to take Drink at his hands I shall therefore prove by the Testimonies of several Persons whose Credit can no ways be impeached that the time was when he had another kind of value for Mr. Dugdale and that he hath withdrawn from the Society of very considerable Persons to converse with this very Dugdale whom he is pleased to represent as so mean a Knave and that he frequently declined to take Drink at his hands The Information of William Skelton late of Horecross in the County of Stafford now of St. Martins in the Fields in the County of Middlesex Gent. taken upon Oath