necessary to make use of both their joint and utmost Credits to prevent the Success of the Parliament's Evil Designs against them both which of his side he promised really to perform Nay which is more do not you remember the Duke tells the French King of a very dangerous Plot against them both My Lord Arlington was incessantly at work to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the French King and that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between K. Charles the Second the French King and the Duke wherefore his Royal Highness earnestly sollicites the most Christian King to assist with the help of his Purse to prevent such ROGVERIES You see here is a Triple League against a Triple Confederacy The King of England French King and Duke of York against the Parliament of England the States of Holland and his Royal Highness the Pr. of Orange The French is to furnish the Sinews of War Money The Parliament are declared Enemies K. Charles indeed standing only as a Cypher the French King and the Duke put themselves under the most solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of both their Enemies and seeing there was a desperate Design to advance the Prince and to lessen the French the Duke puts in his Memorial to that King demanding his Assistance to prevent such Rogueries But to return to our Narrative The House of Commons is no more to sit No nor was it advisable they should they were proclaimed Enemies to France and to the Duke The French King whose Interest was to be secured in England was fully convinced that they were not only unuseful but very dangerous to both their joint Interests may they ever continue so and it much satisfied the Duke to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of his Opinion in the Point Then with what reason could we expect the use of Parliaments would be continued The Protestant Peers as to be destroyed or excluded the House and the Magpy are to be changed for Purple Bishops And who at this day has the effronted Forehead to say that all this was Fiction Did not they embrew their Hands in the Blood of some of our Nobility And were not more threatned to that degree that 8. Years since no true Protestant Lord in England could at any rate have got his Head or his Seat in Parliament ensured to him for one Year Such was the Case of our Bishops We beheld some of their Diocesses visited by those of the Purple Dye and had not Heaven in a miraculous way delivered them we might not at this day have seen a Black and White One in the Nation In order to the Accomplishment of their sanctified Villanies the Jesuits with the Assistance of French and Irish Papists burnt London and Southwark and that they might the more securely carry on that Design without being detected they cunningly draw in a few silly Fifth-Monarchy-Men and fairly leave them in the lurch to be hang'd as they were about April 1666. When any Popish Plot is near the Point of Execution they ever will have the Dissenters at hand to account for their Villanies The burning this Nest of Hereticks had been concerted both at Rome and Paris and the time for putting it in execution approaching in April 1666 a Fanatick Plot is brought upon the Stage and seven or eight were condemned at the Old-Baily for plotting to kill the King and to burn the City on the 3d Day of September following the very Day the Papists afterwards did it For a more full Account of this I refer the Reader to the London-Gazette of April 30 1666. Numb 48. Thus when they were cock-sure of cutting off K. Charles the Second before Christmass 1678. Mr. Claypole Son-in-Law to Oliver was made close Prisoner in the Tower in July 1678. upon an Accusation of conspiring the Death of the King and it is very probable that had not Dr. Oates's Discovery happily interposed he might have died for it the next Term and the King been soon sent after him Then our Counsels are to be betrayed to France that Part is committed to Mr. Coleman the Duke or Dutchess of York 's Secretary and he is to manage it by a Correspondence with Le Chese Confessor to the French King I cannot with-hold my self from remarking here that this Information was given upon Oath on the 27th of September 1678. before Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey and before the King and Council the 28th and 29th of that Month that hereupon Coleman was taken up on the 29th and his Papers seized which happily furnished the World with irrefragable Evidence had there been no other of that diabolical Intrigue In fine Trade is to be discouraged that so it was I know none will deny Our Coin was to be adulterated I shall not surely be called upon to prove that that was done to purpose and to crown the day King Charles was not to be reprieved beyond Christmas 1678. and then our Popish Successor was to play us such a Game as never was plaid since the Conquest They mistook the time indeed but the Feat was done and then the Gamester came upon the Stage to play his Game but having an unlucky Hand he quickly plaid himself out and therefore I shall not further pursue him I only say to him as the Welshman did to his Horse There 's a Trick for your Trick and a Stone in your Foot still Proceed we now to the further Narrative of this hellish Conspiracy of which it seems requisite to hint these things Dr. Oates after he had endured a long and most cruel Imprisonment upon a Judgment for 100000 l. Damages given against him to the Duke of York for saying the Duke was a Papist now saw that his irreconcilable Enemy upon the Throne and that he with his Jesuits and corrupt Judges were resolved to run upon him with all their Rage as they did in Easter-Term 1685. ordering him to be tried in the Court of King's-Bench upon two several Indictments for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the Plot and that upon the Testimony of those very Popish Witnesses who had confronted him in three several Trials of the Conspirators The Case standing thus with him and remembring that his Life had been several times attempted was now under an Apprehension that they were bent upon his Destruction and therefore in the Month of April 1685. he drew up this ensuing Narrative in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet John Arnold and John Dutton-Colt Esqs and having signed it with his own Hand deposited it with a Person of Worth and Quality with whom I am well assured it has ever since remained till upon the 21st of January 1695 6. it was put into my Hands Dr. Oates's further NARRATIVE of the Popish Plot 29 April 1685. THE Malice of my Popish Adversaries being so great that I
of all Supream Powers to suppress Vice and encourage Vertue which is best done abroad when first and effectually begun at home in your own House and Family by banishing all vicious Livers from your Presence and Converse and advancing the Vertuous in their stead By the neglect of which principal Part of their Royal Trust and Office Princes depose themselves as useless before God and their own Consciences whatever may be their State or Glory in Fact and by humane Laws and Power before Men. Our Royal Patron being thus dismiss'd we are now got to the Narrative it self of which you my kind Reader still may or may not as you choose run over the Heads They are these The general Design in this Plot was the Reformation that is in their Sense the Reduction of Great Britain and Ireland by the Sword to the Romish Religion and Obedience And Besides the Papal there was also a French Plot carried on by Sir Ellis Leighton Mr. COLEMAN and others The King's Person they more especially resolved to remove and that with all possible speed by Dagger Pistol or POISON The Prince of Orange is to be cut off He was designed against and condemned by Name and 12 Missioners sent into Holland had it in charge to put that People in Mutiny against him On the 4th of January stilo novo Letters were sent by Richard Ashby and others Jesuits of the English Seminary at St. Omers to the Father Confessor of the Emperor to advise him that his Majesty of Great Britain had treacherously plotted the Ruine of the Confederates and that his Design was not to keep any Alliance with his Imperial Majesty but only in shew that he might advance his Nephew THE PRINCE OF ORANGE and make him absolute and therefore prayed that the States of Holland might be acquainted with it Letters arrived at London bearing Date Aug. 5. 1678 from Whito alias Whitebread Provincional to John Fenvick from St. Omers in which he did inform the Fathers that he had ordered 12 Jesuits to go for Holland and to inform the Dutch that the Prince of Orange did intend to assume the Crown of a King and that he resolved to bring them under another Government which was designed to beget in the Dutch an evil Opinion of the P. of Orange and to procure a Commotion there against him On the 11th of Aug. John Keines a Jesuit declared that all means were now used to beget a difference between the Dutch and the P. of Orange and if that could be effected there was no question to be made but that the Protestant Interest would fail in Holland On the 12th of Aug. a Pacquet arrived in London from White alias Whitebread the Provincional and other Jesuits to John Fenwick intimating that the twelve Jesuits were got into Holland and would use all their Skill and Interest to make a Commotion there and that APPLE-TREE WILL. meaning the P. of Orange SHOVLD NOT BE GREAT And that they hoped the Fathers in London would follow their Business closely there In order to the Reduction of Ireland it was resolved that the D. of Ormond must be put out of the way and that then the Protestants should be cut off as in 41 and to that end Arms and Money were sent over and the Pope contributed 800 Thousand Crowns and to make all sure the French were to send Forces over to join 25 thousand Irish On the 11th of Aug. John Keines the Jesuit declared that the Provincional had taken great care of keeping alive the Difference between the disaffected Scots and D. Lauderdale and that the Affairs in Ireland went on with great Expedition and that fourty eight would not last long in England for it was high time to hinder fourty nine from being effected That Barly-broth should grow dead and Twelve would be cut off and that Mum and Chocolate should be put down and the Order of Magpyes should be turned into their Primitive Institution and Habit now the Deponent saith that the Words hinder 49 from being effected is an Expression that is used amongst them for cutting off the King that he may not live to be compleat forty nine Years of Age and by Barley-broth is meant the House of Commons which shall be turned out and sit no more and by Mum and Chocolate is meant the Protestant Peers who if not destroyed shall never have any Vote in the House of Peers more after the Death of this King and by Magpyes they understand the Bishops whose Habit in Parliament is Black and white which shall be changed into Purple and by Twelve is meant the Duke of Monmouth Keines on the 12th of August determined to go for Windsor in order to settle some Business there towards the dispatching 48 and told the Deponent that he might chance to fall short of his return again In July 1678. Richard Strange the last Provincial of the Jesuits did encourage the Deponent to go on in assisting the Society in carrying on the Design and told the Deponent that they got 14000 l. in the Fire of London in 1666. The Deponent ask'd Strange how they came to effect that great and famous Business He replyed that himself and Gray Pennington and Barton Jesuits with some others together with Keimash a Dominican Fryar join'd with one GREEN and met at one West's House the Green Dragon at Puddle Dock and there debated about the manner of firing the City and where they should begin and did attempt it in February 1664 5. In January 1665 6 they met with this Green again who closed in with them in the Design and that they might ingratiate themselves with Green they Man and fit for their Purpose And the more to engage him they pretended to bold many of the Fifth-Monarchy Principles which when Green perceived judging them to be real he brought them acquainted with eight others who were zealous in the Business The Jesuits were earnest to have it done in February but Green prayed them to suspend that Resolution because the King would not be much in Town if at all till the Plague was more abated who Green did say must be cut off too when the People were in a hurry by reason of the Fire and this Motion well pleased the Jesuits and Dominican and so it was put off That in a very little time after Green and the rest of those Fifth-Monarchy-Men together with the Jesuits and Dominican were suspected by West and forewarned his House And presently after Green and his eight Acquaintance were clapt up in Prison and upon their Imprisonment the Jesuits and Dominican got away to St. Omers and there remained till the May after the Execution of 8 of these Persons Green dying in Newgate That in the beginning of June being returned to London they began afresh to consult about this Fire which was still carried on by the Society in their absence and they determined to cut off the King in the time of the Fire that the Number of the
Beast might be accomplished At the uttering of which words Strange broke out into a great Laughter But said Strange to be short we got 50 or 60 Irish to ply the Work We were also in fee with several Frenchmen who were faithful in the Business Strange told the Deponent that they spent 700 Fire-Balls and when the Fire-Merchants were at work then others were employed to plunder what they could They have communicated what Secrets they can have reveal'd to them of the King which they send over to Le Chese the French King's Confessor This they do by one Smith who daily lurks about Whitehall and in Parliament-time about Westminster-hall and the Lobby And One COLEMAN formerly Secretary to her Royal Highness doth assist this Smith with private Intelligence On the 10th of August the Deponent did meet with Groves who had promised to give him an Account of the Fire of Southwark in 1676 and then told him that he had certain Fireworks made for that purpose and he with three Irishmen his Assistants went to St. Margaret's Hill where they found an Oil-Shop which Groves bragg'd he fir'd He said that Dr. Fogarthy procured the Irishmen for which the Society Richard Strange then Provincial gave them 1000 l. viz. 400. l. to Groves and 200 l. apiece to the three Irishmen and that the Society got at least 2000 l. by that Fire which was also told the Deponent at another time by Richard Strange On the 11th of August the Deponent saw Letters from St. Omers written by Father IRELAND to John Fenwick and Fenwick told the Deponent that if 〈◊〉 lived till Christmass he should see a good Change of Things either that Forty eight the King should be taken from the World or the World especially the little he was concern'd in should be taken from him And ONE THAT WAS A CATHOLICK SHOVLD PLAY SVCH A GAME AS NEVER WAS PLAY'D SINCE THE CONQVEST and Fenwick told the Deponent that this Catholick was the DVKE OF YORK This Plot was to be effected by these Means amongst others By disclosing the King's Counsels to France by Coleman Smith and others By disaffecting his Majesty's Allies Holland Spain the German Emperor and Princes by false Intelligence c. By disturbing Trade By firing and plundering our best Cities and Towns By horrid worse than Jewish Interest Transportation of Trade People Stock and Money ADVLTERATING MONEY AND PLATE To which end they have Bankers Brokers Merchants Goldsmiths and other Traders whom they stock and set up with Money of their Society of which they boast to have 100 thousand Pounds Cash c. I descend now to sum up the whole and descant a little upon some few of the Heads before recounted Great Britain and Ireland were to be reduced by the Sword to the Romish Religion and Obedience In order hereunto the King was to be removed by Dagger Pistol or Poison and they declared 't was high time it were effected And good reason for it He had broke his Word with Madam his Sister in passing the Test-Bill having promised her at the Interview at Dover that nothing should be done to the prejudice of the R. Catholicks And contrary to his Promise to the Papists they remembred his sending the Great E. of Essex into Ireland They well knew also that he had refused to sign Coleman's Declaration for dissolving the Parliament which he had sworn to them to do and that he had been guilty of that never-to-be-forgiven Sin against their Church of receiving the Sacrament in the Church of England and that the same day at Noon on which he had received it in the Morning from Ireland the Jesuit To add no more they knew that they had at hand a more daring Prince who they were assured would stake his Crown for carrying on their Mighty Work The Prince of Orange they had resolved should by no means become Great therefore he must be cut off and in order to effect that mighty and so highly necessary Work Missioners are sent into Holland to stir up that People to mutiny against him upon the wicked Suggestion that he resolved to change their Government and assume a Crown The Emperor is instigated to create a Belief in the States General that that Prince designed to make himself Absolute and they promise themselves that by a Breach between the Prince and States the Protestant Interest would without question fail in Holland Now to reflect a little upon this Matter Why must this Prince be cut off Was he not the Duke of York's Sister's Son 't is yielded What then can we expect that that should avail him No surely for we see his Uncle was converted to such a degree of Zeal as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms so his Interests we find were so inseparably united to that of the French King that it was impossible to divide them We are told that by all means the Most Christian King's Interest in England must be secured and that for a weighty Reason viz. Because his and the D. of York 's prevailing would give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received from its Birth Then undoubtedly the Prince of Orange who at that time stood within a step or two of the Throne ought in all Policy to be removed You cannot forget that they had a mighty Work upon their hands the Conversion of three Kingdoms and Subduing the Pestilent Northern Heresy They never had such hopes of Success as at that time since the Death of their Queen Mary The Duke was to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so Glorious a Work and they told us they relied upon him and the mighty Mind of the most Christian King and further his Temporal Interest was acknowledged to be highly attracted to that of the Duke 'T is evident they had mighty Work mighty Hopes and mighty Minds employed about it Is it to be admired then that they resolved to pass a Bill of Exclusion upon our Prince who as all the World knew stood ready with all his Might to baffle these mighty Vndertakers Nay further as the French King's Interest was attracted to that of the Duke's so was the Prince's to that of England Holland and the Reformed Churches of Europe or in their words to the Support of that Northern Heresy which these mighty Nimrods were to subdue What signifies a Nephew in such a Case as this But stop a little I pray and take another Reason His most Christian Majesty did most generously offer the Duke the use of his Purse to assist against the Designs of both their Enemies nay he protested that those that opposed the one should be look'd upon as Enemies to the other and withal declared his Opinion that the Parliament of England was not in either of their Interests and the Duke did entirely agree to it and that they were unuseful to both so that in his poor Opinion it was