That was fit for a bold and daring Enterprise and the Lord Castlemain it seems was willing to put his Hand to the Plough and make a Weekly Allowance of Money in that as he had done in other Affairs of the like nature before He goes on Vpon which account and that of the St. Omers Witnesses which I had provided for my own Defence in Case of Tryal and which I Lodged at Mrs. Celliers House she came frequently to me Here I think is one of the fairest Confessions of Fact that can possibly be for I only charg'd his Lordship with instructing of the St. Omers Witnesses what they should testifie on the behalf of Langhorn and the five Jesuits And he tells us he provided them for his own Defence and undoubtedly they were design'd to have Testiff'd at his Tryal had they not been so often baffled which put his Lordship to find out a better Expedient by raising a scruple in the Judges Consciences about the validity of my Evidence But will any man of reason believe that the St. Omers Witnesses which his Lordship had provided for his own Defence as he says were never consulted with to know what they could or rather were to Testifie on the behalf of his Lordship in case there had been any such occasion If so then what I have alledged against him must be looked upon as false and Villanous But if they will but consider how material and how common a thing it is for a person that is capable of giving Evidence to be consulted withal to know what he can testifie before there is occasion to use him they cannot but believe much more care was taken by his Lordship of the St. Omers Witnesses who were to give a false and forg'd Testimony as its plain they did and which appear'd as clear as the Sun to the whole Court upon the Tryals of the Five Jesuits and Langhorn to which Tryals I refer the Reader for his satisfaction I say then I hope there is no body but will believe that the Lord Castlemaine could otherwise chuse having provided them for his own Defence but disburse Money to buy Cloaths and equip those his Novitiates in Perjury That he allow'd them so much spending money per Week and that he paid Mrs. Cellier seven Shillings per Week a piece for their Lodging and Diet which could not amount to less than ten or twelve pounds per week for there were 15 or 16 of them in number all this may rationally be suppos'd But that which follows viz. That his Lordship did instruct them daily what they should testifie for himself which he calls making Provision for his Defence and consequently for Langhorn and the Five Jesuits in which sense let his Confession be Recorded to Posterity He runs on That she Mrs. Cellier told him one day she had taken out of Newgate for Three Pounds Ten Shillings a Young man vers'd a little in the Law whom she thought very fit to look after several desperate Debts to the value of 3 or 4000 l. due to her Husband c. How far this Fiction hath been Credited I know not but I am sorry to see his Lordship has no better a shift than this old one of Mrs. Celliers which was invented by her for my particular use a Story so incongruous and unlikely that none but a Drowning Lord in a weak Cause would have laid hold on which is plainly seen thus He says Mrs. Cellier told him she had taken me out of Newgate for Three Pounds Ten Shillings and I say That before I was discharged out of Prison and made fit for their Plotting business it cost them near Three Hundred Pounds He says she thought me very fit to look after desperate Debts c. and for that reason was at Three Pounds Ten Shillings Charge to take me out of Prison In answer to which I say and will prove it by more than one Witness that she enquir'd fore ever she came to me for a man of a bold and daring Spirit and receiving information according to her Enquiry she then came to me and did Discourse me to no other end or purpose than what my first Narrative makes mention of which is far enough from what his Lordship would insinuate And I do farther in the Presence of Almighty God affirm That the end of my being taken out of Prison to get in her Husbands desperate Debts is as false and as preposterous a Lie as ever was told In a word it is a thing that never was heard of until after I had been Committed by the King and Councel for conveying of the Treasonable Letters into Mr. Mansells Chamber c. at which time she Forged that Excuse as you may find it in the 52 Page of my first Narrative apprehending that she and I should be Examin'd apart and therefore she sent me that Note wrote by her own hand to prevent contradictions And as for her Husbands having any such Debts as could amount to the value of a Groat much more to the value of Three or Four Thousand Pounds I am sure is altogether as false and that I may be able to prove that as well as the rest to be a Device I do here offer to produce sufficient Testimony That at that time viz. in the Year 1678 her Husband was taken by all the Merchants in London that knew him to be many Hundred Pounds worse than nothing Nay that I may once more clear up this great point upon which those of the Popish party hinge all their accumulations I do hereby challenge all the World to say impartially That I ever demanded of them or any of them One Shilling more or less either in the Name or for the Use of Mrs. Cellier Now I having made this Challenge in Print two or three times already and no person hath yet come in to contradict it one would have thought that no Papist how silly soever especially a Lord would have had the confidence to make any further use of that Lie it seems his Lordship was very hard put to it that he was forc'd to borrow Mother Damnables Thread-bare Shams But because I will yet set the thing more clear pray do but consider if I had been taken out of Prison only to get in Mr. Celliers desperate Debts First how the Lord Castlemain came to be concerned in so large a Contribution as Thirty odd Pounds towards my Enlargement which I can prove to be certainly true by the Papers that were taken in Mrs. Celliers House Secondly Whether or no the Lord Castlemain all the rest of the Popish Lords in the Tower Mr. Webb and Mrs. Jeane at Peterly Mr. Nevil alias Payne Gadbury Munson Kemesh and Knowles the Popish Priests Donner Rigaut the Virginia Merchant nay and the Lady Powis too were Mrs. Celliers Debtors and what Money I demanded of them in his Name Thirdly How I came to be brought to the Lord Peterborough from thence to the Duke of York and from thence
without doubt ever since so that when an Honorable Member of that House went to Newgate to know what she had to say the best he could get from her was but base and abusive Language so that what likelyhood there is for any of these Conspirators to Discover and Confirm my Discovery seeing they are thus tamper'd with is but vain and as yet not to be expected Therefore I hope Gentlemen you will be so just as not to think them ever the more Innocent for their asserting and affirming of it nor me ever the less to be credited for their recriminating and laying to my Charge things that I call God to Witness I never was in the least Guilty of I am sure and I am able to prove it that what they I mean the Papists had engag'd me in was of Nature so much beyond all that I had ever acted or done before that when some things were discours'd of amongst our selves which went down with others as glib and easie they have made me Tremble I hope this being seriously consider'd amongst the many Temptations which I have lain under together with my reclaim'd and modest Carriage towards all sorts of Persons for this two Years past will so much out ballance any thing that Popery can object against me that I may find some Room in the Opinions of Good and Sober People But Gentlemen if you 'l but do me the favour to take along with your consideration the probabilities which attend my Evidence viz. That I was taken out of Prison by the Papists to their Charge near Three Hundred Pounds before I was capable of doing them any considerable Service then the plentiful way of my Living after that even to the time of my Discovery then my being brought acquainted with the Popish Lords and Ladies in the Tower and elsewhere and most of the considerable Priests and Papists then about the Town then my being brought to the Duke of York and from thence to His Majesty I say do me but the favour to compare these Probabilities impartially to what I have sworn and these that follow viz. That I never saw the Popish Lords until I was by their means released out of Prison and was sent to the Tower c. That I never had the Honour to wait upon the King or the Duke until the Papists had procur'd it That I had no other End or Design by my waiting upon His Majesty but to endeavour to possess him with the Belief of that Damnable Popish Contrivance A Plot amongst the Presbyterians to alter the Government c And last of all that the Proposal which was made me to Kill the King whom God for ever Preserve was done by those that hold these pernicious Tenets viz. Deposing of Kings Burning 〈◊〉 Destroying of Hereticks Changing of Governments c. That is to say the Papists the worst sort of Papists the Bigotted be-Jesuited Papists whose Doctrine and their own practices have sufficiently rendred them notorious to the World now if these people were as they pretend to be such a sort of harmless innocent Doves without Gall Bitterness and the worst of Malice then indeed there were some reason for the World to suspect the Accusation which my self and others have charg'd them with but on the contrary as they are not and since their Crimes are attended with so many vigorous and lively Circumstances I hope no man will be so void of reason to think tho' I am but Singularis Testis that I have not as great a value for my Soul and its Eternal Happiness as e're a Papist of them all can pretend to or that I should so often in this and in other Papers of mine now in Print call God to witness a Lye and yet remain or have any Being amongst my Fellow Creatures here upon Earth So that now the sum of all is this Either you must believe that what I have sworn against them is Truth for which you have the pledge of a thing more valuable to me than the whole Earth my Soul Or else you must believe what the Conspirators affirm in the denyal of it and consequently me to be Perjur'd a thing I must confess was never yet laid to my Charge for the determination of which since the Opinions and Tempers of men are so various and different I appeal to the Supream God and Judge of all Mankind before whose great Tribunal I Challenge the Conspirators for the Truth of my whole Charge upon every individual Papist or person by me nam'd more especially that all-contradicting Gentleman the Lord Castlemain whom that you may know to be a Priest and of the Order and Society of Jesuits look into the 19 page of his Manifesto where he says Mr. Otes accused him of being a Priest and that he had said Mass But that 's not all neither for Turbervile swore the same a Man and his Wife swore it also who were both Papists and that they had heard him read Mass at Doway in Flanders I would not take up any thing of this kind from bare words and common Report neither do I nor would I be thought to mention any more here than what I am able to prove because I know I have to do with a subtle supplanting sort of Devils in the shape of men who care not who they asperse and scandalize by their Paltry Assertions so they can but gain a belief upon the too credulous and good natur'd or rather impose upon the World any thing though never so false to serve their own Villanous Ends. But now to return to the point viz. the Proposal to Kill the King I knâ—w nothing of it replyed his Lordship and thereupon I asked him when it was c. as he was musing a while and looking up in a considering posture I said you had need consider well for the Question about Time is the thing that well ever confound you c. Now for the Truth of this I Humbly make my Appeal to His Majesty and the whole Council and also to all that ever heard me deliver my Evidence in any Court of Judicature or any other place Whether or no at all times and in all places I have not Express'd my self as freely and as clear from any Hesitation or Musing as any one whatsoever of my capacity can be suppos'd to do in a matter of that great Moment And likewise If I have not as readily answer'd Questions concerning matter of Fact or Circumstances as any the most exquisite of the Papists have been to put them to me But to allow his insinuation that very way that he puts it that is to say that the whole matter which I charg'd him with was false yet is it likely supposing me to be so base and villanous that I should Study my Charge no better than so as not to be able to give an Answer about Time or Place without musing but it is much more wonderful the whole Charge being ipso facto true that I
to His Majesty and whether these were Mrs. Celliers Debtors too or no And last of all how often I waited upon the King what I said to His Majesty c. and then I hope it may easily be discerned that I was taken out of Prison for some other end than to get in a Bankrupts desperate Debts This Fellow was it seems Willoughby now Dangerfield and him she sent sometimes to my House on ordinary Errands c. I know not what his Lordship calls ordinary Errands but you shall hear how I gain'd his Esteem for my Diligence for let him speak never so contemptibly of me in his Passion yet he at that time employ'd me to get Knox and Lane out of Prison he ordered me to employ divers persons to Write out Letters and Lists of Names concerning the Sham-Presbyterian Plot then set on foot by the Papists He perused the Papers with me wherein was contained the Charge which Knox and Lane were to make good against Mr. Otes He was concerned in the drawing up of the false Affidavits that Lane swore to before Sir James Butler And he was angry with me for that I had refused the Proposal which the Lords in the Tower had made me which was to KILL THE KING c. And all this his Lordship calls in terms a being sent to him upon ordinary Errands All which being positive Truths I am bound to maintain in the face of the Nation notwithstanding he escap'd the deserv'd Punishment of these Crimes But presently he play'd me as Villanous a Trick as could be says his Lordship considering the times we live in c. Why what was that pray The five Jesuits being Executed he came to me and asked if I thought convenient to have their Speeches Printed I told him by all means for why should such Excellent and Loyal things fall to the Ground He replyed That it would Cost Ten Pounds Well said I if it does I 'le willingly give something towards it c. This was pretty well said but most mischievously intended as you may find by his commending the Excellence and Loyalty of those Trayterous Jesuits Speeches which cannot but be taken for the most gross Equivocating Shams that ever were endeavoured to be impos'd upon the World And I am perswaded let but any man of Impartial Judgment who has but heard of the Jesuits Tenets compare the Tryal of Ireland and his Dying alias Lying Speech with Mr. Jennisons Depositions and then compare those and the Five Jesuits Tryals and their Speeches together and then summ up the most probable circumstances fairly on both sides certainly he cannot but find them the most pernicious Lies that ever were told I mean the Speeches he mentions in his Manifesto And yet that a Lord should concern himself in the patching up of such Stuff as this is so scandalous a thing that but what Lord is it Why a Popish an Irish Lord the Earl of Castlemaine say ye me so I thought he and his Compendium had been too well known to give out Manifesto's c. But all this while where 's the Villainous Trick he spoke of Why Not long after says he I went to the Tower to see my Lord and as soon as I met him said he Why did you send a Stranger to me What have I to do with the Jesuits Speeches Ay what indeed How shall a man do to know what Lord he means for ought I can tell he might go to pay his respects to the Earl of Danby and to his Lordship I was a Stranger and therefore he might well look with an apparent dissatisfaction and demand What he had to do with the Jesuits Speeches But this I am sure of had he gone to any of the other Lords they could never have said with any Truth that I was such a Stranger to them as his Lordship pretends And if I mistake not they had as much reason to concern themselves about the Excellency and Loyalty of the Jesuits Speeches as any he could pretend to Therefore that any one of them should say What have I to do with the Jesuits their God-a-mighties Speeches is about as likely as it is for Mr. Otes to have been at St. Omers and in London at the same time So that now 't is clear that his Lordship was willing to make a small wilful mistake and leave the Argument copious enough that so upon occasion he might have recourse to the extravagancy of it for an Answer But where 's the Villanous Trick all this while Oh he would be understood to be a great admirer of the Jesuits Speeches and was willing to have them Printed but I it seems demanded Ten Pound for the Printing of e'm so here 's the Villanous Trick then I suppose truly it 's a very small one and I think my Demands were very reasonable for what man living whose Trade Printing is Nat. Thompson excepted would in his right senses concern himself in such a parcel of Lies and Villanies for less than Ten Pounds I acquainted her meaning Mrs. Cellier what the Spark had done and also told her he was so great a Villain that if ever he came any more to me I would order my Servants to Kick him out of my House Right or wrong I am to be called Villain now I find but why so Only because I discover'd a great many Villains and their Villanies for I never heard one word of being Kicked down Stairs nor of any dislike that I was under until I had made my Discovery and then as it hath done ever since I found the Popish Blood boyl at me but before my Discovery no man was like to me Gadbury could tell me I was a man fit for a bold and daring Enterprise c. My first Narrative page 26. That I was fit to be trusted c. Mrs. Jean the Popish Priest at Peterly that wrote the Scheme of the Sham-Presbyterian-Plot could say in his Letters he had a better Opinion of me than he had of Gifford notwithstanding he was one of his own Priestly Function First Nar. p. 10. Mrs. Cellier when she brought me to the Lord of Peterborough gave a most extraordinary Character of me and how I had improved my self in the Service of divers Foreign Princes insomuch that I immediately gain'd the Title of Captain First Nar. p. 62. with a promise for a Troop of Horse c. His Royal Highness the first time that I was brought to him by the Lord Peterborough desired me to keep up to the Couragious and Active Character which he had heard of me c. And at another time My Information to the House of Commons Tuesday the 20th of October 1680. page 8 and 9. That I had gain'd a great Reputation amongst the Catholicks c. All this is Truth undeniably Truth and were it proper I could carry it farther but here I think are enough to prove how much I was Esteemed of while I did their Service but when I