concluding Conference having agreed to the Bill without further amendments and therefore desir'd the concurrence of the Commons Thus at length the Commons agreed to the amendments made by the Lords and sent a message to acquaint the Lords therewith This was done upon the fourteenth day of this month But upon the sixteenth a Message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the night before the Earl of Danby had render'd himself to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and that being call'd to the Bar they had sent him to the Tower Thereupon a Committee was appointed to prepare and draw up further Evidence against him and such further Articles as they should see cause Soon after his Majesty was pleas'd to dissolve his Privy Council and to make another consisting of no more than thirty persons And for the management of the Treasury and Navy five Commissiones were appointed for the Treasury and seven for the Admiralty Then the Commons took into consideration the disbanding of the Army and having voted a supply of 264602 l. 17 s. 3 d. to that intent they then voted that Sr. Gilbert Gerrard Sr. Thomas Player Coll. Birch and Coll. Whitley should be Commissioners to pay the disbanded forces off But now to return to the Earl of Danby upon the 25th of this month a message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the said Earl had that same day personally appear'd at the Bar of their House and had put in his plea to the Articles of Impeachment against him The Articles were these as they were deliver'd into the House of Lords in the name of the Commons of England by Sir Henry Capel December 23. 1678. I. That he had traiterously encroacht to himself Regal Power by treating in matters of Peace and War with Foreign Ministers and Embassadors and giving instructions to his Majesties Embassadors abroad without communicating the same to the Secretaries of State and the rest of his Majesties Council against the express Declaration of his Majesty in Parliament thereby intending to defeat and overthrow the provision that has been deliberately made by his Majesty and his Parliament for the safety and preservation of his Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions II. That he had traiterously endeavour'd to subvert the ancient and well-establish'd form of Government of this Kingdom and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical form of Government and the better to effect this his purpose he did design the raising of an Army upon pretence of a war against the French King and to continue the same as a standing Army within this Kingdom and an Army so rais'd and no war ensuing an Act of Parliament having past to disband the same and a great sum of money being granted for that end he did continue the same contrary to the said Act and mis-imploy'd the said money given for the disbanding to the continuance thereof and issued out of his Majesties Revenues great sums of money for the said purpose and wilfully neglected to take security of the Pay-master of the Army as the said Act required whereby the said Law is eluded and the Army yet continued to the great danger and unnecessary charge of his Majesty and the whole Kingdome III. That he trayterously intending and designing to alienate the hearts and affections of his Majesties good Subjects from his Royal Person and Government and to hinder the meeting of Parliaments and to deprive his Sacred Majesty of their safe and wholsom counsel and thereby to alter the constitution of the Government of this Kingdom did propose and negotiate a peace for the French King upon terms disadvantagious to the Interest of his Majesty and Kingdom For the doing whereof he did procure a great sum of money from the French King for enabling him to maintain and carry on his said traiterous designs and purposes to the hazard of his Majesties Person and Government IV. That he is Popishly affected and hath traiterously concealed after he had notice the late horrid and bloody Plot and Conspiracy contriv'd by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government and hath suppress'd the Evidence and reproachfully discountenanc'd the Kings Witnesses in the Discovery of it in favour of Popery immediately tending to the destruction of the Kings Sacred Person and the subversion of the Protestant Religion V. That he hath wasted the Kings Treasure by issuing out of his Majesties Exchequer several branches of his Revenue for unnecessary Pensions and secret services to the value of 〈…〉 within two years and that he hath wholly diverted out of the known method and Government of the Exchequer one whole branch of his Majesties Revenue to private Uses without any accompt to be made of it to his Majesty in his Exchequer contrary to an express Act of Parliament which granted the same And he hath removed two of his Majesties Commissioners of that part of the Revenue for refusing to consent to such his unwarrantable actings therein and to advance money upon that branch of the Revenue for private uses VI. That he hath by indirect means procured from his Majesty to himself divers considerable gifts and Grants of Inheritances of the ancient Revenues of the Crown contrary to Acts of Parliament For which matters and things the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons in Parliament do in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England impeach the said Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England of High Treason and other high Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences in the said Articles contained And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other accusation or Impeachment against the said Earl and also of replying to the answers of which the said Thomas Earl of Danby shall make to the Premises or any of them or any Impeachment or Accusation which shall be by them exhibited as the cause according to proceedings of Parliament shall require Do pray that the said Thomas Earl of Danby may be put to answer all and every the Premises that such proceedings Tryals Examinations and Judgements may be upon them and every one of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and that he may be sequester'd from Parliament and forthwith committed to custody To these Articles the Earl of Danby soon after put in his Plea as follows The Plea of the Earl of Danby late Lord high Treasurer of England to the Articles of Impeachment and other High Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences Exhibited against him by the name of Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England THE said Earl for Plea saith and humbly offers to your Lordships as to all and every the Treasons Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences contained or mention'd in the said Articles That after the said Articles exhibited namely the first of March now last past the Kings most excellent Majesty by his most gracious Letters of Pardon under his
great Seal of England bearing date at Westminster the said first day of March in the one and thirtieth year of his Majesties reign and here into this most High and Honourable Court produc'd under the said great Seal of his special Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion hath pardon'd remised released to him the said Earl of Danby all and all manner of Treasons Misprisions of Treasons Confederacies Insurrections Rebellions Felonies Exactions Oppressions publications of words Misprisions Confederacies Concealments Negligences Omissions Offences Crimes Contempts Misdemeanors and Trespasses whatsoever by himself done or with any other person or persons or by any other by the command advice assent consent or procurement of him the said Thomas E. of Danby advis'd committed attempted made perpetrated conceal'd committed or omitted before the 27th day of Feb. then and now last past being also after the time of the said Articles exhibited although the said Premises or any of them did or should touch or concern the person of his said Majesty or any of his publick Negotiations whatsoever and also his Majesties affairs with foreign Embassadors sent to his said Majesty or by not rightly prosecuting his Majesties Instructions and Commands to his Embassadors residing on his Majesties behalf in foreign parts And as to all and singular accessories to the said premises or any of the indicted impeached appealed accused convicted adjudged out lawed condemned or attainted and all and singular Indictments Impeachments Inquisitions Informations Exigents Judgements Attainders Outlaries Convictions pains of Death Corporal punishments Imprisonments Forfeitures Punishments and all other pains and penalties whatsoever for the same or any of them and all and all manner of suits Complaints Impeachments and demands whatsoever Which his said Majesty by reason of the Premises or any of them then had or for the future should have or his heirs or successors any way could have afterwards against him the said Thomas Earl of Danby And also suit of his Majesties peace and whatever to his Majesty his heirs or successors against him the said Earl did or could belong by reason or occasion of the Premises or any of them And his Majesty hath thereby granted his firm Peace to the said Tho. E. of Danby And further his Majesty willed and granted that the said Letters-Patents and the said Pardon and Release therein contain'd as to all the things Pardon'd and Releas'd should be good and effectual in the law though the Treasons Misprisions of Treasons Insurrections Rebellions Felonies Exactions Oppressions Publications of words Misprisions of Confederacies Concealments Negligencies Omissions Offences Crimes Contempts Misdemeanors and Trespasses were not certainly specified And notwithstanding the Statute by the Parliament of King Ed. 3. in the 14th year of his reign made and provided or any other Statute Act or Ordinance to the contrary thereof made and provided And moreover his said now Majesty by his said Letters Patents of his farther Grace did firmly command all and singular Judges Justices Officers and others whatsoever That the said Free and General Pardon of his said Maj. and the general words clauses and sentences abovesaid should be construed and expounded and adjudged in all his Majesties Courts and elsewhere in the most beneficial ample and benign sense And for the better and more firm discharge of the said Earl of and from the crimes and offences aforesaid according to the true intents of his Majesty and in such beneficial manner and form to all intents and purposes whatsoever as if the said Treasons Crimes Offences Concealments Negligencies Omissions Contempts and Trespasses aforesaid and other the said Premises by apt express and special words had been remitted released and pardoned and that the said Letters Patents of Pardon and the Release and Pardon therein contain'd shall be pleaded and allowed in all and every his Majesties Courts and before all his Justices whatsoever without any Writ of allowance any matter cause or thing whatsoever in any wise notwithstanding as by the said Letters Patents themselves more at large appeareth which said Letters Patents follow in these words Carolus Dei Gratia Angliae Scotia Franciae Hibernae Rex Fidei defensor c. Omnibus ad quos prasentes Literae nostrae pervenerint Salutem Sciatis quod nos pro diversis bonis causis considerationibus Nos ad hoc specialiter moventibus de Gratia Nostra speciali mero motu Nostris Pardonavimus Relaxavimus c. And the said Earl doth averr that he the said Thomas Earl of Danby in the said Articles named is the said Thomas Earl of Danby in the said Letters of Pardon here produced likewise named Which Pardon the said Earl doth rely upon and pleaded the same in Bar of the said Impeachment and in discharge of all the Treasons Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences contained or mentioned in the said Articles of Impeachment and every of them And this the said Earl is ready to averr Whereupon he humbly prays the judgement of your Lordships and that his Majesties most Gracious Pardon aforesaid may be allowed And that he the said Earl by vertue hereof may be from all the said Articles of Impeachment and all and every of the Treasons and Crimes therein alledg'd against him acquitted and discharg'd The Earl of Danby having thus put in his Plea to the Articles of Impeachment the Commons referr'd it to the Committee of Secresie to examine the matter of the Plea of the Earl of Danby and to enquire how Presidents stood in relation to the Pardon and in what manner and by what means the same was obtained Who thereupon made their Report That they could find no President that ever any Pardon was granted to any Person impeach'd by the Commons of High Treason and depending the Impeachment So that they presently order'd that a Message should be sent to the Lords to desire their Lordships to demand of the Earl of Danby whether he would rely upon and abide by his Plea or not In the midst of these disputes a business of another Nature intervenes For one Mr. Reading having been accus'd to the Commons for going about to corrupt the Kings Evidence in the behalf of the five Lords in the Tower they presently order'd him to be secur'd and made an Address to his Majesty that he would be pleas'd to issue forth a Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Tryal of the said Mr. Reading wherein they made the more hast to the end his Tryal might be over before that of the Lords which it was then thought was near at hand Hereupon the Commission was expedited and upon the 24th of this Month the Commissioners met at Westminster-Hall in the Court of Kings Bench. The Commissioners were the twelve Judges of England Sir James Butler Sir Philip Matthews Sir Thomas Orby Sir Thomas Byde Sir William Bowles Sir Thomas Stringer Sir Charles Pitfeld Thomas Robinson Humfrey Wirley Thomas Haryot and Richard Gower Esquires The Prisoner was endicted by the name of Nathaniel Reading for
attempt the killing of the same Prelate in the chief street of Edenburgh in the face of the Sun and of all the multitude Who dying for the fact and with an obdurate and sear'd zeal owning and justifying the fact led others so far astray into the violation of the Law of Nature that upon the third of this month deluded Devotion adventur'd to murther the Arch-bishop in the ensuing manner The Arch-bishop it seems was returning in his Coach from a Village in Fife called Kennoway toward the City of St. Andrews it self and was got within two miles of the place near to another small village called Magus There it was that the Coachman having spy'd several Horsemen gave his Lord notice of them and ask'd him whether he should not drive faster But the Arch-bishop not dreading any harm thought it not convenient to mend his pace When they drew near the Arch-bishops daughter look'd out and seeing them with Pistols in their hands cry'd out to the Coach-man to drive on And he had certainly out-driven them had not one Balfour of Kinlock being mounted upon a very fleet horse cunningly got before the Coach into which they had already discharg'd several shot in vain This Balfour finding he could not wound the Coachman because the Coach-mans whip frighted his Horse wounded the Postillian and disabled the fore horses Upon which the rest coming up one of them shot the Arch-bishop with a Blunderbuss as he sate in the Coach while others reproachfully call'd to him in these words Come forth vile Dog who hast betray'd Christ and his Church and receive what thou hast deserv'd for thy wickedness against the Kirk of Scotland While he was in the Coach one ran him through with a Sword under the shoulder the rest pulling him violently out of the Coach His daughter went out fell upon her knees and beg'd for mercy to her father but they beat her and trampl'd upon her The Primate with an extraordinary calmness of spirit said to 'em Gentlemen I know not that I ever injur'd any of you and if I did I promise ye I will make you what reparation you can propose To which they return'd no better Language than this Villain and Judas Enemy to God and his people thou shalt now have the reward of thy enmity to Gods people which words were follow'd with many mortal wounds of which one was a deep one above his eye He labour'd to make them apprehensive that he was a Minister and pulling off his Cap shew'd them his grey hairs intreating them withal that if they would not spare his life yet that they would at least allow him some little time for prayer But their barbarous and inhumane answer was That God would not hear so base a Dog as he was and as to the desire of Quarter they told him That the strokes they were then about to give were those which he was to expect Notwithstanding all which inhumane usage and a shot that pierc'd his body above his right Pap and several blows that cut his hands while he was holding them up to Heaven in prayer he rais'd himself upon his knees and utter'd these few words God forgive you all After which by reason of many gashes that cut his scull in pieces he fell down dead At which time some of the Murtherers believing that they heard him groan return'd saying he was of the nature of a Cat and therefore they would go back and hack him a little better for the Glory of God And so having stirr'd about his brains with the points of their Swords they took an oath of the servants not to reveal their names and then bidding them take up their Priest they rode back to Magus crying out aloud That Judas was kill'd and from thence made their escape All this while at London the Parliament continue their prosecution of the Earl of Danby and in order thereunto the lower House resolve that the Pardon of the Earl of Danby was illegal and void and not to be allow'd in Bar of the Impeachment of the Commons of England Thereupon the whole House with the Speaker went up to the Lords to whom the Speaker made this following Address My Lords The Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled are come up to demand Judgement in their own names and in the names of all the Commons of England against Thomas Earl of Danby who stands by them impeach'd before your Lordships of High Treason and diverse high Crimes and Misdemeanors To which he has pleaded a Pardon which Pardon the Commons conceive to be illegal and void and therefore they do demand Judgement accordingly Thereupon the Lords appointed a short day for hearing the Earl what he could say to make good the plea of his Pardon Nor was his Majesty himself less careful of the safety of the Nation who finding or at least fore-seeing the ill consequences of these continu'd debates thereupon sent a Message to the Commons wherein he desir'd them to secure the Fleet to proceed in the discovery of the Plot the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower and the Bill for securing the Protestant Religion For all which they appointed a certain day of consideration but before they proceeded they made an Address to his Majesty against the Duke of Lauderdale as a person who being in high trusts and employments about his Majesty had by his arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion the rights and liberty of of the subject endeavour'd to alienate the hearts of his Majesties good subjects from his Majesty and Government and more particularly had contriv'd and endeavour'd to raise jealousies and misunderstandings between England and Scotland And therefore they most humbly besought his Majesty to remove him from his Counsels both in Scotland and England from all Offices Imployments and places of Trust and from his Majesties presence for ever And to shew that they did not this out of disobedience but affection presently after they declar'd in a full house That in defence of his Majesties person and the Protestant Religion they would stand by his Majesty with their lives and fortunes and that if his Majesty should come to any untimely end which God forbid they would revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists And now the Bill for the disbanding of the Army being compleated and having pass'd both Houses was confirm'd and receiv'd its last consummation by the Kings Royal Assent So that the Commissioners appointed by the house for that purpose had liberty to attend that particular service In the mean time the Commons perceiving that there was a day appointed for the Earl of Danby to make good the plea of his Pardon by Council order'd that no Commoner should presume to maintain the validity of the Pardon pleaded by the said Earl without the consent of the House and that the person so doing should be accompted a betrayer of the liberty of the Commons of England Next day the Earl appear'd and put in his
him of his Royal Estate Crown and Dignity and by malitious and advised Speaking and otherways declaring their said Purposes and Intentions As also to subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government and to Seize and Share among themselves the Estates and Inheritance of His Majesty's Protestant Subjects and to Erect and Restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom supprest for their Superstition and Idolatry and to Deliver up and Restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Vested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and to remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Livings Benefices and Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesty's Person and extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Propertys of all his Majesty's good Subjects subvert the Laws and Government of this Kingdom and subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome And the said Conspirators Complices and Confederates traiterously had and held several Meetings Assemblies and Consultations wherein it was contrived and designed amongst them what ways should be used and the Persons and Instruments should be imployed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poysoning Shooting Stabbing or by some such like ways and means And to that part of the Impeachment named The better to compass their traiterous Designs Have Consulted to raise Money Men Horses Arms and Ammunition c. The said Lord saving to himself and which he humbly prays may be reserved to him the liberty of answering over and denying all and singular the said Crimes and Offences charged on him saith and humbly offereth to this Honourable House That the Charge of those Crimes and Offences so imposed on him by the said Impeachment are so general and incertain that he cannot possibly Answer thereto or make any just or lawful Defence upon his Tryal For that the said Charge hath no manner of certainty in point of time it being laid only for many years last past which may be for 5 10 20 30 or more years whereby tho' the said Lord knoweth himself to be altogether innocent of any such horrid or detestable Crimes as by the said Impeachment are objected against him Yet 't is impossible for him upon any Tryal thereof to be prepared with his just and lawful Defence by Witness to prove himself absent or in any other place at the same time of such Meetings or Consultations to or for any of the wicked Designs and Purposes in the said Impeachment mention'd as on his Tryal may be suddenly objected against him when he cannot by any care or foresight whatever have such Witness ready as would disprove them if they were certainly charged for any traiterous Design Act or Crime at any time certainly alledged by the said Impeachment Nor is the said Charge in the said Impeachment more certain as to the place of any such Meeting or Consultation laid down in the said Impeachment being only alledged to be in divers places within this Realm of England and elsewhere Which for the Cause aforesaid is so utterly incertain that it deprives the said Lord of his Defence upon his Tryal The incertainties likewise of the number of Meetings and Consultations to the wicked Purposes in the Impeachment mentioned and the not shewing how many times the Lords met and consulted and with whom in particular doth likewise deprive him of all possibility of making his Defence in producing Witnesses For the said Lord being wholly innocent cannot suppose or imagin what Meetings or Consultations either to raise Money or Men for carrying on a Traiterous Design or to any other wicked Intent or Purpose in the said Impeachment mentioned shall or may be objected against him upon the Tryal And 't is as impossible for him to bring Witnesses to prove all the Meetings and Consultations may upon his Tryal be objected against him as a traiterous Meeting or Consultation And where it is in the said Impeachment charged upon the said Lord That he hath uttered Treason by malitious and advised Speaking and other ways declaring the same The said Lord saith That never any traiterous thought entred into his heart and therefore he cannot know any Words or Writing he ever spoke or declared which are now charged upon him as Treason there being no Word or Writing at all specified in the Impeachment whereby the Lord may know how to prepare his Defence against them or this most Honourable Court may judge whether the said Words or Writing are in truth Treasonable or not All which Incertainties eminent and apparent Dangers of the said Lord being thereupon surprized in a Cause of this Consequence wherein his Life and Honour more dear to him than his Life and all else that is dear to him in this World are immediately concerned being seriously weighed and considered by your Lordships He humbly prayeth as by his Counsel he is advised That your Lordships would not put him to Answer the said Impeachment herein above recited till the same be reduc'd to such a compleat certainty that the said Lord may know how to Answer unto and thereby be enabled to make his just Defence accordingly All which notwithstanding he humbly submitteth to whatsoever your Lordships in Justice shall order and think fit And to all other Treasons Crimes and Offences contained mentioned or specified in the said Impeachment the said Lord protesting his Innocency in the great Wisdom and Sentence of this Honourable Court shall always acquiesce Soon after the Lords desir'd to know of the Commons Whether they were ready to joyn Issue who return'd in a short time for answer That they were ready to make good their Charge against the five Lords Thereupon a Message was sent from the Lords to acquaint the Commons That they had made an Order That the five Lords in the Tower should be brought to their Tryals upon the Impeachments against them by that day seven night the Message being deliver'd on the sixth of May and that they had also appointed an Address to be presented to his Majesty for the naming a Lord High Steward as well in the Case of the Earl of Danby as of the other five Lords and that the same should be in Westminster-Hall Upon this the Commons appointed a Committee to search Precedents relating to the Message sent them from the Lords upon whose Report it was found That on the like occasion the Commons had appointed a select Committee to joyn with a Committee of the Lords to consider of the Methods and Circumstances to be observ'd in the Tryal This occasion'd a Message to the Lords to desire a Conference upon the Subject Matter of the last Message relating to the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower There it was urg'd by the Commons that they suppos'd
with their Speaker on the Fifth of May in the name of themselves and all the Commons of England demand Judgment against the said Earl upon their Impeachment not doubting but that their Lordships did intend in all their proceedings upon the Impeachment to have follow'd the usual Course and Method of Parliament But the Commons were not a little surpriz'd by the Message sent from their Lordships deliver'd them on the seventh of May thereby acquainting them that as well the Lords Spiritual as Temperal had order'd that the 10th of May should be the day for hearing the Earl of Danby to make good his plea of Pardon And that on the thirteenth of May the other Five Lords should be brought to their Trial and that their Lordships had addressed to His Majesty for naming of a Lord High Steward as well in the Case of the Earl of Danby as of the other Five Lords Upon Consideration of this Message the Commons found that the admitting of the Lords Spiritual to exercise Jurisdiction in these Cases was an alteration of the Judicature in Parliament and which extended as well to the proceeding against the Five Lords as the Earl of Danby And that if a Lord High Steward should be necessary upon Trial on Impeachments of the Commons the power of Judicature in Parliament upon Impeachments might be defeated by suspending or denying a Commission to Constitute a Lord High Steward And that the said days of Trial appointed by their Lordships were so near to the time of their said Message that those Matters and the Method of Proceeding upon the Trial could not be adjusted by conference between the two Houses before the day so nominated And consequently the Commons could not then proceed to Trial unless the zeal which they had for speedy Judgment against the Earl of Danby that so they might proceed to Trial of the other Five Lords should induce them at that juncture both admit the Enlargment of their Lordships Jurisdiction and to sit down under those or any hardships though with the hazard of all the Commons Power of impeaching for time to come rather then that the Trial of the said Five Lords should be deferr'd for some short time while those Matters might be agreed on and Settl'd For reconciling differences in these great and weighty Matters and for saving that time which would necessarily have been spent in Debates and Conferences betwixt the two Houses and for expediting the Trials without giving up the power of Impeachments or rendring them effectual The Commons thought fit to propose to their Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be appointed for that purpose At which Committee when agreed to by their Lordships it was first proposed That the time of Trial of the Lords in the Tower should be put off till the other Matters were adjusted and it was then agreed That the Proposition as to the time of Trial should be the last thing Considered The effect of which agreement stands reported in their Lordships Books After which the Commons Communicated to their Lordships by their Committee a Vote of theirs that the Committee of the Commons should insist upon the former Vote of the House that the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceeding against the Lords in the Tower and that when that Matter should be settled and the method of proceedings adjusted the Commons would then be ready to proceed upon the Trial of the Pardon of the Earl of Danby against whom they had before demanded Judgment and afterwards to the Trial of the other Five Lords in the Tower Which Vote extended as well to the Earl of Danby as to the other Five Lords But the Commons had as yet received nothing from their Lordships towards an Answer of that Vote save that their Lordships had acquainted them that the Bishops had ask'd leave of the House of Peers that they might withdraw themselves from the Trial of the Five Lords with Libertie of entring their usual Protestations And though the Commons Committee had almost daily declar'd to their Lordships Committee That that was a necessary point to be settled before the Trial and offer'd to debate the same their Committee still answer'd that they had not power from their Lordships either to confer upon or give any Answer concerning that Matter And yet their Lordships without having given the Commons any Satisfactory Answer to the said Vote or permitting any Conference or debate thereupon did on Thursday the second of May send a Message to the Commons declaring that the Lords Spiritual as well as Temporal had order'd the 27th of May for the Trial of the Five Lords So that the Commons could not but apprehend that their Lordships had not only departed from what was agreed on and in effect lay'd aside by that Committee which was constituted for preserving a good understanding betwixt the two Houses and better dispatch of the weighty affairs depending in Parliament but also must needs conclude from the Message and Votes of their Lordships of the 7th of May That the Lords Spiritual had a right to stay and sit in Court till the Court proceeded to the Vote of Guilty or not Guilty And from the Bishops asking leave that they might withdraw themselves from the Trial of the said Lords with Libertie of entring their usual Protestations and by their persisting to go on and giving their Votes in proceedings upon Impeachments that their desire of leave to withdraw at the Trials was only an evasive answer to the before mentioned Vote of the Commons and chiefly intended as an argument for a right of Judicature in Proceedings upon Impeachment and as a reserve to judge upon the Earl of Danby's plea of Pardon and upon those and other like Impeachments though no such power was ever claim'd by their Predecessors and was utterly deny'd by the Commons And the Commons were the rather induc'd to beleive it so intended because the very asking leave to withdraw seem'd to imply a right to be there and that they could not absent without it The Commons therefore did not think themselves oblig'd to proceed to the Tryal of the Lords on the seventh of May but to adhere to their Vote And for their so doing besides what had been already and formerly said to their Lordships they offer'd these Reasons following I. Because your Lordships have receiv'd the Earl of Danby's Plea of Pardon with a very long and unusual Protestation wherein he has aspers'd His Majesty by false suggestions as if His Majesty had commanded or countenanc'd the Crimes he stands charg'd with and particularly the suppressing and discouraging the Discovery of the Plot and endeavouring to Introduce an Arbitrary and Tirannical way of Government Which remains as a scandal to His Majesty tending to render His Person and His Government odious to His People against which it ought to be the principal care of both Houses to Vindicate His Majesty by doing justice upon the said Earl II. The
setting up a Pardon to be a Bar against an Impeachment defeats the whole use and effect of Impeachments and should this point be admitted or stand doubted it would totally discourage the exhibiting any for the future Whereby the chief Institution for the preservation of the Government and consequently the Government it self would be destroy'd And therefore the case of the said Earl which in consequence concerns all Impeachments whatsoever ought to be determin'd before that of the five Lords which is but their particular case And without resorting to many Authorities of greater Antiquity The Commons desire your Lordships to take Notice with the same regard they do of the Declaration which that Excellent Prince King Charles the I. of blessed Memory made in this behalf in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament Wherein stating the several parts of this Regulated Monarchy He says The King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each their particular Priviledges And among those which belong to the King he reckons Power of pardoning After the Ennumerating of which and other his Preaogatives His said Majesty adds thus Again that the Prince may not make use of this High and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the Name of public Necessity for the Gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the Detriment of the People the House of Commons an excellent preservative of Liberty c. is solely entrusted with the first Propositions concerning the Levying of Mony and the Impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanc'd by any Surreptitiously gotten Command of the King have violated the Law when he knows it which he is bound to protect and to the protection of which they are bound to advise him at least not to serve him to the contrary And the Lords being entrusted with a Judiciary power are an excellent Skreen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any encroachments of the other and by just Judgment to preserve the Law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the three c. Therefore the Power plac'd in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny c. III. Untill the House of Commons have right done them against this Plea of Pardon they may justly apprehend that the whole Justice of the Kingdom in the Case of the five Lords may be obstructed and defeated by Pardons of the like nature IV. And Impeachments are virtually the voice of every particular Subject of this Kingdom crying out against Oppression by which every member of that Body is equally wounded And it will prove a matter of ill consequence that the Universality of the People should have occasion minister'd and continu'd to them to be apprehensive of utmost danger from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection V. The Commons exhibited Articles of Impeachment against the said Earl before any against the five other Lords and demanded Judgment upon those Articles Whereupon your Lordships having appointed the Tryal of the said Earl to be before that of the other five Lords and now having inverted the said Order gives a great cause of doubt to the House of Commons and raises a jealousie in the Hearts of all the Commons of England That if they should proceed to the Tryal of the said five Lords in the first place not only Justice will be obstructed in the case of those Lords but that they shall never have right done them in the matter of this Plea of Pardon which is of so fatal Consequence to the whole Kingdom and a new device to frustrate the public Justice in Parliament Which Reasons and Matters being duly weigh'd by your Lordships the Commons doubt not but your Lordships will receive satisfaction concerning their Propositions and Proceedings And will agree That the Commons neither ought nor can without deserting their Trust depart from their former Vote communicated to your Lordships That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceedings against the Lords in the Tower c. This Narrative and the Reasons being deliver'd as is already mention'd were the next day read and debated and then the Lords read their own Vote of the 13th of May and their Explanation thereupon and the Question being put whether to insist upon those Votes concerning the Lords Spiritual it was Resolv'd in the Affirmative Eight and twenty of the Lords dissenting What the issue of the dispute would have been is not here to be disputed but this is certain that while both Houses were thus contesting His Majesty himself put an end to their Debates For that very day being come in His Royal Robes into the House of Lords and seated in His Throne the Commons also attending His Majesty was pleas'd to give His Royal Assent to A Bill for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject A Bill for reingrossing of Fines burn'd in the late Fire in the Temple And A Private Bill concerning Charles Dale of Rutlandshire Esq And then having intimated His Resolution to the two Houses to Prorogue them till the 14th of August The Lord Chancellor Prorogu'd them accordingly by His Majesties Command Little else of moment was done this Sessions onely the House of Commons having order'd a Committee to inspect the Miscarriages of the Navy upon their report of the Heads of an Information against Sir Anthony Deane and Mr. Pepys Members of the House they were both by Order of the House committed to the Tower by virtue of which commitment they still remain under Bail Presently after the Prorogation of the Parliament came the News of the Rebellion that was broken out in the West of Scotland where they Proclaim'd the Covenant and set up a Declaration of which the substance was That AS it was not unknown to a great part of the World how happy the Church of Scotland had been while they enjoy'd the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in their Purity and Power of which we had been deplorably depriv'd by the reestablishment of Prelacy So it was evident not only to impartial Persons but to profess'd Enemies with what unparallell'd Patience and Constancy the People of God had endur'd all the Cruelty and Oppression that Prelates and Malignants could invent or exercise And that being most unwilling to act any thing that might import Opposition to lawful Authority though they had all along been groaning under Corruptions of Doctrine slighting of Worship despising Ordinances Confining Imprisoning Exiling their faithful Ministers Fining Confining Imprisoning Torturing Tormenting the poor People Plundering their Houses and Selling their Persons to Forraign Plantations whereby great Numbers in every Corner of the Land were forc'd to leave their Dwellings Wives and Children and to wander as Pilgrims none daring to Supply or Relieve them nor so much as to speak with them upon their Death-beds for fear of making themselves obnoxious
take exceptions at our not subscribing this our Testimony being so solemnly gone about for we are ready always to do it if judg'd necessary with all the faithful suffering Brethren of the Land June 1679. This Declaration they intended to have put up at Glasgow but the Neighbouring Parts being hotly alarum'd by these ' proceedings Captain Graham of Clover-House upon intelligence of a great number of Men being gather'd together upon Loundoun Hill march'd thither with his Troop and a Company of Dragoons and there found a Body of Fourteen or Fifteen hundred Men well arm'd and in good Order The Foot were Commanded by one Weir the Horse by Robert Hamilton and three more whose names were Patton Balfour and Haxton of which the two last were deep in the Murder of the Archbishop of St. Andrews The Rebels upon the approach of Captain Graham sent out two Parties to skirmish with him which he beat into their main Body Upon which they advanc'd upon him with their whole Force Yet notwithstanding all their Number and though his own Horse were kill'd under him being soon mounted upon another he made good his ground till at last being overpower'd by Number after a great slaughter of the Rebels with the loss of his Cornet two Brigadeers eight Horse and twenty Dragoons he was forced to retreat toward Glasgow being after all this constrain'd to Fight his way thorow the Townsmen of Strevin who were got together to oppose him of whom he left ten or twelve dead upon the place The Rebels thus finding themselves superior in Force had the confidence the next day to attack the City of Glasgow at two several times But all the Streets were so well barricado'd by the Lord Ross and the Souldiers there put into so good and advantagious posture of Defence that the Rebels were beat off with a considerable loss besides many Prisoners that were taken Whereupon the Horse and Foot in the Town sally'd out upon them and forc'd them to retire But now to leave Scotland for a while let us return to London to which place Transactions no less signal call us back For upon the seventh of this Month the Marquis d'Auronches Embassador extraordinary from the Crown of Portugal made his public Entry having been receiv'd at Greenwich by the Earl of Kent and Sir Charles Cotterell Master of the Ceremonies and from thence brought by Water in the King's Barge with several others of his retinue to Tower-Hill Where when he Landed he was saluted with a discharge of several pieces of Cannon put into his Majesties Coach of State and conducted to Westminster His Equipage was very splendid consisting of six Pages who with the Gentleman of his Horse rod on Horsback and twenty Foot-men And his three Coaches one of which was more remarkable for its richness were follow'd by a numerous train of others with six Horses a piece Being come to his Lodging he was complimented from the King by the Lord Berkley of Stratton and from the Queen by Sir William Killegrew her Majesties Vice-Chamberlain The next day but one he was conducted to his Audience of their Majesties in the Banquetting-House by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir Charles Cotterell being splendidly attended from Westminster in the King's Coach of State As for the Papists they were still as great misbelievers as ever cry'd up the innocency of their own pretended Martyrs exclaim'd against the Injustice of their Condemnation and labour'd by all means imaginable to persuade the World into a concurrence with their pretended suggestions As that Religion seldom wants weak and improbable Arguments among the Wise to stumble mean and Vulgar Capacities Therefore it was now thought convenient to bring the rest of the crue that were in hold before the face of Justice that by their Tryals and Condemnations they might silence the folly of vain Insinuation and confirm the Impiety of those that had preceded them in Punishment To which purpose toward the middle of this month Thomas White aliàs Whitebread Provincial of the Jesuits in England William Harcourt the pretended Rector of London John Fenwick Procurator for the Jesuits in England John Gaven aliàs Gawen Anthony Turner and James Corker were brought to the Bar of the Session's-House in the Old-Baily As for Corker he presented a Petition to the Court setting forth that he was absolutely surpriz'd and unprepar'd for his Tryal and therefore besought the Court that he might not be try'd till the next Sessions To this the Court seem'd inclinable enough nor did the Attorney General gain-say it upon condition that he could really make it out that he wanted Witnesses without which he could not make his Defence However it was thought fitting that he should hear the Charge that was against him read to the end he might be able to give the Court an accompt what witnesses he had that might avail him in reference to his defence against it Which being done the former question was put to him again and then he nam'd a witness to prove that he was not in Town upon the 24th of April So that being respited till the next day the Court said nothing farther to him that sitting The other five stood charg'd of High Treason the particulars whereof were That upon the twenty fourth of April in the thirtieth Year of the King's reign they with others did Conspire to raise up Sedition and Rebellion to cause a most bloody Massacre of the King's Subjects to depose the King of his Government and bring him to an untimely Death to alter the Government and Religion establish'd by Law and to levy War against the King It was further lay'd to their Charge in the Indictment That in pursuance of their evil Intentions and the better to accomplish their Designs They met together held Consultations and agreed to murther the King and upon that bloody foundation to build the progress of their Villany which was to introduce the Superstition of the Church of Rome instead of the Religion establish'd by Law It was concluded that Grove and Pickering should commit the Murther for which Whitebread and the other persons Indicted Contracted with the one for such a number of Masses and with the other for a certain sum of Money That they did also make diligent enquiry for four other Persons unknown and when they came to them did both animate and embold'n encourage and abet them to kill the King at Windsor And all this advisedly and out of a Traiterous Malice and Hatred against the King and the National Government and Religion The Indictment being read Whitebread represented to the Court that in regard he had been try'd upon the 17th of December before upon the same Indictment at what time the Jury being impannell'd and the Evidence found insufficient which came in against him the Jury was discharged without a Verdict he was inform'd that no man could be try'd and consequently be put in jeopardy of his life twice for the same cause For which reason he made
and from thence in his Barge to Deptford where after he had taken a view of a new Third-rate Frigat call'd the Sterling Castle he proceeded on to Sheerness and so forward to Portsmouth where he safely soon after arriv'd by Sea and having made a short stay in the Town return'd again by Land to Windsor August 1679. Soon after his return his Majesty was seiz'd by a fit of sickness which though Heaven kind to three Kingdomes was pleas'd not to suffer to grow upon him yet the short continuance bred no small terrour and consternation in the hearts of all his Loyal Subjects The City soon took the sad Alarm and immediately deputed two Aldermen to attend his Majesty during his sickness of whose attendance he was pleas'd to accept till the danger was over His Royal Highness the Duke of York also receiving the unwelcome news hasten'd out of Flanders to Windsor But in a short time these affrights were happily over September 1679. In the mean time Mr. Jenison had been several times examin'd and at length made publick a Narrative containing a farther discovery of the Plot with a confirmation of the truth of the Kings Evidence which Ireland had so fairly ventur'd at his death to invalidate at the expence of his Salvation Thereupon his Majesty was pleas'd to publish a Proclamation against the four Ruffians who were design'd to have murder'd him at Windsor Wherein he summon'd them by the names of Captain Levallyan .... Karney Thomas Brahall and James Wilson to render themselves before the twentieth day of October next or else to suffer the extremity of the Law with promise of a hundred pound to any person that should apprehend or discover any of them While the King continued at Windsor upon the noise of the Duke of York's being return'd several Citizens of whom the Chamberlain of London was the chief alledging their jealousies and fears arising as they said from the Dukes encouragement of Popery and the continu'd practices of the Enemies of the Protestant Religion made their applications to the Lord Mayor desiring that the guards of the City might be doubled His Lordship gave them thanks for their care and zeal and told them that he could not answer their desires of himself but that he would summon the Lieutenancy together which being done though neither Sir Thomas Player nor other person appear'd and the address of the absent Gentlemen being debated it was concluded that there was no necessity to put any farther charge upon their fellow Citizens at present as was desir'd till more urging causes of danger appear'd which was the determination of that grand affair But the City it self had a nobler design For the Lord Mayor and Aldermen having the week before order'd two of their members to attend the King at Windsor humbly to desire leave to wait on his Majesty to congratulate his happy recovery from his late indisposition they accordingly went in a full body toward the middle of this month with a fair Retinue to Windsor Where being introduc'd into the Royal presence the Lord Mayor set forth the exceeding joy of the City and of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects for so great a blessing declaring withal the happiness they enjoy'd in his Majesties most excellent Government and his preservation of the publick Liberty Property and above all the Protestant Religion To which his Majesty was pleas'd to return for answer That he had ever a high esteem of his City of London and would never omit any opportunity of giving them the marks of his kindness assuring them that he would employ his care to maintain them in peace and secure them in their properties and in the Protestant Religion and then admitted them to the Honour of kissing his hand After that his Majesty retiring out of the Royal Presence my Lord Mayor was ask'd whether he with the Aldermen would not wait on the Queen and Duke of York To which his Lordship answer'd that he had done all that was in his Commission but that he was heartily glad he had done so much as being with the rest of his brethren transported with an extraordinary joy to behold his Majesty in so good a condition of Health After the Ceremony was over the Lord Maynard by his Majesties Order entertain'd the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at a splendid Dinner which being done they return'd home the same night highly satisfy'd with the favour and treatment they had receiv'd On the 17th of this month His Majesty return'd to London with the Queen and Duke of York whereupon the Lord Mayor immediately gave order for the ringing of the bells and making bonfires which was perform'd with all chearfulness and joy by the Inhabitants Soon after that is to say upon the 27th of this month his Grace the Duke of Monmouth took shipping in one of his Majesties Yachts for Holland and the next day his Royal Highness the Duke of York departed for Flanders Whose said remarkable Departures out of this Land may well suffice to give a memorable conclusion to the story of these few last years wherein the Transactions have been so various and worthy observation that the like have rarely happen'd in a Kingdom notwithstanding all these violent underminings of her Tranquillity still bless'd with Peace and which the prayers of all good Men implore from Heaven may still continue so under the protection of a merciful God and Gracious King FINIS * Fairly promis'd when he was going to be hang'd Swear and Forswear But the main Secret to betray forbear
careful of himself Thus much for the Preliminaries which give a fair insight into the Age and Series of this detestable Contrivance It will now be requisite to embody the Design and to display the whole Mystery that thereby the Crimes of every Malefactor for I cannot in Conscience call them Martyrs that has hitherto been justly Executed may more clearly appear The grand and general Design then of the Pope the Pious and Zealous Society of Jesuits and their Accomplices and Associates in this as disingenious and raskally as unchristian Conspiracy was to have reduc'd the flourishing Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland to the Romish Religion and under the Papal Jurisdiction To accomplish this the Pope had Entitl'd himself by way of Confiscation and Forfeiture to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland He had sent the Bishop of Casal in Italy into Ireland to make out his Title to that Kingdom and to take Possession in his behalf and had constituted Cardinal Howard his True and Lawful Attorney for the same intent and purpose in England But these fair Vineyards could not be enjoy'd so long as the right owner liv'd and had pow'r to defend his own Inheritance Therefore was the King himself by his Holiness impiously condemn'd and by the Consults of the Jesuits and Priests at London applauded and encourag'd by the Birds of the same Feather abroad dispos'd and destin'd to a lewd Assassination And to make good the Attempt the Papal Force in both Nations was to be Armed and that under Officers and Commanders commissionated by St. Peter's Authority given to the General of the Jesuits at Rome and by him convey'd to the Provincial of the same Order in England In this somewhat mannerly that the King was not to fall alone but to be attended by some of his nearest Relations and choicest Peers of which number was his own Brother if he did not fully answer their Expectations the Prince of Orange the Duke of Ormond and the Earl of Shaftsbury Into Scotland twelve Scotch Jesuits were sent by Order from the General of the Society and had a Thousand Pound given them by Le Cheese the French King's Confessor to keep up the Commotions in Scotland and had Instructions given them to carry themselves like Nonconformists among the Presbyterians the better to drive on their Design The Conquest and Subduing of Ireland was contriv'd and design'd by a general Rebellion and Massacre of the Protestants in that Kingdom for which the Actors had a late Precedent to go by For the carrying on whereof the Pope had been so liberal as to disburse Eight Hundred Thousand Crowns out of his own Treasury And for fear their own Power might not be sufficient there was a French Plot cunningly and a-la-modely interwoven with their English Conspiracies to bring in Foreign Assistance and Correspondencies held for that purpose between them and the King of France's Confessor at Paris But Heaven that saw and with indignation beheld the dark and infernal Practices of them that by acting contrary to all Piety and Virtue were bringing a Reproach and Scandal upon Heaven and Christianity it self would no longer suffer them to proceed in such an Execrable Tragedy A Crime that had it come to Execution Hell would have blush'd and the Devils in union among themselves might have had a prospect of some probability of Mercy beholding men more wicked then they The Discovery then being fully resolv'd upon in the Breast of Dr. Oates he makes his first Applications to Dr. Tongue both for his Advice and Assistance Who upon Monday the 13th of August 1678 acquainted Mr. Christopher Kirkby with the detection of a Popish Conspiracy against the King's Sacred Person and the Protestant Religion shewing him withall the Three and Forty Articles as he had receiv'd them in Writing from Dr. Oates and requesting him not to make the business known at first to any other person then the King himself Many difficulties shew'd themselves in the Management of this Affair which requir'd the more wariness in proceeding So that Mr. Kirkby not finding an Opportunity to speak in private with the King that Afternoon prepar'd a certain Paper to put into his hands the next Morning as he went to walk in the Park His Majesty having receiv'd and read it call'd Mr. Kirkby to Him who then only gave him this short Account That his Enemies had a design against his Life and therefore besought him to have a care of his Person for that he knew not but that he might be in danger in that very Walk which he was about to take desiring withall a more private place for a more particular Account Thereupon his Majesty commanded him to wait his return out of the Park At what time calling Mr. Kirkby into his Bed-chamber he commanded him to declare what he knew Mr. Kirkby thereupon inform'd the King that there were two persons that were set to watch an opportunity to Pistol him That his Friend was at hand and ready with his Papers to be brought before him when his Majesty should command In answer to this his Majesty appointed between the hours of Eight and Nine in the Evening at which time Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Tongue attended and being commanded into the Red Room deliver'd the Forty Three Articles or rather Heads of the Discovery to his Majesty who being to go to Windsor the next Morning was pleas'd to promise that he would transmit the Papers into the hands of the Earl of Danby then Lord Treasurer upon whom they were likewise order'd to attend the next day after That day about four of the Clock in the Afternoon they were admitted into the Treasurer's Closet who read the Papers and found them to be of the greatest Concern imaginable The third of September Mr. Kirkby went to Dr. Oates and having receiv'd from him what he had to communicate appointed to meet him the next morning Accordingly the next morning being the fourth of September Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Oates met at what time the latter told the former that Whitebread Provintial of the Jesuites was come to Town and had strucken him and charg'd him with having been with the King and with the discovery of the Plot which he deny'd it being true that he had not seen the King Upon this it was concluded that seeing the discovery was smoak'd Dr. Oates's Information should be sworn before some Justice of the Peace which was accordingly the first time done before Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey the sixth of September who nevertheless was not permitted to read the particulars of the Information it being alledged that his Majesty had already had a true Copy thereof and that it was not convenient that the business should be communicated to any body else as yet So that Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey was satisfied without reading them and only underwrit Dr. Oates's Affidavit That the Matters therein contain'd were true Dr. Tong at the same time making Oath that they had been made known to the King In
the mean time Mr. Kirkby goes to Windsor and shews himself to the King but his Majesty was not pleas'd to speak to him either that day or the next whereby it was conjectured that some persons had made it their buness to dispossess the King of the belief of any such thing as a Plot. Wherefore upon the seventh of September he went to the Treasurer's Lodgings and meeting with Mr. Lloyd he told him that the person who had given the Information was discovered and had been abus'd and beaten by the Conspirators and therefore desired my Lord Treasurer's farther directions but though he waited all that day and the next my Lord was not to be spoken with Thereupon he returned and meeting with Doctor Tong and Oates at the place which before they had appointed he carried them to his Lodgings at Fox-hall for their better security Nevertheless the business was not so far neglected but that upon the twenty seventh Mr. Lloyd before mentioned was sent to Fox-hall to signifie to Mr. Kirkby that he had Orders to bring Doctor Tong before the Council but the Lords being risen ere the Doctor could be brought he was Order'd to attend the next Morning In the mean while they went all three again to Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey carrying the first Depositions sworn the sixth of September and two Copies more written by Doctor Oates to have them also sworn which being done Doctor Oates was sent back to Fox-hall and Mr. Kirkby and Doctor Tong attended the Council according to Order who being call'd in were Order'd to bring Doctor Oates thither which was soon after done And then it was that Doctor Oates being the first time examin'd and also sworn again at the Council board to the Heads of his Discovery both he and Doctor Tong were Ordered Lodgings at Whitehall Being thus secure of the Discovery and the Discoverer as well secured the main business now lay all in good proof and fair Testimony Which as on our side there was all care taken to find out so on the Conspirators behalf there was no stone left unturn'd no Labour of imagination omitted to vilifie and enervate and to reproach and scandalize what ever witnesses appear'd And therefore before we go any farther it will be requisite to say something in Justification of his person who was the First and main Discoverer and to whom the Nation is most chiefly beholding All the World cannot but be very apprehensive that it is the Interest of the Roman Catholics to vindicate their reputation if they can which there is no way under Heaven to do but by fixing those Imputations upon Doctor Oates which may render him ridiculous perjur'd and consequently unfit to be believ'd In the first place the Papists accuse him of debauchery and for being turn'd out of the Colledge at Saint Omers and that he does all this out of Revenge Then they suggest that his Information must needs be fictitious because it is a thing unlikely that he should come to such a distinct knowledge of so many particulars in so short a time Or if he had heard or seen them that he should so perfectly remember them and then again if he were so conversant among the Conspirators why he should not do it sooner In the last place they alledge that it is not probable that they who so chearfully blended their Blood with that of his Majesties most faithful Protestant Subjects in the late Wars should so strangely alter their minds as with such an unheard of Unanimity to combine to murder the King for whose Father they had so Religiously fought and destroy the Liberty of a Nation which they had endeavoured to maintain with their Lives Plausible insinuations indeed but of no moment when judiciously weighed and considered For as to the Education of Doctor Titus Oates he was bred a Student in Saint John's Colledge in Cambridge neither is it probable that he forgot his Learning but rather highly improved it by his going out Doctor in Divinity at Salamanca in Spain where he did all his Exercises more difficult than what are performed among us here He was also for some time a Minister at Chichester and at length Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk In all these Stations the sobriety of his Life and Conversation was such as freed him altogether from the stain of Debauchery In which respect he may well appeal to the Jesuites themselves who would never have esteemed him as they did by conferring their Order upon him and trusting him so far had they not found him a sober person and fit for their purpose When he was Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk he overheard some whisperings among the Priests by which he collected that there were some great designs on Foot though he could not find out what they were This and some other dark Intimations which he received from his Protestant friends bred in him an earnest desire to sound the depth of the Intrigue and if it were possible to Countermine it To which end he pretended himself to certain Priests dissatisfied in some points relating to the Discipline of the Church of England desiring withal for the Solution of his doubts to confer with some of their Jesuites which the Priests procured on condition he would not betray them After several disputes wherein he suffer'd himself to be overcome he was seemingly reconcil'd to the Church of Rome and then desir'd of the Fathers that they would admit him into their Order which they did after a debate of three days To this Grant of theirs they also added this farther kindness that because he was past the Years of Pupillage as being in the 28th Year of his Age they would not employ him as they usually did their Novices in drudgery for the first two Years but advance him to be a Messenger for the Society Nothing could more exactly have fitted his purpose So that being forthwith sent with Letters into Spain he opened them and thereby began to have some insight into the contrivance from which time he carried himself with that discretion and reservedness that after a little time he was admitted to their Consultations by which means he had not onely the opportunity to observe the present carriage of Affairs but also liberty to enquire into their former Proceedings By this means he came to understand how the City was Fir'd by the Contrivance of the Jesuites was informed how the Design was carried on and who were the Actors in the several Scenes of the Tragedy Which he might well believe when he himself was a Witness how they had Fir'd Southwark and were designing to have utterly laid wast both the Temple Westminster and the rest of the Suburbs He also kept short Memorandums of all passages of consequence that happen'd from the time of his first admission Of all which he has given such an exact Account confirmed by other Circumstances and collateral Evidence that among such a number of particular occurrences no one thing has contradicted
the Popes Internuntio at Brussels Lastly that he kept a Correspondence with Sr. William Throckmorton to the destruction of the King and Kingdom Being arraign'd for these crimes he insisted to have had Council allowed him which was deny'd for this reason for that the proof lay all on the other side which if it were plain there would be no need of Council As to the proofs of these Crimes by the two Witnesses Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow it was first proved by Dr. Oates alone That there was a general Consult or meeting of the Jesuits in April Old Stile and May New Stile at the White Horse Tavern in the Strand and afterwards they divided into Companies and in those Consults they conspired the death of the King and contriv'd how to effect it That to that purpose Grove and Pickering were actually imployed to murder the King and to pistoll him in St. James's Park For which Grove was to have 1500 l. in money and Pickering being a Priest thirty thousand Masses which was computed to be equal to 1500 l. That to this Contrivance and Conspiracy Coleman was privy and did well approve of the same It was also farther prov'd by the same Witnesses that four Irish men were provided by Dr. Fogarthy and sent to Windsor there to make a farther attempt upon the Royal Person of the King and fourscore Guinneys were provided by Harcourt to maintain the Assassinates at Windsor and that while this Conspiracy was in Agitation Coleman went to visit Harcourt at his Lodging but not finding him there and being inform'd he was at Wild House that he went and found him out there at which time Coleman asking what provision Harcourt had made for the Gentlemen at Windsor Harcourt reply'd that the fourscore Guinneys which lay upon the Table were for them and added that the person in the Room was to carry the money Upon which it was farther proved that Coleman should reply That he lik'd it very well and that he gave a Guinney out of his pocket to the Messenger who was to carry the money to Windsor to encourage him to expedite the business It was further sworn by Dr. Oates That in July last one Ashby a Jesuit brought instructions from Flanders to London that in case Pickering and Grove could not kill the King at London nor the four Irish men assassinate him at Windsor that then the sum of ten thousand pounds should be propos'd to Sir George Wakeman to poyson the King In this conspiracy Mr. Coleman was prov'd to be so far concern'd that by the Letters which pass'd between Whitebread and Ashby it appear'd that he should say he thought ten thousand pound was too little and that he thought it necessary to offer five thousand pound more which upon his admonition and advice was assented to by the Jesuites It was also further sworn by Dr. Oates that he saw Letters from the Provincial at London to the Jesuites at St. Omers that Sir George had accepted the Proposition The second witness was Mr. Bedlow who swore that he was imployed by Harcourt the Jesuite to carry Pacquets of Letters to Monsieur Le Chaise the French Kings Confessor and that he was at a Consult in France where the Plot was discours'd on for killing the King and that he brought back an answer from Le Chaise to Harcourt in London and that particularly on the 24th or 25th of May 1677. he was at Colemans house with father Harcourt and some other persons where Mr. Coleman falling into discourse concerning the design in hand said these words That if he had a Sea of blood and a hundred lives he would lose them all to carry on the design and if to this end it were requisite to destroy a hundred Heretick Kings he would do it The other part of the evidence consisted of Papers and Letters generally relating to prove the latter part of the Enditement viz. the extirpation of the Protestant Religion introducing Popery and subverting the Government This was plainly proved by a long Letter written by Mr. Coleman dated Sept. 29. 1675. and sent to Monsieur Le Chaise before named wherein he gave him an accompt of the transactions of several years before and of his correspondence with Monsieur Ferrier predecessour to the said Le Chaise wherein he asserted that the true way to carry on the interest of France and to promote the Catholick Religion in England was to get the Parliament dissolv'd which he said had been long since effected if three hundred thousand pounds could have been obtained from the French King and that things were yet in such a posture that if he had but twenty thousand pound sent him from France he would be content to be a sacrifice to the utmost malice of his enemies if the Protestant Religion did not receive such a blow that it could not possibly subsist The receipt of which Letter was acknowledged by Monsieur Le Chaise in an answer which he wrote to Mr. Coleman dated from Paris Octob. 23. 75. wherein he gave him thanks for his good service in order to the promotion of the Catholick Religion Another Letter was produced dated August 21. 74. written by the prisoner Coleman to the Popes Internuncio at Brussels wherein he said that the design prospered well and that he doubted not but that in a little while the business would be managed to the utter ruine of the Protestant party Other Letters were brought in Evidence wherein he wrote to the King of France's Confessor that the assistance of his most Christian Majesty was necessary and desir'd money from the French King to carry on the design But there was another without a date more material than all the rest written to Monsieur Le Chaise in a short time after his long Letter dated Sept. 29. 1675. wherein among other things the Prisoner thus express'd himself We have a mighty work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdomes and the utter subduing of a pestilent Heresie which has for some time domineer'd over this Northern part of the World and we never had so great hopes of it since Queen Maries days In the close of which Letter he implor'd Monsieur Le Chaise to get all the aid and assistance he could from France and that next to God Almighty they did rely upon the mighty mind of his most Christian Majesty and therefore hop'd that he would procure both money and assistance from him And thus was the latter part of the Enditement fully prov'd upon him There was another Letter produced against him which he wrote to Monsieur Le Chaise in French in the Dukes name but without his privity or knowledge so that when he had the boldness to shew it to the Duke he was both angry and rejected it It contain'd several invectives against my Lord Arlington as being a great opposer of the Duke's designs and the chief promoter of the match between the Prince of Orange and the Dukes
disclos'd to make out all the rest For at what time Fenwick Ireland and some others were first apprehended Mr. Praunce happening to be at a Coffee-house where some Gentlemen were talking somewhat severely against the said Prisoners zealously and officiously began to speak so favourably in their defence that notice was taken of his words and as he was told some information given against him To avoid therefore both charge and trouble he absented himself from his house the next three nights together After which time understanding the business was over he return'd home again and continu'd there as he was wont to do This happen'd about a fortnight before Sir Edmundbury was murther'd Yet upon this occasion so providence order'd it was he twelve weeks after apprehended and call'd in question For it chanc'd that one of his neighbours and he fell out who having got some intimation that Mr. Praunce lay out of his house three nights one after another began to question whether those three nights might not be the night that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was kill'd and those that follow'd And upon this bare surmise or presumption that had no ground or bottom in the world that either he or any that he knew were guilty or any way concern'd in the fact a warrant was obtain'd from the Lords of the Council to apprehend Mr. Praunce and to take him into a strict examination Being thus taken by vertue of the warrant he was first carry'd into the Lobby of the House of Commons where Mr. Bedlow whom he knew not as being a person that had seen him but once before that is to say between the Murther and the carrying forth of the Corpse but then taking some little notice of him knew his face again and positively charg'd him to have been concern'd in the murther whereupon he was examin'd and committed to Newgate the 21st of this month Within two days after he made a full discovery upon Oath impeaching Fits-Girald Kelly Hill Berry and Green Green was before in the Gate-house for refusing the oaths Hill and Berry were presently apprehended But the cunning Priests got away Upon the 24th he was carried before the King and Council to whom he gave a faithful and particular accompt of all the circumstances of the Murther Which because it contain'd so many descriptions of benches doors entries and rooms his Majesty was pleas'd to order the Duke of Monmouth the Earl of Ossory the Earl of Clarendon and Sir Robert Southwell to go with the prisoner and take his Examination upon the place At which time he gave such an exact accompt of the places which he had mention'd before viz. the very spot upon which the murther was committed where he himself where Berry stood as also the door stairs dark entry c. mention'd in the Narrative that his Majesties Commissioners return'd very well satisfy'd with the truth of his Relation and Confession True it is that Mr. Praunce did afterwards seem to retract by a bare affirmative what he had formerly confess'd upon Oath saying before the King and Council That he was innocent and the rest whom he had accus'd were also innocent But these words were extorted from his own fears and consternation that set before his eyes the danger of his life and the undoing of his wife and family For he had no sooner done it but his Conscience troubling him above all those considerations he recoyl'd from those false assertions and so strenuously and regularly maintain'd the Truth to which he had sworn by an addition of farther discoveries that the King was pleas'd with his own Lips to assure him of his Pardon which was afterwards delivered to him in due form under the Great Seal Kelly was afterwards taken up by the name of Daniel Edmunds in some place in Surrey and sent to the Marshalsea for refusing the Oaths but being deeply sensible of the danger he was in he so wrought upon the Poverty of that place that he procur'd bail for ten shillings apiece and got away this very Month before his true name of Kelly was known Much about this time the Parliament took into their serious consideration certain transactions of the Earl of Danby then Lord High Treasurer and after a strict Scrutiny into the business upon the 19th of this Month resolved that there was sufficient matter of Impeachment against him and order'd a Committee to draw up the Articles and to receive any further Informations or Evidence that should come in Within two days after several Articles of Impeachment were brought into the House severally put to the Question and agreed upon the same day they were order'd to be engross'd and votes further pass'd that the said Earl should be sequester'd from Parliament and committed to safe Custody Which that it might be the sooner effected they sent up Sir Henry Capell with the Articles to the Lords who accordingly went and deliver'd them to the Chancellour in a full assembly of that house but the house being prorogued at the latter end of the Month till the 4th of February nothing more was done for that Sessions However before they were prorogu'd they pass'd several resolves for impeaching the five Lords in the Tower of Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors and the same day which was the 5th of this month the five several Impeachments were carry'd up to the Lords and a Committee appointed to draw up Articles against the parties impeach'd to which purpose the said Committee was impowr'd to inspect the Journals and consider of Presidents for Impeachments In the Lords House so soon as the Articles against the Earl of Danby were exhibited he himself desir'd copies of all papers and proceedings nevertheless it was then resolv'd that at that time he should not withdraw Thereupon the said Earl toward the latter end of the month having still his liberty mov'd again in the Lords House that he might have a copy of his charge and that he might not long lye under it Upon which a Motion follow'd that the House would consider of the desire of the House of Commons touching his confinement Thereupon it was the next day resolv'd that he should not be confin'd as then and that he should have a copy of the Articles to which he was appointed to bring in his answer before the third of January And as to the Lords concern'd in the Conspiracy it was referr'd to the Lords of the Committee for priviledges to consider the state of the Impeachments and of all the incidents thereunto relating and to make their report which is the sum of what was done in reference to these matters till the sitting of the new Parliament of which more in due place As yet the stress of the discovery lay upon Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow but this month came in the substantial assistance of Mr. Dugdale who upon the twenty fourth of this month submitted himself to the examination of Mr. Lane and Mr. Vernon two of his Majesties Justices of the Peace
standing at the Gate from ten to one at night averr'd that he saw no Sedan let forth But in regard the Sentinels could not be so positive but that they might be mistaken by reason of the darkness of the night and privacy of the conveighance their Evidence was not thought substantial It was further urg'd by Hill that Mr. Praunce had been tortur'd to make him confess what he did But Mr. Praunce upon his oath utterly deny'd any such thing affirming that the Keeper had us'd him with all civility from his first commitment So that the evidence for the Prisoners being so far from overpowring the testimony for the King that it was in no measure able to ballance it the Jury soon found them all guilty upon which they severally receiv'd sentence to be hang'd The execution of which sentence follow'd upon the twenty first ensuing March 1678 9. But now the time of the new Parliaments sitting drawing near toward the beginning of this month his Majesty that he might remove all fears and jealousies out of the minds of his subjects thought meet to command his Royal Highness to absent himself for a time Who thereupon in obedience to his Majesties pleasure together with his Dutchess took leave of his Majesty upon the third of March and after a short visit to his Daughter the Princess of Orange in Holland retired to Bruxells in Flanders He was no sooner departed but the Parliament which had been so lately summon'd before met according to the time appointed at Westminster So soon as they were ready the King went in his Barge to Westminster and there in a Gracious Speech upon which the Chancellour afterwards enlarg'd His Majesty acquainted both Houses what he himself expected and what the Countrey stood in need of from their Unanimous and Prudent Consultations The Speeches being ended the Commons return to their House and choose again the Speaker of the last Parliament Mr. Edward Seymour This choice occasion'd their Prorogation from the twelfth to the fifteenth of the same month at what time being met again they chose Sergeant Gregory and caus'd him to take the Chair Before they fell upon business the members were all severally sworn and took the Test and being so cemented together they fell first upon the further prosecution of the Plot already discover'd to the Parliament not long before dissolv'd In reference to which affair Dr. Tong Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow were summon'd to attend them and to give their Informations Upon their appearing Dr. Tong gave a long Narraton which because it was tedious they further desir'd in writing Dr. Oates read his own depositions and when he had done made a complaint of some discouragements which he had receiv'd from some of the Members The complaint fell more severely upon one of them who having spoken some words in contempt of the Truth of the Plot was sent to the Tower and expell'd the House but soon after upon his modest Petition discharg'd from his imprisonment But whatever particular persons thought of the Plot the House of Commons were so well satisfy'd that they appointed a Committee of Secresie to take Informations prepare Evidences and draw up Articles against the Lords suspected to be therein concern'd By way of further prosecution also it was resolv'd that an humble address should be made to his Majesty that all the papers and writings relating to the discovery of the Plot and particularly such papers and writings which had been taken since the prorogation of the last Parliament might be deliver'd to the Committee of Secresie appointed to draw up Articles against the said Lords To which his Majesty was pleas'd to return for Answer that those papers and examinations were deliver'd to the Committee of the Lords from whence they should be sent to their Committee so soon as the Lords had done perusing them In the midst of these transactions they forgot not the Earl of Danby For upon the twentieth of this month they sent to the Lords to put them in mind of the Impeachment of High Treason exhibited against him in the name of the Commons and to desire that he might be forthwith committed to safe custody In answer to which at a Conference of both Houses the Duke of Monmouth acquainted them in the behalf of the Lords That their Lordships having taken into consideration matters relating to the Earl of Danby together with what his Majesty was pleas'd to say upon that Subject had order'd that a Bill should be brought in by which the said Earl should be made for ever incapable of coming into his Majesties presence and of all Offices and Employments and of receiving any gifts or grants from the Crown and of sitting in the House of Peers In the mean time the Commons having appointed a Committee to enquire into the manner of the suing forth the said Pardon made their report that they could not find the entry of any such Pardon in either of the Secretaries Offices nor in the Offices of the Signet or Privy Seal but that they found it to be a Pardon by Creation Thereupon the Commons send another Message to the Lords to demand Justice in the name of the Commons of England against the said Earl and that he might be immediately sequester'd from Parliament and committed to safe custody To which the Lords return'd that they had order'd before the coming of their last message the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod forthwith to take the said Earl into custody Soon after the Lords sent another Message to acquaint the Commons that they had sent both to Wimbleton and to his house in Town to apprehend the said Earl but that the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod could not find him April 1679. Thereupon the Commons order'd a Bill to be brought in to summon the said Earl to render himself to Justice by a day to be therein limited or in default thereof to attaint him Which Bill having pass'd the House was sent up to the Lords for their concurrence In the mean time the Lords had prepar'd a milder act of their own for the banishing and disabling the Earl of Danby which being rejected by the Commons the Lords desir'd a conference at which they deliver'd back the Bill of attainder choosing so to do by conference rather than by message to preserve a good understanding and to prevent Controversie between the two Houses And to shew the reason why they insisted upon their own amendments of the Bill for attainder it was urg'd that in regard the King had always in his reign been inclin'd to mercy and clemency to all his subjects the first interruption of his clemency ought not to proceed from his two houses This being reported an humble address to his Majesty was presently resolv'd upon to issue out his Royal Proclamation for the apprehending the Earl of Danby with the usual penalties upon those that should conceal him and that his Majesty would be also pleas'd further to give order to the
that their Lordships did intend in all their proceedings upon Impeachments depending at that time before their Lordships to follow the usual course and methods of Parliament and therefore the Commons could not apprehend what should induce their Lordships to address to his Majesty for a Lord High Steward in order to the determining the validity of the Pardon which had been pleaded by the Earl of Danby to the Impeachment of the Commons as also for the Tryal of the other five Lords for that they conceiv'd the Constituting of a High Steward was not necessary in regard that judgment might be given in Parliament without a High Steward For which reasons and for that there were several other matters contain'd in their Lordships Message touching the Tryals of the Lords impeach'd which if not settled might occasion several Interruptions and Delays in the Proceedings Therefore the House of Commons did propose to their Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be appointed to consider of the most proper ways and methods of proceedings upon Impeachments by the House of Commons according to the usage of Parliament that those Inconveniences might be avoided The Reasons of the Commons being thus deliver'd the Lords desir'd another upon the Conference before going wherein they declar'd that they could not agree to a Committee of both Houses because they did not think it conformable to the Rules and Orders of Proceedings of that Court which always was ever ought to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature Upon the report of this Answer the Commons voted that it tended to the Interruption of the good Correspondency between the two Houses and therefore desir'd another Conference with the Lords There the Commons declar'd their care to prevent all interruptions of a good Correspondence between the two Houses which as they were desirous at all times to preserve so was it more especially necessary at such a conjuncture when the most heinous Delinquents were to be brought to Justice that the Enemies of the King and Kingdom might have no hopes left them to see it obstructed by any difficulties arising in the way of proceeding And therefore in Answer to the last Conference it was urg'd That their Lordships did not offer any Answer or satisfaction to the Commons in their necessary Proposals amicably propounded by way of supposition that they might have been confirm'd therein by their Lordships That their Lordships did intend in all their Proceedings upon the Impeachments now depending before their Lordships to follow the usual course and methods of Parliament And further their Lordships had not given the least Answer or satisfaction to the Commons concerning their Lordships addressing to the King for a Lord High Steward though the Commons propos'd their design of satisfaction in as cautious terms as could be on purpose to avoid all disputes about Judicature Thereupon the sence of the Commons was thus summ'd up that They to avoid all Interruptions and Delays in the proceedings against the Lords impeach'd and the inconveniencies that should arise thereby having propos'd to their Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be nominated to consider of the most proper means and methods of proceedings upon Impeachments and receiving no other Answer from the Lords save onely That they did not think it conformable to the Rules and Orders of the Proceeding of their Court without any Reason assign'd judg'd the said Answer to be a refusal of them to agree with the Commons in appointing such a Committee though heretofore not deny'd when ask'd upon the like occasion and at that time desir'd purposly to avoid disputes and delays So that in fine the sence of the House being thus deliver'd by Mr. Hambden at length he told the Lords that he had commands to acquaint them that things standing so upon their Answer the Commons could not proceed in the Tryal of the Lords before the Method of proceedings were adjusted between the two Houses However this difference was soon passed over had not a large debate interven'd For soon after the Lords sent down a Message to acquaint the Commons That they had appointed a Committee of twelve Lords to meet a Committee of the House of Commons in the inner Court of Wards to consider of propositions and circumstances relating to the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower In the midd'st of these Debates his Majesty was pleas'd to send a Message to the House by Mr. Powle to the following purport That His Majesty had already at the first meeting of Parliament and since by a word or two mention'd the Necessity of having a Fleet out at Sea that Summer yet the season for preparing being advanc'd and our neighbors before us in preparation He could not hold himself discharg'd towards His people if He did not then with more earnestness Commend the same to their present Care and Consideration and the rather from the dayly expectation of the return of the Fleet from the Streights to which a great Arrear was due and did hereby acquit Himself of all the evil Consequences which the want of a Fleet in such a juncture might produce Neither had He done this without considering that their Entring upon the work presently could be no hindrance to the great Affairs upon the House but rather a security in the dispatch thereof However it were the Consideration of this Message was Adjourned for a Week and their former Debates resum'd if they were at all interrupted For now the Committees of Lords and Commons having met two Propositions were made by the Commoners to see the Commission of Lord High Steward and other Commissions In the second place they desired to know what Resolutions had been taken touching the Lords Spiritual whither they should be absent or present As to the first the Lords acquainted them with an Order which they had made that the Office of a High Chamberlain upon the Tryal of Peers upon Impeachment was not necessary to the House of Peers but that the Lords might proceed upon such Tryals though a High Steward were not appointed The Lords also farther declar'd that a Lord High Steward was made hac vice onely that notwithstanding the making of a Lord High Steward the Court remain'd the same and was not thereby alter'd but still remain'd the Court of Peers in Parliament As to the second Proposition the Lords communicated the Resolution of the Peers which was this that the Lords Spiritual had a right to stay in Court in Capital Causes till such time as judgment of Death comes to be pronounced or rather as by a farther explanation of the said Resolution the Lords made it out till the Court proceeded to the Vote of Guilty or not Guilty In the first place the Commons took exception at the words in the Commission of the Lord High Steward for Tryal of the Earl of Danby which were these Ac pro eo quod Officium Seneschalli Angliae cujus praesentia in hac parte requiritur ut
to the same Punishments And not only so but that they had been forc'd also to stoop under the Yoak of Oppression in their Civil Interests their Bodies Liberties and Estates So that all manner of Outrages had been exercis'd upon them through a tract of several Years past particularly in the Year 1678. by sending among them an Armed host of Barbarous Savages contrary to all Law and Humanity and by laying upon them several Impositions and Taxes by a prelimited and over-awed Convention of Estates in July 1678. for keeping up an armed Force entrusted for the most part into the Hands of avow'd Papist or their Favourers by whom sundry invasions had been made upon them and incredible Insolencies committed against them their Ministers and People being by them frequently hunted after and apprehended while meeting in Houses for Divine Worship So that being necessitated to attend the Lord's Ordinances in fields and desert places there they had also been hunted out and Assaulted to the Effusion of their Blood whereby they were inevitably constrain'd either to defend themselves by Arms at these Meetings or to be altogether depriv'd of the Gospel preach'd by their faithful Ministers That upon the first day of June last being the Lord's Day Captain Graham of Clover-House being Warranted by Proclamation to kill whom soever he found in Arms at field-Conventicles and making Resistance furiously assaulted the People there assembled and further to provoke them bound a Minister with some others whom he had found in Houses that Morning so that they were forc'd to stand to their own-Defence whereby it happen'd that several were slain on both sides Being therefore thus inevitably forc'd to betake themselves to the last Remedy in regard the Magistrates had shut the door of the Law against their Applications They thought themselves bound to declare That these with many other horrid Grievances both in Church and State were the true Cause of this their Lawful and Innocent Self-defence And they did most solemnly in the presence of God declare that the true Reasons of their continuing in Arms were candidly and simply I. The defence and security of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the Word and summarily comprehended in the Confessions of Faith and established by the Laws of the Land to which King Nobles and People were solemnly engag'd by the National Solemn League and Covenant More particularly the defending and maintaining the Kingly Authority of Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto II. The defence and preservation of his Majesty his Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom That the World might bear witness of their Loyalty and that they had no thought or intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness III. To obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and a free general Assembly in order to the redressing of their Grievances to prevent Popery and to extirpate Prelacy from among them This therefore being the Cause they appear'd for and resolv'd to own They humbly requested the King's Majesty to restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Kingdom Or if that could not be obtain'd then they heartily invited intreated besought and obtested in the bowels of Jesus Christ all who were under the same Bonds with them to meet in the Defence of the Common Cause and Interest And they requested their Country-men the standing Forces of the Kingdom of whom many were their Friends and Relations not to Fight against them lest in so doing they should be found Fighting against the Lord whose Cause and Quarrel they were sure he would own seeing they fought under his Banner who was the Lord of Hosts Upon the publishing of this Declaration the Numbers of the Rebels increas'd and they began to embody themselves to maintain their zealous Madness Insomuch that at the latter end of this Month about four-score of their Number well mounted and arm'd went to a place call'd Rugland and there Proclaim'd the Covenant and burn'd several Acts of the Scotish Parliament as the Act concerning the King's Supremacy the Recissory Act and the Act appointing the Anniversary of the twenty ninth of May. And that being done they affix'd a certain Scandalous and Traiterous Paper or Declaration on the Market-Cross of the same Town different from what has been already repeated and in the following scurrilous Terms The Declaration of the Rebels in the very words as it was design'd to have been put up by them at Glasgow and actually set up at Rugland AS the Lord had been pleas'd still to preserve and keep his Interest in the Land by the Testimony of some faithful Witnesses from the beginning so in our days some have not been wanting who through the greatest of hazards had added their Testimonies to those who have gone before them by suffering Death Banishment Torturings Finings Forfeitures Imprisonments c. flowing from cruel and perfidious Adversaries to the Church and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Land Therefore We owning the Interest of Christ according to the Word of the Lord and the National and Solemn League and Covenant desire to add our Testimony to the Testimony of the Worthies that have gone before though unworthy yet hoping as true Members of the Church of Scotland and that against all things that have been done prejudicial to his Interest from the beginning of the Work of Reformation in Scotland especially from the Year 1648. to the Year 1660. against these following Acts. As 1. The Act of Supremacy 2. The Declaration whereby the Covenants are condemned 3. The Act for the Eversion of the Established Government of the Church and for Establishing of Prelacy and for outing of Christ's Ministers who could not conform thereto by an Act Recissory of all Acts of Parliament and Assemblies for the Establishment of the Government of the Church of Scotland according to the Word As likewise that Act of Council at Glasgow putting that Act Recissory in Execution whereby at one time were violently cast out above three hundred Ministers without Legal Procedures Likewise the Act appointing a holy Anniversary to be kept upon the twenty ninth day of May for the giving thanks for the upsetting of a Usurping Power destroying the Interest of the Church in the Land which is to set up the Creature to be worshipp'd in the Room of our great Redeemer and to consent to the assuming the Power that is proper to the Lord alone for the appointing of Ordinances in his Church As particularly the Government thereof and the keeping of a Holiday and all other sinful and unlawful Acts committed by them And for confirmation of this our Testimony we do hereby this day being the twenty ninth of May 1679. publicly burn them at the Cross of Glasgow most justly as they Perfidiously and Blasphemously had burnt our holy Covenant through several Cities of the Covenanted Kingdoms We judge none will
as free from any guilt of these things laid to my charge in this matter as I came into the World from my Mother's Womb and that I do renounce from my heart all manner of Pardons Absolutions Dispensations for Swearing as occasions or Interest may seem to require which some have been pleased to lay to our charge as matter of our Practice and Doctrine but is a thing so unjustifiable and unlawful that I believe and ever did that no power on Earth can authorize me or any body so to do and for those who have so falsly accused me as time either in this World or in the next will make appear I do heartily forgive them and beg of God to grant them his holy Grace that they may repent their unjust proceedings against me otherwise they will in conclusion find they have done themselves more wrong than I have suffered from them though that has been a great deal I pray God bless His Majesty both Temporal and Eternal which has been my dayly Prayers for him and is all the harm that I ever intended or imagined against him And I do with this my last breath in the sight of God declare that I never did learn teach or believe that it is lawful upon any occasion or pretence whatsoever to design or contrive the Death of His Majesty or any hurt to his Person but on the contrary all are bound to obey defend and preserve his Sacred Person to the utmost of their power And I do moreover declare that this is the true and plain sence of my Soul in the sight of him who knows the Secrets of my Heart and as I hope to see his blessed Face without any Equivocation or mental Reservation This is all I have to say concerning the matter of my Condemnation that which remains for me now to do is to recommend my Soul into the hands of my blessed Redeemer by whose only Merits and Passion I hope for Salvation White THE words of dying persons have been always esteem'd as of greatest Authority because uttered then when shortly after they were to be cited before the high Tribunal of Almighty God this gives me hopes that mine may be look'd upon as such therefore I do here declare in the presence of Almighty God and the whole Court of Heaven and this numerous Assembly that as I ever hope by the Merits and Passion of my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ for Eternal Bliss I am as innocent as the Child unborn of any thing laid to my charge and for which I am here to dye and I do utterly abhor and detest that abominable false Doctrine laid to our charge that we can have Licenses to commit perjury or any Sin to advantage our cause being expresly against the Doctrine of St. Paul saying Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona Evil is not to be done that good may come thereof And therefore we hold it in all cases unlawful to kill or murder any person whatsoever much more our lawful King now Reigning whose personal and temporal Dominions we are ready to defend against any Opponent whatsoever none excepted I forgive all that have contriv'd my Death and humbly beg pardon of Almighty God I also pardon all the World I pray God bless His Majesty and grant him a prosperous Reign The like I wish to his Royal Consort the best of Queens I humbly beg the Prayers of all those of the Roman Church if any such be present Harcourt DEarly beloved Country-men I am come now to the last Scene of Mortality to the hour of my Death an hour which is the Horizon between Time and Eternity an hour which must either make me a Star to shine for ever in the Empyreum above or a Firebrand to burn everlastingly amongst the damned Souls in Hell below an hour in which if I deal sincerely and with a hearty sorrow acknowledge my crimes I may hope for mercy but if I falsly deny them I must expect nothing but Eternal Damnation and therefore what I shall say in this great hour I hope you will believe And now in this hour I do solemnly swear protest and vow by all that is Sacred in Heaven and on Earth and as I hope to see the Face of God in Glory that I am as innocent as the Child unborn of those treasonable Crimes which Mr. Oates and Mr. Dugdale have Sworn against me in my Tryal and for which sentence of Death was pronounced against me the day after my Tryal and that you may be assured that what I say is true I do in the like manner protest vow and swear as I hope to see the face of God in Glory that I do not in what I say unto you make use of any Equivocation mental Reservation and material Prolocution or any such ways to palliate Truth Neither do I make use of any dispensations from the Pope or any body else or of any Oath of secrecy or any absolution in Confession or out of Confession to deny the truth but I speak in the plain sence which the words bear and if I do not speak in the plain sence which the words bear or if I do speak in any other terms to palliate hide or deny the Truth I wish with all my Soul that God may exclude me from his Heavenly Glory and condemn me to the lowest place of Hell Fire and so much to that point And now dear Country-men in the second place I do confess and own to the whole World that I am a Roman Catholic and a Priest and one of that sort of Priests which you call Jesuits and now because they are so falsly charged for holding King-killing Doctrine I think it my duty to protest to you with my last dying words that neither I in particular nor the Jesuits in general hold any such opinion but utterly abhor and detest it and I assure you that among the multitude of Authors which among the Jesuits have printed Philosophy Divinity Cases or Sermons there is not one to the best of my knowledge that allows of King-killing Doctrine or holds this position That it is lawful for a private person to kill a King although an Heretic although a Pagan although a Tyrant there is I say not one Jesuit that holds this except Mariana the Spanish Jesuit and he defends it not absolutely but only problematically for which his Book was called in again and the Opinions expugned and sentenced And is it not a sad thing that for the rashness of one single Man whilst the rest cry out against him and hold the contrary that a whole Religious Order should be sentenc'd But I have not time to discuss this point at large and therefore I refer you all to a Royal Author I mean the wise and victorious King Henry the Fourth of France the Royal Grandfather of our present gracious King in a public Oration which he pronounced himself in defence of the Jesuits said that he was very well satisfied with
the Jesuit's Doctrine concerning Kings as believing it conformable to what the best Doctors of the Church have taught But why do I relate the testimony of one particular Prince when the whole Catholic World is the Jesuits Advocate For to them chiefly Germany France Italy Spain and Flanders trust the Education of their Youth and to them in a great proportion they trust their own Souls to be governed in the Sacraments And can you imagin so many great Kings and Princes and so many wise States should do or permit this to be done in their Kingdoms if the Jesuits were men of such damnable principles as they are now taken for in England In the third place dear Country-men I do attest that as I never in my life did machine or contrive either the Deposition or Death of the King so now I do heartily desire of God to grant him a quiet and happy Reign upon Earth and an Everlasting Crown in Heaven For the Judges also and the Jury and all those that were any ways concern'd either in my Tryal Accusation or Condemnation I do humbly ask of God both Temporal and Eternal happiness And as for Mr. Oates and Mr. Dugdale whom I call God to witness by false Oaths have brought me to this untimely end I heartily forgive them because God commands me so to do and I beg of God for his infinite Mercy to grant them true Sorrow and Repentance in this World that they be capable of Eternal happiness in the next And so having discharged my Duty towards my self and my own Innocence towards my Order and its Doctrine to my Neighbour and the World I have nothing else to do now my great God but to cast my self into the Arms of your Mercy as firmly as I judge that I my self am as certainly as I believe you are One Divine Essence and Three Divine Persons and in the Second Person of your Trinity you became Man to redeem me I also believe you are an Eternal Rewarder of Good and Chastiser of Bad. In fine I believe all you have reveal'd for your own infinite Veracity I hope in you above all things for your infinite Fidelity and I love you above all things for your infinite Beauty and Goodness and I am heartily sorry that ever I offended so great a God with my whole heart I am contented to undergo an ignominious Death for the love of you my dear Jesu seeing you have been pleased to undergo an ignominious Death for the love of me Gawen BEing now good People very near my End and summon'd by a violent Death to appear before God's Tribunal there to render an account of all my thoughts words and actions before a just Judge I am bound in Conscience to declare upon Oath my Innocence from the horrid Crime of Treason with which I am falsely accused And I esteem it a Duty I owe to Christian Charity to publish to the World before my death all that I know in this point concerning those Catholics I have conversed with since the first noise of the Plot desiring from the very bottom of my heart that the whole Truth may appear that Innocence may be clear'd to the great Glory of God and the Peace and Welfare of the King and Country As for myself I call God to witness that I was never in my whole life at any Consult or Meeting of the Jesuits where any Oath of Secrecy was taken or the Sacrament as a Bond of Secrecy either by me or any one of them to conceal any Plot against His Sacred Majesty nor was I ever present at any Meeting or Consult of theirs where any Proposal was made or Resolve taken or signed either by me or any of them for taking away the Life of our Dread Soveraign an Impiety of such a nature that had I been present at any such Meeting I should have been bound by the Laws of God and by the Principles of my Religion and by God's Grace would have acted accordingly to have discovered such a devillish Treason to the Civil Magistrate to the end they might have been brought to condign punishment I was so far good People from being in September last at a Consult of the Jesuits at Tixall in Mr. Ewer's Chamber that I vow to God as I hope for Salvation I never was so much as once that year at Tixall my Lord Aston's House 'T is true I was at the Congregation of the Jesuits held on the 24th of April was twelve-month but in that Meeting as I hope to be saved we meddled not with State-Affairs but only treated about the Governours of the Province which is usually done by us without offence to temporal Princes every third Year all the World over I am good People as free from the Treason I am accused of as the Child that is unborn and being innocent I never accused my self in Confession of any thing that I am charged with Which certainly if I had been conscious to my self of any Guilt in this kind I should not so frankly and freely as I did of my own accord presented my self before the King 's Most Honorable Privy Council As for those Catholics which I have conversed with since the noise of the Plot I protest before God in the words of a dying Man that I never heard any one of them neither Priest nor Layman express to me the least knowledge of any Plot that was then on foot amongst the Catholics against the King's Most Excellent Majesty for the advancing the Catholic Religion I dye a Roman Catholic and humbly beg the Prayers of such for my happy passage into a better Life I have been of that Religion above Thirty Years and now give God Almighty infinite thanks for calling me by his holy Grace to the knowledge of this Truth notwithstanding the prejudice of my former Education God of his infinite Goodness bless the King and all the Royal Family and grant His Majesty a prosperous Reign here and a Crown of Glory hereafter God in his mercy forgive all those which have falsly accused me or have had any hand in my Death I forgive them from the bottom of my heart as I hope my self for forgiveness at the Hands of God O GOD who hath created me to a supernatural end to serve thee in this life by grace and injoy thee in the next by glory be pleased to grant by the merits of thy bitter death and passion that after this wretched life shall be ended I may not fail of a full injoyment of thee my last end and soveraign good I humbly beg pardon for all the sins which I have committed against thy Divine Majesty since the first Instance I came to the use of reason to this very time I am heartily sorry from the very bottom of my heart for having offended thee so good so powerful so wise and so just a God and purpose by the help of thy grace never more to offend thee my good God whom I love
foot into the stirrup for eternal Bliss Let it suffice then that by this fallacy which they have all laid at the bottom as the Basis of the rest all their preliminary Imprecations and solemn Attestations are nothing but Fourberie and Imposture These were the Acts of Civil Justice in England while the Military Power finds work enough in Scotland to extinguish the Flames of a newly kindl'd Rebellion blow'd up by the common Beutifeus of Christian War Religion and Liberty For by the 7th of this month their Numbers were very much encreas'd which encourag'd several small parties like little streams to bend their course toward the main Inundation On the other side his Majesties Forces were no less vigilant to prevent their meeting To which purpose the Privy Council of Scotland understanding that there was a party got together in Tyvidale with a resolution to march Westward and joyn with the main Body sent the Master of Ross son to the Lord Ross with forty Horse and a hundred Dragoons to Selkerk to attend their motion They were about three hundred Horse and Foot however when they perceiv'd with what a resolution he advanc'd toward them they began to make a hasty retreat Whereupon the Master of Ross observing their fear briskly attack'd them with his whole number who so well behaved themselves that the Enemy was totally defeated leaving sixty six dead upon the place and ten Prisoners the rest being totally scattered Soon after the Earl of Murray's Steward in Downe having intelligence that above a hundred new rais'd Rebels were marching out of Fife to the Rendezvouze got together the Vassals and Tenants of his Lord and having pursu'd the Rebels sixteen miles through the Mountains at last overtook them routed them and took ten Prisoners among whom was one Hinderson who was one of the Murderers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews whereby he forc'd them to scatter and fly into the adjacent Mountains Of which the Lord Elphingstoun having notice he with some Gentlemen under his command pursu'd them farther kill'd some and took above thirty Prisoners and among them two of the name of Balfour and one Hamilton of Kinkell three more of the Murtherers of the Archbishop So that of that party of the Rebels hardly one escap'd being kill'd or taken The Gentlemen also of Strathern having fallen upon another party of the Rebels marching out of Fife of them they kill'd some and took about forty Prisoners At the same time the Militia and Trained Bands of Edinburgh to the number of four thousand took an oath to be faithful to his Majesty and to venture their lives and fortunes in suppressing the Rebellion These little skirmishes and petty victories could not hinder but that the great Snow-ball still increas'd So that the standing Militia and Heritors of some shires were commanded to their several Rendezvouzes those of the Southern parts near Edinburgh and those of the Northern parts near Sterling To command which Forces his Grace the Duke of Monmouth was commanded by his Majesty to repair forthwith into Scotland in obedience to which Order he arriv'd at Edinburgh the 18th of this Month having rode post all the way for Expedition The next day he went to the Army that lay twelve miles from the City at Moorhead beyond Blackborn and eight from the Enemy And having sent for some provisions which he found wanting from Edinburgh as soon as they arriv'd he resolv'd to march against the Rebels who lay encamp'd behind Bothwell-Bridge in Hamilton-Park they being posted all along the River and the Bridge well barricado'd and lin'd with Musqueteers Accordingly on Saturday the 21st of June in the evening his Grace began his March Major Oglethorp being commanded to lead the Van with five Troops of the English Dragoons and a hundred horse commanded by the L. Hume His Grace follow'd with the rest of the Horse and Dragoons and 300. commanded Foot About break of day the Van came in sight of the Rebels who were all ready drawn up in two Bodies though they had no more notice of the Dukes March than what they had from the light of the Souldiers Matches Major Oglethorp with his party was commanded to march directly toward the Bridge and draw up before it approaching so much the nearer because it was found that the Rebels had barricado'd up the Bridge with Stones and Timber that render'd the pass very difficult The Rebels had posted themselves very advantageously for there was no coming to them but over that Bridge the River Clyd running between the two Armies The Duke drew up the Army in Battle upon the height parallel to the River in full view of the Rebels which being done he went to visit the Dragoons Post about a mile distant Upon the way he was met by an Officer who acquainted him that a Parley had been beaten and deliver'd him a Petition sent from the Rebels and sign'd by Robert Hamilton in the name of Himself and the Covenanted Army in Scotland now in Arms the Contents whereof were That they had lain under great oppression both in their Estates and Consciences which had oblig'd them to have recourse to Arms for their own preservation which they were willing to lay down when the things set down in their Declaration were granted them His Grace admitting of the Parley there came out to him Mr. David Hume one of their Ministers with another Gentleman who being ask'd what they came for Mr. Hume answer'd That they were inform'd that his Grace was a merciful person that took no delight to shed blood and one that had power to do them good His Grace made answer That he should be very glad they would prevent the effusion of blood and to that end he was willing to hear what they propounded To which Mr. Hume reply'd that all their desires were contain'd in their Declaration And being demanded whether he meant the Declaration that pass'd undertheir name and was set up and proclaim'd at Rugland He answer'd God forbid they should own that But the Declaration he spoke of was one they had lately printed a Copy whereof he had with him and desired liberty to read it which being done his Grace told them That he suppos'd they would take it as a great proof of his Clemency and forbearance towards them that he had Patience to hear such a Libell against the Kings Person and Government read quite thorough But that he found no one Article in it that he could possibly agree to and therefore would make them a much shorter proposal which was That if they would immediately lay down their Arms and submit themselves to his Majesties Mercy the Kings Forces should not fall upon them Mr. Hume reply'd that it was impossible to agree to that for that it would be to lay their heads upon the Block Whereupon his Grace advis'd them to consider well what they had to do and to reflect a little whether that number of men shewing him the Army as it was drawn up
of Monmouth return'd for England where he had that reception from his Majesty which his Valour and Conduct had well deserv'd With him the Series of the History returns also and being arriv'd at London there the first thing remarkable which it meets with is the Dissolution of the Parliament To which purpose the King was pleas'd to issue forth His Royal Proclamation That whereas the present Parliament was lately prorogu'd till the 14th of August the Kings most excellent Majesty being resolv'd to meet his people and have their advice in frequent Parliaments had thought fit to dissolve the present Parliament and that he had given directions to the Lord Chancellor for the issuing out of Writs for the calling of a new Parliament to be holden on Tuesday the 7th of October next ensuing It was now a whole month since Mr. Langhorne had receiv'd sentence of Condemnation All this while he had been repriev'd partly for the sake of his Clyents that he might discharge himself of such business of theirs as he had in his hands partly for his own sake to the end he might have retriev'd himself from the ignominy of his execution by a candid and sincere Confession He had sent a Petition to his Majesty wherein after he had given his Majesty most humble thanks for prolonging his life he further set forth that he was ignorant of the subject of the Earl of Roscommons Letter as also of the Grounds upon which it was written That in obedience to his Majesties commands he had made the utmost discovery he could of the Estates he was commanded to disclose and therefore besought his Majesty to grant him his Pardon or at least to give him leave to live though it were abroad and in perpetual banishment he having as he pretended fully obey'd his Majesties Commands But whether he spake truth or no may be fairly appeal'd to the world For it is impossible to think otherwise but that if he had so fully and sincerely obey'd those Commands which it was thought requisite which no question the insight of a wise and discerning Council well knew he could perform his Majesty so punctual to his Mercy as they who have peculiarly tasted it well can testifie would never have swerv'd in the least tittle from the Grace which once he had offer'd him So that when he saw so much confidence in a dying man as to approach the throne of mercy with so much untruth his favourable eye could not look upon that Canting Declaration which follow'd but as the Speech of a Prosopopoeia hammer'd for him in the Popish Forge By which figure he might have enforc'd his Protestations ten times more solemnly without any disadvantage to his credit among his Confessors Having thus therefore spent a month in plausible prevarications at length the fatal warrant came by vertue whereof he was drawn to Tyburn and there executed according to the Sentence pronounc'd against him As for the Speech which he left as a Legacy to the world believing he should not have opportunity to utter it by word of mouth it was nothing but an absolute denyal of what had been so clearly prov'd against him 'T is true 't was farc'd with strange imprecations and solemn Asseverations of his Innocency But how true those Protestations were he himself discovers by a bold untruth that unmantles the fallacy of all the rest For what man of reason can imagine it possible that his Majesty or the Council should think his attainted life so considerable as to turn his Priests and for his dear sake to take upon them the office of the Ministry to convert him from Popery 'T was very likely indeed that they should offer him Great Advantages Preferments and Estates after the judgement was against him to make him forsake his Religion as if the King had wanted a Judge Advocate for his Guards But when he could not beg a Banishment he was resolv'd to bespatter that favour of life which was offer'd him only to be ingenuous in the farther discovery of the foul design wherein he was engag'd but neither for his parts or endowments Not long after Sir George Wakeman William Rumley William Marshall and James Corker Benedictine Monks were brought to their Tryals at the same Bar. The Jury were Ralph Hawtrey Henry Hawley Henry Hodges Richard Downtin Rob. Hampton Esquires William Heydon John Bathurst John Baldwyn Will. Avery Esquires Richard White and Thomas Waite Gent. The Charge against Sir George Wakeman was that whereas there was a design among several of the Popish party to subvert the Government of the Nation by altering the Laws and Religion therein establish'd and taking away the life of his Majesty he the said Sir George had undertaken to do the latter by Poyson That for that piece of service he was to have fifteen thousand pounds of which sum he had already receiv'd five thousand pound in part And that for a further gratuity he had accepted of a Commission to be Physician General of the Army That he receiv'd the Commission from the Provincial of the Jesuites in England and that he read it kept it in his possession and agreed to it with a design to have enter'd upon his employment so soon as the Army should be rais'd To make good the Charge Dr. Oates was sworn and depos'd That he saw a Letter of Sir George Wakemans written to one Ashby a Jesuite then under his directions at the Bath wherein after he had given him the prescriptions he was to observe he sent him word that he was assur'd of a certain person that was to poyson the King That he was present when Ashby offer'd him the 10000 l. in the presence of Harcourt and Ireland to poyson the King That he refus'd it not in abhorrency of the crime but because as he said it was too little for so great a Work That afterwards five thousand pound more was offer'd him as he was credibly inform'd by the order of the Provincial Whitebread But that he certainly saw the Prisoners hand to a receipt in the entry book at Wild-house for five thousand pound part of the said fifteen thousand pound Mr. Bedlow depos'd That he was in Harcourts Chamber where he saw Harcourt deliver to Sir George Wakeman a Bill of two thousand pound which was charg'd as he suppos'd upon a Goldsmith near Temple bar And that Sir George upon receipt of the Bill told Harcourt that if the Bill were accepted he should hear from him suddenly That the Bill was accepted and the money paid by the Confession of Sir George to the Witness That the said 2000l was soon after made up 5000 l. and as Harcourt told this Deponent all upon the same accompt and in part of the 15000 l. Sir George pleaded to all this that he had been left at liberty twenty four days after he had been before the Council and that upon Dr. Oates's being sent for to the House of Lords to repeat his Evidence against Sir George he