I ask the Noble mans Pardon for saying any thing that offended him or the Board This Pardon was ask'd you must know after he had receiv'd a smart reprimand for his Chollerick and abrupt behaviour before the King and Council and a' my word 't was well he had the manners to apologize The next is the many abuses which he puts upon his very Keeper the Lieutenant of the Tower as you may find in Manifesto page 22 23 24 25 26 27. But that which is most remarkable is his abusing the man who of all took most pains to deliver him viz. The Lord Chief Justice Scroggs and the very Lawyers that were of his Councel what Monstrous ingratitude is this In a word there is not a person from the highest to the lowest whom he hath not in some measure or other abus'd and reflected upon but I think 't is pretty well known of what Credit his Lordships Choller is and therefore I leave him to the Censure of all unbiass'd Readers I had thought to have gone through his whole Manifesto and to have made some remarks upon every Page but I find it so stuff'd with Incoherencies Tautologies Repetitions and what not that I was unwilling to trouble the Reader and my self with writing an Answer to that which in divers parts answers it self but more specially a thing which is supposed for an intended Vindication and yet without any name of Attestation to it 't is a Sign his Lordship was somewhat doubtful of what he there mention'd or else he could never have sent such a piece of Stuff into the World without giving some assurance that it was of his own Writing By the way Gentlemen I cannot but take notice of a passage in his defence p. 83. where he calls me a forger of Treasonable letters to entrap the innocent and urges my commitment by the Board upon Mr. Mansell's accompt as an argument to invallidate my Testimony By which the World may see a very great weakness and failing in his Lordship to make that a Crime which he so cordially manag'd and promoted I profess he has hit the Nail o' th' head For says he Dangerfield was in the same Plot with my self but Dangerfield fell off and discover'd the design therefore Dangerfield is not to believ'd But Midwife Cellier being in the same Plot and manager of the very letters being a Testimony for his Lordship and continuing true to the cause was a Witness without exception 'T is a sign that men read with little consideration when such shifts and evasions as these shall be so easily swallow'd His Lordship goes on with a confession of his faith a new invention they have now a days gotten to usher in a fallacious piece of Cajolrie upon the World That it is against the Doctrine of the Romish Church to depose and murther Princes than which there never was a more notorious and demonstrable piece of Hypocrisie broach'd upon the Earth For it has not only been the common practice of the Popes themselves but a Doctrine openly defended by a numerous and most authentick part of the Fathers and maintainers of the Popish Principles So that if the Protestants were not strangely enclin'd to favour their Enemies how is it possible they should ever give credit to a man that belys his own Religon If his Lordship were not so much for deposing the King why was he so angry with me for refusing to Kill him For with his Lordships leave I must keep close to my Text notwithstanding all his Junes and his July 's Perhaps it may be his Lordships particular opinion that Kings are not to be depos'd but then they must be Kings of his own making such as he accounts real Kings For to believe be thinks it unlawful to depose that King to whom he will not swear the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy is contradictory to common reason He tells ye he cannot take the Oath of Allegiance unless the King will be pleas'd to alter some words in it And as for the Oath of Supremacy whatever some of his Religion may have done that 's no president for him So that what credit there is to be given to a Loyaltie that refuses the common Tyes and Bond of Subjects fidelity to their Prince I leave to all Impartial Judges As for Dispensations to Lye Kill Forswear and so forth those he not only abhors but protests he never heard from any Papist that they are or were grantable What a plunge has his Lordship here put himself to For hereby he has made himself the most silly illiterate ignorant person in the World or else the divulger of a most notorious untruth there being nothing more obvious to reading than the justify'd allowances of these crimes by the most noted Casuists of his Religion Now what good such stories as these will do his Manifesto is the Question For my part I believe the Bookseller was out in his Title for had he call'd it the Legend of the Lord Castlemain he had done well This is ill done to impose upon us a meer Romance or a second part of Mandevil's Travels under the Title of a Manifesto Only there is this excuse to be made for his Lordship that he has told these stories so oft that he now believes them for Truths and thinks all the World as ridiculously credulous as himself In short I would desire his Lordship to consider what Mrs. Cellier his great Crony and fellow-Conspirator got by publishing her scandalous Manifesto tho' she came off by the same fair means as he did What Mr. John Gadbury got by that abusive lying Almanack of his for this present Year 1682. And what his Lordship will gain by his Manifesto And it may not be an improper Question If the same course were taken with both the last as was with hers whether they might not have as little reason to boast of their English and Latin Impositions upon the World they being equally scandalous and dishonourable to the publick Justice of the Nation And that all such may receive their so highly merited reward is the hearty wish of Thomas Dangerfield FINIS
to His Majesty and whether these were Mrs. Celliers Debtors too or no And last of all how often I waited upon the King what I said to His Majesty c. and then I hope it may easily be discerned that I was taken out of Prison for some other end than to get in a Bankrupts desperate Debts This Fellow was it seems Willoughby now Dangerfield and him she sent sometimes to my House on ordinary Errands c. I know not what his Lordship calls ordinary Errands but you shall hear how I gain'd his Esteem for my Diligence for let him speak never so contemptibly of me in his Passion yet he at that time employ'd me to get Knox and Lane out of Prison he ordered me to employ divers persons to Write out Letters and Lists of Names concerning the Sham-Presbyterian Plot then set on foot by the Papists He perused the Papers with me wherein was contained the Charge which Knox and Lane were to make good against Mr. Otes He was concerned in the drawing up of the false Affidavits that Lane swore to before Sir James Butler And he was angry with me for that I had refused the Proposal which the Lords in the Tower had made me which was to KILL THE KING c. And all this his Lordship calls in terms a being sent to him upon ordinary Errands All which being positive Truths I am bound to maintain in the face of the Nation notwithstanding he escap'd the deserv'd Punishment of these Crimes But presently he play'd me as Villanous a Trick as could be says his Lordship considering the times we live in c. Why what was that pray The five Jesuits being Executed he came to me and asked if I thought convenient to have their Speeches Printed I told him by all means for why should such Excellent and Loyal things fall to the Ground He replyed That it would Cost Ten Pounds Well said I if it does I 'le willingly give something towards it c. This was pretty well said but most mischievously intended as you may find by his commending the Excellence and Loyalty of those Trayterous Jesuits Speeches which cannot but be taken for the most gross Equivocating Shams that ever were endeavoured to be impos'd upon the World And I am perswaded let but any man of Impartial Judgment who has but heard of the Jesuits Tenets compare the Tryal of Ireland and his Dying alias Lying Speech with Mr. Jennisons Depositions and then compare those and the Five Jesuits Tryals and their Speeches together and then summ up the most probable circumstances fairly on both sides certainly he cannot but find them the most pernicious Lies that ever were told I mean the Speeches he mentions in his Manifesto And yet that a Lord should concern himself in the patching up of such Stuff as this is so scandalous a thing that but what Lord is it Why a Popish an Irish Lord the Earl of Castlemaine say ye me so I thought he and his Compendium had been too well known to give out Manifesto's c. But all this while where 's the Villainous Trick he spoke of Why Not long after says he I went to the Tower to see my Lord and as soon as I met him said he Why did you send a Stranger to me What have I to do with the Jesuits Speeches Ay what indeed How shall a man do to know what Lord he means for ought I can tell he might go to pay his respects to the Earl of Danby and to his Lordship I was a Stranger and therefore he might well look with an apparent dissatisfaction and demand What he had to do with the Jesuits Speeches But this I am sure of had he gone to any of the other Lords they could never have said with any Truth that I was such a Stranger to them as his Lordship pretends And if I mistake not they had as much reason to concern themselves about the Excellency and Loyalty of the Jesuits Speeches as any he could pretend to Therefore that any one of them should say What have I to do with the Jesuits their God-a-mighties Speeches is about as likely as it is for Mr. Otes to have been at St. Omers and in London at the same time So that now 't is clear that his Lordship was willing to make a small wilful mistake and leave the Argument copious enough that so upon occasion he might have recourse to the extravagancy of it for an Answer But where 's the Villanous Trick all this while Oh he would be understood to be a great admirer of the Jesuits Speeches and was willing to have them Printed but I it seems demanded Ten Pound for the Printing of e'm so here 's the Villanous Trick then I suppose truly it 's a very small one and I think my Demands were very reasonable for what man living whose Trade Printing is Nat. Thompson excepted would in his right senses concern himself in such a parcel of Lies and Villanies for less than Ten Pounds I acquainted her meaning Mrs. Cellier what the Spark had done and also told her he was so great a Villain that if ever he came any more to me I would order my Servants to Kick him out of my House Right or wrong I am to be called Villain now I find but why so Only because I discover'd a great many Villains and their Villanies for I never heard one word of being Kicked down Stairs nor of any dislike that I was under until I had made my Discovery and then as it hath done ever since I found the Popish Blood boyl at me but before my Discovery no man was like to me Gadbury could tell me I was a man fit for a bold and daring Enterprise c. My first Narrative page 26. That I was fit to be trusted c. Mrs. Jean the Popish Priest at Peterly that wrote the Scheme of the Sham-Presbyterian-Plot could say in his Letters he had a better Opinion of me than he had of Gifford notwithstanding he was one of his own Priestly Function First Nar. p. 10. Mrs. Cellier when she brought me to the Lord of Peterborough gave a most extraordinary Character of me and how I had improved my self in the Service of divers Foreign Princes insomuch that I immediately gain'd the Title of Captain First Nar. p. 62. with a promise for a Troop of Horse c. His Royal Highness the first time that I was brought to him by the Lord Peterborough desired me to keep up to the Couragious and Active Character which he had heard of me c. And at another time My Information to the House of Commons Tuesday the 20th of October 1680. page 8 and 9. That I had gain'd a great Reputation amongst the Catholicks c. All this is Truth undeniably Truth and were it proper I could carry it farther but here I think are enough to prove how much I was Esteemed of while I did their Service but when I
Discover'd then 't was Rogue Villain Rascall Scoundrel c. and all the Tricks and Devices that could be imagin'd were used to invalidate my Testimony which meeting with some Mercenary helps soon answer'd their End And thus as I told his Lordship when we were face to face before the King and Councel I am beholding to him for confirming so great a part of my Evidence for however it was carried upon his Tryal yet I am still the same and by the Grace of God will ever maintain what I from the first Charged him with viz. His being privy to the Proposal that was made by the Lord Powis c. Now to let you know what Reply his Lordship made to this Charge pray observe this that follows which is taken out of the 16 17 and 18 pages of his Manifesto where says he Willoughby affirms this and I the contrary viz. That I never heard of any Proposal made him by the Lords Then being told by my Lord Chancellor that they the Popish Lords in the Tower had proposed the Killing of the King to me I know nothing of it reply'd his Lordship and thereupon I asked him when it was c. As he was musing a while and looking up in a considering Posture I said You had need consider well for the Question about Time is the thing that will ever confound you and such as you are at last he told me it was a fortnight or three Weeks after Sir George Wakemans Tryal Now replies his Lordship I have all I desire having eaught him in a most Evident Lie and Contradiction for did he not confess that he never came to me after his Knavery at the Tower which was at the least five Weeks before Sir George Wakemans Tryal and yet now he affirms that my being angry with him was even a fortnight or three Weeks after the said Tryal This so much startled him that he had nothing to say but that he would shew me Circumstances to prove the Truth of his Allegation which were That I was then Writing the Compendium a Paragraph of which he read as it lay before me on the Table That one Lawson was then in the House and one Turner a Book-seller These said his Lordship are vain things and so far from reconciling your former contradictions that they create new ones For how was it possible for you to read a Paragraph in a Paper when I my self was by and in an angry humor and at the very first sight of you And here says his Lordship I must with my Readers leave farther acquaint him That Dangerfield neither pretended to have done this by surprise nor would it have availed him had he said so for my Chair and Table in my Study so face the Door that it is impossible for any body to come in and not be presently seen by me when there Now continued his Lordship for the persons you Name they are easily guess'd at Lawson being my Sollicitor and consequently most mornings with me and the other my Book-seller who having Orders to bring me still whatsoever was new could not but be often at my House the Press being at that present so prolifick He to amuse me and the Board for 't was all this while before the King and Councel began again with the Compendium and that he read only a part of a Paragraph but the Chancellor telling him that that was not the present Question he was sent out c. Now as to that part which he seems to affirm so strongly viz. That he never heard of any Proposal made to me by the Lords in the Tower c. I am of his Opinion and it is now more than the same Equivocation that I expected he would make viz. that he never heard of it at Candia but that he had heard of it here in England nay here in London and that he was angry with me because I refused it it is true and must pass for Truth until he can more closely contradict it But perhaps those that have a mind to be Partial in their distinguishing of these niceties may object and say 't is but one mans Oath and he a person that hath lived very extravagantly too against a Person of Qualitie's Word or Honour In answer to this I say let those Judges but be satisfied whom and what sort of People they are that I had to deal withal viz the Lords Powis and Arundel of Wardour who were the Persons that first Proposed the Killing of the King to me in a close Room in the Tower where none but themselves and I were present and likewise that the Lord Castlemaine when he had a mind to make me understand his Displeasure for my refusing of that Proposal had sent his Servants out of his Study before he would enter into any Discourse with me about the thing why then I say no reasonable man can do other than believe what I have sworn to be Truth and what they have or may affirm to be false For can it be expected that two Bigotted Papists and a Jesuit whose best Principles are Blood and Murder and that had so often approv'd of and engag'd so many persons for the Killing of the King viz. Pickering Sir George Wakeman the four Russians my Self and one Lewis all which have confessed it themselves or been Discover'd by others and some Executed for that very Fact should at last play the Fool and accuse themselves Perhaps had there been another Instrument as I was present at the same time when the Proposal was made me for ought I know after the Providence of Heaven had smote him with the Horror of the thing as I bless God I was he might have been as ready to Discover it But then it may be they will say there was Gadbury the Lady Powis Mrs. Cellier Father Sharp at Wild House and others whom I had charg'd with being Privy more or less to this Conspiracy and yet they all flatly deny it what then and what does that signify because a Traytor that knows our Common Proverb Confess and be Hang'd denies his Crimes therefore he is Innocent an Excellent Argument indeed Yet let me tell ye Gentlemen Gadbury once when he was in the Gate-house was willing and as I have been inform'd did make some considerable Discovery but no sooner had he obtained his Majesties most Gracious Pardon but as soon his mouth grew Black and Mealy and so became silent and ever after all that he could tell of Good-man was but Transiently As for Mother Midwifes part she did say when the Parliament was sitting at Westminster in the Month of October 1680 that she had some Discovery to make and accordingly desired to be sent for to the Bar of that House of Commons but this Resolution of hers being by some means or other made known she was soon Presented either with Money or a Bill for a Hundred Pounds and great Promises of being plentifully supported from that time forwards as she hath been
without doubt ever since so that when an Honorable Member of that House went to Newgate to know what she had to say the best he could get from her was but base and abusive Language so that what likelyhood there is for any of these Conspirators to Discover and Confirm my Discovery seeing they are thus tamper'd with is but vain and as yet not to be expected Therefore I hope Gentlemen you will be so just as not to think them ever the more Innocent for their asserting and affirming of it nor me ever the less to be credited for their recriminating and laying to my Charge things that I call God to Witness I never was in the least Guilty of I am sure and I am able to prove it that what they I mean the Papists had engag'd me in was of Nature so much beyond all that I had ever acted or done before that when some things were discours'd of amongst our selves which went down with others as glib and easie they have made me Tremble I hope this being seriously consider'd amongst the many Temptations which I have lain under together with my reclaim'd and modest Carriage towards all sorts of Persons for this two Years past will so much out ballance any thing that Popery can object against me that I may find some Room in the Opinions of Good and Sober People But Gentlemen if you 'l but do me the favour to take along with your consideration the probabilities which attend my Evidence viz. That I was taken out of Prison by the Papists to their Charge near Three Hundred Pounds before I was capable of doing them any considerable Service then the plentiful way of my Living after that even to the time of my Discovery then my being brought acquainted with the Popish Lords and Ladies in the Tower and elsewhere and most of the considerable Priests and Papists then about the Town then my being brought to the Duke of York and from thence to His Majesty I say do me but the favour to compare these Probabilities impartially to what I have sworn and these that follow viz. That I never saw the Popish Lords until I was by their means released out of Prison and was sent to the Tower c. That I never had the Honour to wait upon the King or the Duke until the Papists had procur'd it That I had no other End or Design by my waiting upon His Majesty but to endeavour to possess him with the Belief of that Damnable Popish Contrivance A Plot amongst the Presbyterians to alter the Government c And last of all that the Proposal which was made me to Kill the King whom God for ever Preserve was done by those that hold these pernicious Tenets viz. Deposing of Kings Burning 〈◊〉 Destroying of Hereticks Changing of Governments c. That is to say the Papists the worst sort of Papists the Bigotted be-Jesuited Papists whose Doctrine and their own practices have sufficiently rendred them notorious to the World now if these people were as they pretend to be such a sort of harmless innocent Doves without Gall Bitterness and the worst of Malice then indeed there were some reason for the World to suspect the Accusation which my self and others have charg'd them with but on the contrary as they are not and since their Crimes are attended with so many vigorous and lively Circumstances I hope no man will be so void of reason to think tho' I am but Singularis Testis that I have not as great a value for my Soul and its Eternal Happiness as e're a Papist of them all can pretend to or that I should so often in this and in other Papers of mine now in Print call God to witness a Lye and yet remain or have any Being amongst my Fellow Creatures here upon Earth So that now the sum of all is this Either you must believe that what I have sworn against them is Truth for which you have the pledge of a thing more valuable to me than the whole Earth my Soul Or else you must believe what the Conspirators affirm in the denyal of it and consequently me to be Perjur'd a thing I must confess was never yet laid to my Charge for the determination of which since the Opinions and Tempers of men are so various and different I appeal to the Supream God and Judge of all Mankind before whose great Tribunal I Challenge the Conspirators for the Truth of my whole Charge upon every individual Papist or person by me nam'd more especially that all-contradicting Gentleman the Lord Castlemain whom that you may know to be a Priest and of the Order and Society of Jesuits look into the 19 page of his Manifesto where he says Mr. Otes accused him of being a Priest and that he had said Mass But that 's not all neither for Turbervile swore the same a Man and his Wife swore it also who were both Papists and that they had heard him read Mass at Doway in Flanders I would not take up any thing of this kind from bare words and common Report neither do I nor would I be thought to mention any more here than what I am able to prove because I know I have to do with a subtle supplanting sort of Devils in the shape of men who care not who they asperse and scandalize by their Paltry Assertions so they can but gain a belief upon the too credulous and good natur'd or rather impose upon the World any thing though never so false to serve their own Villanous Ends. But now to return to the point viz. the Proposal to Kill the King I knâ—w nothing of it replyed his Lordship and thereupon I asked him when it was c. as he was musing a while and looking up in a considering posture I said you had need consider well for the Question about Time is the thing that well ever confound you c. Now for the Truth of this I Humbly make my Appeal to His Majesty and the whole Council and also to all that ever heard me deliver my Evidence in any Court of Judicature or any other place Whether or no at all times and in all places I have not Express'd my self as freely and as clear from any Hesitation or Musing as any one whatsoever of my capacity can be suppos'd to do in a matter of that great Moment And likewise If I have not as readily answer'd Questions concerning matter of Fact or Circumstances as any the most exquisite of the Papists have been to put them to me But to allow his insinuation that very way that he puts it that is to say that the whole matter which I charg'd him with was false yet is it likely supposing me to be so base and villanous that I should Study my Charge no better than so as not to be able to give an Answer about Time or Place without musing but it is much more wonderful the whole Charge being ipso facto true that I