mund Berry Godfrey, who, "it is certain," says Burnet," grew apprehensive and reserved; for meeting me in the street, after some discourse on the present state of affairs, he said, he believed he himself should be knocked on the head."*

About a fortnight afterwards, on Saturday, October the twelfth, Godfrey was missing; nor could the most sedulous endeavours obtain any other tidings of him for some days, but that he was seen near St. Clement's Church, in the Strand, about one o'clock on the day mentioned. On the Thursday evening following, his body was found in a ditch near Chalk Farm, then called the White House, Primrose Hill. "His sword was thrust through him, but no blood was on his clothes, or about him: his shoes were clean his money was in his pocket, but nothing was about his neck, [although when he went from home he had a large laced band on,] and a mark was all round it, an inch broad, which shewed he was strangled. His breast was likewise all over marked with bruises, and his neck was broken :-and it was visible he was first strangled, and then carried to that place, where his sword was run through his dead body." This full confirmation of the suspicions of the public, for that Sir Edmund Berry was murdered, had been the general discourse long before any proof appeared, was regarded as a direct testimony of the

* Bur. Hist. Vol. I. p. 429. Godfrey's suspicion of his own danger was also confirmed by evidence before the House of Commons. +Ibid.

existence of the Popish Plot; and though the King, in his opening Speech to the Parliament, which met on the twenty-fifth of the month, took but a very slight notice of the rumoured conspiracy, both Houses entered into the examination with great ardour, and the Commons ordered warrants to be signed for the apprehension of twenty-six persons who had been implicated by Oates, and among whom were the Lords Powis, Stafford, Arundel of Wardour, Petre, and Bellasis, and Sir Henry Tichbourn, Bart.; these noblemen surrendered themselves, and were committed to the Tower. Shortly afterwards, all Popish recusants were commanded, by Proclamation, to depart from the Cities of London and Westminster, and all places within ten miles. The Papists, says Rapin, 66 accordingly departed out of London; though for so short a space, that in less than a fortnight they returned again, whether they had leave from their leaders to take the oaths, or knew that such Proclamations were never strictly enforced."

That distinguished patriot and statesman, the late Right Hon. Charles James Fox, was fully persuaded that the Popish Plot had no real existence,* yet Dry

"The proceedings on the Popish Plot must always be considered as an indelible disgrace upon the English nation, in which the King, Parliament, Judges, Juries, Witnesses, Prosecutors, have all their respective, though certainly not equal shares. Witnesses of such a character, as not to deserve credit in the most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts, gave evidence so incredible, or to speak more properly, so impossible to be true, that it ought not to have

den's representation is more congenial with the facts, when he says in his Absalom and Architophel,

"Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies."

been believed if it had come from the mouth of Cato; and upon such evidence from such witnesses, were innocent men condemned to death, and executed. Prosecutors, whether Attornies and Solicitors General, or Managers of Impeachments, acted with the fury which, in such circumstances, might be expected. Juries partook naturally enough of the na tional ferment; and Judges, whose duty it was to guard them against such impressions, were scandalously active in confirming them in their prejudices, and inflaming their passions. The King, who is supposed to have disbelieved the whole of the Plot, never once exercised his prerogative of mercy. It is said he dared not. His throne, perhaps his life, was at stake.—In the prosecution of the aged, the innocent Lord Stafford, he was so far from interfering in behalf of that nobleman, that many of those most in his confidence, and, as it is affirmed, the Duchess of Portsmouth herself, openly favoured the prosecution. But this is not to be wondered at, since in all the transactions relating to the Popish Plot, minds of a very different cast from Charles's, became, as by some fatality, divested of all their wonted sentiments of justice and humanity. Who can read, without horror, the account of that savage murmur of applause, which broke out upon one of the villains at the bar swearing positively to Stafford's having proposed the murder of the King? And how is this horror deepened when we reflect, that in that odious cry were probably mingled the voices of men to whose memory every lover of the English Constitution is bound to pay the tribute of gratitude and respect." "Life of James the Second," p. 33, 34,--40, 41.

The recent restoration by his present Majesty, of Lord Stafford's barony to his descendant Sir George Jerningham, is a proof of the opinion now entertained of the undeserved fate of the former nobleman.

On the last day of October, the remains of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, which had been embalmed, were carried with great solemnity from Bridewell. Hospital to St. Martin's Church, to be interred. The pall was supported by eight Knights, all Justices of the Peace, and the Procession was attended by all the City Aldermen, together with seventy-two London Ministers, who walked in couples before the body; and great multitudes followed after, in the same order. As yet, however, the perpetrators of his murder had not been discovered, though a reward of 500l. and the King's protection had been offered to any person making the disclosure; but within a few days afterwards, one William Bedloe,* who had once been servant to the Lord Bellasis, and, afterwards, an ensign in the Low Countries, was brought to London from Bristol, where he had been arrested by his own desire, on affirming that he was acquainted with some circumstances relating to Godfrey's death. On his different examinations, he stated that he had seen the murdered body in Somerset House, (then the Queen's residence,) and had been offered a large sum of money to assist in removing it.† He also corroborated

He

"Bedloe had led a very vicious life; he had gone by many false names, by which he had cheated many persons. had gone over many parts of France and Spain as a man of quality, and he had made a shift to live by his wits, or rather by his cheats." Bur. Hist. Vol. I. p. 432.

+"Besides Bedloe's oath," says Burnet, "that he saw Godfrey's body in Somerset House, it was remembered that, at that time, the Queen was for some days in so close a con

Oates's testimony in many particulars respecting the Popish Plot, and on their joint evidence, Coleman was soon afterwards convicted of High Treason, in carrying on a traiterous correspondence with Father. de la Chaise, Confessor to Lewis the Fourteenth, "in order to subvert the established religion and government." He suffered at Tyburn on the third of December; but died protesting his innocence of any other design, than to make the King and the Duke as high as he could.' It was given out, says Burnet,

to make the Duke more odious," that he was kept up from making a confession by the hopes the Duke sent" of a pardon at Tyburn," and this was subsequently corroborated by a man named Stephen Dugdale, who had been Lord Aston's Bailiff, and came forward as a third evidence in support of the reality of the Popish Plot. He stated that he had learned from one Evers, a Jesuit, that the Duke had sent to Coleman, when he was in Newgate, to persuade him not to make any discovery;' and, also, that he had enquired "whether he had ever discovered their designs to any other person; and that Coleman sent back answer that he had spoke of them to Godfrey ; upon which the Duke gave orders to kill him."*

finement that no person was admitted. Prince Rupert came there to wait on her, but was denied access. This raised a stronger suspicion of her; but the King would not suffer that matter to go any farther." Ibid. p. 435.

* Bur. Hist. Vol. I. p. 437 and 444. A few days before Coleman's execution, that is, on November the twenty-sixth, Wilham Staley, a goldsmith," the Popish Banker, who had been