whether English or Scotch the Man to whom next the late Earls of Shaftsbury and Argyle belong'd the chief place and precedence in the whole Diabolical Design was Robert Ferguson a Scotch-Man he had been divers Years a fierce Independent-Preacher in the City of London and had long Brandish'd his Poys'nous Tongue and Virulent Pen against the Government He is manifestly convicted to have had a Hand in the most Scandalous Libels of those Times And was always particularly cherished magnified and maintained by the Party for his peculiar Talent in aspersing the Government and reviling his Majesties Person So that upon all Accounts of his restless Spirit fluent Tongue subtil Brain and hellish Malice he was perfectly qualifi'd to be the great Incendiary and common Agitator of the whole Conspiracy and after Shaftsbury's Death it cannot be denied but he was the Life and Soul of all especially for the carrying on of the Assassination These Persons appear hitherto to have been the principal Contrivers or Instruments of the whole Treason in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland Divers others there are concerning whom more than conjectural Proofs may be given of their being engaged in it But his Majesty is willing to spare particular Names as far as may stand with the Necessary and Just Vindication of his Government It may suffice that of these his Majesty has here allowed to be mention'd the World is abundantly satisfied that the several Shares they undertook in this Conspiracy were very agreeable to their former well known perverse Principles and declared Disaffections to the Government It is therefore certain that in the Year 1682 before and especially after Midsummer-Day when the great Business of Electing the City Sheriffs came of course to be Agitated the whole Factious Interest in and about the Town prepared to employ the Main of their Power and Craft in preventing the Swearing of the True Sheriffs on the Michaelmas-Day ensuing All which time nothing was omitted by the Disloyal Citizens and great Numbers of Strangers unduly mingled with them in all their Assemblies to elude or terrifie the Honest Zeal of the Loyal and to deceive and gain over the doubtful Members of the City Whether by direct or indirect ways it matter'd not For just about that time the New and Devilish Invention came to be most in Vogue by which they made the receiving all Oaths and taking the very Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be only an Instrument for the promoting their pretended Godly Designs Wherefore in that space of time all imaginable prophane and seemingly holy Cheats and Prevarications were practis'd All sorts of Arms never before known to be procured in such Quantities by private Persons such as Blunderbusses Steel Armor cover'd with Silk and the like were carefully sought after and bought up The most improbable false Rumors fill'd every Street That now all true Protestants were to be Massacred in an instant That such Sheriffs were Nominated as had consented to be the Executioners That Popery was speedily to be Introduced barefac'd and in Triumph That all faithful Adherents to the Government were but Papists in Mascarade Popery being still made the Word of Alarm to excite and exasperate the Populace Though it is manifest the Authors of all those Clamours against Popery never intended its Suppression For that would not have consisted with their Design which was by the Popular Dread of it upon all Occasions to shake the Crown and undermine the Church of England The Truth is to such a heighth of Arrogance were things grown on their side that whoever shall indifferently reflect on the dangerous Devices slanderous Reports and Writings and other violent Emotions of the whole Party that Summer in the City they will have just cause to conclude that the course of their Proceedings was not so much a Civil Struggle against their Fellow-Citizens for Victory in the Peaceable Choice of Two subordinate Officers of Justice as a Decisive Contention for a Mastery over the whole Government Yet however cunningly the Train was laid it took no effect but on themselves The Noise and Rage of all their Mutinous Routs in Taverns and Coffee-Houses vanish'd into Air. Sir John Moor the Lord Mayor together with the greater number of wiser richer and better Citizens understood rightly and stuck unmoveably to the Kingdoms and their own true Interest Mr. North and Mr. Rich were quietly admitted and sworn Sheriffs at the appointed time with the usual Solemnities Immediately after this the very same Night the Earl of Shaftsbury privately withdrew from his own House redoubling his old Exclamations of Popery Tyranny Superstition Idolatry Oppressions Murders Irish Witnesses of whose Subornation no Man in the three Kingdoms could have given a more exact account than himself Whilst he thus lay secret in the City Romzey Walcot Ferguson Goodenough and others his Complices daily frequenting him they applied themselves with all diligence to expedite the Rebellious Work before projected His Vain-glory and the Conceit of his own Dexterity and his former constant success in making Confusions inclining him to fancy what his Flatterers suggested that the whole City and Kingdom were at his beck and upon the holding up of his Finger would presently rise in Arms to extirpate the two Brothers Slavery and Popery as they were lewdly wont in their private Debauches to style the King and his Royal Highness The said Earl of Shaftsbury had some time before set on foot a Treaty with the Earl of Argyle who after his escape out of Edenburgh-Castle came privily to London held divers Meetings with the Confederates and offer'd that for 30000 l. Sterling he would make a sturdy Commotion in Scotland But the Sum of Money demanded being so considerable and many other Scruples started and unforeseen Difficulties rising which could not so presently be removed as Argyle's pressing danger required he first quitted the Field and retired into Holland with intention there at a greater distance and more security to renew and prosecute the same Proposal About that time also both ways of destroying these Kingdoms were brought under their Consideration the general way of an Insurrection and the more compendious way as they call'd it of Assassinating the King and Duke in their return that October from Newmarket The Insurrection was instantly promoted on all Hands in Town and Country But the Assassination having then not been soon enough thought on went no farther than Discourse to be afterwards resumed and more deliberately provided for against the next Opportunity In the mean while the long expected Michaelmas-Day being thus calmly pass'd and the New Sheriffs having taken a peaceable Possession of that Power whose influence on the whole Nation the said Earl of Shaftsbury well understood no Man better Then he began on a sudden to have a quicker and sharper sense of the urgent State of their common Affairs especially of his own Imminent Peril and to accuse the rest of the Confederates of backwardness if not of Treachery in the
way that Money might be collected without Administring Jealousie That after this the Deponent met no more with them but when he return'd out of the Country he was inform'd Aaron Smith was come back and that Sir John Cockran was also come to Town Then Attherbury the Kings Messenger deposed that the foresaid Cambel and his Son were taken in London making their escape out of a Window in a Woodmongers House four Days after they had been in Town during which space they confess'd they had chang'd their Lodgings three Times and that they and Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood came to Town together Against this Evidence the Lord Russel's defence besides some Objections in point of Law wherein he was over-ruled by the Opinion of all the Judges there present was to this purpose That the two times they met was upon no form'd Design only to talk of News and of things in general That the Lord Howard having a voluble Tongue they delighted to hear him discourse That he knew of no such Council of Six chosen for who should chuse them That the Witnesses against him swore to save their own Lives and therefore could not be credible That Romzey was notoriously known to have been highly obliged by the King and the Duke and it was strange he should be capable of such a Design as to Murder the King that no Body then could wonder if to save his own Life he should endeavour to take away anothers That the time by the 13th of the King was elapsed since the Prosecution was not made in the six Months That a Design of Levying War is no Treason except it appear by some Overt Act That there was but one Meeting at Shepard's House nor was he ever there but once That then he came late staid not above a quarter of an hour tasting Sherry with Shepard and that there ought to be two VVitnesses to one and the same thing at the same time Then he produced VVitnesses to prove that the Lord Howard before he was taken declar'd He believ'd the Lord Russel innocent and knew nothing against him The rest of his Justification consisted of the Testimony of several Persons concerning the Virtue and Sobriety of his former Life As to what concern'd the Lord Howard's saying He believed the Lord Russel not to be guilty it was answer'd by the Lord Howard himself That he confess'd he had said so being then himself not a cused so that he intended to out-face the thing both for himself and the Party but now his Duty to God the King and his Country requir'd it he must say the Truth and that though the Council of Six were not chosen by any Community yet they did erect themselves by mutual Agreement one with another into that Society The rest was answer'd by the Kings Learned Council at Law That he was not Try'd upon the 13th of the King but upon the 25th of Edward the Third That to Raise a Conspiracy within the Kingdom is what is call'd Levying War by that Statute That to design to seize on the King or to depose him or to raise the Subjects against him hath been setled by several Resolutions of the Judges to be within that Statute and Evidences of a Design to kill the King That in Cases of Treason it is not necessary there should be two VVitnesses to the same individual Fact at the same time but if there be two VVitnesses of things tending to the same Fact though at several times and upon several occasions it is sufficient That if there be one Witness of one Act of Treason another of a second another of a third they will be enough to Convict a Man of High Treason That so it was determin'd by the Opinion of all the Judges in England and by the Lords in Parliament in the Lord Stafford's Case It was farther urged That the VVitnesses against the Lord Russel were not profligate Persons nor Men who wanted Faith and Credit before that time but such against whom there had been no legal Exceptions made by himself That there was no Contradiction no Correspondence or Contrivance at all between them and that it cannot be imagined such Men should Damn their own Souls to take away the Life of a Gentleman against whom they had no Quarrel As for Romzey's being much obliged to the King and the Duke That it was apparent by many Instances that no such though the greatest Obligations had hinder'd ill Men from Conspiring against his Majesty For was not the Earl of Essex were not divers others of the Conspirators in like manner obliged and advanced in Estate and Honour by the King As to their coming only to Shepard's to taste VVine it was said That could not have been the end of their Meeting VVhy did they then come so privately VVhy then did they order none of the Servants to come up It was plain the Design they met on requir'd only such Persons to be present as had an Affection for the Cause It was also urg'd That it is not a good Objection against a Mans being Evidence in High Treason that he himself was engaged in it but that such Men are the most proper Persons to be Evidence none but they being able to detect such Counsels As for the several Divines and Men of Honour and Quality produced to testifie the Virtue and Sobriety of the Lord Russel's Conversation it was answer'd That an Affectation of Popularity has often proved a Snare strong enough to tempt many Men who have otherwise been of great Temperance and Virtue Nor indeed can there be any more dangerous Enemies to a State or Kingdom than such as come sober to endeavour its Destruction VVhich old and true Observation was signally exemplified in this particular Case of the Lord Russel For West deposed That the Underacters in the Treason most depended on the said Lord for this very reason because they look'd on him as a Man of great Sobriety Upon the whole Process he was found guilty of High Treason But in stead of Drawing Hanging and Quartering the usual and legal Penalty of that Crime the Execution was by his Majesties Clemency chang'd into that of Beheading Though it is well known this very Prerogative of the Kings having it in his Power to alter the Punishment of High Treason had been vehemently disputed by the Party and particularly by the Lord Russel himself in the Lord Stafford's Case The said Lord Russel at the time of his Death which was the 21st of that Month deliver'd a Paper to the Sheriffs and left other Copies of it with his Friends whereby it was immediately dispers'd amongst the People the general drift of it being to make odious Insinuations against the Government invidious Reflections on the Ministers of his Majesties Justice and undue Extenuations of his own Fault As to the whole Matter of it Time the best Discoverer and Light of Truth has since shewn it to be full of Enormous Falshoods And for the manner of its Composure
of Rebellion or some extraordinary Commotions Then at last in a tender respect to his Peoples Safety more than to his own was his Majesty constrain'd to awaken his Authority to try what good Effect the Vigour of his Laws would have on those Offenders with whom all his repeated Mercy and Indulgence had so little prevail'd Yet such was then his Majesties hard Fortune so firmly combined were the Disaffected especially by their Prevalent Interest in packing the Juries of London and Middlesex that whilst his Majesty carefully endeavour'd to distribute Impartial Justice to all his Subjects he could not obtain the same Right Himself his Enemies still becoming more numerous and united in those very places where their desperate Enterprises against the Government were likely to be most sudden and pernicious Amongst divers other infamous Examples of this Nature was that of Colledge the Joyner For though the Criminal was so mean a Man and no other ways considerable but for his audacious Forwardness in affronting the Government yet his Majesty with all his Royal Authority could hardly prevail to have him brought to a Fair and Legal Tryal Nor had his Majesty been able at last to procure so much Justice to be done had not the Process been removed into another County where the Rulers of the Faction being less powerful that new and damnable Opinion and Practice of the Lawfulness of Equivocating and even of Perjury for the Good Old cause had not prevailed over the old and honest English Principles of Truth and Honour However though in the end his Majesties Justice got the better at that time yet it was defeated in a greater and more important Instance that of the late Earl of Shaftsbury who had been long and reasonably suspected and in the issue was manifestly discovered to be the chief Author and supreme Manager of all these Trayterous Contrivances against his Majesties Crowns and Life The said Earl his Majesty had formerly pardon'd inrich'd enobled and advanc'd to one of the highest Stations in the Kingdom by a long Succession of manifold Bounties endeavouring to render his Abilities and Experience in Business serviceable to his King and beneficial to his Country Yet so treacherous and undermining was his Genius so unmeasurable his Ambition so impatient of quiet and moderate Courses so much fitter he was to be the Instrument of a Tyrant than the Servant of a Just and Good Prince that after many hainous Infidelities and Offences committed by him and forgiven by his Majesty he was at length necessitated to discharge him his Service yet so as to leave him one of the most considerable Peers in the Kingdom for Title and Estate But his aspiring and revengeful Spirit could not brook so gentle a disgrace Wherefore having deservedly been dismiss'd the Court he presently attempted to set the Country directly against it Immediately he profess'd himself the most zealous true Protestant and the greatest Patriot Thereby slily insinuating his designs into the Heads of all Sects and Divisions in Church and State To them betraying some vilifying others maliciously interpreting all his Majesties Counsels Making those very Consultations and resolutions of State whereof he had been the chief Adviser when he was in Power to be the principal objections against the Government when he was displaced Thus he and his party went boldly on to disturb the publick quiet and to affront his Majesties Authority with the highest Insolence In Words and Writings defaming it as Arbitrary and Tyrannical whilst in Deeds he insulted over it as believing it to be weak and resolving to make it despicable And all this with a secure confidence not only of Indempnity but Success Knowing himself to be under the protection of Juries of his own appointment or approbation And therefore presuming he was far out of the reach of his Majesties just Indignation And so for a time it unhappily proved For being legally indicted of Crimes of the highest Nature though the Evidence against him was cleer and positive some of the Witnesses being the very same Men whose Testimony had been approved of in the prosecution of Oats's Plot And the very Original draught of a treasonable Association having been actually found in his Custody yet he could not be brought to a Lawful Trial by his Peers the Indictment being stifled by a shameful Ignoramus and that accompanied with so much Insolence that the very Ministers of his Majesties Justice were in much more danger than the Criminal and hardly escap'd the rude Assaults of his Confederates and Party However from so great a Violation of Common Right and of the Royal Dignity his Majesty gain'd this very considerable Advantage That thenceforth he plainly perceived the main Strength of all his Enemies Arrogance lay in their Extravagant Power to pack the City-Juries For what Treason might not the Earl of Shaftsbury securely Project or Ferguson Write or an Association Act against the Government whilst Goodenough and a setled Club was at hand with their Corrupt Pannels to Indempnifie and if need were to second and applaud their most Villanous Practices Wherefore his Majesty foreseeing how destructive in time the Effects of so great and growing a Mischief would be resolved at length after many Intolerable Provocations to strike at that which he had now found to be the very Root of the Faction This his Majesty and all wise and good Men perceiv'd could be no other ways done than first by reducing the Elections of the Sheriffs of London to their Antient Order and Rules that of late were become only a Business of Clamour and Violence And then to make Inquiry into the Validity of the City-Charter it self which an ill Party of Men had abused to the Danger and would have done it to the Destruction of the Government had they been suffer'd to go on never so little farther uncontroul'd In both these most just and necessary Undertakings the Righteousâ—â—â—â— of his Majesties Cause met with an answerabâ—â—â—uccess First notwithstanding all the Tuâ—â—â—â—uous Riots the Factious Party committed 〈◊〉 â—isturb the peaceable Issue of that Affair y 〈…〉 undoubted Right of the Lord Mayor's Nâ—â—â—â—ating the eldest Sheriff was restored and estabâ—â—â—â—ed And so the Administration of Justice once more put in a way of being cleared from Partiality and Corruption And then a due Judgment was obtain'd by an equal Process of Law against the Charter it self and its Franchises declared forfeited to his Majesty But though this happy Event of his Majesties Controversie with the disaffected part of the City of London was in all Humane probability the only effectual Course to provide for the future Peace and Stability of the Government yet it had like to have proved a present Occasion of its utter Ruine For when so many guilty Persons found that the great Point of the Sheriffs was resetled on its Antient Bottom and the City-Charter it self in hazard of being speedily vacated so that now there would be no farther evasion for them by any pretence of
Law to escape unpunish'd Then they concluded it was high time to bring their Devilish Purposes to a quicker issue and once for all to strike boldly at the Heart of the KING and Kingdom Particularly the Earl of Shaftsbury being conscious to himself of the blackness of his Crimes and of the Iniquity of the Verdict by which he had for that time escaped and finding he was now within the compass of the Justice he had so lately frustrated and contemn'd thenceforth gave over all his quieter and more plausible Arts of Sedition whereby he proudly bragg'd he should in time as his Expression was Leisurely walk his Majesty out of his Dominions and on a sudden betook himself to more precipitate Enterprises Alarming his Companions with a prospect of their common danger thence inflaming some to Insurrections others to Assassinations supposing now there was no way left for him or them to justifie their former Misdemeanors and Treasons but by attempting and succeeding in greater Mischiefs This was found by evident Proof to have been the principal rise and occasion of ripening the Horrid Conspiracy in the Kingdom of England Nor could there possibly have happen'd a stronger Justification of his Majesties Counsels in attempting to rectifie the City-Juries and Elections since it is apparent his principal Enemies laid so much stress on the unjust Power they had therein usurp'd that being once fairly driven from that Strength they immediately resolv'd nothing less than a bare-fac'd and avow'd Rebellion could repair the Loss their Party sustain'd by so great a Blow As for his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland it is notorious there has been long shelter'd in it a desperate Faction of furious Zealots that under the old Professions of the Cause of Christ and a purer way of Gospel-Worship has grown up by degrees to a Violation at last not only of all the Rules and Institutions of true Religion but of common Humanity For does not the whole Christian World at this day behold with Horrour that the most Villanous Tenets of the fiercest Scottish Covenanters and even of their Remonstrators have been out-done by their Successors and Disciples in the Field-Meetings and Armed Conventicles Have they not thence proceeded to all the Execrable Rage of Rapine and Violence In so much that some of them have lived and died glorying in the most barbarous Murders and basest Cruelties refusing obstinately with their last Breath so much as to pray for his Majesty or to say God save the King though by an unexampled Mercy they had their Pardons assur'd to them at the very place and moment of their Execution upon that single Condition And besides the remains of those Bloody Enthusiasts whose Principles are not yet entirely extinguish'd though their force has been twice vanquish'd in open Field by Gods Providence prospering his Majesties Arms It is certain also the Peace of that Kingdom has of late been much indanger'd by other great Numbers of Factious and Seditious Spirits who though at first they would not venture to incourage publickly the others declared Treasons yet stuck not secretly to Favour and foment their Cause and as the event infallibly proves would soon have Own'd and Headed their Fury had it prosper'd Wherefore the wise care of former Sessions of Parliament there having sufficiently provided by a due severity of Good Laws against the dreadful Consequences of continuing the Field-Meetings for the farther securing the Reformed Religion and the Antient Rights of the Crown and the Royal Family in that Kingdom it was judg'd adviseable by the Wisdom of his Majesties great Council the last Session of Parliament to appoint and Authorise a Solemn Test to be taken by all Persons in place of publick Trust or Power In that Session the Test was soon pass'd into an Act of State without any considerable opposition Though there were not wanting some turbulent Men in the Assembly who took that occasion of shewing how ill they were affected to the establish'd Government of their Country Which they could have no other inducement to be but either a desire of Commotions by reason of the desperate State of their own ill-spent Fortunes or Envy at the better Condition of Honester Men or some inveterate Contagion of Treason derived down to them from the last unhappy Age of Confusions Of that unquiet and seditious Party the chief and declared Head was the late Earl of Argyle who during the very sitting of the Parliament had by many indirect ways attempted to hinder his Majesties Service the said Earl and the then President of the Session and their Complices taking their opportunity in wording the Test to add thereto all the very same Clauses that have since given any Colour of scruple to themselves But when all his crafts for obstructing the Bill were defeated by the far greater Number of well disposed Members the Loyal Voters for it being at least Ten to one of the disaffected then no sooner was the Parliament adjourn'd but the said Earl of Argyle first at Edenburgh next in traversing several Shires did make it his Chief Business to insinuate every where into the minds of the Clergy and Laity the most malicious prejudices imaginable against the whole tenour of the Test. And afterwards on his return to Edenburgh he often presumptuously declared he would either not take it at all or take it only with a reserve of his own explanation which he put in Writing and dispers'd the contrivance of it being such as dissolves all the Obligations of the Oath and makes his own present Fancy and private Opinion the only Standard whereby he meant to be guided in all the publick Duties of his Loyalty and Allegiance At length his Majesties High Commissioner the Duke and the Privy Council of that Kingdom having been well inform'd of the said Earls seditious Carriage in City and Country and being fully confirm'd in their Judgments and Consciences of his Trayterous Purposes in that fallacious and equivocating Paraphrase on the Test which he own'd in their presence perverting thereby the sound sense and eluding the force of his Majesties Laws in order to set the Subjects loose from their Obedience and to perpetuate Schism in the Church and Faction in the State Upon these Grounds he was most deservedly Prosecuted by his Majesties Advocate before the Soveraign Justice-Court according to the known Laws of his Country and after a full and equal Tryal he was found guilty of Treason by the Learned Judges and a Jury not only of his Peers but also many of them his own nearest Relations Soon after Judgment given albeit the King was far from any thought of taking away his Life and that no farther prejudice was design'd against him but the forfeiture of some Jurisdictions and Superiorities which he and his Predecessors had surreptitiously acquired and most tyrannically exercis'd besides the disposal of part of his Estate to pay his just Creditors and some few moderate Donatives to those whom he and his Father had formerly ruin'd for
to seize Berwick and Stirling It was also talk'd of bringing the Duke of York to his Tryal The said Gallowshiels deposed farther before the Lords of the Committee That in the Month of May 1683. the Earl of Tarras Hume of Polwart the Elder and the Laird of Philiphaugh came to the Deponents House where they spake of the security of the Protestant Religion and of a Party in England who would secure or seize the King or Duke That if any should rise in Arms to defend or rescue them there was another Party who would rise against them That it was proposed some Country-men should be spoken to to try their Resolutions That it was likewise proposed to seize the Officers of State That it was there said Sir John Cockran was to come to the West from England to advance the Design That the Earl of Argyle was to Land in the West Highlands to raise that Country That of these Matters all that were present discours'd as of an Affair they were agitating and wherein themselves were particularly concern'd These several plain and full Proofs together with the Depositions of Carstares before mentioned being also strengthen'd by the Confessions of Thomas Shepard and Zechary Bourn and all exhibited at the Trial of William Baillie of Jerviswood were not only over-abundantly sufficient to convince the Person accused of his particular share in the Guilt but they also remain as so many standing and indubitable testimonies of the truth of the whole Conspiracy between the English and Scotch Rebels After all this how is it possible that the most audacious of the Factious Party of both Nations notwithstanding their being so expert in driving on the Trade of Lying and traducing their Governours should ever have any tolerable colour of probability to invalidate or discredit the undoubted Evidence of so many Witnesses most of them Men of high Quality great Estates potent Interests all of them Zealous and indefatigable assertors of the Rebellious Cause and this Evidence given in by them at first voluntarily and often again reiterated and adher'd to against Baillie their Chief Companion in Iniquity their near Kinsman and Friend As for Baillie of Jerviswood himself the Persons who pass'd upon his Assize did with one Voice find the Crimes of Art and part in the Conspiracy and of concealing and not revealing the same clearly proved against him Whereupon he was adjudg'd to suffer the Punishment of a Traytor His Life and Death being such as might be expected from the Nephew and Son-in-Law of the Old Arch Traytor Warriston in whose Family he was bred up and tutor'd under his Discipline according to his Principles Such were the chief Steps the Scotch Conspirators had made in their part of the Treasonable Design as far as through the Divine Favour it has been hitherto traced out by the Extraordinary Diligence Wisdom and Integrity of his Majesties present Ministers in that Kingdom For the Readers clearer comprehending the whole progress of the Villany the King thought best to have it thus represented in one view and put all together in an uninterrupted course of Narration Though by this Method divers things have been already spoken of which in the natural course of time happen'd after the several material passages that remain yet unmention'd relating to the English part of the Conspiracy Wherefore to return to the Year 1683 and to what happen'd in England that Summer shortly after the first Discovery His Majesty having now received irresistible Proof of the certainty of the Wicked and unnatural Design that the World might have the like conviction resolv'd speedily to bring some of the most Notorious Malefactors to a fair and open Tryal The first Person who was put upon justifying himself was Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Walcot on the Twelfth of July of that Year Against him divers Witnesses were produced who in their Depositions first gave some distinct account of the Plot in General and then of the particular share the Prisoner at the Bar had in it As to what concern'd Walcot himself Colonel Romzey first deposed That the said Walcot came out of Holland with Ferguson after Shaftsbury's Death That he came to West's Chamber where he was present when a List was brought of the Assassines and agreed to joyn with them intending to Command a Party to charge the Guards That he undertook to go and view Rumbald's House and bought a Horse for that purpose That he was present at the dividing of London into twenty parts in order to an Insurrection and at the Consult for buying of Arms after the disappointment at the Rye That he was at the Meeting for carrying on the Conspiracy on Thursday before the Discovery That after it they met at Captain Tracies Walcot's own Lodgings himself being present Next Josiah Keeling swore that Walcot was at the Trayterous Assembly at the Salutation-Tavern when the Deponent was called Gulick and a Health drunk to the English Gulick West saying that Gulick in Dutch was Keeling in English adding He hoped to see Keeling at the Head of as good an Army at Wapping as it was reported one Gulick was then at Cologne Then Zechary Bourn witnessed That Walcot used to come to Ferguson when he lodg'd at his House That Walcot and several others met at the Dragon on Snow-Hill and often in other places in order to raise Men and divide the City into twenty parts for securing the King and the Duke That almost every time they met at least three times the Prisoner at the Bar was there That he was at the Meeting at Tracies where they debated of standing to it with Swords in their Hands and of killing Keeling for having made the Discovery Robert West's Testimony concerning him went somewhat farther back He deposed That he became acquainted with Walcot the Summer before when he told the Deponent the Carolina Business was only a Pretence That he ask'd the Deponent upon the Election of the Sheriffs Will the People do nothing to secure themselves Thereupon acquainting him with an Insurrection then design'd within three weeks or a month That Shaftsbury was in the Design and had engaged him also That he had an Expectation of being Colonel of Horse asking the said West Whether he would have any Command under him That upon his refusal he desired him to lend him a Suit of Silk Armour That the said Walcot told him of several Designs to Attack the King and the Duke That in the Business of the Rye he undertook to Command the Party that was to set upon the Guards That after the Disappointment he met with the other Conspirators where they discours'd of it and complain'd they had not Arms in readiness That he sometimes made one in the Trayterous Discourses at the Deponents and at the Young-Devil-Tavern That he was present at the Meeting at Tracies relating to their escape the Prisoner at the Bar himself then saying God would still deliver the Nations His Letter to Mr. Secretary Jenkins was also produced