when read the Fathers in the English Seminary were in great trouble for the negligence of the said Pickering and the Deponent saw and read them in the latter part of January c. And that we may be assured January was the Month the next Paragraph in the Narrative is the Subject of the Dr and his Confessors discourse about keeping the Kings Martyrdom Day But notwithstanding this invincible demonstration of Januaries Packet The Dr. upon Oath before the House of Lords assures us Journal 29. Nov. 78. that this Attempt and failing of Pickerings Gun was some few days before the Consult in April And more particularly at Pickerings Tryal he ascertains the express time to be in March being askt Tryal p. 24. Sir Ch. L. Do you know any thing of Pickerings doing pennance and for what Oats Yes my Lord in the Month of March last for these persons have followed the King several Years but he at that time had not look't to the flint of his Pistol but it was loose and he durst not Venture to give Fire he had a fair opportunity as Whitebread said and because he mist it through his own negligence he underwent Pennance and had 20 strokes of Discipline Now can any thing in Nature be more strange than that Whitebread should send the St. Omers Fathers in January a perfect Relation of a crime not committed till the March following Well but that the Devil and the Pope are sworn Friends and Conjuration may do much otherwise some foolish unbelievers would not stick to call it a downright Elliotism But alas to confute that Error we are to consider that the confinement to Vnity Time or Place or any of those circumstantial Popperies are a formality fitt for a Country Assizes or an Evidence against a poor Sheep Stealer or so But against that terrible thing called a Kingkiller and such a Goliah Traytor as Pickring so mean a Tongue-tye had been much too humble and servil an imposition for the High and Mighty Dr. Oates the Saviour of no less then three Kingdoms And to show you that this Figurative way of speaking is an Elegance that the Dr. extreamly Prides himself in you shall have it from one end of the Plot to the other For another instance at this very consult in his Narative Tryal p. 28. and at Pickerings Trial the Assembly consisted of fifty Jesuites but at Langhorns Trial because 't was proved there was never a Room at the White-horse Tavern that would hold above a dozen People then the aforesaid fifty upon second thoughts were dwinled into eighteen or twenty and those in several Rooms Langhorns Tryal p. 47. And therefore as I said before since 't was inconsistent with the Glory of so Sacred a Deliverer to be so poorly confined January and March in his Kalendar and fifty or twenty in his Arithmetick shall be all alike Whilst he scorns his Discovery should be understood by Vulgar Capacities and therefore like a second Revelation has wrapt it in Riddle and Mistery Besides the Reader is humbly desired not to be puzled to imagine how Mr. Pickering should present a Gun between a Pistol and a Carbine twice at the King which one time for want of Prime and another by being Charg'd with all Bullets would not go off and yet not be apprehended or so much as seen by any one of all the Kings Attendance and that too in so publick and open a place as St. James's Park a place where there is not so much as a Bramble or Bryar or any one Covert throughout it enough to Shrowd a Pigmey much less two Manslayers excepting the Osiers within the Canal but those are moated round and therefore inaccesible neither would I have the Reader surpris'd at Armies of Pilgrims and Legions of Black Bills and other Miraculous Tooles used in the Popish Service for let me tell you Time was that is in the first year of the Doctors Reign rather then such a Bloody Assassin as Pickering should have wanted convenience for so Damnable a Design the Doctor if occasion had been could have concealed him in a Misty Cloack or have Conjur'd up a Bush to hide him in like a second Jonas Goad that should have grown up one day and withered down the next besides rather then the Pilgrims should have wanted Strength for the Work in hand he should have made 'em all Gyants at least nay and if that would not have done before the Massacre should have went lame or the Protestants have wanted Cutthroats he should have brought you half Ovid's Metamorphosis into the Plot and have marcht ye an Army of Satyrs and Centaurs through Cheapside But now after the Kings being besett all round like the Man in the Almanack with so many Pistols Ponyards Swords and poysons after the Issue and Success of all this dead doing Artillery the next great movement of the Plot was when the King had had the preheminence of having his Cutt first the Protestants Throats were to have been Cutt next For doing of which we have the Drs. List of Officers for the raising of an Army of which the Lord Belasis was to be Lord General Lord Petres Leiftenant General Sir Thomas Ratcliff Major General c. and their Patents or Commissions were Signed by the General of the Jesuits Johannes Paulus d' Oliva And particularly Mr. Oats Swears before the Lord Ch. Justice Scroggs Oct. 24. Nar. p. 58. that he saw the Lord Bellasis Letter to Fenwick in the month of July 78. to accknowledge the receipt of his Commission and in May 78. he saw the Commission for the Lord Petres in the hands of Mr. Langhorn and another in July to make Sr. George Wakeman Physitian to the Army and for the inferiour Commissions Stampt and Sealed by Whitebread he himself in these very months delivered several of them with his own hand This Army being to be fixt for striking immediately upon the Kings falling was consequently to be all Listed and Arm'd in the Kings Life time and all incognito in a Protestant Kingdom and upon having none but such notoriously known Papists for the Commanders it was Morally imposible to have drawn in any other Malecontents into the Confederacy Besides the very proposal of listing any of the Protestants had been the way to have Discovered the Conspiracy and Ruin'd all and therefore the whole Body of this Army must necessarily have consisted of all Papists and if the Jesuites were so cocksure of the Strength and Courage of the Popish party in England to think 'm able to give a tug for the Popes Restauration Vi et armis with open Hostility against all the Protestants in England they must certainly be inspired with no common Enthusiasms and take their Leaders for no less then Saul's and David's expecting to see 'm return flusht with so wondrous a Success that the very Daughters of Rome should meet 'm with Songs and Timbrels and give them no less a Welcome then Petres
has Slain his thousands and Bellasis his ten thousand But no matter this is but one Drs. Opinion Mr. Oats and his Jesuits were for doing the Work with Popish Generals and Popish Armies but Mr. Dugdale is of another mind and he and his Jesuits were for quite another sort of conduct T is true he concurrs with Mr. Oats that the King was to fall by as many private hands as the Dr. pleas'd but then to subdue the rest of the Kingdom Lord have mercy upon us a Massacre was to ensue And because he and his Plotters were not altogether so Strong in Faith as Mr. Oats his and believed the Popish party to be too Small and therefore too Weak of themselves alone to go thorough stich with so great an Undertaking they had found this expedient Viz. They had design'd he tells you to fling the Murder of the King upon the King killing Presbyterians and then to engage the Episcopal party to rise with the Papists in revenge of the Kings blood 〈◊〉 p. 25. and cut the Fanatick's throats and when with their help they had destroyed the Fanatical party and weakened the Kingdom by so universal a Blow then they had decreed to turn their Swords all of a sudden against the hearts of their Colleagues the Episcopals and so playing the subtle Polyphemus and reserving them for the last morsel when they had no other Enemies left by this last dexterous Wheel about and cutting the Episcopal Protestant Throats too the great Work of Projection had been Compleated and the Papists left Masters of the Field whilst Jó by Faean JoÌ„ Triumphum England was there own Here we find Dr. Oats his Measures quite broken for alas this Massacre of Dugdals is of a quite different piece with Oats his Batalia but no matter more ways than one to the Wood and neither false Scents nor hunting Counter spoils the sport either in Plotters or Discoverers But methinks this last stratagem of Mr. Dugdales is the oddest fancied out-of-the-way project that ever Folly or Frenzy invented for suppose the bloody minded Pickering had learnt to charge his Gun the right way with some Powder and not all Bullets and let us imagine that after his late discipline upon his shoulders he had mended his aim and had Kill'd the King How must the Episcopal Party be possest it was done by a Presbyterian hand for it was impossible the Jesuits should ever expect that a single Assassinate in such a place as St. James's Park in the Face of the Court and approaching so near as within Pistol shot upon the Murther of the King should ever escape seizing either by the hands of the Nobility or His Majesties Servants that always attended him Upon this Consequence how must the Papists I say steer to draw in the Episcopal Party to the Massacre must they give it out it was done by a Presbyterian hand and thereupon hand over head without any Examination but right or wrong the Episcopals upon the meer motives of a Hearsay should Pellmel fall to butchering perhaps one third of the Nation This Presumption in the Jesuits is such an impudent Piece of Madness as certainly was never matcht it being so far from the Principles of the Church of England that nothing but Lunacy it self could suspect them guilty of so brutal nay so execrable a Thought But suppose this Massacre was not to commence till Pickering had been taken Examined and Tryed for the Fact and let us for once imagine further that they had before hand instructed him to own himself a Fanatick and resolutely and impudently even at the Gallows dye a Sectary and lay the crime upon the Dissenters yet never did the Jesuits so fam'd for Politicks go so senslesly to work as here first not only to choose so shallow a headpiece as Pickerings for such a Masterpiece of Cheat and Villany and so known a Popish Face as his too a Lay Brother and Candlesnuffer of the Queens Chappel to disguise for a Presbyterian So that here upon the upshot of Pickerings being discovered or indeed any other of the Ruffians as none but Fools could think otherwise if they had believed the Church of England of that Massacring Spirit as belike they did had they been in their right Wits they ought rather to have feared to have had the Massacre on their own side and their own Throats not the Fanaticks have paid for 't These are the Tribe of the Jesuits and this the Plot the Dr. assures us had been hatching ever since King James his days yet we see after no less than almost a Hundred years Labor what the Mountain brings forth and after so much Intrigue and such indefatigable Pains how sillily and awkwardly at last these Matchiav ils put their Noddles together But notwithstanding this movement of Dugdales does not extreamly well cotton with Mr. Oates's yet that Discoverers like good Wits may sometimes Jump Mr. Dugdale is for an Army too for after the laying the Death of the King on the Presbyterians and ingaging the Church of England in the Massacre he says in these words And then my Lord there was to be a Massacre the Jes â—r pag. 25. and if any did escape viz the Massacre that they could not be sure were Papists they were to have an Army to cut them off So that here was an Army in Embrio tho not so early raised as to do the Drs. Execution for alas here it is plain that the Massacre was to come first and the Army last to cut off the Remains of what had escap'd the Massacre the Massacre being supposed to be performed by down right Bear-garden play with a helter skelter of Assassinates with Quarter staffs black Bills Spits Pole-axes or any other Weapon that came next to hand and the succeeding Army was only to be engaged in the Reer of the Catholick Cause the greatest part of the Brunt being over before the Army came into play Here 't is true that the Lord Bellasis and the rest of the Right Honorable Commanders had entred the lists but alas only to attaque those scattered remnants that had escaped This Dispensation of Affairs at Rome would appear an Indignity to Persons of the L. Bellasis Petres and Powis Quality and Estates but we are to Consider 't was the Popes pleasure and no Post too mean even for Princes and Potentates in the Catholick Battles But here the Astonish't Reader must make a litle pause and stand amaz'd at the unprecedented Cruelty of all Popish Miscreants It was not enough belike for 'em to make a Massacre of the Protestants throughout the Kingdom and mow down the Hereticks with so universal a blow but after all this an Army too must be raised to destroy even the very Gleanings of the Field Never certainly had been so in humane a Scene of Butchery when after no less then a Massacre all that were not known Papists that had Escaped were to perish likewise insomuch that by this Depopulation of
Root and Brance not so much as a heretick Hewer of wood or Drawer of Water had been left unslaughter'd Now after this damnable Popish Decree and all this Lamentable Tragedy I admire what need the Pope had in his long Bull read by Dr. Oats in Blundels hands after the disposal of Bishopricks Nar. p. 72. Abbotships c. for want of English born Preists enough for all the dignities of the Church of England to decree such and such Spaniards and other forreigners should supply that want and order such and such for reading Philosophy and Divinity in all great Towns and Colledges and such and such to be employed in Preaching catechizing and assisting at the Altar Alas and welladay after so Numberless an Assassination as All the Protestants in England there would have been so little Occasion for Supplies of Spanish priests that there would scarce have been Flock enough left to overstock the very St. Omers Brotherhood Many a great Town in England would have stood in so little need of a Philosophy or Divinity School that there would not have been so much as three souls left alive in 't and three Surviving Families had been more then many a nine Parishes in England could have produced That the Pope one would think might have Spared his untimely provision for his Underchurches for unless his Jagoe Pilgrims and other kind Visitants had repeopled the Kingdom the Underchurches might have e'en stood Idle and the very Cathedral alone in many a fair Town have held the Congregation of the whole County Besides in my Mind 't was mighty ridiculous in the Plotters to trouble their heads about the Succession and as the Dr. tells you to threaten the Duke if he followed his Brothers steps to send him after him For truly when Mr. Dugdales Massacres and Armies had left him no Subjects living but Papists 't was not three Farthings matter what the Successors Religion was nor was it likely he could ever follow his Brothers steps and favor the Protestants when he had not one Protestant left to favor But now after all this dismal and deplorable business methinks I cannot make a livelier Representation of the woful state of England than by fancying I see the distrest and desolate Britannia mourning o're her slaughter'd Sons like the Brentford Kings howling over Lardella's Coffin But now what if by a new turn of State Lardella should be alive at last and maugre this fatal and universal Doom several Thousands of those Sentenced Hereticks should live many a fair Summers day after it And that all this is undeniable truth we have no less then Mr. Bedlow's Reprieve to save them for after his landing an Army of 10000 Men from Flanders at Bradlington Bay to surprize Hull Garrison and the Lord Petre and Powis having another Army to march to Pembrookshire to meet a Third Army of 20 or 30000 Men who were to land at Milford haven being an Army composed of all Religious Men and Pilgrims from St. Jago in Spain Lords Journ 12th day of Nov. 78. and whatever should happen that their Strength as they said might be sufficient they had 40000 Men a Fourth Army ready in London besides those that would on the Alarm be posted at Every Ale-house door to have Kill'd the Soldiers as they came out of their quarters which I suppose at least must make a fifth Army more besides a sixth Army of Mr. Oats's from France expresly to have been let in upon the Kings death but at present forgotten by Mr. Bedlow Irelands Tryal p. 29. Now amongst all these formidable Armies to be commanded by Bellasis Petres Powis c. The edge of Mr. Dugdales Massacre is a little rebated for here as Bedlow tells the House of Lords after Conyers had kill'd the King Keins the Duke of Monmouth Pritchard the Duke of Buckingham Mr. Right my Lord Shaftesbury Mr. O neal my Lord Ossory and one whose name he had forgotten the Duke of Ormond after all these Persons were kill'd the Papists did not question the Power of the rest or their Counsels but that they should out do them for they would give such great Pay that all sorts of Malecontents and People that depended on their fortune Lords Journ ibid 12th of N. would be ready to serve them All this perform'd as he tells you afterward they designed to establish their Government secure enough for they intended utterly to extinguish all sorts of People that would not really be converted to the Church of Rome and to prove it persecute their nearest Relations that were Obstinate Here we have the abovenamed Lords Generals a little more honorably employ'd under Mr. Bedlows Banners than Mr. Dugdales the whole Glory of the Day being now like to be theirs and not only Mr. Dugdales Presbyterians that were to be Massacred by a medley of Papists and Episcopals manifestly rescued from destruction but they and all other Malecontents to be bribed into the Popish Army and vice versâ make a part of the Catholick Forces to cut the Episcopal Throats Here tho all the Protestants at long run were to be extinguisht yet the stream is not half so rapid as Mr. Dugdales for here the Hereticks had time to cry Quarter and have the fair Proffer of Conversion for their Deliverance whilst the destruction of the Obstinate was only to approach by the slower hand of Persecution Thus far I have showed you the many and wonderful Windings and Turnings of French Armies English Armies Flandrian Armies and Pilgrim Armies and all the rest of the Plot Forces that were to destroy the King Subvert the Government and Religion and Subject the whole Nation to slavery and Popery But after all these manifold and various Motions of so many Armies for the Protestant Destruction as Bays his whispering Conspirators wisely observed of the two Brentford Kings viz. When they heard us whisper 2dly What they heard us whisper and lastly whither they heard us at all or no. So likewise in our Conspiracy after we have given you an account by What Armies and When this great Design was to have been accomplisht what if we come to Bays his last point and prove the Work was to have been done by no Armies at all I that would be a Rarity indeed and an Atchievement enough to immortalize the Policy and Glory of Rome Well! As wondrous as this Atchievement may look it is no more strange than 't is true And that too as shall be manifestly made out by the clearest Demonstration through the whole discovery For Example Mr. Oates swears as you have been told before that Pickering and Grove by the Jesuits order had been at Killing the King the March before the April Consult and not only then but several Years before had been dogging the King for the same Murdering purpose nay upon further Examination we may track the Plot upon occasions even to the Firing of London Here it visibly appears that many Years before the April Consult
very King had not only this Army ready to Land at Carlingford Haven but another of 30000 Jago Pilgrims to Land at Milford Haven and 10000 Flandrians likewise to be Landed at Bradlington Bay and all this at a time when he had so many Irons in the Fire and his hands so full to secure his own Dominions and so hard a tug at home to preserve himself and yet he has no less then Three spare Armies of at least half a Hundred Thousand strong to send out abroad What in the name of Dulness should make this Prince court the English Arms to relieve Mans for him when he had no less then Three such Powerful Armies and all lying idle by him that one would have thought might have saved him that trouble Well but that there is a Plot and has been a Plot. Otherwise Mankind had been left in the Dark and not one quarter of all these Apocrypha's had ever been Canonical But as ridiculous as the Plot-craft has hitherto been we have not only the Jesuits and the Spanish King playing the Fools or Madmen but even the High and Mighty King of France under the same premunire for Example was ever a Soldier of his Martial Cunning so Egregiously out of his Royal Senses and all the Rules of Conduct as First to Attempt the bringing a Navy into that very Port of all Ireland so notoriously known to Carry scarce water enough for a Fisher-boat much less a Man of War to ride in And secondly to conduct his Navy so far about to the very North part of Ireland not only through all the dangerous Irish Seas but also in the Face of all the Irish Ports and Consequently through the Mouthes of all the Kings Men of War that lye in the way and by so long and hazardous a Voyage especially after the Discovery of the Popish Plot to give the Three Kingdoms sufficient Alarm to prepare for their Opposition Besides all these Gross unpardonable Faults we have one yet more heinous piece of Lunacy then Story ever match't This Foolish French King is at the Charge and Trouble of manning out a Fleet to land an Army in Ireland when to the Eternal Shame of all ill Memories both He and all his Statesmen had quite and clean forgotten they had Landed one there already for does not the Infallible Dr. Oates give us to know in his Examination before the Parliament in these very words That the French King had already Landed a great Army in Ireland being those Forces that left Messina and it is to make them up 25000 which are to Joyn with the Irish Papists in a second Massacre to Fire the City of Dublin and destroy the Duke of Ormond and his adherents and this part of the Conspiracy was Managed by Coleman c Nâ—w what the Devil could make so subtle a Monarch so strangely Overseen as so abominably to expose a Navy and a new Army to all the foremention'd hazards when he had one so much better for his turn there already an Army too of so vast a Number as 25000 and all Disciplined Soldiers being the very Forces that left Messina nay and to out-do all yet an Army even Miraculously Disposed for the Eruption of a Massacre an Army that had out gone ev'n Bays his Knights-bridge Expedition having Landed March'd and Encamped Invisible being a kind of such Heterogoneus Animals that from that day to this they had never been Seen Felt Heard or Understood But to excuse the French King and the rest of his Privy-Counsellors his Armies are so numerous that possibly a poor handful of 25000 might not be mist amongst them otherwise if he had remembred any thing of these 25000 being Landed before a Force of that Strength as our Salamanca Oracle tells us were to Fire Dublin and Destroy the Duke of Ormond and the Protestants his adherents this last Navy and Army I fancy were to come like Esop in the reer of his Fellow Servanâ—s to do just Nothing because the former had done all things before Thus were see what humane policies are Hamanum est errare and not only the lesser Plotters the Jesuits but the Imperial Plotters too even Monarchs themselves may once in their Lives be overtaken Now 't will not be amiss for our Farther Light into this Conspiracy to search the Mine from whence the Treasure comes to defray the charges expended and to be expended to support so vast a Body of Cut-throats And here upon due Examination of matter of Fact for the Carrying on of this fly Plot we shall meet not only great Heads all along but great Purses too Employed to Encourage the Laborers and Undertakers in this Sacred Cause insomuch that wherever the Assurance of St. Ship and Canonizations and the brightest Crowns of Paradice for their Reward was not of it self alone a sufficient Spur to their Vigorous Endeavours when the slow Pav of Heaven hereafter was thought a Bribe too little the Jesuits never wanted ready Money to make up the Summ. Neither do we ever find them unfurnisht where or whenever those Golden Tempters were necessary But here as in the rest of their Affairs we meet with little else then the Highest Extravagance For in Distribution of their favors to the great Pillars of their Cause we find such Inequality and Partiality throughout as to their Eternal disgrace will never be forgotten For Example what more unconscionable disproportion could there be between the 15000. l. contracted for and no less then 10000 l. bid at first word to Sir George Wakâ—man to povson the King and but that inconsiderable trifle of 80 pounds given to the Four Irish Ruffians when most of them were Gentlemen of as great or greater Quality and Fortune then Sir George and the whole summ of 80. l. no more than either of them would not have valued spending in a Week nay and when more and above Sir George Wakemans undertaking had not the tenth part of their Dangers attending it his business being only the Legerdemain of slipping a Pill extraordinary into the Kings Broth or so and Theirs to Assassinate him in the Face of open Day Or could their be a greater Affront to Persons of their Quality to know that honest William alias John Grove a poor retainer to the Jesuits should have Fifteen Hundred pounds reward for his King Killing Work and all those Four Gentlemen together have but one Twentieth part of the Summ for the same Service This Indignity no doubt the Jesuâ—ts were sensible of but possibly knowing them to be civil and well bred Gentlemen they trusted to their Generosity to forgive it But how close fisted so ever the Jesuits were in the pitiful Reward of Twenty Pound a Man to Persons of their Rank and Character for Killing the King Yet not long after their bounteous Liberality was something more open-handed when they offer'd William Bedloe alias Bâ—dhoe originally the Son of a Cobler Lords Journ Mar. the 1278 and at present a Runner
of Errands no less then the summ of 4000. l. to hire him to Kill Sir Edmond Bury Godfrey and that too when himself was but to be one of the Four or Six that were to do it witness his Oath before the House of Lords William Bedloe saith on his Oath that this Examinant being treated with by Mr. Lephaire and Mr. Walsh Jesuits about the beginning of October last they offer'd him a Reward of 4000. l. if he would be one of the Four or Six that should Kill a Man that was a great Obstacle to their Designs viz. Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey as it proved afterwards a very round summ together if the other Five were to be as well paid But here the Reader is desired to take notice of the most matchless Example of self Denial in Mr. Bedloe that peâ—haps they have met with and the vast and wonderful Difference of some Mens Consciences Those very Gentlemen to whom 500. l. was less in their Pockets then five pound in Mr. Bedloe's could notwithstanding bite at 20 l. a Man to Murder no less than a King when on the contrary Mr. Bedloe refused 4000. l. to Murder but a poor Justice of the Peace For as we have it in his aforesaid Oath before the House of Lords Thus following he this Deponent promis'd viz. to Lephaire and Walsh to be one to do it upon their giving him notice afterwards viz. the Fryday before Sir Edmond Bury was missing Mr. Lephaire met him this Deponent about Four a Clock in Grays-Inn-Walks and appointed to meet him again the next day at the same place about the same Hour to do that Business that upon his taking the Sacrament to do it he this Deponent should have the Money paid down but he not liking the Design faild of meeting him c. Is not this as I said before a wonderful piece of self denial but as wonderful as 't is here 's the fellow on 't to come After Sir Edmondbury was murdered this Deponent meets Lephaire again and is show'd Godfreys dead Body and upon the spot is offer'd half the aforesaâ—d 4000. l. to be but only one of the Five or Six ibid Jur. 12 N that should carry the body to a place where they had Chose to lay him To which he seemingly agreed but begging their pardon for half an hour telling them he 'd wait on them again he went away and came no more and being charged next day for not coming according to promise Mr. Bedloe gave this Powerful Reason for his Absence viz. he was unwilling to come because he knew the Person that was Kill'd A very cogent Reason indeed But to heighten the Miracle of Mr. Bedloes refusing 4000. l. for a Mâ—rder and 2000. l. for a Porteridge the least of them one would think a very attractive summ the Reader is to Consider that Mr. Bedloe at that very time was none of the squeamishest or nicest conscienc't Men being all along not only privy to all the Popish Designs the Landing of 20 or 30000 Jago Pilgrims at Milford Haven 10000 Flandrians at Hull besides the other Armies to be rais'd in England the Commissions given out and himself to be a Commission Officer and consequently to be engaged in all the Protestant blood-shed intended the Kings only excepted and that this Man should all of a sudden stagger at one poor Hereticks dispatch tho for 4000. l. reward or if that would not down to refuse 2000 l. and all but for the 6th part of the Luggage of one poor Carcase but to Primrose-hill is not take it all together a little stupendious But having enter'd into so sad and deplorable a Story as the Murder of that unfortunate Gentleman nothing methinks can strike a greater Impression on all tender Hearts than the Barbarous Circumstances and Methods used by his Inhumane Butchers for his Destruction Mr. Bedloe for Example in his former Examination before the House of Lords Nov. 12th has him trappan'd into Sommerset-house in this manner Lephaire Walsh and my Lord Bellasis Gentleman meeting Sir Edmondbury about Five of the Clock by the Kings-head-Inn in the Strand and pretending to bring him to a place near St. Clements Church where they would show him a great Company of the Principal Plotters against the King and Surprize both them and the Principal of their Papers they walkt on till they came at Sommerset-house great Gate and there made a Halt desiring him to walk in and take a turn or two with two of them till the Third went and got a Constable here after they had took a turn or two two more Persons came out and shoved him into a Room and when they had him secure They held a Pistol to his Breast threatning to shoot him if he made any noise but if he answered their Expectations they would not hurt him then asking him to send for the Examinatious he had taken about those that were Committed he told them 't was not in his Power for he had sent them to Whitehall upon that and his refusing to answer other Questions they seiz'd him and stifled him with a Pillow and so they thought he had been dead but coming into the Room some time after they found him struggling and then they strangled him with a long Cravat Thus in ample form from the Records of Mr. Bedloe have we the true History of this poor Gentlemans untimely Fate But now after this Barbarous manner of Trappanning him and then Killing him stone dead one would imagine we were come to the last Act of the Tragedy But truly no there 's as bad or worse behind still For the kind Mr. Práce upon his further discovery has more Bloody Scenes of it to come yet Upon his Oath before the King and Council and afterwards confirmed before the House of Lords he says that Hill Lords Journ jur Dec. 24 78 Green and Gerald after a Week or Fortnights dogging Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey they watcht him at last passing from St. Clements till he came to the Water-gate at Sommerset-house about Nine at Night where Hill making some hast before stept within the Wicket which was open and turning soon again called to Sir Edmond as he was passing and said there was two Men quarrelling within who might soon be quieted if once they saw him whereupon he entered through the Wicket and after him Green and Gerald and down all went till they came to a Bench that is at the bottom of the deep descent and joyning to a rail next to the upper end of the Stables on the right hand and that upon the said Bench there was Sitting and Attending their coming the said Examinant Miles Prance and Berry the Porter of the other Gate with an Irishman whose name he knows not and by that time they were come half way down Berry and Prance rose up from the Bench and one went up to the Wicket and the other to the Stone steps going up to the great Court to give notice if any came to
disturb them and so when Sir Edmond was got to the Bench Green who followed him whipt about his Neck a large twisted Handkerchief and thereupon they all assisted and dragged him into a Corner and twisted his Neck till they broke it one of them Thumping him on the Breast to make sure work on 't and all this without one Syllable of a Pistol or Pillow or any Questions ask't him or the least dispute about sending for Depositions Papers or any thing like it Here we may observe how strangely the Devil helps his Servants Hill Green and Gerald had dogg'd Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey to the Watergate at Sommerset-house where neither of them stirring from him to give notice of their coming only Hill just leaving them to step into the Watergate and out again with the Story of that sham quarrel yet Berry Prance and the Irishman are sitting on the Bench by the Stables and attending their coming having the Knowledge no doubt from some Infernal Intelligence not only that Hill Green and Gerald were at that time following Sir Edmond from St. Clements and that Sir Edmond would take the Watergate in his Walk but also that upon the Story of a Quarrel within the Queens Pallace Sir Edmond would Officiously thrust himself where he had nothing to do and all to part a Fray only with the Face of a Justice of Peace at Nine a Clock in a Winters Night and that upon that very spot of ground within sight of a Centry who had Ten times more Authority and Power to do it then he But to proceed with the Villany of these Popish Assassinates that very Night he was convey'd out from Sommerset-house Mr. Lephaire courts Mr. Bedloe with 2000. l. to be one with himself Mr. Walsh my Lord Bellasis Gentleman and Mr. Atkins Mr. Peppys Clerk to help convey him out Lords Journ jurat 12 N. 78 and the next minute Mr. Bedloe is showed the Body of Sir Edmond and the aforesaid Persons all there and all ready and agreed to do it but Mr. Bedloe disliking the Imployment leaves them by an excuse and the next day is chid for not keeping his last Nights promise of returning and assisting them But Mr. Prance does not finish here but finds new matter and new Nights work still for he does not only all along leave the Body in the Custody of his own Crew of Murderers Green Berry Hill c. but after many a Removal of it upstairs and down-stairs from Room to Room tost as I may say from Pillar to Post the aforesaid Green Berry Hill with Kelly Gerald himself and one Irishman more were the very numerical Persons that carried him to Primrose-Hill In all this admirable Variety mark how pat it falls out as Sir Edmond-bury was found with those Two fold marks of Assassination about him viz. both Strangled and Run Through so likewise 't is observable that Two-fold was the way of Trappanning him Two-fold the Fatal place and Two-fold his Murder oh how insatiate is the Popish Revenge that One Death could not suffice and even to the very last no less then a Double set of Night-walkers are employed for the Expedition to Primrose-Hill I shall insist no farther either upon the Cruelty or Strangeness of this Assassination and the Appurtenances thereunto belonging only to reconcile all doubts that these seeming Extremes or what else you please to call them may not grate the Gentle Reader let him but inquire farther and hee 'l soon learn that by that time those three Murderers Green Berry and Hill were apprehended and Tryed for the Fact all Difficulties were removed and all Differences adjusted whilst like East and West as they say differ but in a point or like Virtue placed between two Vices the Golden Mean was at last found out and the aforesaid three Blood thirsters received the condign reward of so outragious a Crime And I heartily wish that all the yet undiscovered Aiders Abettors or Actors in that Murder had their as just or more just Reward Fiat Lux. But to return to our Plot History and the Conduct of those Eternal Blunderers the Jesuits one most remarkable Observation is that in all those Numerous Letters and Pacquets seen and read by Dr. Oats delivered at Valladolid St. Omers c. or elsewhere beyond Sea or received from thence tho they contain'd no less then the whole summ of all their Consults in England or elsewhere and all the several Proposals and Methods for Regicides Massacres Assassinations and all the rest of their Villanies whatsoever The Jesuits in all their politicks were such stupid inconsiderate Fools as to Venture the bringing and carrying of all those dangerous Papers from and to all parts whatever with the contents excepting one or two in Latin or Spanish in plain downright English words at length only now and then intermixing such an inconsiderable Cypher as 48 for the King 66 for London or Barly-broth for the Parliament insomuch that the most dangerous Letter Mr. Oats ever broke open without the least trouble of a Key or the opposition of Figures or Characters he read Ex tempore Nay Mr. Dugdale in the 5 Jesuits Tryal p. 25 26. intercepted no less then a 100 Letters expresly upon Oath directed to other Men all containing Treason in them for Killing the King and Introducing of Popery and all too in plain English without any Cypher at all and those Letters more and above too sent by the Common post Jurat before the Hâ—use of Lords De. 3 78 Besides honest Bedloe's the greatest Plot Messenger of them all swears he never carried one Letter or Pacquet that he did not break open and read And now methinks in so subtle and hazardous an Enterprize never were such egregious Oversights committed by Men of the Jesuits Brains as to venture such notorious Treasons so nakedly drest to all Accidents that might occur when Coleman who had not one Syllable either of Killing the King Firing of London Massacres in England Scotland and Ireland Jago Pilgrims French Armies Popish Ruffians Black Bills Pistols Ponyards or Poysons not only writ but received all his Papers in Cyphers nay a great many of them too from those very Jesuits beyond Sea whose hand-writing with a 100 times more dangerous contents in it Oats Bedloe and Dugdale dayly saw and read without the least veil of Cypher Character or Disguise whatever when the intercepting of but one of all those innumerable Pacquets by any Protestant hand had certainly destroy'd the whole Fabrick of the Plot and laid both the Papists and their Cause in unavoidable Ruin Good Heavens that a Cabal of such prodigious Undertakers should most of them be Men of such Infinite Learning and yet to so little purpose But alas the Jesuits were those hardy Desperado's that they writ Treason and posted it about at random without either Fear or Wit insomuch that Dugdale after intercepting and breaking open so many of their Plot Letters swears he kept those he could