to prove he had ever been in his company. Picker- A, C. 1677° ing affirmed that he was an utter ftranger to the perfons of both evidences. When Grove obferved that he hardly knew Oates by fight, this informer reminded the prifoner of his having told him, that he and three other Irishmen had fet fire to the Borough of Southwark; and that his fhare of the reward for this fervice amounted to four hundred pounds. Ireland offered to prove, by twenty witneffes, that he had been in Staffordshire and Chefhire, during the whole month of Auguft, and part of September, the periods which the informers had affigned for those confultations; but as the witneffes were not prefent, the prisoner reaped no benefit from the propofal. Whitebread produced a certificate, under the feal of the college at St. Omer, importing, that Oates had refided in that place during the months of April and May, although he had fworn to his being present at a confult in London on the twenty-fourth day of April. But this certificate could not be admitted as evidence, by the laws of England. In a word, the three prifoners were condemned; and each protefted, in his Jaft moments, that he was as innocent of the crimes laid to his charge as a child new born.

peached of

The oppofition in the two houses of parliament The earl of was now grown too ftrong to be controuled; and Danby imtheir animofity against the court feemed to in-high-treacreafe with their power. The earl of Danby lord- fon. treasurer was the chief object of their refentment. He knew that many members of both houses were bent upon his deftruction; and the person whom he chiefly dreaded was Montague, who had been ambaffador in France, and came over to England, without the king's leave, in order to fill a feat he had procured in parliament. The king, at Danby's requeft, fent a meffage to the commons, informing them of his refolution to bring Montague to a trial,

A.C. 1678. for having correfponded with the pope's nuncio abroad: at the fame time a warrant was granted to fecure his papers. Warm debates arofe in the houfe; and many individuals declared it was a high breach of privilege, to feize the papers of a member against whom no treafonable practices had been fworn. Montague had warily depofited all his credentials in the hands of a trufty friend, to whom he now fent a meffenger for the whole collection. The box being brought into the house, he opened it, and produced two letters from the earl of Danby, directing him to treat with the king of France for fix hundred thousand livres, to be paid annually to the king of England, for three years after the peace of Nimeguen, in confideration of his favouring the French intereft at the congrefs. The house was kindled into a violent flame by this intelligence. Winnington the folicitor-general inveighed against the earl of Danby as a minifter who had been concerned in betraying the intereft of England, and that of her allies, in felling the nation, and fubverting the government: he therefore moved he might be impeached of high treafon. Notwithstanding a vigorous oppofition by the earl's friends, who obferved there was no treafonable fact charged upon him; and that he had done nothing but writ letters by the king's order; it was refolved, by a majority of votes, that the earl of Danby should be impeached; and in two days the articles were fent up to the house of lords.

ved.

He was accused of having given inftructions to The parlia ment diffol- his majesty's ambaffadors, without the privity of the fecretaries of ftate, or of the council: of having endeavoured to fubvert the government, and introduce arbitrary power of having negotiated a difadvantageous peace with France, and fold the intereft of the nation; of being popishly affected: of having concealed the late horrid plot contrived

by

by the papifts of having wafted the public trea- A, C, 1678. fure, and obtained by indirect means feveral exorbitant grants from the crown. The earl of Danby was extremely embarraffed by fome of thefe articles, which he could not anfwer in his own juftification, without accufing the king, who had begged he would not divulge his fecret negotiations. He recriminated upon Montague as the perfon who had advised and set on foot thofe private treaties; and to prove this affertion, fent two of that minifter's letters to the houfe of commons, who would not fuffer them to be read. He obferved, in the house of lords, That the French miniftry had always looked upon him as an enemy to the intereft of their nation: that he had exerted uncommon diligence in tracing out the confpiracy: and that he had wasted no treasure, inafmuch as there was none to wafte. He likewife infinuated, that it was in his power to vindicate his own conduct in fuch a manner as would clear him of every article of the imputation. Granting all the allegations in the impeachment to be true, there was not one that amounted to high treafon; and therefore the lords. refused to commit him to the Tower. The commons infifted upon his being taken into cuftody: a conteft enfued; and the king dreading fome fatal confequence from the violence of the lower houfe, prorogued the parliament, which he afterwards diffolved. At the fame time he iffued writs, convoking another for the fixth day of March. Charles found it was high time to put an end to this affembly, which had continued fince the fecond year of his reign. Their former complaifance and confidence were changed into diffatisfaction and diftrust. They were grown not only unmanageable, but even dangerous to his government; and feemed to tread North." in the fteps of the long parliament that ruined his L'Etrange. father. It must be owned however, that this change

Burnet,

Rapin.

A. C. 1678. change was in a great measure owing to his own

Miles

Prance ap

der of God

frey.

mifconduct.

On the twenty-firft day of December, Miles prehended Prance, a goldfmith who profeffed the Roman for the mur- catholic religion, was apprehended on fufpicion of having been concerned in the murder of Sir F.dmundbury Godfrey. The informer was one Wren who had lodged at his houfe, and fwore, that his landlord had been abfent for feveral nights about the time at which the murder was committed. Prance being brought before the committee of lords at Westminster, denied the charge with the deepest imprecations; but Bedloe being prefent, and affirming that this was one of the men whom he had seen with the dead body in Somerset-house, he was committed to Newgate, loaded with irons and confined in the condemned hole, which was cold, dark, damp, and almost intolerably offenfive. A. C. 1679. There the poor wretch lay in all the horror of despair, groaning, fhrieking, and exclaiming that he was not guilty. Next day, he defired he might be carried before the earl of Shaftsbury, who was prefident of the committee. This nobleman is faid to have employed reproach and dreadful threats upon this miserable object, already half dead with fear, to extort an accufation against the catholics. At length he discovered fome particulars, and promised to make a more ample confeffion, if he could be affured of pardon. This being obtained, he was examined in Newgate by a committee of both houses, and afterwards brought to Whitehall before the king and council. There he declared that Godfrey had been murdered in Somerset-house, by the contrivance of Gerald and Kelly two Irish priests, Robert Green cushion-keeper of the queen's chapel, Lawrence Hill footman to doctor Godden treasurer of the chapel, and Henry Berry porter of Somerfet-palace. The next time Prance appeared

before

before the council, he begged a private audience of A. C. 1679. the king, which being granted, he fell upon his knees, and declared, as he hoped for falvation, that his confeffion was totally falfe. He said, he was

unacquainted with Bedloe, and utterly ignorant of the murder as well as of the confpiracy; but that Wren had informed against him in revenge for his having demanded the rent of his lodgings. Being fent back to his miferable apartment in Newgate, intimidated by the jailor, and expofed to the tyranny of the committee, he fent the keeper to tell the king, that his firft depofition was true; and this he afterwards retracted. Doctor Loyd vifiting him by the king's command, found him half dead with cold and terror. This humane clergyman ordered a fire to be made, and a bed to be provided for him; then he avowed his confeffion in fuch a manner as convinced the doctor of his fincerity. Perhaps, when he retracted his first depofition, he hoped the king would have taken him. under his immediate protection; but finding himfelf ftill at the mercy of the committee, he hazarded his foul rather than endure the hardships to which his body was fubjected.

His confeffion contained the following particu- His conlars. Hill, Gerald, and Green, in confequence of fellion. a confultation with Kelly, Berry, and Prance, undertook to dispatch Sir Edmundfbury Godfrey, as a violent perfecutor of the Roman catholics, and a declared enemy of the queen's fervants. On the twelfth day of October, they followed him at a diftance, from ten in the morning till feven in the evening, when he entered a house in the neighbourhood of St. Clement's church, where he stayed till nine. When he arrived at the water gate of Somerset-house, in his way homewards, Kelly and Berry feigned a quarrel, and Hill prevailed upon Godfrey to interpofe as a juftice of the peace. With difficulty