Accordingly they prohibited the
surgeons from opening the body, lest examination should falsify
conclusions at which they desired to arrive. A verdict was
ultimately returned "that he was murdered by certain persons
unknown to the jurors, and that his death proceeded from
suffocation and strangling by a certain piece of linen cloth of
no value."
Occurring at such a moment, his death was at once attributed to
the papists, who, it was said, being incensed that the magistrate
had received the sworn testimonies of Oates, had sought this
bloody revenge. Fear now succeeded bewilderment; desires of
vengeance sprang from depths of horror. For two days the mangled
remains of the poor knight were exposed to public view, "and all
that saw them went away inflamed." They were then interred with
all the pomp and state befitting one who had fallen a victim to
catholicism, a martyr to protestantism. The funeral procession,
which took its sad way through the principal thoroughfares from
Bridewell to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, numbered seventy-two
divines, and over twelve hundred persons of quality and
consideration. Arriving at the church, Dr. Lloyd, a clergyman
remarkable for his fine abhorrence of papists, ascended the
pulpit, where, protected by two men of great height and strength,
he delivered a, discourse, pointing to the conclusion that Sir
Edmondbury Godfrey had been sacrificed to the catholic
conspiracy, and instigating his hearers to seek revenge.
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