Accordingly, upwards of thirty thousand citizens left
London before the 7th of the following month, "with great
lamentations leaving their trades and habitations." Many of them
in a little while secretly returned again. A few days before
this latest petition was presented to the monarch, Oates had been
examined before the House for over six hours; and so delighted
was he by the unprejudiced manner in which his statements were
received, that he added several items to them. These were not
only interesting in themselves, but implicated peers and persons
of quality to the number of twenty-six. The former, including
Lords Stafford, Powis, Petre, Bellasis, and Arundel of Wardour,
were committed to the Tower, the latter to Newgate prison.
At the end of his examination he was several times asked if he
knew more of the plot, or of those concerned with it, to which he
emphatically replied he did not. Three days later he remembered
a further incident which involved many persons not previously
mentioned by him.
Both Houses now sat in the forenoon and afternoon of each day;
excitement was not allowed to flag. Oates seldom appeared before
the Commons without having fresh revelations to make; but the
fertility of his imagination by no means weakened the strength of
his evidence in the opinions of his hearers. "Oates was
encouraged," writes John Evelyn, "and everything he affirmed
taken for gospel." Indignation against the papists daily
increasing in height, the decrees issued regarding them became
more rigorous in severity.
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