Here his story ended; but, as was now usual, it
was taken up and concluded by Oates.
Appearing at the Bar of the House of Commons, this vile impostor
cried out, "Aye, Taitus Oates, accause Caatharine, Quean of
England, of haigh traison." Then followed his audacious
evidence. In the previous July, Sir George Wakeham, in writing
to a Jesuit named Ashby, stated her majesty would aid in
poisoning the king. A few days afterwards, Harcourt and four
other Jesuits having been sent for, attended the queen at
Somerset House. On that occasion Oates waited on them; they went
into a chamber, he stayed without. Whilst there he heard a
woman's voice say she would endure her wrongs no longer, but
should assist Sir George Wakeham in poisoning the king. He was
afterwards admitted to the chamber, and saw no woman there but
her majesty; and he heard the same voice ask Harcourt, whilst be
was within, if he had received the last ten thousand pounds.
The appetite of public credulity seeming to increase by that on
which it fed, this avowal was readily believed. That the
accusation had not been previously made; that Oates had months
before sworn he knew no others implicated in the plot beyond
those he named; that the queen had never interfered in religious
matters; that she loved her husband exceeding well, were facts
completely overlooked in the general agitation. Parliament "was
in a rage and flame;" and next day the Commons drew up an address
to the king, stating that "having received information of a most
desperate and traitorous design against the life of his sacred
majesty, wherein the queen is particularly charged and accused"
they besought him that "she and all her family, and all papists
and reputed papists, be forthwith removed from his court.
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