On the examination before the House of Lords of Oates and Bedlow,
their evidence proved so vague and contradictory that it was
rejected even by the most credulous. When Bedlow was asked "why
be had not disclosed such a perilous matter in conjunction with
his previous information touching the murder of Sir Edmondbury
Godfrey," he coolly replied, "it had escaped his memory." On
Oates being sent to point out the apartment in which he had seen
her majesty and the Jesuits, he first selected the guard-room,
and afterwards the privy chamber, places in which it would have
been impossible to have held secret consultation. Aware that the
king was resolved to protect her majesty, and conscious the
evidence of her accusers was more wildly improbable than usual,
the Lords refused to second the address of the Commons, when the
charge against this hapless woman was abandoned, to the great
vexation of my Lord Shaftesbury.
Though the queen happily escaped the toils of her enemies, the
reign of terror was by no means at an end. At request of the
king, the Duke of York left England and took refuge in Brussels;
the catholic peers imprisoned in the Tower were impeached with
high treason; Hill, Green, and Berry, servants of her majesty,
charged with the murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, were, without
a shadow of evidence, hurried to the scaffold, as were soon after
Whitebread, Fenwick, Harcourt, Gavan and Turner, Jesuits all, and
Langhorn, a catholic lawyer, for conspiring to murder the king.
Pages:
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379