ance, by which means the villains got over that draw-bridge, and through the outward gate upon the wharf, and made all pothible hafte towards their hofes, which attended at St. Catharine's gate, called the Irongate, crying themselves, as they ran, Stop the rogues !' and the grave canonical habit made them thought innocent. Immediately after Captain Beckman got up to them, at which Blood discharged his fecond piftol at the Captain's head, but he stooping down, avoided the fhot, and feized upon him with the crown under his cloak; yet, Blood had the impudence, though he faw himself a prifoner, to ftruggle a long while for the crown; and, when it was wrested from him, he faid, It was a gallant attempt, though unfuccessful, for it was for a crown. A fervant belonging to Captain Sherborne, feized upon Parret before Blood was taken; and there was fo much confternation amongst all men, and fo much confufion in the purfuit, that it was a miracle that several innocent perfons had not fuffered, for young Edward, overtaking one that was bloody in the fcuffle, and fuppofing him to be one of his father's murderers, was going to rùn him through, had not Captain Beckman hindered him; and, as this Captain himself made vast haste in the purfuit, the guards were going to fire at him, thinking him to be one of the rogues; but one of them, who fortunately knew him, cried out, He is a friend! Blood and Parvet being both feized, Hunt, another of them,and fon-in-law to Blood, leaped to horte, with two more of the confpirators, and rid far away; but a cart in the street chanced to turn fhort, Hunt run his head against a pole that fuck out, which made him fall aftonished from his horfe, but recovering his legs, and putting his feet into the stirrup, a cobler running in, cried, This is Tom Hunt, who was in the bloody business against the Duke of Ormond, let us fecure him!" A Conftable, being accidentally there, feized him upon this affirmation; and he was, with Blood and Parret, committed to fafe cuftody in the Tower. Parret was a filk-dyer in the borough of Southwark; and in the rebellion had been Lieutenant to Major-general Harrifon: In the ftruggle for the crown, the great pearl and fair diamond fell off, and were loft for a while, with some other fmaller ftones; but the pearl was brought by a poor fweeping woman to one of the Warders, and the diamond by a barber's apprentice, and both faithfully reftored. Other small stones were picked up by feve ral perfons, and brought in. The fair ballas ruby, belonging to the fcepter, was

gers at his breaft; ftill he ftrained himself to make the greater noise, at which they gave him nine or ten ftrokes more upon the head with the mallet, and stabbed him into the belly. The poor man, almost fourfcore years old, fell, and lay fome time intranced, when one of them kneeling on the ground to try if he breathed, and not perceiving any breath from him, faid, He is dead, I will warrant him.' Mr. Edwards, recovering a little, heard his words, and, conceiving it beft for himself to be fo thought, lay very quietly. Concluding him dead, they omitted to tie his hands behind him; and Parret, one of the companions, put the globe into his breeches; Blood kept the crown under his cloak; the third was defigned to file the fcepter in two, because too long to carry conveniently, and then to put it into a bag, brought for that purpose. But before this could be done, young Mr. Edwards, fon of the old Gentleman, juft come from Flanders, chanced to arrive at that very inftant that this was acting, and, coming to the door, the perfon who flood centinel for the reft, asked him with whom would he fpeak; he made anfwer, he belonged to the houfe; but perceiving by his queftion, that he himself was a tranger, told him that if he had any business with his father, he would go and acquaint him with it, and went up ftairs where he was welcomed by his mother, wife, and fifter. In the mean time, the centinel gave notice of the fon's arrival, and they immediately hafted away with the crown and the globe, but left the fcepier, not having time to file it. The old man returning to himself, got fuddenly up, pulled off the gag, and cried out treafon! murder! the daughter hearing him, ran down, and feeing her father thus wounded, rushed out upon the Tower-hill, and cried, Treafon! the crown is ftolent This gave the first alarm; and Blood and Parret making great hafte, were obferved to jog each other with their elbows as they went, which caused them to be fufpected and pursued. By this time young Edwards, and one Captain Beckman, upon cry of their fifter, were come down, and left their father likewife, to run after the villains, but they were advanced beyond the main-guard; and the alarm being given to the Warder at the draw-bridge, he put himself in a posture to ftop them. Blood came up firft, and discharged a pistol at him; the bullet miffed him, but the pow. der or fear made him fall to the ground, whereby they got fafe to the Little-wardhoufe gate, where one Sill, one of Crom. well's foldiers, food centinel, who, though be law the other Warder shot, made no refift,

the

I 2

found

pro

found in Parret's pocket, so that nothing confiderable was wanting; the crown only was bruised, and sent to be repaired. Upon this difappointment his fpirits failed him; and, while he remained prifoner in the gaol of the Tower, he appeared not only filent and referved, but dogged and fullen: He foon changed his temper however, when, contrary to all reafon, probability, and his own expectation, he was informed the King intended to fee and examine him himfelf; this was brought about by the Duke of Buckingham, then the great favourite and Firt Minifter, who infufed into his Majesty, over whom he had for fome time a great ascendency, the curiofity of feeing fo extraordinary a perfon, whofe crime, great as it was, argued a prodigious force of mind, and made it bable, that, if fo difpofed, he might be capable of making large difcoveries. Thefe infinuations had fuch an effect upon the King that he confented to what the Duke defired, which in the end proved difadvantageous to them all; for it brought difcredit upon the royal character, an indelible load of infamy upon the Duke, and this afterwards produced Blood's ruin.--Such are the confequences of inconfiderate actions in perfons in high ftations, who ought always to be jealous of their dignity, and of doing what may hazard the wounding public opinion, upon which that dignity is chiefly founded. Col. Blood was no fooner acquainted that he was to be introduced to the royal prefence, than he conceived immediately he food indebted for this honour to the notion the King, or some about him, had of his intrepidity, and therefore was not at all at a lofs about the part he was to act, and on the acting of which well his life iutirely depended: He is allowed on all hands to have performed admirably upon this occafion; he anfwered whatever his Majefty demanded of him clearly, and without referve; he did not pretend to capitulate or make terms, but feemed rather pleafed to throw his life into the King's hands by an open and boundless confeffion: He took care, however, to prepoffefs his Majefty in his favour, by various, and those very different, methods. At the fame time he laid himself open to the law, he abfolutely refufed to impeach others; while he magnified the fpirit and refolution of the party to which he adhered, and had always acted against monarchy, he infinuated his own and their veneration for the perfon of the King; and, though he omitted nothing that might create a belief of his contemning death, yet he expreffed infinite awe and refpect for a Monarch, who had

condefcended to treat him with fuch unu fual indulgence. In fhort, the particular of this examination were very curious.

He

It was forefeen by the Duke of Ormond as foon as he knew the King defigned t examine him, that Blood had no cause t fear; and indeed fuch an impreffion his fto ry and behaviour made on the mind of hi Sovereign, that he was not only pardoned but fet at liberty, and had a penfion giver him to fubfift on. This conduct of his Ma jefly, towards fo high and fo notorious a offender, occafioned much speculation and many conjectures; of thefe fome are ftil preferved, amongst which the fentiments o Sir Gilbert Talbot are very fenfible. feems to think the King's apprehenfions determined him. Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormond, fuggefts, that the Duke of Buckingham, having put him on the first defign, to prevent its becoming public, was obliged to procure his parden for the fecond. But it is more probable that he infinuated his intereft with fome defperate malecontents then in Holland, whom he could induce to come home and live peaceably. At least this is certain, that, on the breaking out of the war foon after, a proclamation was published, requiring fuch perfons to come over; upon which Defborough, Relfey, and many more came, furrendered, and had pardons, very probably at Blood's requelt; for with him they met almost every day, in a room kept on purpofe for them, at White's coffee-house near the Royal Exchange. His intereft was, for fome time, very great at Court, where he follicited the fuits of many of the unfortunate people of his party with fuccess; but, as this gave great offence to fome very worthy perfons while it lafted, fo, after the difgrace and falling to pieces of the Miniftry called the Cabal, it began quickly to decline; and perhaps his penfion alfo was ill paid, for we find him again amongst the malecontents, and acting in favour of popular measures, that were difpleafing to the Court. In the bufy time of plotting too, fo active a perfon as Col. Blood could not but have fome fhare; he behaved, however, in a new manner, fuitable to the great change of times, and, instead of attempting on the perfons of great men, took up the charac ter of a great man himself, and expreffed an apprchenfion that attempts might be made upon his perfon. In this manner he spun out between nine and ten years, fometimes about the Court, fome times excluded from it, always uneafy, and in fome scheme or other of an untoward kind, till at laft he was met with in his own way, and either circumvented by fome

of

of his own inftruments, or drawn within the vortex of a fham plot, by fome who were too cunning even for this mafter in his profeffion. It feems there were certain people who had formed a defign of fixing an imputation of a moft fcandalous nature, namely, fodomy, upon the Duke of Buckingham, who was then at the head of a vigorous oppofition against the Court, and who, notwithstanding he had always courted and protected the Fanatics, had not, in refpect to his moral character, fo fair a reputation as to render any charge of that kind incredible. But whether this was conducted by Col. Blood, whether a counter-plot was fet on foot to defeat it and intrap Blood, or whether fome whisper thrown out to alarm the Duke, which he fufpected came from Blood, led his Grace to fecure himself by a contrivance of the fame ftamp, better concerted, and more effectually executed; foit was, that his Grace, who was formerly fuppofed fo much a patron to the Colonel, thought it requifite, for his own fafety, to contribute to his ruin. But it fell out, that the Court of King's-bench took the thing in fo different a light, that he was convicted upon a criminal information for the confpiracy, and committed to the King's-bench prifon; and, while in cuftody there, he was charged with an action of fcandalum magnatum, at the fuit of the Duke of Buckingham, in which the damages were laid so high as 10,000 l. but, notwithstanding this, Col. Blood found bail, and was discharged from his imprifonment. He then retired to his house in the Bowling-alley in Westminster, in order to take fuch meafures as were requifite to deliver him out of thefe difficulties; but, finding fewer friends than he expected, and meeting with other and more grievous difappointments, he was fo much affected thereby, as to fall into a diffemper that fpeedily threatened his life. He was attended in his fickness by a clergyman, who found

The HISTORY of ENGLAND The 12th of November, 1678, Bedloe was examined a fecond time in the House of Lords. The fubftance of what he faid was, that the monks of Doway first told him the defign; and, after four faciaments of fecrecy, they fent him to Harcourt, a Jefuit, in Duke-ftreet, London, who provided for him, and fent him to Paris, &c.

That

le Phaire, Walth, Pritchard, and Lewis, told him what Lords were to govern, what men were to be raised, particularly forty thoufand to be ready in London; what fuccours were to be expected, namely, ten thousand from Flanders, twenty or thirty

him fenfible but referved, declaring he was not at all afraid of death. In a few days he fell into a lethargy, and Wednesday, August 24, 1680, he departed this life. On the Friday following he was privately but decently interred in the new chapel in Tothill-fields. Yet fuch was the notion entertained, by the generality of the world, of this man's fubtlety and reftless spirit, that they could neither be perfuaded he would be quiet in his grave, nor would they permit him to remain fo: For, a ftory being spread that this dying, and being buried, was only a new trick of Col. Blood's, preparative to fome more extraordinary exploit than any he had been concerned in; it became, in a few days, fo current, and fo many circumftances were added to render it credible, that the Coroner thought fit to interpofe, ordered the body to be taken up again on the Thurfday following, and appointed a jury to fit upon it. But fo trongly were they prepoffeffed with the idle fancy of its being all an amufement, that, though they were his neighbours, knew him perfonally, and he had been fo few days dead, they could not for a long time agree whether it was or was not his body. An intimate acquaintance of his, at lat, put them on viewing the thumb of his left hand, which, by an accident that happened to it, grew to twice its natural fize, which was commonly known to fuch as converfed with him. By this, and the various depofitions of perfons attending him in his laft illness, they were at length convinced, and the Coroner caufed him to be once more interred, and left in his vault in quiet. Such were the tranfactions of this man's life, whofe real adventures exceeding, in ftrangeness, what would appear fictitious even in romance, astonished his contemporaries, and were never before reduced into regular order for the information of pofterity.

0

thers,

thers, had often told him, that there was not a Roman catholic in England, of any quality or credit, but was acquainted with this defign of the Papifts, and had received the facrament from their father-confeffors to be secret and affiftant in the carrying of it on: That the part affigned him was to bring and carry orders and counfels, and all other intelligences from one army to another upon all occafions, he knowing every part and road of England and Wales.' After this depofition, the Lords having conjured Bedloe to peak nothing but the truth, he did, in the prefence of God, as he fhould anfwer it at the day of judgment, affure all to be true he had depofed.

Bedloe's depofition, which was.communicated to the Commons, was very apt to fill the Parliament and people with fears, Accordingly, the effect of it was fuch, that the King, to avoid being fufpected of having any hand in the plot, published a proclamation, the 12th of November, whereby all Romifh Recufants, and fuch reputed, were injoined, under the penalty of the laws, to repair to their own houses, and not to remove more than five miles from thence without licence.' But the Commons did not think this proclamation fufficient to free them from their fears. The fame day, they presented an address to the King, praying, That a fpecial commiffion may be iffaed forth, for tendering the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy to all the fervants of his Majefty and his Royal Highness, and to all other perfons (except her Majesty's Portuguese fervants) refiding within the palaces of Whitehall, St. James's, and Somerfet-houfe, and all other his Majefty's houfes; and that there may be like wife fpecial commiffions iffued forth, for tendering the faid oaths to all perfons refiding within the two Serjeants-inns, all the inns of Court, and inns of Chancery.' The King returned an anover in writing, that he granted their request, with exception of the menial fervants of the Queen and Duchefs, who were fo very inconfiderable in their number, and within the articles of marriage. He added, That he could not but take notice, that, in a late addrefs from the House of Peers, the menial fervants of the Queen and Duchefs were excepted; and that he hoped the Commons would proceed with the fame moderation, as to that particular.' This anfwer was not fatisfactory, and therefore they infifted, in a fecond addrefs, that the perfons excepted in his Majefty's meffage might be comprehended in the fame commiffion; for which they gave fome reafons.' But,

before the King had anfwered this addrefs, there happened an accident which put the Commons much out of temper.

The 18th of November, they were informed, that feveral commiffions had been granted to Popish Recufants, and warrants allo, that they fhould be muftered, notwithftanding they had not taken the oaths, and fubfcribed the declaration, according to the act of Parliament; and that they were counterfigned by Sir Jofeph Williamfon, Secretary of State. Upon this information, Williamfon, as a Member of their House, was immediately fent to the Tower. This much offended the King, who, the next day, fent for the Commons to attend him in the Banqueting-houfe in Whitehall; where, in a fpeech, he told them plainly, though they had committed his fervant, without acquainting him, yet he intended to deal more freely with them, and acquaint them with his intention to release his Secre

That,

tary;' which accordingly he did, that very day. Upon this, the Commons presented an addrefs to the King, with the reafons of their proceedings in the commitment of his Secretary. They faid, 1. That divers commiffions were granted to Popifh Officers, and counterfigned by the faid Sir Jofeph Williamson, and delivered out in October laft, fince the meeting of this Houfe, and the difcovery of the prefent Popish confpiracy.

2.

Divers warrants have alfo been produced before us of difpenfations, contrary to law, for Popish Officers to continue their commands, and to be paffed in mufter, notwithstanding they have not taken the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy, and received the bleffed facrament of the Lord's-fupper, according to the late act of Parliament in that behalf; all which faid warrants were likewife counterfigned by the faid Williamfon; which being complained of to us, and confeffed by the faid Sir Jofeph William. fon, we your Majefly's most dutiful subjects, having the immediate confideration before us of the imminent danger of your Majesty's person, the fafery whereof is above all things most dear to us; and likewife the dangers from Popish plots fo near. ly threatening the peace and fafety of your Majefty's government, and the Proteftant religion; we humbly are of opinion we could not difcharge our duty to your Ma. jefty, and the whole kingdom, without com. mitting the faid Sir Jofeph Williamfon; and therefore moft humbly defire, that he may be difcharged by your Majesty. And we do further most humbly desire your Majeity to recal all commiffions granted to all

Papits,

Pipits within the kingdoms of England and Ireland, or any other of your Majef ty's dominions and territories.' To this the King answered,

That he had released Mr. Secretary Williamfon before their addrefs came; and promised to recal all his commiffions whatfoever, given to Papifts or reputed Papifts."

Had not the King had fome fecret defign, it must be owned he ill-timed thefe commiffions, while the Popish plot made fo much noife, and the Parliament was em: ployed in examining into it. But this is a mytery which is not yet cleared; however, the affair was carried no farther.

About this time, the bill to difable Papifts from fitting in Parliament paffed the Commons, and afterwards the Lords, tho' with more difficulty. The King likewife published a proclamation, offering a reward to any one who fhould difcover, or apprehend, a Romish prieft or Jefuit,'

Mean while, the King, finding the Commons delayed to grant him money, came to the Parliament; and, after a repetition of fome things delivered in his firft fpeech, he defixed them either to grant him money to continue his forces in Flanders, or to dif band them. Whereupon the Commons, who faw with uneafinefs fo formidable an army on foot, in fuch a juncture, refolved, nemine contradicente, That all the forces, railed fince the 29th of September, 1677, fhould be disbanded. To which purpofe, they prefented an addrefs to his Majefty.

At the fame time, the Commons had before them a bill for railing a third part of the militia, to be in conftant arms for a time;' which, with amendments, was fent up to the Lords, and paffed their House.

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The 30th of November, the King gave the royal affent to the bill for disabling Papifts from fitting in either Houfe of Parliament;' and fhewed himfelf very willing to recal his forces from Flanders. But the militia bill he abfolutely rejected, alledging, That it was to put the militia out of his power, which thing he would not do, no not for one hour; but, if the Commons would affift him with money for that purpose, he would take care to raife fuch a part of the militia, as fhould fecure the peace of the government, and his own perfon. But the Parliament thought not fit. to accept his offer.

Since the King had feen the unanimity of the two Houfes concerning the reality of the plot, he had thought proper to feign a no lefs fear of the danger the Church and State were in. And this is what father Orleans can hardly forgive him, fay ing his diffimulation was made ufe of to

the committing of much injuftice. But the King found himself in no condition to oppofe the toment, which ran fo violently against the Papifts. His whole policy was confined to his endeavours to remove the fufpicion of his being concerned in the plot, which, he faw, both Houfes were too apt to believe; fo, without unfeasonably affecting an indifcreet zeal for a religion which he publickly difowned, he calmly left the Papifts expofed to the refentment of the Parliament, for fear of his own ruin by an an oppofite conduct: For this reason it was that he fuffered the confpirators to be brought to their trials.

Edward Coleman, Secretary to the Duke of York, was firft tried, the 27th of November, at the King's-Bench bar, before the Lord Chief Juftice Scroggs. The witnelles produced against him were Oates and Bedloe. The firft depofed,

1. That, in November 1677, being brought acquainted with the prifoner by father John Keins, then the deponent's confeffor, who lodged at Mr. Coleman's houfe, he carried fome letters from him to St. Omer's, which he faw opened, when he came there. In them were treasonable expreffions against the King, calling him tyrant, &c. and a letter in Latin inclufed to father la Chaife, to whom Oates carried it from St. Omer's to Paris; in which there were thanks returned for the ten thoufand pounds by him remitted to England for the propagation of the Catholic religion, and promifing it fhould be employed for no other purpofe, but that for which it was fent, namely, to cut off the King of England, as appeared by the letter of la Chaile, to which all this was an answer, and which Oates faw and read.

2. That Coleman was concerned in

the defign of killing the King, for when, at the Jefuits great confult, on the 24th of April, which afterwards divided into leveral clubs, it was refolved, that Pickering and Grove fhould take off his Majefty by shooting, or other means; this refolve was communicated to Coleman, in Oates's hearing, at Wild houfe, who did approve thereof, and faid, it is well contrived.'