Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/482

468 members during the sitting of parliament. He sent weekly news letters to the catholics in various quarters, and made in them the severest remarks on the ambition of the French king and the conduct of the English government. Yet all this time he was importuning Louis to furnish money for the establishment of the catholic church in England again. He obtained three thousand five hundred pounds from the bankers whom Charles had broken faith with on the shutting of the exchequer, on pretence of influence with parliament, and two thousand five hundred pounds from Barillon, to distribute amongst members of parliament.

In 1675 a foreigner of the name of Buchateau, but who was called Louis Luzancy, had come to England, pretending to be a catholic who was desirous of joining the English church, and who gave information to some of the opposition leaders, that father St. Germain, confessor to the duchess of York, had threatened to murder him if he did not recant protestantism. This made a great sensation, and he then said that he had made the discovery of a popish plot, in which the king was to be killed, and the streets of London to run with the blood of massacred protestants. Though it was soon shown by Du Maresque, a French protestant clergyman, that Luzancy had fled from France for forgery, and a swindling transaction at Oxford soon proved that he was a great scoundrel, yet his story won him much patronage, he was ordained, and presented to the living of Dover-court, in Essex, during this present year. His pretended plot was very like this of Oates's, and might possibly be its model. He had accused Coleman of similar practices, but Coleman had boldly faced him and put him to silence. But now Coleman had fled, itself a sign of guilt; amongst his papers were found abundant evidences of his correspondence with the French court in 1674, 1675, and 1676. In one letter he said to La Chaise, "We have here a mighty work upon our hands, no less than the conversion of three kingdoms, and by that, perhaps, the utter subduing of a pestilent heresy, which has for a long time domineered over a great part of this northern world. There never were such hopes of success since the days of queen Mary." He declared the duke devoted to the cause and also to the French king. He said, "I can scarcely believe myself awake, or the thing real, when I think of a prince in such an age as we live in, converted to such a degree of zeal and piety, as not to regard anything in the world in comparison of God Almighty's glory, the salvation of his own soul, and the conversion of our poor kingdom." He declared that Charles was inclined to favour the catholics, and that money would do anything with him. "Money cannot fad of persuading the king to anything. There is nothing it cannot make him do, were it ever so much to his prejudice. It has such absolute power over him he cannot resist it. Logic built upon money, has in our court more powerful charms than any other sort of argument." Therefore recommended three hundred thousand pounds to be sent over on condition that parliament should be dissolved.

These discoveries perfectly electrified the public. That there was a plot they now had no doubt whatever, and the information touching so close on the real secret of Charles's pension, must have even startled him. Coleman, in these letters, stated parliament had been postponed in 1675 till April, to serve the French designs, by preventing Holland obtaining any assistance from England. Yet when Oates had been confronted with Coleman before his flight, though Gates pretended great intimacy with him, he actually did not recognise him. Another proof, if any were wanted, that Gates was acting on the knowledge of others, not on his own. Whoever they were, they had become acquainted with Coleman's French correspondence, and who so likely as Shaftesbury and the whigs who used to frequent this man's house, and who were themselves deep in a similar intrigue with the French court?

Still more astounding events, however, followed close on this discovery. No sooner was this discovery in the letters of Coleman made, than Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, the magistrate before whom Gates had made his affidavit of the plot, who was a particular friend of Coleman's, and had warned him of his danger, was missing, and was found murdered amongst some bushes in a dry ditch betwixt Primrose Hill and Old St. Pancras Church. Godfrey was of a sensitive disposition, which sometimes approached to insanity. On the apprehension of Coleman, Godfrey had been seized with great alarm, and expressed his conviction that he should be the first martyr of this plot. On the 12th of October he burnt a large quantity of papers, and that day he was seen hurrying about the town in a state of great abstraction of mind. From that day he was missing, and it was not till the sixth day that his body was found. He lay forward, resting on his knees, his breast, and the left side of his face. His sword was thrust through his heart with such violence, that it appeared at his back. His cane was stuck upright in the bank, his gloves lay near it on the grass, and his rings were on his fingers and his money in his purse. All these circumstances seemed to indicate suicide; and to confirm it, it was reported that when the sword was withdrawn, it was followed by a rush of blood. This, however, the doctors denied, and on being stripped, the purple mark round his neck showed that he had been strangled, and then thrust through, and his body, cane, and gloves so disposed as to persuade the parties that he had killed himself.

But who, then, were the murderers? This was never discovered, but the public, putting together all the circumstances, declared that the papists had done it, and that Oates's story was all true. That catholics, or at least such as were in the scheme of Coleman, had done it, appeal's very probable, although it has been argued that they had no motive. But it must be remembered that Godfrey was a friend and associate of Coleman's. He had always been a partisan of the catholics; he gave Coleman warning to fly; he showed great alarm himself, and commenced burning papers. All these circumstances indicate complicity. That he was deep in the secrets of the party, and had dangerous papers in his possession, is clear. Coleman was in custody, and something might be drawn out of him. Godfrey might be arrested, and a man of his nervous temperament might reveal what concerned the lives of many others. There. were the strongest motives, therefore, for those who had any concern in the dangerous conspiracy of Coleman, to have Godfrey at least out of the way.