his friend Coleman had weighed heavily on his spirits.
A terrible fear now taking possession of his relatives and friends,
thorough search was made for him, which proved vain until the Thursday
following his disappearance, when he was accidentally discovered lying
in a ditch, a cloth knotted round his neck, and a sword passed through
his body, "at or near a place called Primrose Hill, in the midway
between London and Hampstead."

If he had been murdered, no motive appeared to account for the deed;
neither robbery nor revenge could have prompted it. His rings and money,
gloves and cane, were found on and near his body; and it was known he
had lived in peace with all men. Nor did an inquest lasting two days
throw any light upon the mystery. If it were proved he had died by his
own hand, the law of that day would not permit his brothers to inherit
his property, which was found to be considerable. It was therefore their
interest to ignore the fact that strangulation pointed to FELO DE SE,
and to assume he had been murdered. Accordingly they prohibited
the surgeons from opening the body, lest examination should falsify
conclusions at which they desired to arrive. A verdict was ultimately
returned "that he was murdered by certain persons unknown to the jurors,
and that his death proceeded from suffocation and strangling by a
certain piece of linen cloth of no value."

Occurring at such a moment, his death was at once attributed to the
papists, who, it was said, being incensed that the magistrate had
received the sworn testimonies of Oates, had sought this bloody revenge.
Fear now succeeded bewilderment; desires of vengeance sprang from depths
of horror. For two days the mangled remains of the poor knight were
exposed to public view, "and all that saw them went away inflamed." They
were then interred with all the pomp and state befitting one who had
fallen a victim to catholicism, a martyr to protestantism. The funeral
procession, which took its sad way through the principal thoroughfares
from Bridewell to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, numbered seventy-two
divines, and over twelve hundred persons of quality and consideration.
Arriving at the church, Dr. Lloyd, a clergyman remarkable for his fine
abhorrence of papists, ascended the pulpit, where, protected by two men
of great height and strength, he delivered a discourse, pointing to
the conclusion that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey had been sacrificed to the
catholic conspiracy, and