instigating his hearers to seek revenge. Sir
Roger North tells us the crowd in and about the church was prodigious,
"and so heated, that anything called papist, were it cat or dog, had
probably gone to pieces in a moment. The catholics all kept close in
their houses and lodgings, thinking it a good composition to be safe
there."

The whole city was terror-stricken. "Men's spirits were so sharpened,"
says Burnet, "that it was looked on as a very great happiness that the
people did not vent their fury upon the papists about the town." Tonge
and Oates went abroad protected by body guards, arresting hundreds of
catholics; cannon were mounted around Whitehall and St. James's; patrols
paraded the streets by day and night; the trained bands were ready to
fall in at a moment's notice; preparations were made for barricading
the principal thoroughfares; the city gates were kept closed so that
admission could be only had through the wickets; and the Houses of
Parliament demanded a guard should keep watch on the vaults over which
they sat, lest imitators of Guy Fawkes might blow them to pieces.
Moreover, it was not alone the safety of the multitude, but the
protection of the individual which was sought to be secured. In the
dark confusion which general terror produced, each man felt he might be
singled out as the next victim of this diabolical plot, and therefore
devised means to guard his life from the hands of murderous papists.
North, in his "Examen," speaking of this period, tells us: "There was
much recommendation of silk armour, and the prudence of being provided
with it against the time the Protestants were to be massacred. And,
accordingly, there were abundance of those silken back, breast, and
headpots made and sold, that were pretended to be pistol proof; in which
any man dressed up was as safe as in a house, for it was impossible
anyone could go to strike him for laughing; so ridiculous was the
figure, as they say, of hogs in armour. This was the armour of defence;
but our sparks were not altogether so tame as to carry their provision
no further, for truly they intended to be assailants upon fair occasion,
and had for that end recommended also to them a certain pocket weapon,
which for its design and efficacy had the honour to be called a
protestant flail. It was for street and crowd work; and the engine
lurking perdue in a coat pocket, might readily sally out to execution,
and so, by clearing a great hall, or piazza or