ged in Whitehall, in company with Tonge and Oates;
and next morning appeared before the House of Lords, when it was evident
his memory had wonderfully improved since the previous day. His story
now assumed a more concise form. In the beginning of October, he stated,
he had been offered the sum of four thousand pounds, to be paid by Lord
Bellasis, provided he murdered a man whose name was withheld from him,
This he refused. He was then asked to make the acquaintance and watch
the movements of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey. With this he complied. Soon
after dusk on the 12th of October, the magistrate had been dragged into
the court of Somerset House by the Jesuits, and asked if he would send
for the documents to which Oates had sworn. On his refusal he had been
smothered with a piece of linen cloth; the story of suffocation by
pillows, being at variance with the medical evidence, was now abandoned.
One of the Jesuits, La Faire, had asked Bedlow to call at Somerset House
that night at nine o'clock; and on presenting himself, he was conducted
through a gloomy passage into a spacious and sombre room, where a group
of figures stood round a body lying on the floor. Advancing to these,
La Faire turned the light of a lantern he carried on the face of the
prostrate man, when Bedlow recognised Sir Edmondbury Godfrey. He was
then offered two thousand guineas if he would remove the body, which was
allowed to remain there three days. This he promised to accomplish,
but afterwards, his conscience reproving him, he resolved to avoid the
assassins; and rather than accept the sum proffered, he had preferred
discovering the villainy to the Government.

This improbable story obtained no credit with the king, nor indeed with
those whose minds were free from prejudice. "His majesty," writes Sir
John Reresby, "told me Bedlow was a rogue, and that he was satisfied
he had given false evidence concerning the death of Sir Edmondbury
Godfrey." Many circumstances regarding the narrator and his story showed
the viciousness of the one and the falsity of the other. The authority
just mentioned states, when Bedlow "was taxed with having cheated a
great many merchants abroad, and gentlemen at home, by personating my
Lord Gerard and other men of quality, and by divers other cheats, he
made it an argument to be more credited in this matter, saying nobody
but a rogue could be employed in such designs." Concerning the murder,
it chanced the king had been at Somerse