nd concluded by
Oates.

Appearing at the Bar of the House of Commons, this vile impostor cried
out, "Aye, Taitus Oates, accause Caatharine, Quean of England, of haigh
traison." Then followed his audacious evidence. In the previous July,
Sir George Wakeham, in writing to a Jesuit named Ashby, stated her
majesty would aid in poisoning the king. A few days afterwards, Harcourt
and four other Jesuits having been sent for, attended the queen at
Somerset House. On that occasion Oates waited on them; they went into
a chamber, he stayed without. Whilst there he heard a woman's voice
say she would endure her wrongs no longer, but should assist Sir
George Wakeham in poisoning the king. He was afterwards admitted to the
chamber, and saw no woman there but her majesty; and he heard the same
voice ask Harcourt, whilst he was within, if he had received the last
ten thousand pounds.

The appetite of public credulity seeming to increase by that on which it
fed, this avowal was readily believed. That the accusation had not been
previously made; that Oates had months before sworn he knew no others
implicated in the plot beyond those he named; that the queen had never
interfered in religious matters; that she loved her husband exceeding
well, were facts completely overlooked in the general agitation.
Parliament "was in a rage and flame;" and next day the Commons drew up
an address to the king, stating that "having received information of
a most desperate and traitorous design against the life of his sacred
majesty, wherein the queen is particularly charged and accused" they
besought him that "she and all her family, and all papists and reputed
papists, be forthwith removed from his court." Furthermore, the House
sent a message to the Peers, desiring their concurrence in this request;
but the Lords made answer, before doing so they would examine the
witnesses against her majesty. This resolution was loudly and indecently
protested against by Lord Shaftesbury and two of his friends.

The king had discredited the story of the plot from the first; but
remembering the unhappy consequences which had resulted upon the
disagreement of the monarch and his parliament in the previous reign, he
weakly resolved to let himself be carried away by the storm, other than
offer it resistance. On the condemnation of the Jesuits, he had appeared
unhappy and dissatisfied; "but," says Lord Romney, "after he had had
a little advice he kept his displeasure to