at time had not looked to
the flint of his pistol, but it was loose, and he durst not venture to
give fire. He had a fair opportunity, as Whitebread said; and because he
missed it through his own negligence he underwent penance, and had twenty
or thirty strokes of discipline, and Grove was chidden for his
carelessness.'

Of the 'four Irish ruffians' that went to Windsor to kill the king, Oates
could give no account. How he could reconcile it with his duty to His
Majesty to let these assassins lie in wait from August to October, without
notifying any one of their murderous intentions, he did not see fit to
explain, and of course the attorney general and the judges forgot to ask
him.

Not the least wonderful part of his evidence is that which he speaks of
the ill usage he received from Whitebread in September, who charged him
with having betrayed them: 'So, my lord, I did profess a great deal of
innocency, because I had not then been with the king, but he gave me very
ill language, and abused me, and I was afraid of a worse mischief from
them. And though, my lord, they could not prove that I had discovered it,
yet upon the bare suspicion, I was beaten and affronted, and reviled, and
commanded to go beyond sea again; nay, my lord, I had my lodgings
assaulted to have murdered me if they could.'

This is certainly the strangest way to conciliate a disaffected
conspirator, that we ever heard of! Most men would have preferred to use
bribes and caresses; but the Jesuits, it seems, knew their man, and chose
to beat him into secrecy and submission!

Bedlow's evidence, as usual, was mainly confirmatory of the statements of
Oates, embellished by such new incidents as his feebler powers of
invention could frame. He was, however, not quite satisfied with this
subordinate part; and therefore at the close of his evidence pretends to
recollect that he had omitted one thing very material: 'At the same time
that there was a discourse about these three gentleman being to destroy
the king at New-Market, there was a discourse of a design to kill several
noble persons, and the several parts assigned to every one. Knight was to
kill the Earl of Shaftsbury, Pritchard, the Duke of Buckingham, Oniel, the
Earl of Ossory, Obrian, the Duke of Ormond,' An assassination of noblemen
on a truly magnificent scale!

Nothing appearing in Bedlow's evidence to implicate Fenwick and
Whitebread, and two witnesses being necessary to prove the charge, they