to return. The Protestants, both English
and Irish, were alarmed. With the massacre ever before them, they
believed the only safety for Protestants was in keeping the Irish
papists in a condition of absolute helplessness. There was a
smouldering mass of apprehension which needed only a spark to convert
it into a blaze. The murder of Sir Edward Bery Godfrey, a magistrate,
afforded this spark. Titus Gates, the most worthless scoundrel in all
England, had recently made a sworn statement before this gentleman to
the effect {220} that a plot existed for the murder of the King in
order to place his Catholic brother on the throne, to be followed by a
general massacre of Protestants, the burning of London, and an invasion
of Ireland by the French. When Sir Edward was found dead upon a
hill-side, men's minds leaped to the conclusion that the carnival of
blood had begun. An insane panic set in. Nothing short of death would
satisfy the popular frenzy. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Dr.
Plunkett, a man revered and beloved even by Protestants, was dragged to
London, and for complicity in a French plot which never existed, and
for aiding a French invasion which had never been contemplated, was
hanged, drawn, and quartered. Innocent victims were torn from their
homes, fifteen sent to the gallows, and 2,000 languished in prisons,
while a suite of apartments at Whitehall and L600 a year was bestowed
upon Gates, who was greeted as the saviour of his country! In two
years more Gates was driven from his apartment at Whitehall for calling
the heir to the throne a traitor, was found guilty of perjury, and
sentenced to be pilloried, flogged, and imprisoned for life. {221} And
so ended the famous "Popish Plot" of 1678.

In 1685 Charles II. died, and was succeeded by his brother, James II.
It was precisely because this ignominious reign was so disastrous to
England, that it was a period of brief triumph for Ireland. That
country was the corner-stone for the political structure which James
had long contemplated. It was the stronghold for the Catholicism which
he intended should become the religion of his kingdom. The Duke of
Ormond was deposed, and a Catholic filled the office of Viceroy in
Ireland. At last their turn had come, and no time was lost. An Irish
Parliament was summoned, in which there were just six Protestants. All
the things of which they had dreamed for years were accomplished. The
Poynings Act was repealed. I