ing; and that Court favour at least,
and probably popular opinion also, were likely, in a short time, to
declare against the witnesses, and in favour of the accused.

The opinion which Scroggs had hitherto entertained of the high respect
in which Shaftesbury, the patron of the Plot, was held by Charles,
had been definitely shaken by a whisper from his brother North to the
following effect: "His Lordship has no more interest at Court than your
footman."

This notice, from a sure hand, and received but that morning, had
put the Judge to a sore dilemma; for, however indifferent to actual
consistency, he was most anxious to save appearances. He could not but
recollect how violent he had been on former occasions in favour of these
prosecutions; and being sensible at the same time that the credit of
the witnesses, though shaken in the opinion of the more judicious, was,
amongst the bulk of the people out of doors, as strong as ever, he had a
difficult part to play. His conduct, therefore, during the whole trial,
resembled the appearance of a vessel about to go upon another tack,
when her sails are shivering in the wind, ere they have yet caught the
impulse which is to send her forth in a new direction. In a word, he was
so uncertain which side it was his interest to favour, that he might be
said on that occasion to have come nearer a state of total impartiality
than he was ever capable of attaining, whether before or afterwards.
This was shown by his bullying now the accused, and now the witnesses,
like a mastiff too much irritated to lie still without baying, but
uncertain whom he shall first bite.

The indictment was then read; and Sir Geoffrey Peveril heard, with some
composure, the first part of it, which stated him to have placed his son
in the household of the Countess of Derby, a recusant Papist, for the
purpose of aiding the horrible and bloodthirsty Popish Plot--with having
had arms and ammunition concealed in his house--and with receiving
a blank commission from the Lord Stafford, who had suffered death on
account of the Plot. But when the charge went on to state that he had
communicated for the same purpose with Geoffrey Hudson, sometimes called
Sir Geoffrey Hudson, now, or formerly in the domestic service of the
Queen Dowager, he looked at his companion as if he suddenly recalled him
to remembrance, and broke out impatiently, "These lies are too gross
to require a moment's consideration. I might have had enough