Reign of Charles II. (Continued) page 9

From the moment that some obscure indications of a secret league betwixt the king and Louis of France had emerged to the light, the people were haunted by fears and rumours of plots, and designs against the national liberty. Especially since the duke of York had avowed himself a catholic, and the king had a French catholic mistress, and spent much time with the French ambassador, Barillon, in her apartments, there were continual apprehensions of an attempt to introduce popery, and to suppress the public freedom by a standing army. The country was nearer the mark than it was aware of, and had it come by any chance to the knowledge of the full truth, that their monarch was the bond slave of France, to favour its ambitious designs of averting the balance of power on the continent, and extending the French empire, at the expense of its neighbours, to the widest boundary of the empire of Charlemagne, the immediate consequence would have been revolution, and the expulsion of the Stuarts a few years earlier. But as the real facts were kept in profound secrecy, all manner of vague rumours rose from the facts themselves, like smoke from c, hidden fire.

There was a party, moreover, in the country, called the country party, or, in our modern phrase, the opposition, which now included several of the displaced statesmen of the cabal, especially Buckingham and Shaftesbury. These men had no scruples to withhold them from embarrassing the government, and in particular for anathematising their successful rival, the lord treasurer Danby. They knew well the secret which the public only suspected; but they had been too much mixed up with it to render it safe to reveal too much of it. But enough might be employed to destroy the prime minister, and to effect another defeat - the exclusion of the duke of York and a papist succession. Shaftesbury had a restless genius for plots and stratagems, which he had often employed when in office to the king's admiration, and which now, there can be little doubt, after surveying the whole of the extraordinary events which took place, he exerted for the great objects which we have adverted to.

To destroy Danby, who was thoroughly antigallican in his policy; to exclude James from the throne and secure a Protestant succession; to compel the king to rule by a Protestant government, and to have recourse to parliament for support; there certainly appeared nothing more likely than to raise a terror of a papist conspiracy, and to link it sufficiently with suspicious connection with France. All this was done with wonderful effect, and amid a wonderful exhibition of strange events, except that of excluding James from the throne, and even that was all but accomplished. Few, we think, on a careful review of the whole drama of the plots, can avoid coming to the conclusion that the conception of the scheme was due to the fertile mind of Shaftesbury, and its execution to the same master of chicane, assisted by the unscrupulous Buckingham.

On the 12th of August, as the king was walking in the park, one Kirby, a chemist, who had been occasionally employed in the royal laboratory, and therefore was known to Charles, approached and said, "Sir, keep within the company. Your enemies have a design upon your life, and you may be shot in this very walk." Charles stepped aside with him, and asked him the meaning of his words. He replied that two men, Grove and Pickering, had engaged to shoot him, and that Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, had agreed to poison him. Charles showed very little change of manner or countenance, but told Kirby to meet him that evening at the house of Chiffinch, his well- known procurer, and pursued his walk. In the evening Kirby repeated what he had said, and added that he received the information from Dr. Tongue, rector of St. Michael's, in Wood Street, who was well known to several persons about the court. This Dr. Tongue was a singular mixture of cunning and credulity, who had long been an alarmist, and who had printed yearly and quarterly pamphlets against the Jesuits, "to alarm and awaken his majesty and the two houses." Tongue was sent for, and brought a mass of papers, divided into forty-three articles, giving a narrative of the conspiracy, which he pretended had been thrust under his door. That he did not know the author, but thought he had a clue to him. Charles referred him and his voluminous papers to Danby, and to him Tongue repeated the story of Grove, otherwise called Honest William, and Pickering, and said he would find out their abode, or point them out when walking, according to their daily custom, in the park. Orders were given to arrest these assassins, but they did not appear, and Tongue gave various frivolous reasons for their non-appearance. It was said that they were gone to Windsor, but they could not be found there. Charles came at once to the conclusion that the whole was a hoax, and when Danby requested permission to lay the narrative before the privy council, he replied, "No, not even before my brother! It would only create alarm, and might put the design of murdering me into somebody's head."

The contempt which the king showed and expressed for the whole affair, might have caused it to drop, but there was unquestionably a party at work behind, which would not Buffer it to cease. Tongue informed Danby that he had met with the person whom he suspected of having drawn up the papers; that he had given him a more particular account of the conspiracy, but he begged that his name might be concealed, lest the papists should murder him. He moreover assured Danby that on a certain day a packet of treasonable letters would pass through the post-office at Windsor, addressed to Beddingfield, the confessor of the duke of York. Danby hastened to Windsor to intercept the packet, but found it already in the hands of the king. Bedding- field had delivered them to the duke, saying that the papers appeared to contain treasonable matter, and that they certainly were not in the hands of the persons whose names they bore. The duke carried them at once to the king.

These papers now underwent a close examination, and the result was that all were convinced that they were gross forgeries. One was clearly in the same hand as the papers presented before by Tongue; the rest, though in a feigned hand, bore sufficient evidence of being the work of the same person. The king was more than ever convinced that the whole was a hoax, and desired that no further notice might be taken of it. Kirby frequently made his appearance at court, but Charles always passed him without notice. As there appeared no prospect of proceeding with the matter at court, the person who had conveyed the papers to Dr. Tongue, now went to Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, an active justice of the peace of Westminster, and made affidavit not only of the truth of the former papers, but also of thirty-eight more articles, making altogether eighty-one articles. This mysterious person now appeared as one Titus Oates, a clergyman, and it was ascertained that he had been lodging at Kirby's, at Vauxhall, and that Dr. Tongue had also retired thither, on the plea of concealment from the papists. Godfrey, on perceiving that Coleman, secretary to the late duchess of York, and a friend of his own, was named in the affidavit as a chief conspirator, immediately communicated the fact to Coleman, and Coleman communicated it to the duke of York.

James was now more than ever convinced, that whatever were the plot, its object was to bring the catholics into odium, and lead to his exclusion from the throne, and demanded of Charles that it should be inquired into. Danby now seemed to favour the king's view of keeping it quiet, but this only led James to suspect that the minister wished to keep it back till the meeting of parliament, when its disclosure might assist an impeachment with which he was menaced. Charles, at the duke's renewed entreaty, reluctantly ordered Tongue and Oates to appear before the privy council. Accordingly Titus Oates, soon to become so notorious, appeared before the council on the 28th of September, 1678, in a clerical gown and a new suit of clothes, and with an astonishing assurance delivered in writing the following strange narrative: - That the pope claimed Great Britain and Ireland on the ground of the heresy of the prince and people, and had ordered the Jesuits to take possession of it for him; that De Oliva, general of the order, had arranged everything for this purpose, and had named, under the seal of the Society, all the persons to fill the offices of the state. Lord Arundel was created lord chancellor; lord Powis, treasurer; Sir William Godolphin, privy seal; Coleman, secretary of state; lord Bellasis, general of the army; lord Peters, lieutenant-general; lord Stafford, paymaster. All inferior offices, and all the dignities of the church were filled up, and many of them with Spaniards and other foreigners. That the Jesuits were dispersed all over Ireland, organising insurrections and massacres; Scotland under the guise of covenanters; Holland raising a French party against the prince of Orange, and in England preparing for the murder of the king, and of the duke, too, if he did not consent to the scheme. That they had no lack of money. They had one hundred thousand pounds in the bank, had sixty thousand pounds in yearly rents, had received from La Chaise, the confessor Of the French king, a donation of ten thousand pounds, and a promise from De Corduba, the provincial of New Castile, of as much more. That in March last a man named Honest William and Pickering, a lay brother, had been commissioned to shoot the king at Windsor, and had been severely punished for the failure of the attempt. That on the 24th of April a grand consultation had been held by Jesuits from all parts, at the White Horse Tavern in the Strand, to decide on the most effectual mode of killing the king; that three sets of assassins were engaged - the two already mentioned, two Benedictine monks, Corners and Anderton, and four Irishmen of unknown name. That ten thousand pounds had been offered to Wakeman, the queen's physician, to poison the king, but he had refused under fifteen thousand pounds, which was agreed to, and five thousand pounds had been paid down. He had often seen Wakeman since amongst the Jesuits. The Irish assassins were to receive twenty guineas each for stabbing the king; Honest William was to receive fifteen hundred pounds, and Pickering thirty thousand masses, valued at the same sum. They were to shoot the king with silver bullets. A wager, he said, was laid that the king should eat no more Christmas pies, and that if he would not become R. C. (Roman catholic, or Rex Catholicus), he should no longer be C. R. That Oates averred he had gone to the Jesuits at Valladolid, thence with letters from them to Burgos, thence to Madrid, back to England, thence had gone to St. Omer, and back to England with fresh instructions. They made him cognisant of their plans for the murder, and he saw on their papers all the names signed. That since his return he had discovered that they set fire to London in 1666, and had used seven hundred fire-balls, familiarly called Tewkesbury mustard pills, as containing a notable biting sauce. That their success encouraged them to set fire to Southwark in 1676, by which they had gained two thousand pounds above their expenses, as they had, by carrying off diamonds in the London fire, made fourteen thousand pounds. They had now a plan to set fire to Wapping, Westminster, and the ships in the river. That there were twenty thousand catholics in London, who had engaged to rise in twenty-four hours or less, and could easily cut the throats of one hundred thousand protestants. In Scotland eight thousand catholics had agreed to take arms; a general massacre of protestants was planned in Ireland; Ormond was to be murdered; forty thousand black bills were provided for the Irish massacre, and Coleman had sent thither two hundred thousand pounds. Poole, the author of the "Synopsis," Dr. Stillingfleet, and De Brunt were also to be put to death.

The recital of this astounding story was listened to with amazement and incredulity. The listeners looked at one another in wonder, at the audacity of the man who could relate such horrible and improbable designs, and expect to be believed, after the account which he gave of the mode by which he professed to obtain his information. This was that he had feigned a conversion to discover the designs of the Jesuits; had been duly admitted to the priesthood and to their monasteries, and finally intrusted with the conveyance of their diabolical messages. The duke of York declared the whole to be a most impudent imposture, but others thought no man in his senses would come forward with such a startling tale, and implicate so many persons of consideration without some grounds. Where, they demanded, were his proofs? Where, those papers which had been confided to him, which would be evidence against the traitors? Oates confessed that he had no such papers, but that he would undertake to procure abundance if he were furnished with warrants and officers to arrest the persons whom he had accused, and seize their papers. 'This was accorded, and the next day the inquiry went on. It was objected to the letters seized at Windsor, that they were written in feigned hands, and were full of orthographical errors; Oates replied that that was the art of the Jesuits, who gave such documents a suspicious look, that if discovered they might pretend that they were forged. But Charles, who became even more persuaded that the thing was got up, asked Oates what sort of a man Don John was, as he professed to have been introduced to him at Madrid. Oates replied at once that he was tall, dark, and thin. The king turned to the duke and smiled, for they both were well acquainted with Don John's person, which had more of the Austrian than the Spaniard, and was fair, stout, and short. "And where did you see La Chaise," added Charles, "pay down the ten thousand pounds from the French king?" "At the house of the Jesuits," replied Oates, unhesitatingly, "close to the Louvre." "Man!'' exclaimed Charles, who knew Paris better than Oates, "the Jesuits have no house within a mile of the Louvre."

These palpable blunders confirmed Charles in his opinion, and seemed to annihilate the veracity of Oates. The king, certain of the whole affair proving a sheer invention, went away to Newmarket, and left the duke and Danby to finish the inquiry. But they who had set Oates to work knew more than he did, and presently such confirmation was given to Oates's assertions, as astonished every one. At first, the clue appeared broken. On examining the papers of Harcourt, the provincial of the Jesuits, nothing bearing the slightest indications of a plot could be discovered; but not so with the papers of Coleman. This man was the son of a clergyman in Suffolk, who had turned catholic, and was not only appointed secretary to the duchess of York, but after her death was much in the confidence of James. Coleman was undoubtedly a great dabbler in conspiracy. He had maintained a correspondence with father La Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV. with the pope's nuncio at Brussels, and other catholics, for the re-establishment of the catholic religion in England, and he made himself a centre of intelligence to the catholics at home and abroad. He lived in great style, and his table was frequented by the whig members during the sitting of parliament. He sent weekly news letters to the catholics in various quarters, and made in them the severest remarks on the ambition of the French king and the conduct of the English government. Yet all this time he was importuning Louis to furnish money for the establishment of the catholic church in England again. He obtained three thousand five hundred pounds from the bankers whom Charles had broken faith with on the shutting of the exchequer, on pretence of influence with parliament, and two thousand five hundred pounds from Barillon, to distribute amongst members of parliament.