hing, by the Papists.'

Oates immediately became a man of great consequence. He was called the
saviour of the nation, had lodgings given him at Whitehall, and a pension
from parliament of L1200 a year. But the more cool and circumspect could
not forget the notorious infamy of his character, or implicitly rely on
the word of a man who openly confessed that he had gone among the Jesuits,
and declared himself a convert to their faith merely to betray them. But
with the populace his credit was unbounded. The more incredible his
fictions, the better they suited the vulgar appetite. In this sort of
narrative, as Hume truly remarks, a fool was more likely to succeed than a
wise man. Accompanied by his guards, for being supposed to be a special
object of popish enmity, guards had been assigned him, he walked about in
great dignity, attired as a priest, and 'whoever he pointed at was taken
up and committed; so that many people got out of his way as from a blast,
and glad they could prove their two last years' conversation. The very
breath of him was pestilential, and if it brought not imprisonment or
death over such on whom it fell, it surely poisoned reputation, and left
good Protestants arrant papists, and something worse than that, in danger
of being put in the plot as traitors.'[1]

[1] North's 'Examen.'

Parliament was opened three days after Godfrey's murder, and immediately
voted that it was of opinion that there had been, and was 'a damnable and
hellish plot;' and every day, both forenoon and afternoon, a session was
held at which the whole matter was discussed. The arrests were numerous,
and among others were several papist lords, and Sir George Wakeman, the
physician to the queen. Even the Duke of York and the Queen herself were
accused by Oates as traitors and accomplices. These stories meeting such
general credence, and rewards being heaped upon the author, others, as
might have been expected, soon followed his example. The most notorious of
these minor perjurers was one Bedlow, who pretended to know the secret of
Godfrey's murder. When first examined he knew nothing of the Plot, but
told a ridiculous story about forty thousand men who were coming over to
England from Spain. The next day, however, his knowledge was greatly
increased, and he pretended to be as fully informed of all the particulars
of the Plot as Oates himself. As we shall see by and by, whatever the
bolder villain swore to, his subordinate confir