teward to Lord Aston, and, though poor, possessed a character
somewhat more reputable than the other two: but his account of the
intended massacres and assassinations was equally monstrous and
incredible. He even asserted, that two hundred thousand Papists in
England were ready to take arms. The prisoners proved by sixteen
witnesses from St. Omers, students, and most of them young men of
family, that Oates was in that seminary at the time when he swore
that he was in London: but as they were Catholics and disciples of the
Jesuits, their Testimony, both with the judges and jury, was totally
disregarded. Even the reception which they met with in the court was
full of outrage and mockery. One of them saying, that Oates always
continued at St. Omers, if he could believe his senses, "You Papists,"
said the chief justice, "are taught not to believe your senses." It must
be confessed that Oates, in opposition to the students of St. Omers,
found means to bring evidence of his having been at that time in London:
but this evidence, though it had at that time the appearance of some
solidity, was afterwards discovered, when Oates himself was tried for
perjury, to be altogether deceitful. In order further to discredit
that witness, the Jesuits proved, by undoubted testimony, that he had
perjured himself in Father Ireland's trial, whom they showed to have
been in Staffordshire at the very, time when Oates swore that he was
committing treason in London. But all these pleas availed them nothing
against the general prejudices. They received sentence of death, and
were executed, persisting to their last breath in the most solemn,
earnest, and deliberate, though disregarded protestations of their
innocence.

The next trial was that of Langhorne, an eminent lawyer, by whom all the
concerns of the Jesuits were managed. Oates and Bedloe swore, that all
the Papal commissions by which the chief offices in England were filled
with Catholics, passed through his hands. When verdict was given
against the prisoner, the spectators expressed their savage joy by loud
acclamations. So high indeed had the popular rage mounted, that the
witnesses for this unhappy man, on approaching the court, were almost
torn in pieces by the rabble: one in particular was bruised to such a
degree, as to put his life in danger. And another, a woman, declared
that, unless the court could afford her protection, she durst not give
evidence: but as the judges could go no fur