It does not appear that Bedloe, on November 7, knew the plot as invented by Oates, on which compare Mr. Pollock, p. 110, who thinks that 'it is quite possible that Charles II. deceived him,' Bishop Burnet, 'intentionally,' on this head (Burnet, ii. 745-746, 1725).
By printing 'he acquainted' instead of 'he acquainteth the Lords,' in the British Museum MS., and by taking the document, apparently, to be of November 7, Mr. Pollock has been led to an incorrect conclusion. I am obliged to Father Gerard, S.J., for a correct transcript of the British Museum MS.; see also Note iii., 'The Jesuit Murderers,' at the end of this chapter, and Father Gerard's The Popish Plot and its Latest Historian (Longman's, 1903).
Bedloe here asserts distinctly that one accomplice was an official of the Queen's chapel, in her residence, Somerset House: a kind of verger, in a purple gown. This is highly important, for the man whom he later pretended to recognise as this accomplice was not a 'waiter,' did not 'wear a purple gown;' and, by his own account, 'was not in the chapel once a month.' Bedloe's recognition of him, therefore, was worthless. He said that Godfrey was smothered with a pillow, or two pillows, in a room in Somerset House, for the purpose of securing 'the examinations' that Godfrey had taken. 'Coleman and Lord Bellasis advised to destroy him.' His informant was Le Fevre. One Walsh (a 'Jesuit'), Le Fevre, Lord Bellasis's man, and 'the chapel keeper' did the deed. The chapel keeper carried him' (Godfrey) 'off.' 'HE DID NOT SEE HIM' (Godfrey)
'AFTER HE WAS DEAD.'
On the following day Bedloe told his tale at the bar of the House of Lords. He now, contradicting himself, swore THAT HE SAW GODFREY'S DEAD BODY IN SOMERSET HOUSE. He was offered 2,000 guineas to help to carry him off. This was done by chairmen, 'retainers to Somerset House,' on Monday night (October 14).*
*Pollock, p. 387, Lords' Journals, xiii. p. 343.
On that night, Bedloe saw Samuel Atkins, Mr. Pepys's clerk, beside the corpse, by the light of a dark lantern. Atkins had an alibi, so Bedloe shuffled, and would not swear to him.
On November 14, before the Lords' Committee, Bedloe again gave evidence. The 2,100 pounds were now 4,000 pounds offered to Bedloe, by Le Fevre, early in October, to kill a man. The attendant in the Queen's chapel was at the scene (a pure figment) of the corpse exposed under the dark lantern. The motive of the murder was to seize Godfrey's examinations, which he said he had sent to Whitehall. At a trial which followed in February 1679, Mr.
Robinson, who had known Godfrey for some forty years, deposed that he had said to him, 'I understand you have taken several examinations.' 'Truly,' said he, 'I have.' 'Pray, Sir, have you the examinations about you, will you please to let me see them?'
'No, I have them not, I delivered them to a person of quality.'*
*State Trials, vii. 168.
This person of quality was not the Duke of York, for it may be noted that, on the day before his disappearance, Godfrey had, in fact, received back from the Lord Chief Justice the original copy of Oates's depositions. This copy was found in his house, after his death, and handed over by his brother to the Government.* To get the examinations was always the motive of the murder, with Bedloe.
The hour of Godfrey's death was now 2 P.M.; now 3, or 4, or 5 P.M., on October 12. The body was hidden in various rooms of Somerset House, or under the high altar in the Queen's Chapel. The discrepancies never affected the faith given to Bedloe.
*Lords' MSS., Hist. MSS. Commission Report, xi. Appendix, part ii., pp. 2,3.
At the end of December came in a new accomplice-witness. This was an Irishman, Miles Prance, a silversmith, who had a business among Catholics, and worked for the Queen's Chapel. Unlike all the other informers, Prance had hitherto been an ordinary fellow enough, with a wife and family, not a swindling debauchee. He was arrested on December 21, on information given by John Wren, a lodger of his, with whom he had quarrelled. Wren had noticed that Prance lay out of his own house while Godfrey was missing, which Prance admitted to be true.*
*Op. cit. p. 51. Prance both said, and denied, that he slept out while Sir Edmund was missing. He was flurried and self- contradictory.
Bedloe, passing through a room in the House of Commons, saw Prance in custody, and at once pretended to recognise in him the 'chapel keeper,' 'under waiter,' or 'man in the purple gown,' whom he had seen by the light of a dark lantern, beside Godfrey's body, in a room of Somerset House, on October 14. 'There was very little light' on that occasion, Bedloe had said, and he finally refused, we saw, to swear to Atkins, who had an alibi. But, as to Prance, he said: 'This is one of the rogues that I saw with a dark lantern about the body of Sir Edmund, but he was then in a periwig.'* The periwig was introduced in case Prance had an alibi: Oates had used the same 'hedge,' 'a periwig doth disguise a man very much,' in Coleman's case.**
*L'Estrange, iii. pp. 52, 53, 65.
**State Trials, vii. 27.
What was Bedloe's recognition of Prance worth? Manifestly nothing!
He had probably seen Prance (not as a 'waiter') in the Queen's Chapel. Now he found him in custody. Cautious as regards Atkins, six weeks earlier, Bedloe was emboldened now by a train of successes. He had sworn away Coleman's life. His self- contradictions had been blindly swallowed. If Prance could prove an alibi, what was that to Bedloe? The light of the dark lantern had been very bad; the rogue, under that light, had worn a periwig, which 'doth disguise a man very much.' Bedloe could safely say that he had made an innocent error. Much worse blunders had not impaired his credit; later he made much worse blunders, undetected. He saw his chance and took it.