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The testimonies and the sins of the day were not forgotten the mysterious murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey was insisted upon and thanks and praise were offered, that the very night on which they were assembled, had not seen another offering of a Protestant magistrate, to the bloodthirsty fury of revengeful Catholics.
"A pistol-shot!" exclaimed Topham; "here might have been a second Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey's matter. Oh, thou real spawn of the red old dragon! for he too would have resisted the House's warrant, had we not taken him something at unawares. Master Bridgenorth, you are a judicious magistrate, and a worthy servant of the state I would we had many such sound Protestant justices.
But the general ferment was still more increased by the disappearance of an eminent justice of the peace, who had taken the depositions of Oates against Coleman. Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey was found dead, and with every mark of violence, in a field near London, and was probably murdered by some fanatical persons in the communion of the Church of Rome. But if so, the murder was a great blunder.
A circumstance now occurred which added tenfold to the excitement, and produced, in fact, a general consternation. This circumstance was the sudden and mysterious death of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, the justice who had taken the depositions of Oates in respect to the conspiracy.
I heard last night that there was news that many manors and the houses of men of law have been destroyed in Essex, and that the rioters have beheaded the Lord Chief-Justice of England, Sir John of Cambridge, and the Prior of St. Edmondsbury, and set tip their heads on poles in the market- place of Bury, and have destroyed all the charters and documents of the town.
At length the universal topic of the Popish Plot was started; upon which Ganlesse and Smith seemed to entertain the most opposite opinions. Ganlesse, if he did not maintain the authority of Oates in its utmost extent, contended, that at least it was confirmed in a great measure by the murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, and the letters written by Coleman to the confessor of the French King.
A few days later it was known that Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, an eminent justice of the peace who had taken the depositions of Oates against Coleman, had disappeared. Search was made; and Godfrey's corpse was found in a field near London. It was clear that he had died by violence. It was equally clear that he had not been set upon by robbers. His fate is to this day a secret.
"I do not incline to use a borrowed one, especially as I may meet with some one who knows my own." "I will call you Julian, then," said Master Ganlesse; "for Peveril will smell, in the nostrils of mine host, of idolatry, conspiracy, Smithfield faggots, fish on Fridays, the murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, and the fire of purgatory."
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