the original traces. The coroner's jury, which sat long and late,
on October 18 and 19, was advised by two surgeons, who probably,
like the rest of the world, were biassed by the belief that Godfrey
had been slain 'by the bloody Papists.' In the reign of mad terror
which followed, every one was apt to accommodate his evidence,
naturally, to that belief. If they did not, then, like the two
original finders, Bromwell and Walters, they might be thrown,
heavily ironed, into Newgate.*

*Lords' MSS. P. 47, note 1.

But when the Popish Plot was exploded, and Charles II. was firm on
his throne, still more under James II., every one was apt to be
biassed in the opposite direction, and to throw the guilt on the
fallen party of Oates, Bedloe, Dugdale, and the other deeply
perjured and infamous informers. Thus both the evidence of 1678-
1680, and that collected in 1684-1687, by Sir Roger L'Estrange, J.P.
(who took great trouble and was allowed access to the manuscript
documents of the earlier inquiries), must be regarded with
suspicion.*

*L'Estrange, Brief History of the Times, London, 1687.

The first question is cui bono? who had an interest in Godfrey's
death? Three parties had an interest, first, the Catholics (IF
Godfrey knew their secrets); next, the managers of the great Whig
conspiracy in favour of the authenticity of Oates's Popish Plot;
last, Godfrey himself, who was of an hereditary melancholy (his
father had suicidal tendencies), and who was involved in a quandary
whence he could scarcely hope to extricate himself with life and