'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-