as early as the morning of Monday, October 14, 1678: the London
Saturday post arrived at Tixall on Monday morning. Two gentlemen,
Birch and Turton, averred that the news of the murder 'was all over
the country' near Tixall, on Tuesday, October 15; but Turton was not
sure that he did not hear first of the fact on Friday, October 18,
which, by ordinary post from London, was impossible.

*State Trials, vii. 1406.

Such was the evidence to show that Dugdale spoke of Godfrey's death,
in the country, two or three days before Godfrey's body was found.
The fact can scarcely be said to be PROVED, considering the
excitement of men's minds, the fallacies of memory, the silence of
Dugdale at his first examination before the Council, Sanbidge's
refusal to corroborate Chetwyn, and Wilson's inability to remember
anything about a matter so remarkable and so recent. To deny, like
Sanbidge, to be unable to remember, like Wilson, demanded some
courage, in face of the frenzied terror of the Protestants. Birch
confessedly took no notice of the rumour, when it first reached him,
but at the trial of Green, Berry, and Hill, 'I told several
gentlemen that I did perfectly remember before Thursday it was
discoursed of in the country by several gentlemen where I lived.'*
The 'several gentlemen' whom Birch 'told' were not called to
corroborate him. In short, the evidence seems to fall short of
demonstrative proof.

*State Trials. vii. 1455.

But, if it were all true, L'Estrange (and a writer who made the
assertion in 1681) collected a good deal of evidence* to show that a