The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies Part 7

*Life of James II., i. p. 534.

King James's tale agrees with the facts of Coleman's surrender. 'He came in voluntarily.' He did not appreciate the resources of civilisation at the service of the English law of treason: he had dabbled in intrigue without taking counsel's advice, and knowing for certain that Oates was an inconsistent liar, Coleman took his chance with a light heart.

However, not only did some of his letters bring him (though he could not understand the fact) within the elastic law of treason; but Oates's evidence was accepted when conspicuously false; Coleman was not allowed to produce his diary and prove an alibi as to one of Oates's accusations, and a new witness, Bedloe, a perjurer who rivalled Oates, had sprung up out of the filth of London streets. So Coleman swung for it, as G.o.dfrey, according to Wynell, had prophesied that he would.

Coleman's imprisonment began twelve days before G.o.dfrey's disappearance.

At Coleman's trial, late in November, a mere guess was given that G.o.dfrey was slain to prevent him (a Protestant martyr) from blabbing Catholic secrets. This cause of G.o.dfrey's taking off was not alleged by Bedloe. This man, a notorious cosmopolitan rogue, who had swindled his way through France and Spain, was first heard of in the G.o.dfrey case at the end of October. He wrote to the Secretaries of State from Bristol (L'Estrange says from Newbury on his way to Bristol), offering information, as pardon and reward had been promised to contrite accomplices in the murder. He came to town, and, on November 7, gave evidence before the King. Bedloe gave himself out as a Jesuit agent; concerning the Plot he added monstrous inventions to those of Oates.

'As to Sir Edmund G.o.dfrey; was promised 2,000 guineas to be in it by Le Fere' (Le Fevre, 'the Queen's confessor),' [by] 'my Lord Bellasis gentleman, AND THE YOUNGEST OF THE WAITERS IN THE QUEENE'S CHAPEL, IN A PURPLE GOWN, and to keep the people orderly.'*

*See Pollock, pp. 384, 387. The report is from Secretary Coventry's MSS., at Longleat. The evidence as to Bedloe's deposition before the King (November 7) is in a confused state. Mr. Pollock prints (pp. 383, 384, cf. p. 110) a doc.u.ment from 'Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 11058, f. 244.'

This is also given, with the same erroneous reference, by Mr. Foley, in Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. v. p. 30, note. The right reference is 11055. The doc.u.ment is quite erroneously printed, with variations in error, by Mr. Foley and Mr. Pollock. Bedloe really said that G.o.dfrey was lured into Somerset House Yard, not into 'some house yard' (Foley), or 'into a house yard' (Pollock). Bedloe, so far, agreed with Prance, but, in another set of notes on his deposition (Longleat MSS., Coventry Papers, xi. 272-274, Pollock, 384-387), he made Somerset House the scene of the murder. There are other errors. Mr.

Pollock and Mr. Foley make Bedloe accuse Father Eveley, S.J., in whom I naturally recognised Father Evers or Every, who was then at Tixall in Staffordshire. The name in the MS. is 'Welch,' not Eveley. The MS. was manifestly written not before September 12. 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 doc.u.ment, 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 a.s.serts 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 G.o.dfrey was smothered with a pillow, or two pillows, in a room in Somerset House, for the purpose of securing 'the examinations' that G.o.dfrey 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' (G.o.dfrey) 'off.' 'HE DID NOT SEE HIM' (G.o.dfrey) '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 G.o.dFREY'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 G.o.dfrey's examinations, which he said he had sent to Whitehall. At a trial which followed in February 1679, Mr. Robinson, who had known G.o.dfrey 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, G.o.dfrey 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 G.o.dfrey'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 G.o.dfrey 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, pa.s.sing 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 G.o.dfrey'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.

Prance, who denied everything, was hurried to Newgate, and thrown, without bed or covering, into the freezing 'condemned hole,' where he lay perishing of cold through the night of December 21, December 22, and the night of that day. On December 23, he offered, no wonder, to confess. He was examined by the Lords, and (December 24) by the Council.

Prance knew, all the world knew, the details about G.o.dfrey's bruises; the state of his neck, and the sword-thrusts. He knew that Bedloe had located the murder in Somerset House. As proclamations for the men accused by Bedloe had long been out, he MAY have guessed that Le Fevre, Walsh, and Pritchard were wanted for G.o.dfrey's murder, and had been denounced by Bedloe. But this is highly improbable, for nothing about G.o.dfrey's murder is hinted at in the proclamation for Le Fevre, Walsh, and Pritchard.* We have no reason, then, to suppose that Prance knew who the men were that Bedloe had accused; consequently he had to select other victims, innocent men of his acquaintance. But, as a tradesman of the Queen, Prance knew her residence, Somerset House, the courts, outer stairs, pa.s.sages, and so on. He knew that Bedloe professed to have recognised him there in the scene of the dark lantern.

*Lords' Journals, xiii. p. 346; Lords' MSS., p. 59.

Prance had thus all the materials of a confession ready made, but not of a confession identical with Bedloe's. He was 'one of the most acute and audacious of the Jesuit agents,' says Mr. Pollock.* Yet Mr. Pollock argues that for Prance to tell the tale which he did tell, in his circ.u.mstances of cold and terror, required a most improbable 'wealth of mental equipment,' 'phenomenal powers of memory, imagination, and coolness,' if the tale was false.** Therefore Prance's story of the murder was true, except in the details as to the men whom he accused.

On December 24, he was taken to the places which he described (certainly lying in his tale), and preserved consistency, though, after long search, he could not find one of the rooms in which he said that the corpse was laid.***

*Pollock, p.166.

**Ibid. p. 146.

***Lords' Journals, xii. pp. 436-438.

As Prance, by Mr. Pollock's theory, was one of the most acute of Jesuit agents, and as he had all the materials, and all the knowledge necessary for a confession, he had, obviously, no difficulty in making up his evidence. Even by Mr. Pollock's showing, he was cool and intellectual enough; for, on that showing, he adapted into his narrative, very subtly, circ.u.mstances which were entirely false. If, as Mr. Pollock holds, Prance was astute enough to make a consistent patchwork of fact and lie, how can it be argued that, with the information at his command, he could not invent a complete fiction?

Again, Prance, by misstating dates wildly, hoped, says Mr. Pollock, to escape as a mere liar.* But, when Prance varied in almost every detail of time, place, motive, and person from Bedloe, Mr. Pollock does not see that his own explanation holds for the variations. If Prance wished to escape as a babbling liar, he could not do better than contradict Bedloe. He DID, but the Protestant conscience swallowed the contradictions. But again, if Prance did not know the details of Bedloe's confession, how could he possibly agree with it?

*Pollock, p. 160.

The most essential point of difference was that Bedloe accused 'Jesuits,' Le Fevre, Walsh, and Pritchard, who had got clean away.

Prance accused two priests, who escaped, and three hangers on of Somerset House, Hill, Berry (the porter), and Green. All three were hanged, and all three confessedly were innocent. Mr. Pollock reasons that Prance, if guilty (and he believes him guilty), 'must have known the real authors' of the crime, that is, the Jesuits accused by Bedloe.

'He must have accused the innocent, not from necessity, but from choice, and in order to conceal the guilty.' 'He knew Bedloe to have exposed the real murderers, and... he wished to shield them.'* How did he know whom Bedloe had exposed? How could he even know the exact spot, a room in Somerset House, where Bedloe placed the murder? Prance placed it in Somerset YARD.

*Pollock, p. 148.

It is just as easy to argue, on Mr. Pollock's other line, that Prance varied from Bedloe in order that the inconsistencies might prove his own falsehood. But we have no reason to suppose that Prance did know the details of Bedloe's confession, as to the motive of the murder, the hour, the exact spot, and the names of the criminals. Later he told L'Estrange a palpable lie: Bedloe's confession had been shown to him before he made his own. If that were true, he purposely contradicted Bedloe in detail. But Mr. Pollock rejects the myth. Then how did Prance know the details given by Bedloe?* Ignorant of Bedloe's version, except in two or three points, Prance could not but contradict it. He thus could not accuse Bedloe's Jesuits. He did not name other men, as Mr.

Pollock holds, to shield the Jesuits. Practically they did not need to be shielded. Jesuits with seven weeks' start of the law were safe enough. Even if they were caught, were guilty, and had the truth extracted from them, involving Prance, the truth about HIM would come out, whether he now denounced them or not. But he did not know that Bedloe had denounced them.

*Pollock, pp. 142, 143.

Mr. Pollock's theory of the relation of Bedloe to G.o.dfrey's murder is this: Bedloe had no hand in the murder, and never saw the corpse. The crime was done in Somerset House, 'the Queen's confessor,' Father Le Fevre, S.J., having singular facilities for entering, with his friends, and carrying a dead body out 'through a private door'--a door not mentioned by any witnesses, nor proved to exist by the evidence of a chart. This Le Fevre, with Walsh, lived in the same house as Bedloe.

From them, Bedloe got his information. 'It is easy to conjecture how he could have obtained it. Walsh and Le Fevre were absent from their rooms, for a considerable part of the nights of Sat.u.r.day and Wednesday, October 12 and 16. Bedloe's suspicions must have been aroused, and, either by threats or cajolery, he wormed part of the secret out of his friends.

He obtained a general idea of the way in which the murder had been committed and of the persons concerned in it. One of these was a frequenter of the Queen's chapel whom he knew by sight. He thought him to be a subordinate official there.'*

*Pollock, pp. 157, 158.

On this amount of evidence Bedloe invented his many contradictions. Why he did not cleave to the facts imparted to him by his Jesuit friends, we do not learn. 'A general idea of the way in which the murder was committed' any man could form from the state of G.o.dfrey's body. There was no reason why Walsh and Le Fevre 'should be absent from their rooms on a considerable part of the night of Sat.u.r.day 12,' and so excite Bedloe's suspicions, for, on his versions, they slew G.o.dfrey at 2 P.M., 5 P.M., or any hour between. No proof is given that they were in their lodgings, or in London, during the fortnight which followed Oates's three successful Jesuit drives of September 28-30. In all probability they had fled from London before G.o.dfrey's murder. No evidence can I find that Bedloe's Jesuits were at their lodgings on October 12-16. They were not sought for there, but at Somerset House.* Two sisters, named Salvin, were called before the Lords' Committee, and deposed that Bedloe and Le Fevre had twice been at their house when Walsh said ma.s.s there.**

*Lords' Journals, xiii. pp. 343 346.