54

HISTOET OP ENGLAND.

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chap. was lying in prison as a debtor, without hope of release. Two1 1685 , bills of indictment against him for perjury had been found bythe grand jury of Middlesex, a few weeks before the death ofCharles. Soon after the close of the elections the trial came on.

Among the upper and middle classes Oates had scarcely afriend left. All intelligent Whigs were now convinced that,even if his narrative had some foundation in fact, he haderected on that foundation a vast superstructure of romance.A considerable number of low fanatics, however, still regardedhim as a public benefactor. These people well knew that, ifhe were convicted, his sentence would be one of extremeseverity, and were therefore indefatigable in their endeavoursto manage an escape. Though as yet in confinement only fordebt, he was put into irons by the authorities of the King’sBench prison; and even so he was with difficulty kept in safecustody. The mastiff that guarded his door was poisoned;and, on the very night preceding his trial, a ladder of ropeswas introduced into his cell.

On the day in which he was brought to the bar, Westmin-ster Hall was crowded with spectators, among whom weremany Roman Catholics, eager to see the misery and humilia-tion of their persecutor. * A few years earlier his short neck,his legs uneven as those of a badger, his forehead low as that ofa baboon, his purple cheeks, and his monstrous length of chin,had been familiar to all who frequented the courts of law.He bad then been the idol of the nation. Wherever he hadappeared men had uncovered their heads to him. The livesand estates of the magnates of the realm had been at his mercy.Times had now changed; and many, who had formerly re-garded him as the deliverer of his country, shuddered at thesight of those hideous features on which villany seemed to bewritten by the hand of God.**

* Evelyn’s Diary, May 7. 1685.

** There remain many pictures of Oates. The most striking descrip-