him in answer to this a corrected version of the evidence which the accused had drawn up for his actual use at their trials. Bedloe without looking at the paper handed it at once to Mr. Speke, who carried it to a committee room in the House of Lords for examination.[661] This paper was read in court, and proved to contain an amended version of Bedloe’s testimony so vague and slight that it could not have possibly been of any use to the prosecution.[662] Reading’s defence was sufficiently feeble. He was treated by the bench with the greatest indulgence and allowed to make a lengthy and unsupported discourse on Bedloe’s character. It is noteworthy that he objected to the witness not on the ground that he had perjured himself in holding back evidence at the trial of Whitebread, Fenwick, and Ireland, but on account of treasonable practices, which were covered by his pardon. He protested that the first proposal of the intrigue came from Bedloe, and that he only joined in it to prevent the shedding of innocent blood. The estate in Gloucestershire spoken of had been promised by Lord Stafford to himself, if he obtained his acquittal, and not to Bedloe, though hardly it seemed without the understanding that the informer was to have some share in it. He would have thought it a crime not to engage in the business; it was a duty which he owed to God and his country. By saying this he practically confessed to the whole indictment, and after a concise summing up the jury immediately returned a verdict of guilty. Reading was sentenced to be pilloried, to pay a fine of £1000, and to imprisonment for one year.[663]