On Monday, September 30, Oates was again examined before the council, and again coursed London for Jesuits. The town was by this time thoroughly alarmed. Coleman’s papers were regarded by the council as of high importance. They shewed at any rate that Oates had known of his correspondence with La Chaize, and seemed evidence of a serious state of affairs. In the streets they were taken as proof of his every statement. Catholics who had sneered at the disclosure began to realise that the charges against Coleman were heavy and that he was in danger of his life.[134] The Protestant mob of London was convinced that the charges against all accused were true. The Duchess of York started on a visit to the Princess of Orange in Holland. It was said that she was smuggling guilty priests out of the country. A fever seemed to be in men’s minds. Freedom of speech vanished. To doubt the truth of the discovery was dangerous. Opinions favourable to the Catholics were not to be uttered without risk. The household of the Duke of York was in consternation, and James himself gloomy and disquiet. Orders were sent into the country to search the houses of Catholics for weapons. Sir John Reresby hurried to town with his family to be on the scene of a ferment the greatness whereof none but an eye-witness could conceive. “In fine,” wrote Lord Peterborough, “hell was let loose; malice, revenge, and ambition were supported by all that falsehood and perjury could contrive; and lastly, it was the most deplorable time that was ever seen in England.” Oates was hailed as the saviour of the nation and was lodged with Dr. Tonge in Whitehall under a guard. “One might,” exclaimed North, “have denied Christ with less contest than the Plot.” To add to the general confusion the king left for the races at Newmarket, scandalising all by his indecent levity. During his absence Dr. Burnet paid Tonge a visit in his lodgings at Whitehall. He found the poor man so much uplifted that he seemed to have lost the little sense he ever had. Oates appeared and was introduced. He had already received a visit from Evelyn. The courtier found him “furiously indiscreet.” Burnet received the flattering intelligence that he had been specially marked by the Jesuits for death; the same had been said of Stillingfleet; but the divines thought the compliment cheap when they found that it had been paid also to Ezrael Tonge. The informer burst into a torrent of fury against the Jesuits and swore he would have their blood. Disliking the strain, Burnet turned the conversation to ask what arguments had prevailed upon him to join the Church of Rome. Whereupon Oates stood up and, laying his hands on his breast, declared: God and his holy angels knew that he had never changed, but that he had gone over to the Roman Catholics to betray them.[135] The perjurer might well triumph. The days of his glory were beginning. On October 21 Parliament met. Before that time Godfrey, the magistrate