examinant did tell Child that Secretary Pepys would speak with him; and the next time that this examinant did see the said Child (after he had given him that direction) he, the said Child, did endeavour to engage the said examinant to join him in the murder of a man.”[184] The quarrel between Pepys and Godfrey, he said further, was occasioned by the discovery of the Popish Plot.[185] Samuel Atkins was immediately carried before the committee of inquiry of the House of Lords. The conduct of the committee reflected anything but credit upon its members. An account of the proceedings in his case was afterwards drawn up by Atkins for Mr. Pepys.[186] In the course of them he had been subjected to great annoyance and ill-treatment; he had been imprisoned for a considerable length of time, and had been tried for his life. Every motive was present to induce him to be unfair towards the instigators of his prosecution. Even if he were perfectly honest in drawing up his account, it could hardly be an accurate relation of what took place. The careful literary form in which it is written shows that he arranged it elaborately and revised it often. Since his papers were twice taken from him in prison, he must have composed it afterwards from memory.[187] But after full allowance is made for this, the statement probably represents with considerable truth what took place. It was not written for publication as a controversial pamphlet, but for Pepys’ private information. Atkins was likely therefore to attempt as far as possible to tell the truth. Moreover the conclusions to be drawn from it are supported by a consideration of the evidence produced in the case and the trial in which it ended.[188] Atkins indignantly denied the whole story. He was several times called before the committee, and received considerable attention from the Earl of Shaftesbury himself, its most prominent member. Noble lords and reverend bishops alternately coaxed him to confess and threatened him with the awful consequences of a refusal. Plain hints were given to him that both he and his master must certainly be papists, and that he had only to admit their complicity in Godfrey’s murder to gain liberty, pardon, and prosperity. In the intervals he was remanded to Newgate to reflect upon the best means of getting out of it. Before he knew what reception his revelations would find with the parties, Oates had taken care to exonerate the Duke of York from all concern in the plot. It would be a fine stroke for Shaftesbury, with whose schemes this did not at all accord, if he could implicate the duke in the murder. If only Atkins could be brought to accuse Pepys, the duke, under whom he had worked for many years at the Admiralty, would offer an easy mark.