was so feeble that it was never even proposed to call the man Child. An attempt was made to show that Atkins was a Roman Catholic, but failed ignominiously.[212] The prisoner called Captain Vittells and one of his men, who proved an alibi in the most decisive manner; the Attorney-General threw up his case, and the jury without leaving the bar returned a verdict of not guilty.[213] Sir William Jones was anxious that no one should go away with the opinion that the king’s evidence had been disproved. The Lord Chief Justice supported him. He pointed out that Bedloe had not been contradicted, and that every one who appeared at the trial might speak the truth and the prisoner yet be perfectly innocent.[214] What he did not say, and what neither he nor many others thought, was that Bedloe might equally be telling the grossest falsehoods. CHAPTER III BEDLOE AND PRANCE The change in the situation had been caused by the appearance of a witness whose evidence about the murder was of the greatest weight, and whose position in the intrigues of the Popish Plot has always been of some obscurity. Bedloe’s information was already of a startling character. It was as follows. Early in October he had been offered by two Jesuits, Walsh and Le Fevre, the sum of £4000 to assist in killing a man “that was a great obstacle to their designs.” He gave his word that he would do so, but when on Friday, October 11, Le Fevre told him to be ready at four o’clock the next day to do the business, he became nervous and failed to be at the place of meeting. On Sunday he met Le Fevre by accident in Fleet Street, and by appointment joined him between 8 and 9 o’clock P.M. the next day in the court of Somerset House. Le Fevre told Bedloe that the man whom he had been engaged to kill was dead and his corpse lying in the building at that moment. Bedloe was taken into a small room to see the body. Besides himself and Le Fevre there were also present Walsh, the man who called himself Atkins, a gentleman in the household of Lord Bellasis, and a person whom he took to be one of the attendants in the queen’s chapel. A cloth was thrown off the body, and by the light of a dark lantern he recognised the features of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. It was agreed to carry the corpse to Clarendon House, and to take it thence by coach to the fields at the foot of Primrose Hill. Bedloe promised to return at eleven o’clock to assist, but went away intending to meddle with the business no more. The next day he happened to meet Le Fevre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Le Fevre began to rebuke him for breaking his word. Bedloe answered that he had been unwilling to come because he had recognised the dead man. Le Fevre bound him to secrecy and then proceeded to tell him how the murder had been committed. Under pretence of making a further discovery of the plot, the two Jesuits and Lord Bellasis’ gentleman had persuaded Godfrey to come into Somerset House