On February 10, 1679 Green, Berry, and Hill were brought to the bar of the Court of King’s Bench to be tried upon an indictment for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. The prosecution began by evidence to shew that for some days before his disappearance Godfrey had been in a state of alarm. Oates swore that Godfrey had complained to him of the treatment he had received in consequence of having taken his deposition; on the one hand those who wished to accelerate the discovery of the plot had blamed him for not being sufficiently eager in its prosecution; those, on the other, who were endangered by Oates’ revelations had threatened the magistrate for the action which he had taken. Godfrey told Oates that “he went in fear of his life by the popish party, and that he had been dogged several days.” The testimony of Oates carries no greater weight on this than on any other occasion, but he was supported by another and a more respectable witness. Mr. Robinson, chief protonotary of the court of common pleas, gave evidence of Godfrey’s disturbance of mind. The two had met on October 7, and Robinson questioned the magistrate about the depositions which he had taken. Godfrey replied that he wished that another had been in his place, for he would have small thanks for his pains; the bottom of the matter had not yet been reached, he said; and then, turning to Robinson, exclaimed, “Upon my conscience I believe I shall be the first martyr,”[228] This was the prelude by which the evidence of Prance and Bedloe was introduced. Bedloe retold the story to which he had treated the council, the committee, and the House of Lords. This time it differed in almost every point of detail from the statements which he had previously made. The Jesuits who tempted him into the murder had sent him about a week before to effect an acquaintance with Godfrey. There were several separate schemes on foot to dispatch the justice. After seeing the body upon Monday night he had gone away and never seen the murderers again. The Jesuits told him that Godfrey had been strangled, but how he did not know. His account of his many interviews with Le Fevre were hopelessly at variance with what he had said about them before.[229] But as the rules of legal procedure did not admit as evidence depositions and reports of testimony given elsewhere, it was impossible to convict the witness of these alterations. Bedloe’s evidence too shewed striking points of difference from that of Prance, who preceded him, even after he had toned it into better accord. The prisoners, excited and ignorant, unused to sifting evidence and wholly unskilled in examining witnesses, failed altogether to detect and point out the discrepancies.