Nearly eight years after these events, in the second year of the reign of King James the Second, Miles Prance pleaded guilty to an indictment of wilful perjury for having sworn falsely at the trial of Green, Berry, and Hill.[244] Later, when L’Estrange was writing his work on _The Mystery of Sir E. B. Godfrey Unfolded_, Prance sent to him an account of the manner in which his evidence had been procured. He was, he said, wholly innocent and wholly ignorant of the murder. Before his arrest he knew no more of Godfrey, Bedloe, or any one else concerned than was known to the world at large. His arrest took place upon Saturday, December 21. During the nights of Saturday and Sunday he lay in irons in the dungeon in Newgate. Early on the Sunday morning he was disturbed by the entrance of a man, who, as Prance declared, laid a sheet of paper beside him and went out. Soon after another entered, set down a candle, and went out. By the light of the candle Prance read the paper; “wherein,” says L’Estrange, “he found the substance of these following minutes. So many Popish lords to be mentioned by name; fifty thousand men to be raised; commissions given out; officers appointed. Ireland was acquainted with the design; and Bedloe’s evidence against Godfrey was summed up and abstracted in it too. There were suggestions in it that Prance must undoubtedly be privy to the plot, with words to this purpose, you had better confess than be hanged.” In the evening of the same day he was taken to Shaftesbury’s house and examined by the earl. The Whig leader threatened him with hanging if he would not confess and acquiesce in what had been suggested to him in the paper. He could resist no longer, he said, “and so framed a pretended discovery in part, with a promise to speak out more at large if he might have his pardon.” A paper containing this was given him to sign, and he was sent back to Newgate, where he made a formal confession the next day. Clearly, thought Prance, the men who came into his cell, and left instructions for the evidence which he was to give and a light by which to read them, had acted under orders from Shaftesbury.[245] This is what Prance and L’Estrange had to say about this first confession. Before examining it further it will be proper to consider Prance’s condition between that time and the date when after numerous manœuvres he finally returned to it. On December 30 he appeared before the council and recanted his confession. For nine days there seems to have been no development. Prance lay in the dungeon and adhered to his last statement. But on January 8 Captain Richardson, the keeper of Newgate, and his servant, Charles Cooper, appeared before a committee of the privy council with information that Prance was feigning madness. When he was fettered he behaved the more sensibly. It was ordered accordingly that he should be kept in irons and that Dr. Lloyd, the Dean of Bangor, should be asked to visit and converse with him.[246]