to send him food constantly, and he had been given a charcoal fire in his cell to protect him from the cold weather. Mrs. Cellier had offered to support them both, apparently on the understanding that they should acquiesce in what she had said.[254] Another important witness proved the falsehood of many statements made in the publication, and after a lengthy summing up of the evidence by Baron Weston the jury without difficulty returned a verdict of guilty against the prisoner. Mrs. Cellier was sentenced to stand three times on the pillory, to a fine of a thousand pounds, and to imprisonment until the fine was paid.[255] Eight years later the same charges were repeated by Sir Roger L’Estrange and were supported by Prance, to whose objects this line of conduct was now better suited. The evidence which L’Estrange collected was exactly similar to that which Mrs. Cellier had obtained, and equally worthless. Not only the result of the trial, but the essential improbability of the facts alleged makes it certain that these allegations were absolutely devoid of truth.[256] Dr. Lloyd, who was well acquainted with the hard treatment accorded to Prance, saw no evidence that it exceeded the common practice of the prison, and disbelieved the gruesome stories which were industriously spread abroad.[257] Whether or no Prance was subjected to illegitimate and illegal pressure after his recantation in order to secure his adherence to the earlier confession is a question of less importance than how that confession was obtained. Prance’s subsequent account has already been given. It remains to be considered whether that was true or false. Apart from the rest of the evidence produced at the trials of the Popish Plot, that of Prance exhibited one remarkable peculiarity. All the other witnesses altered and rearranged their stories with constant facility to suit the conditions in which they found themselves at any moment. Among this rout of shifting informations the evidence of Prance offers an exception to the rule of self-contradiction. In all but a few particulars it remained constant. Other witnesses invariably put out feelers to try in what direction they had best develop their tales. The methods of Oates, Atkins, and Bedloe are notorious instances of this. Prance produced the flower of his full-blown. Its bouquet was as strong when it first met the air as at any later time. The evidence which he gave to Godfrey’s murder in his first confession was as decisive and consistent in form as after constant repetition, recantation, and renewed asseverance. Almost all the other witnesses at their first appearance told stories which were loose, haphazard, inconsequent. Prance’s story was from the beginning minute and elaborate. He spoke of places in great detail and afterwards pointed them out. He gave a coherent account of what had happened at each spot. On these points he did not contradict himself. The evidence which he proceeded to give