The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
*See Pollock, pp. 384, 387. The report is from Secretary Coventry’s
MSS., at Longleat. The evidence as to Bedloe’s deposition before the
King (November 7) is in a confused state. Mr. Pollock prints (pp. 383,
384, cf. p. 110) a document from ‘Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 11058, f. 244.’
This is also given, with the same erroneous reference, by Mr. Foley, in
Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. v. p. 30,
note. The right reference is 11055. The document is quite erroneously
printed, with variations in error, by Mr. Foley and Mr. Pollock. Bedloe
really said that Godfrey was lured into Somerset House Yard, not into
‘some house yard’ (Foley), or ‘into a house yard’ (Pollock). Bedloe, so
far, agreed with Prance, but, in another set of notes on his deposition
(Longleat MSS., Coventry Papers, xi. 272-274, Pollock, 384-387), he
made Somerset House the scene of the murder. There are other errors. Mr.
Pollock and Mr. Foley make Bedloe accuse Father Eveley, S.J., in whom
I naturally recognised Father Evers or Every, who was then at Tixall in
Staffordshire. The name in the MS. is ‘Welch,’ not Eveley. The MS. was
manifestly written not before September 12. It does not appear that
Bedloe, on November 7, knew the plot as invented by Oates, on which
compare Mr. Pollock, p. 110, who thinks that ‘it is quite possible that
Charles II. deceived him,’ Bishop Burnet, ‘intentionally,’ on this head
(Burnet, ii. 745-746, 1725). By printing ‘he acquainted’ instead of ‘he
acquainteth the Lords,’ in the British Museum MS., and by taking the
document, apparently, to be of November 7, Mr. Pollock has been led
to an incorrect conclusion. I am obliged to Father Gerard, S.J., for a
correct transcript of the British Museum MS.; see also Note iii., ‘The
Jesuit Murderers,’ at the end of this chapter, and Father Gerard’s The
Popish Plot and its Latest Historian (Longman’s, 1903).
Bedloe here asserts distinctly that one accomplice was an official of
the Queen’s chapel, in her residence, Somerset House: a kind of verger,
in a purple gown. This is highly important, for the man whom he later
pretended to recognise as this accomplice was not a ‘waiter,’ did not
‘wear a purple gown;’ and, by his own account, ‘was not in the chapel
once a month.’ Bedloe’s recognition of him, therefore, was worthless. He
said that Godfrey was smothered with a pillow, or two pillows, in a room
in Somerset House, for the purpose of securing ‘the examinations’ that
Godfrey had taken. ‘Coleman and Lord Bellasis advised to destroy him.’
His informant was Le Fevre. One Walsh (a ‘Jesuit’), Le Fevre, Lord
Bellasis’s man, and ‘the chapel keeper’ did the deed. The chapel keeper
carried him’ (Godfrey) ‘off.’ ‘HE DID NOT SEE HIM’ (Godfrey) ‘AFTER HE
WAS DEAD.’
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