Prance
had not courage to resist, but confessed himself an accomplice in
Godfrey's murder. Being asked concerning the plot, he also thought
proper to be acquainted with it, and conveyed some intelligence to the
council. Among other absurd circumstances, he said that one Le Fevre
bought a second-hand sword of him; because he knew not, as he said,
what times were at hand; and Prance expressing some concern for poor
tradesmen, if such times came, Le Fevre replied, that it would be better
for tradesmen if the Catholic religion were restored; and particularly,
that there would be more church work for silversmiths. All this
information, with regard to the plot as well as the murder of Godfrey,
Prance solemnly retracted, both before the king and the secret
committee: but being again thrown into prison, he was induced, by new
terrors and new sufferings, to confirm his first information, and was
now produced as a sufficient evidence.
Hill, Green, and Berry were tried for Godfrey's murder, all of them men
of low stations. Hill was servant to a physician: the other two belonged
to the Popish chapel at Somerset House. It is needless to run over all
the particulars of a long trial: it will be sufficient to say, that
Bedloe's evidence and Prance's were in many circumstances totally
irreconcilable, that both of them labored under unsurmountable
difficulties, not to say gross absurdities; and that they were
invalidated by contrary evidence, which is altogether convincing.
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