But
all was in vain: the prisoners were condemned and executed. They all
denied their guilt at their execution; and as Berry died a Protestant,
this circumstance was regarded as very considerable: but, instead of its
giving some check to the general credulity of the people, men were only
surprised, that a Protestant could be induced at his death to persist in
so manifest a falsehood.
As the army could neither be kept up nor disbanded without money, the
king, how little hopes soever he could entertain of more compliance,
found himself obliged to summon a new parliament. The blood already shed
on account of the Popish plot, instead of satiating the people, served
only as an incentive to their fury; and each conviction of a criminal
was hitherto regarded as a new proof of those horrible designs imputed
to the Papists. This election is perhaps the first in England, which,
since the commencement of the monarchy, had been carried on by a violent
contest between the parties, and where the court interested itself to a
high degree in the choice of the national representatives. But all its
efforts were fruitless, in opposition to the torrent of prejudices which
prevailed. Religion, liberty, property, even the lives of men, were now
supposed to be at stake; and no security, it was thought, except in
a vigilant parliament, could be found against the impious and bloody
conspirators.
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