[604] Ibid. 78. Luttrell, Brief Relation i. 4. Burnet ii. 178.
[605] Burnet ii. 113.
[606] Evidence of Carstairs, 6 State Trials 1503.
[607] Macaulay, Hist. of England i. 237. Lingard xiii. 107, 108.
[608] Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 14. Appendix ii. 361. See also Fairfax Correspondence. Civil Wars (ed. R. Bell) ii. 297. James Babington to Henry Lord Fairfax, November 20, 1678. “Staley, the goldsmith’s son, was tried to-day at the King’s Bench, and condemned.”
[609] Schwerin, Briefe aus England 356. On December 2 (n.s.) he notes: “Des Goldschmied’s Sohn, von dessen unbesonnenen Reden ich bereits Mittheilung gemacht, ist gehangen und nachher geviertheilt worden. Man hatte sich vorher überzeugt, dass er gesagt, dass der König in England sei der grösste Ketzer und Schelm in der Welt. Darauf hat er mit der Hand auf die Brust geschlagen, mit den Füssen fünf bis sechsmal auf die Erde gestampft, und mit ausgestrecktem Arm gesagt. Dies ist die Hand, die ihn hätte umbringen sollen, der König und das Parlament glaubten, das alles gethan und vorbei sei, allein die Schelme wären betrogen.” Ibid. 362. Barillon’s testimony is on the same side: “Le témoin, sur la foi duquel Staley, fils d’un orrèvre, a été condamné, a accusé le Duc d’Hamilton.” December 16/26, 1678. And Warner (MS. history 40): “Primus, qui Catholico sanguine Angliam rigavit, fuit Gulielmus Stalaeus, alterius Gulielmi auri fabri et trapazitae Londiniensis civis divitis filius.” The act under which Staley was condemned is 13 Charles II cap. i.
[610] House of Lords MSS. 77, 78.
[611] Burnet (ii. 171) speaks of Staley as “the popish banker, who had been in great credit, but was then under some difficulties”; but this is one of the rare mistakes he makes in point of fact.
[612] He disclaimed all such sentiments and did deny the words, but afterwards said that he had “never with intention, or any thought or ill-will, spake any word upon this matter.” 6 State Trials 1506, 1508.
[613] 6 State Trials 1509. Lingard (xiii. 108) states on the authority of Les Conspirations d’Angleterre that Fromante, who is there called Firmin, was put into prison to prevent his appearance at the trial; but the work is by no means above suspicion, and is directly contradicted on the point. Large extracts from Les Conspirations d’Angleterre, which was published in 1681 and is now extremely rare, are quoted by Arnauld, Œuvres xiv. 515–535. Arnauld says in a note: “C’est M. Rocole, ancien chanoine de S. Benoit à Paris, qui en est l’auteur; mais l’avertissement qui le fait paraître Protestant, n’est pas de lui.” There is among the State Papers an order in council for the arrest of Bartholemew Fermin for high treason on account of the Popish Plot, but without date. S.P. Dom. Charles II 408; i. 110.