P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Vat. Arch. Nunt. di Fiandra 66
Di Brusselles dal Sigr Internuncio, May 24/June 3, 1679.
In Ibernia, dove il numero de’ Cattolici è molto maggiore che quello de’ Protestanti, ha gran seguito e autorità il Colonello Fitzpatrice, onde il Duca d’Jorch a mostrato haverlo veduto malvolontieri venire à Brusselles, per dubbio che il Parlamento pigliando gelosia del ricorso di lui à S. A. Reale prenda motivo di maggiormente inasprirsi contro la medesima, contro di essa, e contro il Duca d’Ormond. N’è perciò egli partito per Olanda à titolo di veder quel paese, ma precedentemente ha tenuta una segreta conferenza col Sigr Duca d’Jorch, dopo la quale mi ha lasciato intendere soffrirsi troppo patientemente da S. A. Reale l’audacia de’ Parlamentarii, e doversi di gia pensare almeno à modi di respingerla quando la temerità loro e la debolezza del Rè d’Inghilterra passasse à porre in esecutione il projetto della sua diseredatione. Toccante l’Ibernia ha detto chiaramente essere insofferibile il giogo sotto l’oppressione del quale gemono quei Cattolici, e ha aggiunto che apprendendosi per massima naturale il difendersi in qualsivoglia maniera, non dubita egli che non fussero per commoversi tutti concordemente, non solo se il Sigr Duca d’Jorch ma se qualunque barbaro Principe con qualque denaro, e con assistenza di pochi vascelli si accostasse alle spiaggie dell’ Isola, e portasse armi e munitioni da guerra à quelli habitanti.
APPENDIX D
“The trial of John Giles at the Old Bailey, for assaulting and attempting to murder John Arnold, Esq.,” is a case which presents some difficulty.[770]
Arnold’s character for activity against the Roman Catholics has already been mentioned. The way in which this trial is regarded materially affects the answer to the question whether or no he exceeded the legitimate bounds of his magisterial duty. If Giles was rightly convicted, the excess was not great; if wrongly and the attempt on Arnold’s life was a sham, not only did Arnold lend himself to a criminal and most disreputable intrigue, but all his other actions must be more severely judged. The case was as follows. Arnold had accused Mr. Herbert, a Roman Catholic gentleman of Staffordshire, of speaking seditious words against the king and government.[771] They were both ordered to appear before the privy council on April 16, 1680.[772] On the day before that date it was alleged that Giles, who was a friend of Herbert,[773] attempted to murder Captain Arnold. For this Giles was tried on July 7, before Jeffreys, the Recorder of London, and convicted after what seemed to be a singularly fair trial. The case for the prosecution was that, as Arnold was going between ten and eleven o’clock on the night of April 15 to see his solicitor, he was assaulted in Bell-yard, Fleet Street, by the accused and one or two other persons, and but for the appearance of the neighbours would have been murdered. Giles had spoken disrespectfully of the Plot and the Protestant religion, had been seen to dip handkerchiefs in the blood of the Jesuit Lewis who was executed the year before at Usk,[774] and was supposed to have attacked Arnold in revenge for the part he had played in the capture of Evans. Arnold himself gave evidence of the fact. He swore that he had been dogged by two or three men into Bell-yard. One of these went by him and then stood still while the magistrate passed. By the light of a candle which a woman was holding at the door of a neighbouring house Arnold saw the man whom he afterwards recognised to be the prisoner. As he crossed a lane which ran into the yard, a cloak was thrown over his head and he was knocked down into the gutter, though not before he had time to draw his sword. As he lay on the ground the men stabbed at him with their swords. He was cut in the face, the arm, and the stomach, but the men were unable to pierce the bodice of whalebone which he wore under his coat. One of them cried, “Damme, he has armour on; cut his throat.” A light in Sir Timothy Baldwin’s house, hard by, and a boy coming into the yard with a link disturbed the murderers and they made off. As the cloak was pulled from his head, Arnold again recognised the prisoner by the light of the link. The men swaggered away and one turned back to call, “Now, you dog, pray for, or pray again for the soul of Captain Evans.”[775]
The evidence called to support and to oppose this was very contradictory. It was sworn that, talking about the affray at a tavern next day, Giles said, “God damn him, God rot him, he had armour on”; but the witness admitted that he might have said, “God rot him, he had armour on, they say.”[776] The prisoner declared that he merely told it as a common piece of news that Arnold would have been killed had he not worn armour, and called a witness who affirmed that this was so, that Giles had called the attempt “a cruel assassination” of which he was sorry to hear, and had made use of no oaths at all.[777] Evidence was given for the crown that Giles had hurried through Usk on May 5, saying that he was afraid of being arrested for the assault on Arnold, and at a cutler’s shop where he went to have a sword mended said he had been fighting “with damned Arnold.”[778] This was contradicted by the Mayor of Monmouth, who proved that Giles had not hurried through Usk, but stayed there several hours; and by the cutler’s apprentice, who proved that when the prisoner was asked, “How came your sword broke? Have you been fighting with the devil?” so far from speaking the words alleged, he had answered, “No, for I never met with Arnold.”[779] A great deal of evidence was given concerning the prisoner’s movements on the night of April 15. He had passed the evening in company at various taverns, and had finally gone to sleep at the King’s Arms in St. Martin’s Lane; but as the witnesses arrived at the times o’clock to which they deposed by guess-work alone, their evidence was naturally contradictory; and it seems now quite impossible to know certainly whether Giles was, as the prosecution contended, seen last at ten o’clock and did not go to bed till one in the morning, or, as the witnesses for the defence stated, had been in company till the hour of eleven or twelve.[780] According to the evidence therefore, which Jeffreys summed up at length and with moderation,[781] it was open to the jury to find either for or against the prisoner, and after deliberating for half an hour they returned a verdict of guilty. Giles was sentenced to the fine of £500 and to be pilloried three times. On July 26 he was pilloried in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and was pelted so severely that his life was in danger; and when the remainder of the sentence was carried out in Holborn and the Strand, he had to be protected from the mob by a guard of constables and watchmen.[782]
The real case against Arnold and in favour of the prisoner did not come into court. Sir Leoline Jenkins, secretary of state, employed an agent to draw up a report on the subject. The report was confined entirely to the assault itself and did not discuss the movements of either Arnold or Giles before or afterwards. It is notable that Arnold himself was the only witness as to the manner of the attack and the incidents connected with it, and that the important part of his evidence was wholly uncorroborated. Although he wished to deny the fact, he was well acquainted with Giles, who had been his chief constable, and probably knew enough of his movements to lay a false charge against him without running too great a risk of detection.[783] Jenkins’ information throws a curious light upon his evidence. It does not afford proof that Arnold lent himself to a bogus attempt on his life, but it raises strong suspicion that this was the case. There was no motive for the reporter not to tell the truth in points of fact. His deductions are lucid and apparently sound. The government probably refrained from bringing forward the new material owing to the intense opposition which the effort to obtain Giles’ acquittal would have raised. I quote the most important portion of the minute at length from the S.P. Dom. Charles II 414: 245. The paper is undated, but from internal evidence is seen to have been composed before the trial. It is without title, but is endorsed by Jenkins: “Mr. Arnold and about his being assassinated.”[784]
“1. Mr. Arnold was found near two at night April 15th, 1680 sitting in the dirt, wounded, leaning his head against the wall, some four yards within Jackanapes Lane, and immediately upon crying out, Murther.
“2. Quaere:—the manner of the assault. When and where he received his wounds; whether before his crying out or just at the time: what words passed on the one side and on the other, and concerning their going away laughing and triumphing.