[170] Evidence of Brown, Skillard, and Cambridge at the trial of Green and others. 7 State Trials 184, 185, 186. Evidence of Hazard, Batson, Fisher, Rawson, Mrs. Rawson, Hobbs, Lazinby, the Chaces, at the trial of Thompson and others. 8 State Trials 1379–1384. Depositions of Skillard, Rawson, and others. Brief Hist. iii. 265–271. Some of the witnesses in their depositions before L’Estrange spoke of the presence of a greater quantity of blood than they had previously remembered. Obviously their earlier impressions are the more trustworthy. Even at the later date the quantity to which they swore was not considerable.
[171] Brief Hist. iii. 271. He does not attempt however to give any evidence for his statement.
[172] Brief Hist. iii. 230.
[173] Mr. W. M. Fletcher, M.B., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, has kindly furnished me with his opinion on this point. He says: “A sword transfixing the living body and at the same time driven through the cavity of the heart would cause violent hæmorrhage from one or other of the external wounds, except only under a set of circumstances which could be present only by the rarest chance; the hæmorrhage, that is to say, could be restrained only by an accidental block produced not only at one but at two points on either side of the heart cavity, where the torn tissues might happen so to fit outwards upon and closely against the undisturbed sword as to form a kind of valve. Such an accidental valve formation, occurring at two separate points on each side of the pent-up blood, is improbable enough, but could not be imagined as a prevention of hæmorrhage if the sword were bent, twisted, or withdrawn after the infliction of the wound.”
[174] 7 State Trials 295. Information of Mrs. Warrier. Brief Hist. iii. 142. Burnet ii. 164. Evidence of the coroner before the Lords’ committee. House of Lords MSS. 46. L’Estrange produces two depositions to the effect that the ground was quite dry and not muddy, and in doing so contradicts the argument upon which he lays stress in arguing against Prance’s story (see below) that if the body had been brought to Primrose Hill upon a horse, the feet and legs must have been covered with mud. Brief Hist. iii. 261, and see 8 State Trials 1370 for the same point in Thompson’s libel.
[175] 8 State Trials 1359–1389.
[176] Barillon, October 21/31, 1678. “Ce Godefroy s’est trouvé mort à trois milles d’ici sans qu’on sache qui l’a tué. Le Roi d’Angleterre et M. le Duc d’York m’ont dit que c’était une espèce de fanatique et qu’ils croyent qu’il s’était tué lui-même.”
[177] Burnet ii. 165. Blencowe’s Sidney lxii. Lady Sunderland to John Evelyn, December 25, 1678.
[178] See the letter subscribed T. G. to Secretary Coventry and Coventry’s reply. Longleat MSS. See Appendix B.
[179] John Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, Verney MSS. 471. This did not take place till November, but it may be noted at this point.