C H A P.LXVIJ,1678 .

*96 HISTORY OF GREVr BRITAIN.

masses, which, estimating masses at a shilling a-piece, amounted to a like value. Pickeringwould have executed his purpose , had not theflint at one time dropped out of his pistol , atanother time the priming. Coniers , the Jesuit,had bought a knife at,the price of ten drillings,which, he thought, was not dear, consideringthe purpose for which he intended it, to wit,stabbing the king. Letters of subscription werecirculated among the catholics all over Englandto raise a sum for the same purpose. No less thanfifty Jesuits had met in May last, at the White-horse tavern , where it was unanimously agreedto put the king to death. This synod did after-wards, for more convenience, divide themselvesinto many lesser cabals or companies ; and Oateswas employed to carry notes and letters from oneto another, all tending to the fame end, of murder-ing the king. He even carried , from one com-pany to another, a paper, in which they formallyexpressed their resolution of executing that deed;and it was regularly subscribed by all of them.A wager of a hundred pounds was laid, andstakes made , that the king should eat no moreChristmas pies. In short, it was determined, touse the expression of a Jesuit, that if he wouldnot become R. C. (Roman Catholic) he shouldno longer be C. R. (Charles Rex.) The greatfire of London had been the work of the Jesuits,who had employed eighty or eighty-six personsfor that purpose, and had expended seven hundredfire-balls; but they had a good return for their