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scruples, and ordered Danbv to be taken into chap.custody. Han by absconded. The commons lxvh.passed a bill, appointing him to surrender himself 15:9before a certain day, or, in default of it, attaint-ing him. A bill had passed the upper house,mitigating the penalty to banishment; but aftersome conferences, the peers thought proper toyield to the violence of the commons ; and thebill of attainder was carried. Rather than un-dergo such severe penalties , Danby appeared,and was immediately committed to the Tower.

While a protestant nobleman met with suchviolent prosecution , it was not likely that thecatholics would be over-looked by the zealouscommons. The credit of the popish plot still p °P isfl plotstood upon the oaths of a few infamous witnesses.

Though such immense preparations were suppos-ed to have been made in the very bowels ofthe kingdom, no traces of them, after the mostrigorous inquiry, had as yet appeared. Though somany thousands, both abroad and at home, hadbeen engaged in the dreadful secret; neither hope,nor fear, nor remorse, nor levity, nor supicions,nor private resentment had engaged any one to con-firm the evidence. Though the catholics, par-ticularly the Jesuits, were represented as guiltyof the utmost indiscretion, insomuch that theytalked of the king’s murder as common news,and wrote of it in plain terms by the commonpost ; yet , among the great number of lettersseized , no one contained any part of so com-plicated a conspiracy. Though the informersVol. XI. Z