French king's confessor, having placed ten thousand pounds at the
disposal of the Jesuits that they might, by laying out such a
sum, the more successfully accomplish this deed. While abroad
the deponent had read many letters, relating to the execution of
Charles II., the subverting of the present government, and the
establishment of the Romish religion. Returning again to
England, he became privy to a treaty with Sir George Wakeham, the
queen's physician, to poison the king; and likewise with an
agreement to shoot him, made between the Jesuits and two men,
named Honest William and Pickering. He had heard a Jesuit preach
a sermon to twelve persons of quality in disguise, in which he
asserted "that protestants and other heretical princes were IPSO
FACTO deposed because such; and that it was as lawful to destroy
them as Oliver Cromwell or any other usurper." He also became
aware that the dreadful fire had been managed by Strange, the
provincial of the Jesuits, who employed eighty-six men in
distributing seven hundred fire-balls to destroy the city; and
that notwithstanding his vast expenses, he gained fourteen
thousand pounds by plunder carried on during the general
confusion, a box of jewels, consisting of a thousand carat weight
of diamonds, being included in the robbery.

The document containing these remarkable statements was finished
in August, 1678. It now remained to have it brought before the
king or the council. Tonge was resolved this should he done in a
manner best calculated to heighten the effect of their narrative;
at the same time he was careful to guard the fact that he and
Oates had an intimate knowledge of each other. Not knowing any
one of interest at court, he sought out Christopher Kirby, a man
employed in the king's laboratory, of whom he had some slight