[Bagford Collection, III. 50.]

The Plotters Ballad:

Being Jack Ketch's Incomparable Receipt for the Cure of Trapterous Recusants: Dr Wholesome Physick for a Popish Contagion.

Licensed December the 2d. 1678. TO THE TUNE OF, No, no, 'tis in Vain.

The Explanation of the Cutt, Coleman drawn on a Sledge to the place of Execution, with the Popes pardon in his hand, speaking these words out of his mouth, I am Sick of a Trayterous Disease.

And Jack Ketch, with a Hatchet in one Hand, and a Rope in the other hand, saying, Here's your Cure, Sir.

[The above paragraphs in the original appear on the right and left hand of the large woodcut, which we print on opposite page.]

1.

O, no, 'tis in Vain, Plot again and again,
Contrive as long as you will,

Your Cost, Labour, Policies, all is in vain,

Our Protestants shall flourish still:

4

Let your Jesuits fret, and practice their Skill,

Let the POPE and his Council assist,

Our Church stands secure upon Sion Hill,
Let them try to destroy it that List.

8

2.

All the Art you can use, is too little you'l find,
To bring in your Beads into Fashion,

We like not your Devotion, your zeal is too blind
For so Sober a Protestant Nation.

12

Set your Engines to work, lay your Traps all about,
You'l catch but few Souls, I believe,

Your Plots and Snares, which occasion your fears,
Will prove Vain, and their Authors deceive.

16

3.

Your Gun-Powder-Treason, and Spanish Invasion,
Are motives too weak to prevail,

Blood will not move us unto your perswasion,
'Till our Senses and Reason do fail.

We dislike you the more for your Bloody designs,
Such Arts will no Proselites gain,

We're afraid to come near to the Roman confines
Where so many poor Martyrs were slain.

4.

Your Doctrine is famous in every Nation,
You convince and convert us in Blood,

Where ever you come, there's no want of Vexation,
This we have long since understood.

Queen Mary Converted by Faggot and Fire,
And so would you do if you might;

But blessed be God there's no need for the same,
For we read by a far better light.

5.

Send whom you think fit, send some of the Crue
From the Cells of Pluto below,

Send more of your Money, your Plots to persue,
And hope you may yet give the Blow.
Heaven we hope, with deserved Fates,
Will break the stiff Neck of your Plots,

And your Politick Heads shall hang on our Gates
And Preach to such Treacherous Sots.

40

6.

Send o're to your Popish Bogg-Trotters in hast,
Two Hundred Thousand Pounds more,1

Send some [one] Infernal (that no time will wast)
To do what you could not before.

44

1 Part of Oates's deposition against Coleman, at the trial, was to the following effect:-"That in August, 1678, Coleman was present at a Consult with the Jesuits and Benedictine Monks at the Savoy, for raising a Rebellion in Ireland, for which forty thousand Black Bills as arms were provided; and was very forward to have Dr. Fogarthy sent over to poyson the Duke of Ormond. And, at another time, being in Fenwick's Chamber in Drury-Lane, Coleman said to him, in Oates's hearing, That he had found a way to transmit two hundred thousand pounds to carry on the Rebellion in Ireland."

Let him try by his Magick if that can prevail,
To lay our great Ormond in dust,1

And if once again your Mischiefs do fail,
Conclude that God's Judgments are just.2

7.

Send to St. Omers, and send to Lashee,3

Take Ashbies instructions, they're reckon'd the best,
Wake-man, and give some Physitian a Fee,
He perhaps may do more than the rest.
If Physick should fail, use some other thing,
There's Ruffians enough to be had; 6
Send them to Windsor to Murther a King,
Then the Devil and the Pope will be glad.

8.

48

But what says your Conscience to all these damn'd Plots, Has the Devil quite pluck ['d] out its Tongue?

See the previous note on p. 700.

2 Alluding to the supposed providential failures of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Treason, etc.

3 Anglicè for Father La Chaise. Oates deposed that in November, 1677, through his own confessor, Father John Keins, who lodged at Coleman's house, he was made acquainted with the prisoner; from whom he (Titus Oates) carried letters to St. Omers. These letters he saw opened when he arrived. There was also one in Latin, which he carried on from St. Omers to Paris, to Father la Chaise; in which were thanks returned for the £10,000 remitted by him to England, for the propagation of the Popish religion, and to cut off the King, etc.

Ashbie, or Ashley, Rector of St. Omers. Oates deposed that Coleman was privy to the instructions brought in July, 1678, by Ashley from Father Whitebread, "to impower the consultators to propose ten thousand pounds to Sir George Wakeman to poyson the King, provided Pickering and Grove failed to do the work" of shooting Charles, as arranged at Wild-house, on 24th April, 1678.

5 See the previous note: Sir George Wakeman, the Queen's Physician. He was afterwards tried, on the 18th June, 1679, along with Corker and Marshall, Benedictine Monks, and Wm. Rumley, a lay-brother. The acquittal of all these was the first clear token that juries were becoming disgusted with the Sham-Plot prosecutions and butcheries. In the Coll. of 180 Loyal Songs, p. 202, 1685,

Vates is made to sing :

I swore that the Queen would poyson the King,
That Wakeman had moneys the Poyson to bring,
When I knew in my Heart there was no such thing,

I now must be pillori'd, and after be bang'd.

This refers to another part of Oates's depositions, telling that in August, 1678, "Coleman knew of the four Irish Ruffians sent to kill the King at Windsor, and, in Oates's hearing, asked Father Harcourt, at Wild-house, 'What care was taken for those Gentlemen that went last night to Windsor ?' Who replied, That eighty pounds was ordered them,' which he saw there on the table, most of it in guineas," etc.

·

No wonder you meet with so many shrew'd blots,
Since Conscience lies sleeping so long;

How shall we wak't, with Cravats
Alass no, I see but small hope.

or with Swords?

It's in vain, it's in vain, to spend many words,
We must rouz't by a Sledge and a Rope.

9.

60

64

Then mount, Mr. Stayley, for it's to be fear'd,

By what you but lately have said,

That your Roman Conscience will still be much sear'd,
Until on a Sledge it is laid.

68

And rise Monsieur Coleman, Jack Ketch is your Debtor, He'l cure you of a hard Heart,

Truly I fancy you will be much better

Before you do come from his Cart.

72

10.

You are Sick I am told, ev'n Sick unto Death,
And of a Rebellious Disease,

A Hempen Cravat to stop up your Breath,

Will give you abundance of Ease.

76

And good Mr. Ink-horn prepare for the same,

Squire Ketch now shall give you your Fee;
He is known to be a Splitter of Fame,
And you were best with him to Agree.

80

11.

Thus you Jesuits, Priests, and Gentlemen, all
That are of the Red-Letter Rout,
Jack has ready, if into his hands you do fall,
An Infallible Cure without doubt.

84

And if Holy Father himself he were here,
He dares venture a Catholick Rally,

His Receipt of the Noose should suit the Popes ear,
As well as with Coleman or Staley.

FINIS.

LONDON, Printed for H[enry] B[rome], in the Year 1678.

[In White-letter.]

88

An allusion, doubtless, to the murder of Sir E. Godfrey, the magistrate who took Oates's first deposition. See our previous pages 668, 671, and notes. The death was reported to have been from strangulation with a cravat.

2 William Stayley, goldsmith, was on 21 Nov. 1678, tried and condemned for treasonable words. He was executed on the 26th, a week before Coleman.