MY Obligations to your self, and desire of securing Truth from the Out: rages of ill men, especially when the Publick is concern'd, have prevail'd with me to give you a short Account of the Sickness and Death of Captain Bedlow. On Munday the 9th. day of this Instant, he came very ill from London, having the Head-ach, and an extream Loosness most part of that day, the next day after [Page 2] he came home, he was seized with a most violent Vomiting and Loosness; Physicians were sent for, who attended him two or three days; but his Distemper encreasing, on Thursday two other Physicians were joyn'd in Consultation about him; his disease still grew upon him, and he being very apprehensive that it would is­sue in his Death, and understanding that the Lord Chief Justice North would be here to hold the Assizes the 16th instant, expres­sed a very great desire to speak with his Lordship for discharging of his Conscience, in deposing some what which he had not before dis­closed; with which his Lordship being made acquainted, was pleased that night at his request to go to him; before whom he did by many repeated Asseverations, upon the words of a dying man, declare, That in all the great business of the P [...]ot he spoke nothing against any person upon Oath, or otherwise by way of Ac­cusation but what was true; and only complain'd that he had been two timerous, and rather lessened his Evidence in some par­ticulars.

After some short time the company were desired to withdraw; and none being left with him but the Lord Chief Justice, Capt. Bedlow's Wife, and the Judges Clerk; My Lord gave the said Mr. Bedlow his Oath, and his Clerk took a pretty long Deposition in Writing, the contents whereof are yet secret; only thus far we know he made Oath, that whatsoever he had declared to the King & Council, and the Secret Committee, and at the several Tryals up­on Oath, were all true, upon the word of a dying man. He told the Judg he expected no Crown of Martyrdom for Lying as the Papists did, but what he said was sincerely true, as he was shortly to ap­pear before the Great Jehovah, the maker of all flesh, where he should stand with a clear Conscience as to all matters of the Plot, wherein he had given Evidence He said moreover to the Judg: My Lord! some will not believe the Plot, or pretend it at least.! My Lord I speak the more because I know not but that I may dye this night: He very often said to my Lord Chief Justice with great earnest­ness, My Lord! I pity the King! I pity the King! His Life is in danger! they will poyson or Cut Him off! they are going towards it! they [Page 3] are Carrying on the Plot! the Papists will kill Him! When my Lord was going away, he called him back again, took him by the hand, and beg'd him to present his most humble Duty to the King, and to tell him he was His most Loyal and Dutiful Subject, and to beseech him to take care of Himself.

Tuesday the 17th of August towards the Evening, he appeared worse then he had been all his sickness before; some about him asked him several Questions about his Deposition; he replyed, He was a very weak man, and would talk no more of Temporal things.

Wednesday night he had a severe Fit, through the violence of which, be spake not for the space of 14 hours, or there about. Thursday in the evening his speech returned to him, and he took some refreshment, and asked those about him what day of the Month it was? and what hour of the Day, exactly? One stand­ing by, asked him if he were satisfied in his Conscience as to what he had sworn and acted in the publick business he had been invol­ed in? His Answer was, That as he hoped for Salvation, all that he had Sworn about the Plot was just and true, and that he had rather omitted, than augmented any thing he had given in Evidence. This he spoke the night before he dyed, and after he had been in a Trance several hours.

Friday the 20th of August Instant, his Speech failed him again, and returned no more; and about Two of the Clock that after­noon he expired.

Yesterday being Sunday, after he had been publickly exposed in Merchant-Taylors Hall, in this City, to the vi [...]w of all specta­tors; his Corps was carried thence about Six of the Clock in the Evening, and buried in the Mayors Chappel, called the Gaunts: the Funeral was attended with a very numerous Company of Citi­zens, both Men and Women. Mr. Mayor, and others of the best Quality being present, several Gentlemen of the Council, and others bearing up the Pall. The Church was hung with black. Mr. Palmer, a Reverend and Learned Divine of this City, Preached an excellent Sermon at his Funeral, on Rom. 14 v. 12, 13. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God, Let us not therefore judg one another any more, but judg this rather, that no man [Page 4] put a stombling block, or an occasion to fall in his brothers way. The were Escutcheons fixed to the Hearse, with this Inscription black Letters in a Field-Argent:

Thus you have a plain and just Relation of the Death and Buria [...] of Captain William Bedlow. The loss of so considerable an Evi­dence to the King and Kingdom is greatly to be deplored: But if you revolve seriously upon the manner of his Death: and his exact tem­per and deportment through the whole series of his sickness, you'l find reason to believe, that Sampson like he hath Triumph'd even in Death, over the Popish Conspirators, and been as formidable in his sick bed, as formerly in the Courts of Justice; the strong Asseverations he left behind him in vindication of his Evidence, hath rais'd it to the highest Reputation. It seemeth to me, as if Providence found it necessary in this stubborn and unbelieving age, to use extraordinary methods to evince the World of the truth of the Bloody and Hellish Plot. And therefore to the clear and uncontroulable Evidence tha [...] hath been given viva voce, and by Original Letters under the Con­spirators own hands, God hath now superadded one Argument mor [...] to convince us, by making one of the Witnesses seal the discover with his last breath, and dye, giving repeated Evidence against th [...] Plot. I am,