The first, from mean beginnings, had acquired great wealth and credit, and always firmly adhered to the interests of king James.

The other was likewise a man of fortune, violently attached to the same principles, though he had taken the oaths to the present government as one of the six clerks in chancery.

Porter and Blair, another evidence, deposed, that sir John Friend had been concerned in levying men under a commission from king James, and that he knew of the assassination plot, though not engaged in it as a personal actor.

He endeavoured to invalidate the testimony of Blair, by proving him guilty of the most shocking ingratitude.

He observed that both the evidences were reputed papists.