THE TRIAL and CONDEMNATION OF Mr. Will. Staley FOR High-Treason, AT The Kings-Bench-Bar At WESTMINSTER, On Thursday the 21st of Nou. 1678.  
Who was there Condemned to be Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered for speaking of Desperate, Malicious, and Treasonable Words against the Kings most Excellent Majesty.  
With the particular Evidence given against him, the Defence he made for himself, and all other material Circumstances.  

LICENCED, 1678.   
LONDON: Printed for R. G. 1678.   

THE Trial and Condemnation OF Mr. Will. Staley A PAPIST.  
THis Person that now received Trial, was by Trade a Goldsmith, and by Profession, as to Religion, a Papist. He had been bred a considerable part of his time beyond the Seas, and there, 'tis feared, by too much familiarity with the Jesuits, had imbibed some of their desperate Principles. The Sum of the matter upon proof against him, appeared to be thus:  
Three Gentlemen that by their Garb, Behaviour, and testimony of divers that knew them, appeared to be Persons of Worth and unreproachable Credit, gave Evidence against him, That upon the fourteenth day of this instant November, they being at a Cook's shop in the Parish of St. Giles', the Prisoner at Bar was with another man in a Room opposite to that they were in; and the door being open, they had a perfect sight of the Prisoner, and were not above eight foot or thereabouts distant from him, when they stood at their door: And that the Prisoner being discoursing with the old man that was with him, the old man said in French, That the King of England was a great Persecutor or Tormentor of the people of God (meaning, as we must understand, Papists). In answer to which, the Prisoner at Bar, stamping with his foot several times, and appearing to be in passion, said (likewise in French) words too insolent and malicious to be repeated and translated. And (stretching forth his Arm, and then clapping his Hand on his Breast) speaking of His Sacred Majesty, said, I myself will kill him. And that afterwards they heard him say, That the King and Parliament thought the business (meaning the Plot) was over, but the Rogues (so this Villain was pleased to call them) were mistaken. Two of these three Gentlemen well understood French, but the third did not: however, the other two at the same instant expressed their Loyalty, by telling him, with much commendable Zeal, that the person in the next Room spoke most detestable Treason, and that they could not endure to hear it, repeating the sense of their words in English: And as for the words Le Roy d'Angleterre, though he understood not the Language, now deposed, he perfectly heard as well as they. But none of the three at that time knowing the now Prisoner, nor having to their knowledge ever seen him before, and he with his Companion just upon speaking the aforesaid words, being about going, one of the Witnesses watched him to the place where he went unto, being his Father's House, and upon enquiry learned his name, etc. That next morning they came thither, and upon colour of buying something, carried him to the Cross-keys Tavern over against his Dwelling; where they stayed three hours or thereabouts, whilst one of them went to seek, and could not in all that time procure a Constable, because he had no Warrant from a Justice. But having at last got some from the Guard at Whitehall, and a Constable, they seized him; and after Examination, he was committed first to the Gatehouse, and afterwards sent to Newgate; from whence he was now with a strong Guard conducted, having on the day before been Arraigned.  
He had the honour to have a most worthy Jury, most of them Knights and Squires, all Gentlemen of Quality: Nor had ever man a more fair and equal Hearing; but the Defence that he made was frivolous; sometimes alleging that the distance between him and the Witnesses was greater, yet owned that the Door was not shut. He also much insisted that they mistook the French words he spoke; and whereas they rendered it in English, I myself would kill him, he affirmed that he meant and said, I would kill myself. But as well the Witnesses testimony, as the sense of the foregoing and subsequent Discourse took off that evasion. He further pretended that the Old man (whom he said was one of his Workmen) did not speak French, but a Jargon, or kind of Italian; but the two Witnesses being questioned to that, absolutely disproved it, affirming what was then spoken was French, and that they well understood it; and several times repeated the very words both French and the English thereof in Court. And besides, though it was asserted that the Prisoner was offered to have what person he had occasion for summoned to attend at his Trial; and that a Gentleman was so kind, as to go to the Prisoners Fathers House with a note of several persons names that he desired should appear on his behalf; among●●●hom was the aforesaid Old man that was with him at the time of speaking the Words, and notice was given thereof to one of their Agents; yet the aforesaid Old man, who it seems was a kind of Italian, did not think fit to appear; so that upon a full discussion of all that the Prisoner had to say, the Crime appeared so evidently proved, upon the Statute made in the Reign of our present Sovereign for the preservation of his Royal Person, that without withdrawing from the Bar, the Jury found him Guilty, and accordingly he forthwith received Sentence to be Drawn and Hanged, his Bowels Burnt, his Body to be Quartered, and disposed on the City Gates, etc.  
FINIS.