The terror of conspiracy still possessed the minds of all men; all still considered themselves seriously threatened with a rising of the Papists. The streets were closed with chains at important places, and the militia was kept in readiness to quell at once any rising disturbance. In the transactions of the law-courts, which conducted such trials as did not concern members of Parliament, no less interest was shown by the people than in the Parliamentary debates. Again and again Oates and his associates, above all Bedlow, appeared at the trials to repeat old statements or to add new ones of increased force; the judges and the juries always had an overwhelming inclination to condemn. Coleman and three Jesuits had already perished on the scaffold. In June 1679 five other Jesuits, in spite of their protestations of innocence, were condemned and hanged at Tyburn. They were followed by Langhorne, a barrister of repute, who had been tempted in vain to save his life by consenting to denounce his fellow conspirators. Some impression however was made in these trials by the method of defence, which consisted in proving the contradictions and general untrustworthiness of the accusers. Even Chief Justice Scroggs, who till now, whilst most of the other judges had kept quiet, had conducted the proceedings with the zeal of a violent opponent of Catholicism, was confounded by the fact that great improbabilities, if not impossibilities, appeared in Bedlow's statement.