On Oates's return he further stoked Tonge's paranoia with stories of Jesuit conspiracies, including a plot against a feared anti-Catholic author – Tonge himself. At Tonge's request Oates wrote a lengthy manuscript- the first of many Plot Narratives- and arranged with Tonge that Tonge would pretend to find it in the gallery of Sir Richard Barker's house at the Barbican, where Tonge was then living. So excited was Tonge by the contents of the Narrative that through his friend, the chemist Christopher Kirkby, who assisted the King with his chemical experiments, he managed to obtain an audience with Charles II, where he summarised Oates' claims. Charles soon became a complete sceptic about the Plot, but his initial reaction was that "among so many particulars he could not say that there might not be some truth". He was at least sufficiently impressed to ask the Lord Treasurer, Danby, to investigate. Danby agreed that the matter deserved inquiry, despite opposition from another leading minister, Sir Joseph Williamson, who knew Tonge and believed he was insane.