his house and London.  The couriers were constantly going and returning; they performed their journeys up and down on foot; but they appeared to be gentlemen, and it was whispered that one of them was the son of a titled man.  The letters from Saint Germains were few and small.  Those directed to Saint Germains were numerous and bulky; they were made up like parcels of millinery, and were buried in the morass till they were called for by the privateer.

Here Barclay landed in January 1696; and hence he took the road to London.  He was followed, a few days later, by a tall youth, who concealed his name, but who produced credentials of the highest authority.  This youth too proceeded to London.  Hunt afterwards discovered that his humble roof had had the honour of sheltering the Duke of Berwick.655

The part which Barclay had to perform was difficult and hazardous; and he omitted no precaution.  He had been little in London; and his face was consequently unknown to the agents of the government.  Nevertheless he had several lodgings; he disguised himself so well that his oldest friends would not have known him by broad daylight; and yet he seldom ventured into the streets except in the dark.  His chief agent was a monk who, under several names, heard confessions and said masses at the risk of his neck.  This man intimated to some of the zealots with whom he consorted a special agent of the royal family was to be spoken with in Covent Garden, on certain nights, at a certain hour, and might be known by certain signs.656 In this way Barclay became acquainted with several men fit for his purpose.  The first persons to whom he fully opened himself were Charnock and Parkyns.  He talked with them about the plot which they and some of their friends had formed in the preceding spring against the life of William.  Both Charnock and Parkyns declared that the scheme might easily be executed, that there was no want of resolute hearts among the Royalists, and that all that was wanting was some sign of His Majesty’s approbation.

Then Barclay produced his commission.  He showed his two accomplices that James had expressly commanded all good Englishmen, not only to rise in arms, not only to make war on the usurping government, not only to seize forts and towns, but also to do from time to time such other acts of hostility against the Prince of Orange as might be for the royal service.  These words, Barclay said, plainly authorised an attack on the Prince’s person.  Charnock and Parkyns were satisfied.  How in truth was it possible for them to doubt that James’s confidential agent correctly construed James’s expressions?  Nay, how was it possible for them to understand the large words of the commission in any sense but one, even if Barclay had not been there to act as commentator?  If indeed the subject had never been brought under James’s consideration, it might well be thought that those words had dropped from his pen without any definite meaning.  But he had been repeatedly