that hundreds existed every year.  In this instance, however, the matter is different.  There is reason to believe that the present conspiracy is one of such a dark and horrible nature, as instantly to excite the indignation of the whole people, to make all the better part of the Jacobites ashamed of the deeds of their friends, and to rouse up universal feelings of loyalty throughout the land.  The fact is, the thing is already discovered.  Information has long been tendered to the government by various persons implicated:  but acting upon the plan which we have generally pursued, such advances have been met coldly, till last night more distinct, and definite information was given by some one, who, instead of being actuated by motives of gain, or of fear, as we suspected in all other cases, came forward, it seems, from personal feelings of gratitude towards the King himself.  His majesty promised this person not to bring him forward in the business at all, and has refused to give up his name, even to me.  But his conviction of the truth of all that was told was so strong, that the previous informer was sent for last night at one o’clock to the palace at Kensington, to which place I also had been summoned.  The whole facts, the names, the designs of everybody concerned, were then completely discovered, and I have been busying myself ever since I rose, in adopting the proper measures for arresting and punishing the persons directly implicated.  Having explained to you these views, I must now put my question again.  Did you see any one amongst these conspirators with whose person you were acquainted?  I only ask for my own satisfaction, and on every account shall abstain from bringing your name forward, in the slightest degree.”

“There was only one person, my lord,” replied Wilton, who had listened with deep interest to this long detail; “there was only one person, my lord, that I had ever knowingly seen before, and that was Sir John Fenwick.”

“I signed a warrant for his arrest half an hour ago,” rejoined the Earl, “and there are two Messengers seeking him at this moment.  I think you said you saw Sir George Barkley?”

“I cannot absolutely say that, my lord,” replied Wilton; “but I certainly saw a gentleman whom I believed, and most firmly do still believe, to be him:  he was a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, of a somewhat saturnine complexion, with a deep scar on his cheek.”

“The same, the same,” said the Earl, “undoubtedly the same.  Listen, if you know any of these names;” and he read from a list—­“Sir William Parkyns, Captain Rookwood, Captain Lowick, Sir John Friend, Charnock, Cranburne, the Earl of Aylesbury—­”

“The Earl certainly was not there, my lord,” replied Wilton; “for I know him well by sight, and I saw no one, I can assure you, whom I knew, but Sir John Fenwick.”

“And this Plessis, at whose house you saw them,” continued the Earl—­“did he seem to be taking a share in the business with them?  He is an old friend of mine, this Master Plessis; and obtains for me some of the best information that I ever get from abroad.  I do not know what I should do without Plessis.  He is the most useful man in the world.  We must let him off, at all events; but it will be no bad thing to have a rope round his neck, either.”