[Footnote 12:  “Had such an accident ... against the secretary.”  The writer of “A Letter to the Seven Lords” (1711) quotes this passage, and remarks that “The Examiner” “intended seriously to charge you all, with subornation, in order to proceed to murder.”  See also Swift’s “Some Remarks,” etc. (vol. v., pp. 29-53 of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 13:  See note on p. 263.  Also note on p. 30 of vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 14:  William Gregg declared in his last confession that Mr. Harley “was not privy to my writing to France, directly nor indirectly,” and he thanked God for touching his “conscience so powerfully ... as to prevent my prostituting the same to save my life.”—­“William Gregg’s Paper,” “Published by Authority,” 1708.  Gregg told the Rev. Paul Lorrain “that he was profferred his life, and a great reward, if he would accuse his master” (F.  Hoffman’s “Secret Transactions,” 1711, p. 8). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 15:  Swift furnished Mrs. Manley with hints for her pamphlet entitled, “A True Narrative Of what pass’d at the Examination Of the Marquis De Guiscard,” 1711.  See note on p. 41 of vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 16:  “The matter was thus represented in the weekly paper called ‘The Examiner’; which Mr. St. John perused before it was printed, but made no alteration in that passage.”  Swift’s “Memoirs Relating to that Change,” etc. (vol v., p. 389 of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 17:  Guiscard could hardly have been aware of St. John’s true sentiments towards Harley.  In 1717 Bolingbroke, writing in his “Letter to Sir William Windham,” says:  “I abhorred Oxford to that degree, that I could not bear to be joined with him in any case” (edit. 1753, p. 94).  And yet, when it was feared that Harley might die from his wound, St. John remarked to Swift that “he was but an ill dissembler” and Harley’s life was “absolutely necessary.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 18:  “It was thought he had a design against the Queen’s person, for he had tried by all the ways that he could contrive to be admitted to speak with her in private.” (BURNET’S “Own Times,” ii., 566). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 19:  An Act to make an Attempt on the Life of a Privy Councillor in the Execution of his Office to be Felony without Benefit of Clergy (9 Ann. c. 21).  This Act, which indemnified all those who had caused Guiscard’s death, was recommended in a Royal Message, March 14th, introduced April 5th, passed the House of Commons, April 19th, and received the Royal Assent, May 16th, 1711. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 20:  Writing to Stella, under date March 15th, Swift says:  “I am sorry he [Guiscard] is dying; for they had found out a way to hang him.  He certainly had an intention to murder the Queen.”  Two days later he says:  “The coroner’s inquest have found that he was killed by bruises received from a messenger, so to clear the cabinet counsellors from whom he received his wounds.” (Vol. ii., p. 139 of present edition.) [T.S.]]