was not deceived (indeed, every opportunity was sought by the Jacobites of parading their numbers,) as to the force of its enemies; and precautionary measures were taken to defeat their designs.  On the very day of which we write, namely, the 10th of June 1715, Bolingbroke and Oxford were impeached of high treason.  The Committee of Secrecy—­that English Council of Ten—­were sitting, with Walpole at their head; and the most extraordinary discoveries were reported to be made.  On the same day, moreover, which, by a curious coincidence, was the birthday of the Chevalier de Saint George, mobs were collected together in the streets, and the health of that prince was publicly drunk under the title of James the Third; while, in many country towns, the bells were rung, and rejoicings held, as if for a reigning monarch:—­the cry of the populace almost universally being, “No King George, but a Stuart!”

The adherents of the Chevalier de Saint George, we have said, were lavish in promises to their proselytes.  Posts were offered to all who chose to accept them.  Blank commissions, signed by the prince, to be filled up by the name of the person, who could raise a troop for his service, were liberally bestowed.  Amongst others, Mr. Kneebone, whose interest was not inconsiderable with the leaders of his faction, obtained an appointment as captain in a regiment of infantry, on the conditions above specified.  With a view to raise recruits for his corps, the warlike woollen-draper started for Lancashire, under the colour of a journey on business.  He was pretty successful in Manchester,—­a town which may be said to have been the head-quarters of the disaffected.  On his return to London, he found that applications had been made from a somewhat doubtful quarter by two individuals, for the posts of subordinate officers in his troop.  Mr. Kneebone, or, as he would have preferred being styled, Captain Kneebone, was not perfectly satisfied with the recommendations forwarded by the applicants.  But this was not a season in which to be needlessly scrupulous.  He resolved to judge for himself.  Accordingly, he was introduced to the two military aspirants at the Cross Shovels in the Mint, by our old acquaintance, Baptist Kettleby.  The Master of the Mint, with whom the Jacobite captain had often had transactions before, vouched for their being men of honour and loyalty; and Kneebone was so well satisfied with his representations, that he at once closed the matter by administering to the applicants the oath of allegiance and fidelity to King James the Third, and several other oaths besides, all of which those gentlemen took with as little hesitation as the sum of money, afterwards tendered, to make the compact binding.  The party, then, sat down to a bowl of punch; and, at its conclusion, Captain Kneebone regretted that an engagement to spend the evening with Mrs. Wood, would preclude the possibility of his remaining with his new friends as long as his inclinations prompted.  At this piece of information,