To do Fuller justice, he seems not to have taken up the trade of a false witness till he could no longer support himself by begging or swindling.  He lived for a time on the charity of the Queen.  He then levied contributions by pretending to be one of the noble family of Sidney.  He wheedled Tillotson out of some money, and requited the good Archbishop’s kindness by passing himself off as His Grace’s favourite nephew.  But in the autumn of 1691 all these shifts were exhausted.  After lying in several spunging houses, Fuller was at length lodged in the King’s Bench prison, and he now thought it time to announce that he had discovered a plot.196

He addressed himself first to Tillotson and Portland; but both Tillotson and Portland soon perceived that he was lying.  What he said was, however, reported to the King, who, as might have been expected, treated the information and the informant with cold contempt.  All that remained was to try whether a flame could be raised in the Parliament.

Soon after the Houses met, Fuller petitioned the Commons to hear what he had to say, and promised to make wonderful disclosures.  He was brought from his prison to the bar of the House; and he there repeated a long romance.  James, he said, had delegated the regal authority to six commissioners, of whom Halifax was first.  More than fifty lords and gentlemen had signed an address to the French King, imploring him to make a great effort for the restoration of the House of Stuart.  Fuller declared that he had seen this address, and recounted many of the names appended to it.  Some members made severe remarks on the improbability of the story and on the character of the witness.  He was, they said, one of the greatest rogues on the face of the earth; and he told such things as could scarcely be credited if he were an angel from heaven.  Fuller audaciously pledged himself to bring proofs which would satisfy the most incredulous.  He was, he averred, in communication with some agents of James.  Those persons were ready to make reparation to their country.  Their testimony would be decisive; for they were in possession of documentary evidence which would confound the guilty.  They held back only because they saw some of the traitors high in office and near the royal person, and were afraid of incurring the enmity of men so powerful and so wicked.  Fuller ended by asking for a sum of money, and by assuring the Commons that he would lay it out to good account.197 Had his impudent request been granted, he would probably have paid his debts, obtained his liberty, and absconded; but the House very wisely insisted on seeing his witnesses first.  He then began to shuffle.  The gentlemen were on the Continent, and could not come over without passports.  Passports were delivered to him; but he complained that they were insufficient.  At length the Commons, fully determined to get at the truth, presented an address requesting the King to send Fuller a blank