of stooping to an act of baseness.  Indeed, he resented as affronts the compliments which were paid him on this occasion.580 The integrity of Nottingham could excite no surprise.  Ten thousand pounds had been offered to him, and had been refused.  The number of cases in which bribery was fully made out was small.  A large part of the sum which Cook had drawn from the Company’s treasury had probably been embezzled by the brokers whom he had employed in the work of corruption; and what had become of the rest it was not easy to learn from the reluctant witnesses who were brought before the committee.  One glimpse of light however was caught; it was followed; and it led to a discovery of the highest moment.  A large sum was traced from Cook to an agent named Firebrace, and from Firebrace to another agent named Bates, who was well known to be closely connected with the High Church party and especially with Leeds.  Bates was summoned, but absconded; messengers were sent in pursuit of him; he was caught, brought into the Exchequer Chamber and sworn.  The story which he told showed that he was distracted between the fear of losing his ears and the fear of injuring his patron.  He owned that he had undertaken to bribe Leeds, had been for that purpose furnished with five thousand five hundred guineas, had offered those guineas to His Grace, and had, by His Grace’s permission, left them at His Grace’s house in the care of a Swiss named Robart, who was His Grace’s confidential man of business.  It should seem that these facts admitted of only one interpretation.  Bates however swore that the Duke had refused to accept a farthing.  “Why then,” it was asked, “was the gold left, by his consent, at his house and in the hands of his servant?” “Because,” answered Bates, “I am bad at telling coin.  I therefore begged His Grace to let me leave the pieces, in order that Robart might count them for me; and His Grace was so good as to give leave.”  It was evident that, if this strange story had been true, the guineas would, in a few hours, have been taken-away.  But Bates was forced to confess that they had remained half a year where he had left them.  The money had indeed at last,—­and this was one of the most suspicious circumstances in the case,—­been paid back by Robart on the very morning on which the committee first met in the Exchequer Chamber.  Who could believe that, if the transaction had been free from all taint of corruption, the guineas would have been detained as long as Cook was able to remain silent, and would have been refunded on the very first day on which he was under the necessity of speaking out?581