nature; but what it was, whence it sprang, or
why he should now keep the house and garden, I could make no guess at. It was
clear, even to probation, the pamphlets had some share in this revolution; I
read all I could find, and they were all extremely insignificant, and of the
usual kind of party scurrility; even to a high politician, I could spy out no
particular matter of offence, and my lord was a man rather indifferent on public
questions. The truth is, the pamphlet which was the spring of this affair lay
all the time on my lord's bosom. There it was that I found it at last, after he
was dead, in the midst of the north wilderness: in such a place, in such dismal
circumstances, I was to read for the first time these idle, lying words of a
Whig pamphleteer declaiming against indulgency to Jacobites: - »Another
notorious Rebel, the M--r of B--e, is to have his Title restored,« the passage
ran. »This Business has been long in hand, since he rendered some very
disgraceful Services in Scotland and France. His Brother, L--d D--r, is known to
be no better than himself in Inclination; and the supposed Heir, who is now to
be set aside, was bred up in the most detestable Principles. In the old Phrase,
it is six of the one and half a dozen of the other; but the Favour of such a
Reposition is too extreme to be passed over.« A man in his right wits could not
have cared two straws for a tale so manifestly false; that Government should
ever entertain the notion was inconceivable to any reasoning creature, unless
possibly the fool that penned it; and my lord, though never brilliant, was ever
remarkable for sense. That he should credit such a rodomontade, and carry the
pamphlet on his bosom and the words in his heart, is the clear proof of the
man's lunacy. Doubtless the mere mention of Mr. Alexander, and the threat
directly held out against the child's succession, precipitated that which had so
long impended. Or else my master had been truly mad for a long time, and we were
too dull or too much used to him, and did not perceive the extent of his
infirmity.
    About a week after the day of the pamphlets I was late upon the
harbour-side, and took a turn towards the Master's, as I often did. The door
opened, a flood of