was afoot, and Habeas Corpus suspended. Fast bind, safe
find, is a true proverb; and you may thank your stars, even if your
enemies have for a time bound you with chains and with links of iron,
if, when the stormy season has gone past, you find your head still safe
on your shoulders. Now it was a great Lord who was brought to the Tower,
and from whom Mr. Lieutenant did not forget to claim his thirty-pound
fee on entrance; for "here to-day, gone to-morrow," he reasoned, and so
shot his game as soon as he had good parview of the same. Now it was
some Cheshire or Lancashire Squire, snatched away from his Inn, at the
Hercules' Pillars, or the Catherine Wheel in the Borough, as being
vehemently suspected of Jacobitism. These gentlemen mostly took their
captivity in a very cheerful and philosophical manner. They would call
for a round of spiced beef, a tankard of ale, and a pipe of tobacco, so
soon as ever they were fairly bestowed in their lodgings; drank to the
King--taking care not to let us know whether his name began with a G or
a J, with many jovial ha-has, and were as happy as the day was long, so
it seemed to us, if they had but a pack of cards and a volume of the
Gentleman's Recreation, or Academy of Field Sports. What bowls of punch,
too, they would imbibe o' nights, and what mad carouses they would have!
Such roaring Squires as these would have been much better bestowed in
the Messengers' Houses; but these were all full, likewise the common
gaols; nay, the debtors' prisons and vile sponging-houses were taken up
by Government for the temporary incarceration of suspected persons.

How well do I remember the dreadful amazement and consternation which
broke over this city when the news came that the Prince--I mean the
Pretender--had utterly routed the King's troops commanded by Sir John
Cope at Prestonpans; that the Misguided Young Man had entered
Edinborough at the head of a furious mob of Highlandmen, whose
preposterous style of dress I never could abide, and who in those days
we Southrons held as being very little better than painted Savages; that
the ladies of the Scottish capital had all mounted the white cockade,
and were embroidering scarves for the Pretender and his officers, and
that the Castle of Edinborough alone held out 'gainst this monstrous
uprising to destroy authority! But how much greater was the Dismay in
London when we learnt that the Rebels, not satisfied with their
conquests in his Majesty's Scotti