the visionary
Lycurgus of Georgia"), bearing date of the 16th of May. The following
is a choice passage from the letter referred to:--

"Some intelligence I had of a villanous design of a very
extraordinary nature, and if true very important, viz., that
the Spaniards had employed emissaries to burn all the
magazines and considerable towns in the English North
America, and thereby to prevent the subsisting of the great
expedition and fleet in the West Indies; and for this
purpose many priests were employed, who pretended to be
physicians, dancing-masters, and other such kinds of
occupations, and under that pretence to get admittance and
confidence in families."[253]

The burden of his effort was the wickedness of Popery and the
Roman-Catholic Church. The first witness called was the irrepressible
Mary Burton. She began by rehearsing the old story of setting fire to
the houses: but this time she varied it somewhat; it was not the fort
that was to be burnt first, but Croker's, near a coffee-house, by the
long bridge. She remembered the ring drawn with chalk, saw things in
it that looked like rats (the good Horsemanden throws a flood of light
upon this otherwise dark passage by telling his reader that it was the
Negroes' black toes!); that she peeped in once and saw a black thing
like a child, and Ury with a book in his hand, and at this moment she
let a silver spoon drop, and Ury chased her, and would have caught
her, had she not fallen into a bucket of water, and thus marvellously
escaped! But the rule was to send this curious Mary to bed when any
thing of an unusual nature was going on. Ury asked her some questions.

"_Prisoner_.--You say you have seen me several times at
Hughson's, what clothes did I usually wear?

"_Mary Burton_.--I cannot tell what clothes you wore
particularly.

"_Prisoner._--That is strange, and know me so well?"

She then says several kinds, but particularly, or chiefly, a
riding-coat, and often a brown coat, trimmed with black.

"_Prisoner_.--I never wore such a coat. What time of the day
did I used to come to Hughson's?

"_M. Burton_.--You used chiefly to come in the night-time,
and when I have been going to bed I have seen you undressing
in Peggy's room, as if you were to lie there; but I cannot
say that you did, for you were always gone before I was up
in the morning.