. Indeed a flighty and half witted man is the very instrument
generally preferred by cunning politicians when very hazardous work is
to be done. No shrewd calculator would, for any bribe, however enormous,
have exposed himself to the fate of Chatel, of Ravaillac, or of Gerarts.
[314]

Grandval secured, as he conceived, the assistance of two adventurers,
Dumont, a Walloon, and Leefdale, a Dutchman. In April, soon after
William had arrived in the Low Countries, the murderers were directed
to repair to their post. Dumont was then in Westphalia. Grandval and
Leefdale were at Paris. Uden in North Brabant was fixed as the place
where the three were to meet and whence they were to proceed together
to the headquarters of the allies. Before Grandval left Paris he paid
a visit to Saint Germains, and was presented to James and to Mary of
Modena. "I have been informed," said James, "of the business. If you and
your companions do me this service, you shall never want."

After this audience Grandval set out on his journey. He had not the
faintest suspicion that he had been betrayed both by the accomplice who
accompanied him and by the accomplice whom he was going to meet.
Dumont and Leefdale were not enthusiasts. They cared nothing for the
restoration of James, the grandeur of Lewis, or the ascendency of the
Church of Rome. It was plain to every man of common sense that, whether
the design succeeded or failed, the reward of the assassins would
probably be to be disowned, with affected abhorrence, by the Courts
of Versailles and Saint Germains, and to be torn with redhot pincers,
smeared with melted lead, and dismembered by four horses. To vulgar
natures the prospect of such a martyrdom was not alluring. Both these
men, therefore, had, almost at the same time, though, as far as appears,
without any concert, conveyed to William, through different channels,
warnings that his life was in danger. Dumont had acknowledged every
thing to the Duke of Zell, one of the confederate princes. Leefdale
had transmitted full intelligence through his relations who resided in
Holland. Meanwhile Morel, a Swiss Protestant of great learning who
was then in France, wrote to inform Burnet that the weak and hotheaded
Grandval had been heard to talk boastfully of the event which would soon
astonish the world, and had confidently predicted that the Prince of
Orange would not live to the end of the next month.

These cautions were not neglected. From the mome