ed to be
still in Scotland.

But what affected me more nearly was the condition of Gerald's
circumstances. On the breaking out of the rebellion he had been suddenly
seized, and detained in prison; and it was only upon the escape of the
Chevalier that he was released: apparently, however, nothing had
been proved against him; and my absence from the head-quarters
of intelligence left me in ignorance both of the grounds of his
imprisonment and the circumstances of his release.

I heard, however, from Bolingbroke, who seemed to possess some of that
information which the ecclesiastical intriguants of the day so curiously
transmitted from court to court and corner to corner, that Gerald had
retired to Devereux Court in great disgust at his confinement. However,
when I considered his bold character, his close intimacy with Montreuil,
and the genius for intrigue which that priest so eminently possessed,
I was not much inclined to censure the government for unnecessary
precaution in his imprisonment.

There was another circumstance connected with the rebellion which
possessed for me an individual and deep interest. A man of the name
of Barnard had been executed in England for seditious and treasonable
practices. I took especial pains to ascertain every particular
respecting him. I learned that he was young, of inconsiderable note,
but esteemed clever; and had, long previously to the death of the
Queen, been secretly employed by the friends of the Chevalier. This
circumstance occasioned me much internal emotion, though there could
be no doubt that the Barnard whom I had such cause to execrate had only
borrowed from this minion the disguise of his name.

The Regent received me with all the graciousness and complaisance
for which he was so remarkable. To say the truth, my mission had been
extremely fortunate in its results; the only cause in which the Regent
was concerned the interests of which Peter the Great appeared to
disregard was that of the Chevalier; but I had been fully instructed on
that head anterior to my legation.

There appears very often to be a sort of moral fitness between the
beginning and the end of certain alliances or acquaintances. This
sentiment is not very clearly expressed. I am about to illustrate it by
an important event in my political life. During my absence Dubois had
made rapid steps towards being a great man. He was daily growing into
power, and those courtiers who were neither too haughty nor