, and give
him a discharge for eight hundred pounds of the pension which he had
received and not accounted for. Mr. M--, informed of this treacherous
proposal, immediately removed his lodger from his house into his own,
without assigning his reasons for so doing, until he was obliged to
declare it, in order to free himself from the importunities of H--, who
earnestly solicited his return. This miscreant finding himself detected
and disappointed in his villainous design, was so much enraged at his
miscarriage, that, forgetting all the benefits he had received from M--
for a series of years, he practised all the mischief that his malice
could contrive against him; and at length entered into a confederacy
with one G--, and several other abandoned wretches, who, as before said,
under various pretences of being able to make material discoveries, and
otherwise to serve the cause, had found means to be employed in some
extra business relating to it, though their real intention was to betray
the claimant.

"These confederates, in conjunction with some other auxiliaries of
infamous character, being informed that Mr. M-- was on the point of
securing a considerable sum, to enable him to prosecute Mr. A--'s right,
and to bring it to a happy conclusion, contrived a deep-laid scheme
to disappoint him in it, and at once to ruin the cause. And, previous
measures being taken for that wicked purpose, they imposed upon the
young gentleman's inexperience and credulity by insinuations equally
false, plausible, and malicious; to which they at length gained his
belief, by the mention of some circumstances that gave what they alleged
an air of probability, and even of truth. They swore that Mr. M-- had
taken out an action against him for a very large sum of money; that they
had actually seen the writ; that the intention of it was to throw him
into prison for life, and ruin his cause, in consequence of an agreement
made by him with Lord A--, and his other enemies, to retrieve the money
that he had laid out in the cause.

"This plausible tale was enforced with such an air of truth, candour,
and earnest concern for his safety, and was strengthened by so many
imprecations and corroborating circumstances of their invention, as
would have staggered one of much greater experience and knowledge of
mankind than Mr. A-- could be supposed at that time to possess. The
notion of perpetual imprisonment, and the certain ruin they made him
believe his cause