"Hast thou
found me, oh, mine enemy?" St. John had threatened Hampden, who was a
lineal descendant of the {106} Hampden of the Civil War, with the
Tower, for daring to censure the Ministry of the day, and was only
deterred from carrying out his threat by prudent counsellors, who
showed him that Hampden would be only too proud to share Walpole's
imprisonment. These were men not likely to forget or to forgive such
injuries.

At first the Tories seem scarcely to have believed that the Whigs would
push their policy to extremities. The eccentric Jacobite Shippen
publicly scoffed at the committee, and declared in the Mouse of Commons
that its investigations would vanish into smoke. Such confidence was
quickly and rudely shattered. June 9th saw a memorable scene. On that
day Robert Walpole, as chairman of the Committee of Secrecy, rose and
told the House of Commons that he had to present a report, but that he
was commanded by the committee to move in the first instance that a
warrant be issued by the Speaker to apprehend several persons who
should be named by him, and that meantime no member be permitted to
leave the House. Thereupon the lobbies were cleared of all strangers,
and the Sergeant-at-arms stood at the door in order to prevent any
member from going out. Then Walpole named Mr. Matthew Prior, Mr.
Thomas Harley, and other persons, and the Speaker issued his warrant
for their arrest. Mr. Prior was arrested at once; Mr. Harley a few
hours afterwards.

[Sidenote: 1715--"Most contagious treason"]

Prior was the poet, the friend and correspondent of Bolingbroke. He
had been much engaged in the negotiations for the Treaty of Utrecht,
and had at one time actually held the rank of English Envoy. He had
but lately returned from Paris; had arrived in London just before
Bolingbroke's flight. Thomas Harley, cousin of Lord Oxford, had also
been concerned in the negotiations in a less formal and more underhand
sort of way. When the arrests had been ordered, Walpole informed the
House that the Committee of Secrecy had agreed upon their report, and
had commanded him to submit it to the House of Commons. The report,
which Walpole himself, as {107} chairman of the committee, had drawn
up, was a document of great length; it occupied many hours in the
reading. But the time could not have seemed tedious to those who
listened. The report was an indictment and a State paper combined. It
arrayed with the utmost skill all