sh Dominions, had been so venturous as
to invade England itself, and had actually advanced so far as the
trading town of Derby! Then did those who had been long, albeit
obscurely, suspected of Jacobitism, come forth from their lurking holes
and corners, and almost openly avow their preference for the House of
Stuart. Then did very many respectable persons, formerly thought to be
excellently well affected towards King George's person and Government,
become waverers, or prove themselves the Turncoats they had always, in
secret, been, and seditiously prophesy that the days of the Hanoverian
dynasty were numbered. Then did spies and traitors abound, together with
numbers of alarming rumours, that the Chevalier had advanced as far as
Barnet on the Great North Road; that his Majesty was about to convey
himself away to Hanover; that the Duke of Cumberland was dead; that
barrels of gunpowder had been discovered in the Crypt beneath
Guildhall, and in the vaults of the Chapel Royal; that mutiny was rife
among the troops; that the Bank of England was about to break, with
sundry other distracting reports and noises.

Of course authority did all it could to reassure the public mind, tossed
in a most tempestuous manner as it was by conflicting accounts.
Authority bestirred itself to put down seditious meetings by
proclamation, and to interdict residence in the capital to all known
Papists; whereby several most estimable Catholic gentlemen (as many
there be of that old Faith) were forced to leave their Town Houses, and
betake themselves to mean and inconvenient dwellings in the country. The
gates of Temple Bar were now shut, on sudden alarms, two or three times
a week; as though the closing of these rotten portals could in any way
impede the progress of rebellion, or do any thing more than further to
hamper the already choked-up progress of the streets. The Lord Mayor was
mighty busy calling out the Train-bands, and having them drilled in
Moorfields, for the defence of the City; and a mighty fine show those
citizen soldiers would have made no doubt to the bare-legged
Highlandmen, had they come that way. The Guards at all the posts at the
Court end of the town were doubled, and we at the Tower put ourselves
into a perfect state of defence. Cannon were run out; matches kept
lighted; whole battalions maintained under arms; munitions and
provisions of war laid in, as though to withstand a regular siege;
drawbridges pulled up and portculli