at portion of this
band then in the city, for the recovery of the papers. These rewards
made a great stir, especially with the officers of all parties, both
those for and against the colonel. Taylor was a mark to be shot at by
about seven-eighths of the band, and the remaining one-eighth was ready
to go to the highest bidder, to do service for him who would give the
highest wages. He found means to secure the friendship of the latter,
many of whom were considered quite respectable men, and were never
suspected by the brotherhood of any thing dishonourable. The head men
constituted still another party. Thus these villains were divided into
three factions. These were the friends of Taylor, known as Taylorites,
and the supporters of Brown, called Brownites. These only were publicly
known; while the third party, embracing the royal grandees, were
actively engaged in disengaging themselves from the coils which they
supposed had been deliberately laid for their destruction. They showed,
by their efforts, they had more at stake than all the rest. Though their
movements were not publicly recognised, yet they had every influence
that would favour their cause in operation, to consummate their hellish
purposes.

The constitution, by-laws, and about one thousand and three hundred
letters, including copies and original, were missing; and the destiny of
the whole band of Grand Masters depended upon their recovery, before
ever they fell into the hands of one who could explain them to the
brotherhood; and still more calamitous would be the condition of the
entire fraternity, if they were ever revealed to the public. Those more
immediately concerned were confirmed in the opinion that the colonel had
secreted them for future use. Finding they had not accomplished what
they intended, in bringing the papers to the city, they had recourse to
a certain clause in the constitution, to compel the colonel to produce
some of them, if in his possession. That clause required the holder of
an original letter to return the same, when requested by the writer,
after copying, if desirable. This law applied, however, only to letters
having the secret "qualities," or, in other words, the private
description of the bearer in full, which was written in acid, and could
be read only after subjection to chemical action. Three hundred and
seventy-nine of the letters in the package were of this kind; one
thousand were copies, whose original had been returned. Th