od) has had the affair of the plate made up, and
departs for England.

"Is not this a dull letter? I have a cursed headache with drinking with
Mat and some more over-night, and tipsy or sober am

"Thine ever ----."

All this letter, save some dozen of words which I have put above between
brackets, was mere idle talk, though the substance of the letter was as
important as any letter well could be. It told those that had the key,
that The King will take the Viscount Castlewood's passports and travel
to England under that lord's name. His Majesty will be at the Lady
Castlewood's house in Kensington Square, where his friends may visit
him; they are to ask for the Lord Castlewood. This note may have passed
under Mr. Prior's eyes, and those of our new allies the French, and
taught them nothing; though it explains sufficiently to persons in
London what the event was which was about to happen, as 'twill show
those who read my memoirs a hundred years hence, what was that errand on
which Colonel Esmond of late had been busy. Silently and swiftly to do
that about which others were conspiring, and thousands of Jacobites
all over the country clumsily caballing; alone to effect that which the
leaders here were only talking about; to bring the Prince of Wales into
the country openly in the face of all, under Bolingbroke's very eyes,
the walls placarded with the proclamation signed with the Secretary's
name, and offering five hundred pounds reward for his apprehension:
this was a stroke, the playing and winning of which might well give any
adventurous spirit pleasure: the loss of the stake might involve a heavy
penalty, but all our family were eager to risk that for the glorious
chance of winning the game.

Nor shall it be called a game, save perhaps with the chief player, who
was not more or less sceptical than most public men with whom he had
acquaintance in that age. (Is there ever a public man in England that
altogether believes in his party? Is there one, however doubtful, that
will not fight for it?) Young Frank was ready to fight without much
thinking, he was a Jacobite as his father before him was; all the
Esmonds were Royalists. Give him but the word, he would cry, "God save
King James!" before the palace guard, or at the Maypole in the Strand;
and with respect to the women, as is usual with them, 'twas not a
question of party but of faith; their belief was a passion; either
Esmond's mistress or her daughter would have d