e hour, be broken off. One of them had seen a person just arrived
from Saint Germains; another had had the privilege of reading a letter
in the handwriting of Her Majesty; and all were confident that Lewis
would never acknowledge the usurper. Many of those who held this
language were under so strong a delusion that they backed their opinion
by large wagers. When the intelligence of the fall of Barcelona arrived,
all the treason taverns were in a ferment with nonjuring priests
laughing, talking loud, and shaking each other by the hand. [818]

At length, in the afternoon of the thirteenth of September, some
speculators in the City received, by a private channel, certain
intelligence that the treaty had been signed before dawn on the morning
of the eleventh. They kept their own secret, and hastened to make a
profitable use of it; but their eagerness to obtain Bank stock, and
the high prices which they offered, excited suspicion; and there was
a general belief that on the next day something important would be
announced. On the next day Prior, with the treaty, presented himself
before the Lords justices at Whitehall. Instantly a flag was hoisted on
the Abbey, another on Saint Martin's Church. The Tower guns proclaimed
the glad tidings. All the spires and towers from Greenwich to Chelsea
made answer. It was not one of the days on which the newspapers
ordinarily appeared; but extraordinary numbers, with headings in large
capitals, were, for the first time, cried about the streets. The price
of Bank stock rose fast from eighty-four to ninety-seven. In a few
hours triumphal arches began to rise in some places. Huge bonfires were
blazing in others. The Dutch ambassador informed the States General that
he should try to show his joy by a bonfire worthy of the commonwealth
which he represented; and he kept his word; for no such pyre had ever
been seen in London. A hundred and forty barrels of pitch roared and
blazed before his house in Saint James's Square, and sent up a flame
which made Pall Mall and Piccadilly as bright as at noonday. [819]

Among the Jacobites the dismay was great. Some of those who had betted
deep on the constancy of Lewis took flight. One unfortunate zealot of
divine right drowned himself. But soon the party again took heart. The
treaty had been signed; but it surely would never be ratified. In a
short time the ratification came; the peace was solemnly proclaimed by
the heralds; and the most obstinate nonjurors