coming. There was
but too much reason to believe that there were traitors in the island.
Whoever pretended that he could point out those traitors was sure to be
heard with attention; and there was not wanting a false witness to avail
himself of the golden opportunity.

This false witness was named Robert Young. His history was in his own
lifetime so fully investigated, and so much of his correspondence has
been preserved, that the whole man is before us. His character is indeed
a curious study. His birthplace was a subject of dispute among three
nations. The English pronounced him Irish. The Irish, not being
ambitious of the honour of having him for a countryman, affirmed that he
was born in Scotland. Wherever he may have been born, it is impossible
to doubt where he was bred; for his phraseology is precisely that of
the Teagues who were, in his time, favourite characters on our stage. He
called himself a priest of the Established Church; but he was in truth
only a deacon; and his deacon's orders he had obtained by producing
forged certificates of his learning and moral character. Long before the
Revolution he held curacies in various parts of Ireland; but he did
not remain many days in any spot. He was driven from one place by the
scandal which was the effect of his lawless amours. He rode away from
another place on a borrowed horse, which he never returned. He settled
in a third parish, and was taken up for bigamy. Some letters which he
wrote on this occasion from the gaol of Cavan have been preserved. He
assured each of his wives, with the most frightful imprecations, that
she alone was the object of his love; and he thus succeeded in inducing
one of them to support him in prison, and the other to save his life by
forswearing herself at the assizes. The only specimens which remain to
us of his method of imparting religious instruction are to be found in
these epistles. He compares himself to David, the man after God's own
heart, who had been guilty both of adultery and murder. He declares
that he repents; he prays for the forgiveness of the Almighty, and then
intreats his dear honey, for Christ's sake, to perjure herself. Having
narrowly escaped the gallows, he wandered during several years about
Ireland and England, begging, stealing, cheating, personating, forging,
and lay in many prisons under many names. In 1684 he was convicted at
Bury of having fraudulently counterfeited Sancroft's signature, and was
sentenced