"You are very late, Mr. Mallock," he said--no more than that; but I felt
the reproof very keenly. "Tell him, Chiffinch."

Then Mr. Chiffinch related to me an extraordinary story; and he told it
very well, balancing the two sides of it, so that I could not tell what
he thought.

It appeared that a day or two ago, Doctor Tonge had come to my Lord
Danby, in pursuance of the tale he had told before, saying that he had
received further information, from the very man whom he had suspected,
and now had certified, to be the writer of the first information under
forty-three heads, to the effect that a packet of letters was on its way
to Windsor, to that very Mr. Bedingfeld (of whom Mr. Whitbread had
spoken to me), on the matter of the plot to murder the King, and the
Duke too unless he would consent to the affair. My Lord Danby posted
immediately to Windsor that he might intercept these letters and examine
them for himself; but found that not only had Mr. Bedingfeld received
them, but had taken them to the Duke, saying that he did not understand
one word that was written in them. Those letters purported to have been
written from a number of Jesuits, and others--amongst whom were a Mr.
Coleman, an agent of the Duke's, and Mr. Langhorn, a lawyer; and related
to a supposed plot, not only to murder the King, and his brother, too,
perhaps, but to re-establish the Popish domination, to burn Westminster,
as they had already burned the City; and that the new positions in the
State had already been designed to certain persons, whose names were all
mentioned in the letters, by the Holy Father himself. The matter that
was now being discussed in this little chamber was, What was best to be
done?