journey on business. He was pretty successful in Manchester,--a town
which may be said to have been the head-quarters of the disaffected. On
his return to London, he found that applications had been made from a
somewhat doubtful quarter by two individuals, for the posts of
subordinate officers in his troop. Mr. Kneebone, or, as he would have
preferred being styled, Captain Kneebone, was not perfectly satisfied
with the recommendations forwarded by the applicants. But this was not a
season in which to be needlessly scrupulous. He resolved to judge for
himself. Accordingly, he was introduced to the two military aspirants at
the Cross Shovels in the Mint, by our old acquaintance, Baptist
Kettleby. The Master of the Mint, with whom the Jacobite captain had
often had transactions before, vouched for their being men of honour and
loyalty; and Kneebone was so well satisfied with his representations,
that he at once closed the matter by administering to the applicants the
oath of allegiance and fidelity to King James the Third, and several
other oaths besides, all of which those gentlemen took with as little
hesitation as the sum of money, afterwards tendered, to make the compact
binding. The party, then, sat down to a bowl of punch; and, at its
conclusion, Captain Kneebone regretted that an engagement to spend the
evening with Mrs. Wood, would preclude the possibility of his remaining
with his new friends as long as his inclinations prompted. At this
piece of information, the two subordinate officers were observed to
exchange glances; and, after a little agreeable raillery on their
captain's gallantry, they begged permission to accompany him in his
visit. Kneebone, who had drained his glass to the restoration of the
house of Stuart, and the downfall of the house of Hanover, more
frequently than was consistent with prudence, consented; and the trio
set out for Wych Street, where they arrived in the jolliest humour
possible.