were making in favour of the Chevalier.

By what they told me at first I saw that they had been trusted, and
by what passed in the course of my treating with them it appeared
that they had the access which they pretended to. All which I had
been able to do by proper persons and in proper methods, since the
King of France's death, amounting to little or nothing, I resolved,
at last, to try what was to be done by this indirect way. I put
myself under the conduct of these female managers, and without
having the same dependence on them as his Grace of Ormond had, I
pushed their credit and their power as far as they reached during
the time I continued to see them. I met with smoother language and
greater hopes than had been given me hitherto. A note signed by the
Regent, supposed to be written to a woman, but which was to be
explained to be intended for the Earl of Mar, was put into my hands
to be sent to Scotland. I took a copy of it, which you may see at
the end of these papers. When Sir John Areskine came to press for
succour, the Regent was prevailed upon by these women to see him;
but he carried nothing real back with him except a quantity of gold,
part of the money which we had drawn from Spain, and which was lost,
with the vessel, in a very odd manner, on the Scotch coast. The
Duke of Ormond had been promised seven or eight thousand arms, which
were drawn out of the magazines, and said to be lodged, I think, at
Compiegne. I used my utmost efforts that these arms might be
carried forward to the coast, and I undertook for their
transportation, but all was in vain, so that the likelihood of
bringing anything to effect in time appeared to me no greater than I
had found it before I entered into this intrigue.

I soon grew tired of a commerce which nothing but success could