Note 4 — Chapter VIII

“One evening, when some French persons in the town, were sitting with me, some one desired to speak with me. I went out to him in the ante-room, and he began to state to me, in a voice which must be audible in the room where they were sitting, the ingratitude of the French government towards him, and to request me to communicate to the British Admiralty, a plan which he had discovered, of destroying a whole fleet of ships of war. I simply told him, that I was there as a minister of religion, and could not enter into anything of a military, or political nature.

“At another time, the Count de L, a Flemish nobleman, introduced himself to me, in what way, it does not now occur to me. I had not the least suspicion of him; and even when my French friends cautioned me, I thought they were only angry with him, because he spoke so much against that people and government. Even this circumstance gave me no distrust, because it was common with the Flemings. However, he was so ultra in his remarks, saying that they had scarcely a human countenance, and things equally absurd, that I inclined to the opposite side of the question, and never said anything that could be laid hold of, not from suspicion, but from a cautiousness, which had become habitual.”