Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/377

A.D.1717.] was not wanting. Spain remitted to baron Spaar a million of livres for the expedition, and the court of the pretender offered sixty thousand pounds.

But unfortunately for the pretender, at the moment that the Swedish hero should prepare his armament for the earliest spring, the conspiracy exploded. Whilst the leaders of it had been flattering themselves that it was conducted with the profoundest secrecy, the English ministry were in possession of its clue. So early as October they had found reason to induce them to intercept the correspondence of Gyllenborg, and had come at once on the letters of Gortz. The matter was kept close, and as nothing was apprehended in winter, ministers used the time to improve their knowledge of the scheme from the inspected letters passing betwixt Gortz and Gyllenborg. On the king's return it was resolved to act, and accordingly Stanhope laid the information regarding this formidable conspiracy before the council, and proposed that the Swedish minister, who had clearly, by conspiring against the government to which he was accredited, violated the law of nations, and deprived himself of its protection, should be arrested. The cabinet at once assented to the proposal, and General Wade, a man of firm and resolute military habits, was ordered to make the arrest of the ambassador. The general found count Gyllenborg busy making up his dispatches, which, after announcing laconically his errand, Wade took possession of, and then demanded the contents of his escritoire.

The ambassador vehemently denounced the violation of his privilege, declared the laws of nations insulted in his person, and insisted upon sending for the Spanish ambassador, the marquis de Monteleone; but the general told him that he had strict orders not to allow any person to speak with him, and as he refused to give up the key, ordered the escritoire to be broken open, although the countess protested that it contained nothing but her plate and linen. The bursting open of the escritoire, however, told another tale. It revealed a mass of papers, which Wade also sealed up and carried away, leaving the ambassador, under a sufficient guard, prisoner in his own house. The same day Mr. Cæsar, a creature of lord Oxford's, with whom Gyllenborg had passed most of the preceding summer in Hertfordshire, was arrested, as well as Sir Jacob Banks, formerly member for Minehead, who were suspected of being engaged in the conspiracy.

Stanhope then addressed a circular letter to all the representatives of foreign powers in London, informing them of the grounds for this arrest. None of them expressed any dissatisfaction at the proceeding except the Spanish ambassador, whose government had implicated itself in the conspiracy by sending money to support it. To make all the world aware of the facts, the government published the letters which had been seized in the post or at the house of the Swedish ambassador, in themselves a complete justification of this bold measure. Gyllenborg was found saying in his letters, "There is no medium. Either Bremen or the Hanoverian must be sacrificed. The latter is not so difficult, considering the general discontent. Ten thousand men would be sufficient. The malcontents require but a body of forces, to which they may join themselves. That body being transported in the month of March, when the easterly winds reign, and when it will not at all be dreamt of, will cause a general revolt."

This model of an ambassador, who was plotting against the government to which he was sent, then took another view of affairs, for any view which suited the convenience of his master was alike to him. He put the case, whether it would not be quite as well to make an arrangement with king George about Bremen, and thus bribe him to see what he would do in assisting to wrest some advantage from the czar. "But," continued this pliant diplomatist, if we do not come to such terms, your excellency may be assured that, as well to justify their past actions, as to force his to a compliance, they will prevail upon the mercenary parliament which they have at present, to take vigorous resolutions, and perhaps even to declare war against us. The English ministers do not mince the matter, and they have already made it appear that they will stick at nothing. They are all furious persons. Sunderland, who, in a manner, is at the head of affairs, has got all the interest that he has with the king of England, by consenting to what has been done against us. Your excellency, therefore, will find that we ought to make use of this opportunity to enter into measures against people who certainly will not do anything by halves. We must either ruin them or be undone ourselves. My friends are now in town: an express which came to them yesterday from the pretender will put them into a better condition for forming a plan. To-day they are going about it."

The letters of Gortz were equally plain. He declared that before leaving Sweden he had strongly recommended this invasion to the king, and that the more he saw, the more he was convinced of the excellency of the plan. "There is, therefore," he went on, "now no other question but of the best means to satisfy our just desire of revenge. For several months past we have had some preliminary negotiation upon these matters with the court of Avignon; and which way can the king of Sweden better secure to himself the recovery and possession of the duchy of Bremen, than by reducing king George to be nothing more than an elector of the empire?"

In one of the letters to Gyllenborg there were words which throw suspicions on various persons, and amongst the rest, on Walpole, as if, on account of his brother-in-law lord Townshend's dismissal, he had been ready to join the Jacobites. "I do not know," says Gyllenborg, "whether Mr. Walpole's expressions were the effect of his first rage on account of his brother-in-law my lord Townshend's being removed, or whether they came from his heart." But this was only the eager conspirator catching at straws. Walpole might use some indignant expressions regarding the dismissal of Townshend, but he was far too politic to think for a moment of going over to a desperate cause.

Gortz, the arch-conspirator, had a narrow escape. He had already reached Calais on his way to England to complete the conspiracy in person, when he heard of the arrest of Gyllenborg. He drew back just in time, but he did not escape. He and his two secretaries were taken into custody by order of the States, on the application of England, at Arnheim. The arrest of Charles XII.'s prime minister, and that on a foreign soil, was a still bolder measure than the