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 fiding in the fidelity of the native Irish and such old Cromwellians as would shelter him. He assumed various disguises, and continually changed his places of refuge, sometimes assuming to be a quaker, sometimes an anabaptist, an independent, and even a Roman catholic priest. Rapidly flitting about among all sorts of people, entering sympathetically into their grievances and family aiiairs, instead of shrouding himself in mystery and thus exciting suspicion, he succeeded in baffling pursuers, and became acquainted with many desperate characters. When the danger became urgent he quitted Ireland, crossed to Holland, found a welcome among the disaffected sectaries, and obtained countenance from Admiral de Ruyter.

His daring spirit prompted him to return to England, where he associated with the zealous Fifth Monarchy men, and gained so much asoendency over them that ie is declared to have established a court-martial at a tavern over some members who were under suspicion of having betrayed the secrets of their council ; the culprits were condemned to death, but their lives were spared at his intercession. It is not improbable that he was at this time, and also still later, acting a double part, kcepi the government informed of so much as mglxt secure his own safety. He removed to Scotland and joined the covenanters in their revolt, not quitting them until after the defeat on Pentland Hills, 27 Nov. 1666, when more than five hundred were killed. He then returned to England, crossed to Ireland, landing three miles from Carrickfergus, but was ursued so closely by Lord Dungannon that he again removed to England.

His next adventure was the rescue of his friend, Captain Mason, from a uard of eight troopers, men selected by the duke of York for their courage and trustworthiness. Mason was being sent northward for trial at the assizes; but it was not until near Doncaster that Blood, with only three companions, found an opportunity of engaging the soldiers, and obtaining a victory, at the cost of wounds to himself. Several troopers lost their lives. Five hundred pounds being otfered for his capture he lay hidden until his severe wounds were healed, disguised as a medical practitioner, and then lived quietly at Rumford ( Kent) under the name of Thomas Allen, alias Ayliffe. In November 1570 William, prince of Orange, came to England, and the uke of Ormonde attended him on his be entertained by the city. Colonel Blood had never forgiven Ormonde’s punishment of old associates in Dublin, so with five companions he waylaid the coach wherein his enemy rode through St. James's Street when returning to Clarendon House. The six footmen had been stopped previously. The duke was taken forcibly from the coach by Blood and his son-in-law, Thomas Hunt, who mounted him on horseback in the grasp of a confederate, to whom he was buckled. Nothing less was intended than to hurry the duke to Tyburn, and there hang him on a common gibbet in requital of his having hanged others. The coa/ohrnan gave the alarm, with another hastened after Ormonde, and overtook him while struggling with the stout horseman, whom he had cast out of the saddle. Being buckled together they had fallen, Ormonde undermost and in great danger. The ruffians fired at the duke, but missed him in the dark, and escaped on horseback. This was near Berkeley House, afterwards Devonshire House. If Blood had not left his men, going on in advance to arrange the rope on the allows, the duke could not have been saved. It was believed that George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, had engaged Blood to perpetrate this crime, and Ormonde's son, Lord Ossory, in the king's presence distinctly charged Buckingham with the baseness of such private revenge. Thomas Carte, biographer of Ormonde, got the story of the rebuke and_cha1lenge from Robert Lesley of Glaslogh, in co. Monaghan, who had received it from the lips of Dr. Turner, bishop of Ely. Probably no instigation was required beyond the bitterness of Blood`s own desire for vengeance on his former enemy. Yet Buckingham afterwards appeared as B1ood’s introducer to the king, and announced that the man could make discoveries. Among the persons suspected of complicity in this outrage, Bishop Kennet mentions ‘Richard Holloway, a tobacco-cutter of Frying-pan Alley; Thomas Hunt, one Hurst, and Ralph Alexander.’ Kennet believes that Blood did not intend to hang the duke, but to keep him in custody until he had signed a deed restoring the Irish estates which had formerly possessed. Richard Baxter was inclined to take this view, but Archdeacon Eachard adheres to the Tyburn story. Six months later Blood made his great attempt to steal the crown jewels, on 9 May 1671, and this ultimately led to his regaining the Irish estates.

John Strype, in continuing to the date of 1720 John Stowe’s ‘Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster’ (first written in 1598), gives a full account of the attempted robbery, declaring that he received it direct from Mr. Talbot Edwards himself, the late keeper of the regalia, who was nearly eighty years old. But Strype assigns a wrong date 