Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/384

376 a year, and then returned to Scotland: and soon after, the young lord Forbes, now earl Granard, was likewise imprisoned in the same place. King William had made several advances to his lordship, as he did to many other persons of quality, to engage him in his service; and sending for him one day, asked him, why he did not take care of his regiment? My lord Forbes, not being provided on a sudden with a better answer, told the king, that having been born in Ireland, he had not credit enough, he believed, to raise men to fill up the places of the papists in his regiment. King William thereupon said, he would take that charge upon himself. Lord Forbes, having now recollected himself, said, he had likewise another reason why he found it necessary to decline his service, but was unwilling to mention it, not having the least intention to disoblige his highness. The prince desired that he might do it freely, and it should not disoblige him; whereupon my lord said, that having sworn to retain his loyalty to king James, he could not, in honour and conscience, without his master's permission, enter into the service of another prince, during his majesty's life. Whereupon king William, soon after, thought it proper to send him to the tower; but however, was so generous, as in the time of his confinement, to send one of the clerks of the treasury with an order to pay him two hundred pounds, as very reasonably thinking, that under the loss of his regiment, as well as his rents in Ireland, he might want money to support himself. My lord Forbes having asked the clerk, by whose direction he brought that sum? And the other answering, that he was only ordered to pay the money to