the sight. I do not hear that one Whig lady was there, except those of the bed chamber. Nothing has made so great a noise as Dr. Kelson's chariot, that cost £930, the finest that was ever seen. The rabble huzzaed him as much as they did Prince Eugene."

About this time there was a serious hitch in the progress of the negotiation for peace (13th February): "Our news from Holland is not good. The French raise difficulties and make such offers to the allies as cannot be accepted; and the Dutch are uneasy that we are likely to get anything for ourselves; and the Whigs are glad at all this. I came home early, and have been very busy three or four hours.” The Doctor was now hard at work on his remarks on the Barrier treaty. On the 17th he writes: "The Court was mighty full to-day and has been these many Sundays; but the Queen was not at chapel. She has got a little fit of gout in her foot. The good of going to Court is that one sees all one's acquaintances, whom otherwise I should hardly meet twice a year. Prince Eugene dines with the Secretary to-day, with about seven or eight general officers and foreign ministers

They will be all drunk I am sure. I never was in company with the Prince. I have proposed

to some lords that we should have a sober meal with him but I can never compass it."

On the 14th of March the Prince left London, having received much honour, but having perfectly failed in his mission; so he and Swift never met at that sober meal.

This March brought the Mohocks, a race of rakes (writes Swift to Stella), " that play the devil about the town every night, slit people's noses, &c.; young Davenant was telling us at Court how he was set upon by them, and how they ran his chair through with a sword. It is not safe being in the streets at night for them. The Bishop of Salisbury's son is said to be of the gang. They are all Whigs; and a great lady sent to me to speak to her father and to Lord Treasurer to have a care of them, and to be careful of myself, for she heard they had malicious intentions against the ministers and their friends. I know not whether

1 Burnet. It is evident Swift really thought that there might be some political object at the bottom of this savage practical joking, and that he went in especial danger.

there be anything in this, though others are of the same opinion."

At this time appeared "The History of John Bull," in which Swift took a part with a hand scarcely inferior to himself at such work, Dr. Arbuthnot. If prominence in the Tory party guided the Mohocks' swords, they could have found no better mark than Swift at this moment. He was at his zenith, both of literary production and political influence; and Leicester Fields may be proud of the chance which sent him thither for lodgings in 1712, the year of his most incessant and jubilant activity.

CHAPTER IX.

NEWTON AND MRS. CATHERINE BARTON

B

IN ST. MARTIN'S STREET.

ETWEEN 1680 and 1700 were opened

the few streets which let light and air upon the labyrinth of courts and stable and inn-yards which had gradually filled the once open space between the Royal Mews and Leicester Fields. In Ogilvy's map of 1680 the area between St. Martin's Lane and Whitcomb Street, east and west, and the line of Hemming's Row, Green Street, the Fields, and Spur Street, north, and Pall Mall and Cockspur Street, south, is unpierced by a single thoroughfare. The eastern half of this insulated area is filled by the chain made by the Royal Mews, the Green Mews, and the Duke of Monmouth's stables; the western half by the Dunghill or