I never can think tolerably of you, while the noise and voice I heard at
the garden-door, which put me into the terror you took so much advantage
of, remains unaccounted for. Tell me fairly, tell me candidly, the
whole of that circumstance; and of your dealings with that wicked Joseph
Leman; and, according to your explicitness in this particular, I shall
form a judgment of your future professions.
I will, without reserve, my dearest life, said he, tell you the whole;
and hope that my sincerity in the relation will atone for any thing you
may think wrong in the fact.
'I knew nothing, said he, of this man, this Leman, and should have
scorned a resort to so low a method as bribing the servant of any family
to let me into the secrets of that family, if I had not detected him
in attempting to corrupt a servant of mine, to inform him of all my
motions, of all my supposed intrigues, and, in short, of every action
of my private life, as well as of my circumstances and engagements; and
this for motives too obvious to be dwelt upon.
'My servant told me of his offers, and I ordered him, unknown to the
fellow, to let me hear a conversation that was to pass between them.
'In the midst of it, and just as he had made an offer of money for a
particular piece of intelligence, promising more when procured, I broke
in upon them, and by bluster, calling for a knife to cut off his ears
(one of which I took hold of) in order to make a present of it, as I
said, to his employers, I obliged him to tell me who they were.
'Your brother, Madam, and your uncle Antony, he named.
'It was not difficult, when I had given him my pardon on naming them,
(after I had set before him the enormity of the task he had undertaken,
and the honourableness of my intentions to your dear self,) to prevail
upon him, by a larger reward, to serve me; since, at the same time, he
might preserve the favour of your uncle and brother, as I desired to
know nothing but what related to myself and to you, in order to guard us
both against the effects of an ill-will, which all his fellow-servants,
as well as himself, as he acknowledged, thought undeserved.
'By this means, I own to you, Madam, I frequently turned his principals
about upon a pivot of my own, unknown to themselves: and the fellow, who
is always calling himself a plain man, and boasting of his conscience,
was the easier, as I condescended frequently to assure him of
my honourable views; and as he knew that the use I made of his
intelligence, in all likelihood, prevented fatal mischiefs.
'I was the more pleased with his services, as (let me acknowledge
to you, Madam) they procured to you, unknown to yourself, a safe and
uninterrupted egress (which perhaps would not otherwise have been
continued to you so long as it was) to the garden and wood-house: for he
undertook, to them, to watch all your motions: and the more cheerfully,
(for the fellow loves you,) as it kept off the curiosity of others.'*
* See Vol.II. Letter XXXVI.
So, my dear, it comes out, that I myself was obliged to this deep
contriver.