One may fancy the glances that went up to the royal box on the king’s nights, when the above words were emphasised; and the smiles among the Jacobite ladies, when _Wolf_ paid the following compliment to their White Rose fidelity: ‘To give them their due, we have no Spirits among us like the Women; the Ladies have supported our Cause with a surprising constancy. Oh! there’s no daunting them even with ill-success! They will starve their very Vanities, their Vices, to feed their Loyalty! I am informed that my good Lady, Countess of Night-and-day, has never been seen in a new gown, or has once thrown a die at any of the Assemblies, since our last general Contribution.’ And once more the house must have rung with derisive laughter when _Wolf_, alone on the stage, sneered at Jacobite Sir John, in the popular phrase, as an idiot for supposing ‘that a Protestant church can never be secure till it has a Popish Prince to defend it.’ Allusions of kingly clemency to repentant rebels were not wanting in the play, but the most audacious passage in it was this sketch of _Wolf_, in which the audience recognised a portrait of Patten. ‘He went with us, Madam, none so active in the front of Resolution, till Danger came to face him; then, indeed, a friendly fever seized him, which, on the first alarm of the king’s forces marching towards Preston, gave him a cold pretence to leave the town’.… [Sidenote: _INCENSE FOR THE KING._] The political passages were skilfully enough worked into the dramatic story. With them, there was no lack of incense for the king or prince to savour. The daintiest dish of this sort was to be found in _Heartly’s_ account of the interview of the pardoned Jacobite, _Charles_, with his Hanoverian father. ‘The tender father caught him in his arms, and, dropping his fond head upon his cheek, kissed him and sigh’d out, _Heaven protect thee!_ Then gave into his hand the _Royal Pardon_, and, turning back his face to dry his manly eyes, he cried, “Deserve this Royal Mercy, and I’m still thy _Father_!” The grateful youth, raising his heart-swoll’n voice, reply’d, _May Heaven preserve the Royal Life that gave it!_’ Some could sympathise, others would laugh at this, but how great Augustus looked as he listened, supposing he understood it, is quite beyond conjecture. [Sidenote: _A LECTURE FROM THE STAGE._]