[Sidenote: _THE HAYMARKET THEATRE._] ‘The great Duke’ seems to have been among the very simple people who, in February, 1749, were drawn to the Haymarket Theatre by the promise of ‘the Bottle Conjuror,’ to jump into a quart bottle in presence of the audience. When the matter proved to be a hoax, and the audience were further insulted by a loud announcement from behind the curtain that, if they would sit quiet till the following night, the conjuror would jump into a pint bottle, a riot ensued in which the interior of the house was absolutely destroyed. In the confusion, the duke was seen looking for his sword; and it is said that an audacious Jacobite called out, ‘Billy the Butcher has lost his knife!’ The alleged loss was certainly made known by a satirical Jacobite, in the following advertisement:――‘Lost on Monday night, at the Little Play House in the Haymarket, a Sword, with a gold Hilt and a cutting Blade, with a crimson and gold Sword-knot tied round the Hilt. Whoever brings it to Mrs. Chenevix’s Toy-shop, over-against Great Suffolk Street, near Chearing Cross, shall receive thirty Guineas reward, and no Questions asked.’ This advertisement, with its reference to the Court toy-woman, offered fair opportunity for further Jacobite wit or venom to show itself; and the demonstration was made in the following manner:――‘Found entangled in the Slit of a Lady’s Smock Petticoat, a gold-hilted Sword of martial length and temper, nothing the worse for wear;――with the Spey curiously wrought on one side of the blade, and the Scheldt on the other;――supposed to have been stolen from the plump side of a great General, in his precipitate retreat from the Battle of Bottle Noodles, at Station Foote. Enquire at the Quart Bottle and Musical Cave, Potter’s Row.’ [Sidenote: _TREASONABLE PAMPHLETS._] In the same month, there was a loosening of the bonds of some condemned Jacobites and a tightening of others; a releasing of old prisoners and a netting of new;――with a recapturing of Jacobite exiles who had been glad to leave the country, but who had come secretly back again. Half-a-dozen of the Carlisle and Manchester officers left the Southwark gaol for Gravesend, on their way to America. The more audacious of them wore white rosettes in their hats, in proud assertion of their unbending principles. Quite as audacious was the republication, at the price of 6_d._, of the regicidal pamphlet, by Col. Titus,――‘Killing no Murder, a Discourse proving it lawful to kill a tyrant.’ Another pamphlet,――‘A Letter from a Friend in the Country to a Friend at Will’s, on the 3 new articles of War,’ with the epigraph, from Waller’s ‘Maid’s Tragedy Altered’――was much to the same purpose:――