The next day Mr. Conway related to me two extraordinary conversations that he had had,--the first with the Duke himself, the other with his secretary, Stonhewer. Conway had again tried to encourage the Duke to be firm and surmount his dejection; bidding him beware that there were no Treasury secrets that might endanger him. The Duke broke out, said he was determined to resign immediately, for--_he was betrayed_. “There is no man, Mr. Conway,” continued he, “on whom I can depend but you.” Conway was amazed. “No,” continued the Duke, “there is no dependence on connections. I am betrayed by my own confidential secretary, Bradshaw. I will go to Lord North, and press him to accept directly.” Farther, he would not open himself. From the Duke, Conway went to Stonhewer. The latter was a modest man of perfect integrity, invariably attached to Grafton from his childhood.[45] He having approved the Duke’s intention of resigning, it was probably from being but too well acquainted with his patron’s unfitness for the first post in the State, or from having silently observed how dangerous it was for the Duke to remain in so responsible an employment, surrounded by traitors. Stonhewer told Conway that the Bedfords had taken little or no pains to persuade the Duke to retain his power. They had made him believe, through Bradshaw, through whom the negotiation passed, that the Attorney-General was more averse to take the Seals than the Duke found him--and Stonhewer owned that he thought Bradshaw a villain. The King, he said, had used the Duke ill, and was not disinclined to his resigning. Mr. Conway had had the same suspicion.