“I pledge you most devoutly,” answered his friend. “But you have not told me how the acquaintance is to be made; for you cannot, I think, carry her to Whitehall.” “Aha, my dear lord, you would have the whole secret! but that I cannot afford--I can spare a friend a peep at my ends, but no one must look on the means by which they are achieved.”--So saying, he shook his drunken head most wisely. The villainous design which this discourse implied, and which his heart told him was designed against Alice Bridgenorth, stirred Julian so extremely, that he involuntarily shifted his posture, and laid his hand on his sword hilt. Chiffinch heard a rustling, and broke off, exclaiming, “Hark!--Zounds, something moved--I trust I have told the tale to no ears but thine.” “I will cut off any which have drunk in but a syllable of thy words,” said the nobleman; and raising a candle, he took a hasty survey of the apartment. Seeing nothing that could incur his menaced resentment, he replaced the light and continued:--“Well, suppose the Belle Louise de Querouaille[*] shoots from her high station in the firmament, how will you rear up the downfallen Plot again--for without that same Plot, think of it as thou wilt, we have no change of hands--and matters remain as they were, with a Protestant courtezan instead of a Papist--Little Anthony can but little speed without that Plot of his--I believe, in my conscience, he begot it himself.” [+] [*] Charles’s principal mistress _en titre_. She was created Duchess of Portsmouth. [+] Shaftesbury himself is supposed to have said that he knew not who was the inventor of the Plot, but that he himself had all the advantage of the discovery. “Whoever begot it,” said Chiffinch, “he hath adopted it; and a thriving babe it has been to him. Well, then, though it lies out of my way, I will play Saint Peter again--up with t’other key, and unlock t’other mystery.” “Now thou speakest like a good fellow; and I will, with my own hands, unwire this fresh flask, to begin a brimmer to the success of thy achievement.”