In March 1679 a young man of infamous character who went by the name sometimes of Willoughby, sometimes of Dangerfieid, lay in the debtor’s side of Newgate. Having been in gaol for the best part of a year, he began to turn his thoughts to means of getting out, and proceeded to draw articles of complaint against Captain Richardson, the keeper of Newgate, for his treatment of prisoners. This came to the ears of another gaol-bird, Mrs. White, who, fancying Dangerfield’s ability, on her discharge imparted the fact to a friend on the look-out for an assistant of talent. Her friend was Mrs. Cellier, whose name and character have become notorious in a swarm of pamphlets and reports of trials of the time. She was the wife of a French merchant and pursued the profession of midwife, and assuredly of something else, within a circle of Roman Catholic notables. She was employed to collect alms for the relief of those of her religion in prison for the Plot. She had been concerned in the unsavoury case of Knox and Lane, who were put up to defame Oates’ character.[366] When witnesses were sent over from St. Omers to give evidence at the trials, it was at her house that they were lodged and fed by Lord Castlemaine. The Duchess of York had used her services to no small extent. She was in fact a regular agent of the Catholic nobles in political intrigue, and in close connection with the Countess of Powis, whose husband, together with the Lords Petre, Arundel, Stafford, and Bellasis, was in the Tower on a charge of high treason, a woman of bold and active spirit and devoted to the Duke of York. The conduct of Mrs. Cellier was not such as to inspire confidence in the purity of her intentions. Armed with Mrs. White’s information she repaired to one Gadbury, an astrologer, for Dangerfield’s horoscope, pretending that she wished for a man to collect her husband’s debts. To suppose that any sane person could use one of Dangerfield’s stamp for the purpose would be absurd: it was certainly for other purposes that he was wanted. Their character soon became apparent. For there was in Newgate a prisoner named Stroud, a friend of Bedloe and thought capable of proving that the Earl of Shaftesbury was suborning witnesses against the lords in the Tower. Dangerfield was employed to make him drunk and learn what he could. So well did he perform his task that Mrs. Cellier paid his debts, whether to the amount of five pounds, as she, or of seven hundred, as he said, and obtained his release. He was a handsome fellow enough, and found favour in her eyes. It was now the month of June. Dangerfield was maintained by his friend, and earned his wages by doing the work of messenger for the witnesses sent from beyond seas for the defence of the Five Jesuits, who stood their trial at this time.[367]