24 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 



mitted by two wretches of the names of Black- 

 head and Young, which, though it was princi- 

 pally directed against Sprat, Bishop of Ro- 

 chester, yet would, in the event of its success, 

 have involved our venerable Archbishop and 

 several other noble persons in a charge of high 

 treason. These villains laid their train of mis- 

 chief with considerable address. They forged 

 a paper with counterfeited signatures annexed, 

 purporting that they, whose names were sub- 

 scribed, solemnly promised, in the presence of 

 God, to contribute their utmost assistance to- 

 wards King James's recovery of his kingdoms ; 

 that to this end they would have ready to 

 meet him at his landing, 30,000 men well 

 armed; would seize upon the person of the 

 Princess of Orange, dead or alive, and take 

 care that some strong garrison should be forth- 

 with delivered into his hands ; also, that they 

 would furnish him with a considerable sum of 

 money for the support of his army. Seven 

 names were affixed to the paper; among w^hich 

 were those of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 

 the Bishop of Rochester, and the Earl of Marl- 

 borough; the Archbishop's being first. The 

 handwritings were imitated with such exactness 

 of art, that the Bishop of Rochester declared 

 he should have believed his name to have been 

 written with his own hand, had he seen it in 



