One would be glad to accept this as proof of Defoe's attachment to the cause of his disgraced benefactor; yet Harley, as he lay in the Tower awaiting his trial on an impeachment of high treason, issued a disclaimer concerning the _Secret History_ and another pamphlet, entitled _An Account of the Conduct of Robert, Earl of Oxford_.

These pamphlets, he said, were not written with his knowledge, or by his direction or encouragement; "on the contrary, he had reason to believe from several passages therein contained that it was the intention of the author, or authors, to do him a prejudice." This disclaimer may have been dictated by a wish not to appear wanting in respect to his judges; at any rate, Defoe's _Secret History_ bears no trace on the surface of a design to prejudice him by its recital of facts.

_An Appeal to Honour and Justice_ was Defoe's next production.
While writing it, he was seized with a violent apoplectic fit, and it was issued with a Conclusion by the Publisher, mentioning this circumstance, explaining that the pamphlet was consequently incomplete, and adding: "If he recovers, he may be able to finish what he began; if not, it is the opinion of most that know him that the treatment which he here complains of, and some others that he would have spoken of, have been the apparent cause of his disaster." There is no sign of incompleteness in the _Appeal_; and the Conclusion by the Publisher, while the author lay "in a weak and languishing condition, neither able to go on nor likely to recover, at least in any short time," gives a most artistic finishing stroke to it.

Defoe never interfered with the perfection of it after his recovery, which took place very shortly.

The _Appeal_ was issued in the first week of January; before the end of the month the indomitable writer was ready with a Third Part of the _Secret History_, and a reply to Atterbury's _Advice to the Freeholders of England_ in view of the approaching elections.