He pleaded sickness, and asserted, not for the first time, that the Jacobites had poisoned him.

But all his plans were confounded by the laudable promptitude and vigour with which the Commons acted.

A Committee was sent to his bedside, with orders to ascertain whether he really had any witnesses, and where those witnesses resided.

The members who were deputed for this purpose went to the King's Bench prison, and found him suffering under a disorder, produced, in all probability, by some emetic which he had swallowed for the purpose of deceiving them.

In answer to their questions he said that two of his witnesses, Delaval and Hayes, were in England, and were lodged at the house of a Roman Catholic apothecary in Holborn.