The toast having been drunk with enthusiasm, Diggles, preparatory to his departure, inquired whether the gentlemen desired to be private.
"No," replied Colonel Townley. "I will see my friends. I don't think you will introduce a Hanoverian, Diggles."
"You may trust me, colonel," said the landlord. "No Whig shall enter here."
After another glass of wine, Colonel Townley said to the baronet—
"Now, Sir Richard, let us to business. I hope you bring us some recruits. We are terribly in want of them."
"I am surprised to hear that," replied Sir Richard; "and I regret that I cannot supply your need. All my tenants refuse to go out. 'Tis to explain this difficulty that I have come to Manchester. Money I can promise his royal highness, but not men."
"Well, money will be extremely useful to him. How much may I venture to tell him you will furnish?"
"A thousand pounds," replied Sir Richard. "I have brought it with me. Here 'tis," he added, giving him a pocket-book.
"By my faith, this is very handsome, Sir Richard, and I am sure the prince will be much beholden to you. I am about to join him at Lancaster, and I will place the money in the hands of his treasurer, Mr. Murray. If every Jacobite gentleman in Cheshire would contribute a like sum his royal highness would not lack funds."
Both Dr. Byrom and Dr. Deacon expressed their sense of the baronet's liberality.