Earls of Middleton, Lords of Clermont and of Fettercairn

236 TJie Earls of Middleton.
The Earl of Middleton, in a letter to the Marquis
de Torcy, on the 19th, desires that the same precau-
tions should be taken against Mr. Goodman, who
had been an evidence against several in England, and
had particularly informed against the Duke of Powis, 1
who, however, bribed him to retire to France.
Middleton suspected that his intention was to put
himself under the protection of the Earl of Portland
when he arrived, and therefore, in his master's name,
desired that he should be secured with Hunt. It
appears from another letter to De Torcy, written some
months later, that Goodman was sent a prisoner to
Dauphiny, where his wife, in a petition to the queen,
desired to be imprisoned with him. Middleton, in
the mean time, endeavoured to renew his former
correspondence with some of his friends in England.
There is a letter from him of the 16th February to
Cleland (Waugh), containing general expressions
of kindness and regard. He was then greatly
alarmed that some letters of consequence might be
found upon Mr. Crosby, who had been assassinated
in the streets of Paris. Crosby had carried on a
correspondence for some time with James's secret
friends in England, and Middleton was afraid that he
1 William, third Baron Powis, created earl in 1644, marquis in
1687, and duke by James II., during his residence at St. Germains.
His son succeeded to the marquisate in 1722, the outlawry being
reversed. — Burke.