led by his reflections to see it in its true enormity, and that no way remains to prevent the perpetration but by a judicial impeachment; such a situation is described in the person of
Jaffier in Abbé St. Real's narrative of the con-
spiracy of Venice. In that case the treachery
employed may be admitted to be commendable,
and in some degree to atone for the weakness
and guilt incurred by the accuser in the begin-
ing of the transaction.
But the situation of Chaucer was by no means of this sort. The confederacy into which he had entered was probably a commendable one; and the end for which it had been formed had passed by, and the confederacy been dis- solved, before Chaucer gave information re- specting his associates.
'What, then, were the motives of his con- duct ? He has himself assigned one, in the in- dignation which he conceived against them. They had plotted to starve him, had cut off his supplies, and embezzled his income. He pro- bably thought that no measures were to be kept with persons who had conducted themselves towards him so basely. He was impatient of
