The Tory ministers of the Queen felt themselves bound to take proceedings against the author, whose identity seems to have soon become an open secret.
Learning this, Defoe went into concealment.

A proclamation offering a reward for his discovery was advertised in the _Gazette_.

The description of the fugitive is interesting; it is the only extant record of Defoe's personal appearance, except the portrait prefixed to his collected works, in which the mole is faithfully reproduced:-- "He is a middle-aged, spare man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth: was born in London, and for many years was a hose-factor in Freeman's Yard in Cornhill, and now is the owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort in Essex." This advertisement was issued on the 10th of January, 1703.

Meantime the printer and the publisher were seized.

From his safe hiding, Defoe put forth an explanation, protesting, as we have seen, that his pamphlet had not the least retrospect to or concern in the public bills in Parliament now depending, or any other proceeding of either House or of the Government relating to the Dissenters, whose occasional conformity the author has constantly opposed.