He therefore induced a Major Cleland, a retired officer of some position, to put his name to the letter, which it is possible that he may have partly written.

The device was transparent, and only brought ridicule upon its author.

Finally, Pope published an account of the publication in the name of Savage, known by Johnson's biography, who seems to have been a humble ally of the great man--at once a convenient source of information and a tool for carrying on this underground warfare.

Pope afterwards incorporated this statement--which was meant to prove, by some palpable falsehoods, that the dunces had not been the aggressors--in his own notes, without Savage's name.

This labyrinth of unworthy devices was more or less visible to Pope's antagonists.