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Conspiracy   Listen
noun
Conspiracy  n.  (pl. conspiracies)  
1.
A combination of people for an evil purpose; an agreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, as treason; a plot. "When shapen was all his conspiracy From point to point." "They made a conspiracy against (Amaziah)." "I had forgot that foul conspiracy" "Of the beast Caliban and his confederates."
2.
A concurence or general tendency, as of circumstances, to one event, as if by agreement. "A conspiracy in all heavenly and earthly things."
3.
(Law) An agreement, manifesting itself in words or deeds, by which two or more persons confederate to do an unlawful act, or to use unlawful to do an act which is lawful; confederacy.
Synonyms: Combination; plot; cabal.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Conspiracy" Quotes from Famous Books



... everywhere. The question of the hour was, whether he could establish his authority there by degrees, as he seemed to be trying to do, or only after a sharp conflict. The answer to this question was known very soon after the coronation of Matilda. What seemed to the Normans a great conspiracy of the north and west was forming. The Welsh and English nobles were making common cause; the clergy and the common people joined their prayers; York was noted as especially enthusiastic in the cause, and many there took to living in tents as a kind of training for the conflict which was coming. ...
— The History of England From the Norman Conquest - to the Death of John (1066-1216) • George Burton Adams

... somewhere. You are all banded together in a conspiracy. I do not know whom to believe. But it has gone far enough. We will go back to Omaha to-morrow. I had no idea New York was such a terrible place. Why are all these policemen ...
— Officer 666 • Barton W. Currie

... suspicions of thy harmless father. The king chides himself for having suffered poor Warner to depart unscathed, and even recalls the disastrous adventure of the mechanical, and swears that from the first thy father was in treasonable conspiracy with Margaret. Nay, sure I am, that if I dared to wed thee while his anger lasts, he would condemn thee as a sorceress, and give me up to the secret hate of my old foes the Woodvilles. But fie! be not so appalled, my Sibyll; Edward's passions, though ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... was announced, the town—in utter ignorance of the conspiracy—went into convulsions. The half-dozen old maids in upper circles who had long since given up hope began to prink and perk themselves into an amazing state of rejuvenation,—revival, you might say. They tortured themselves with ...
— Her Weight in Gold • George Barr McCutcheon

... Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by a member of a band of servian conspirators. The investigation of the crime through the Austro-Hungarian authorities has yielded the fact that the conspiracy against the life of the Arch-Duke and successor to the throne was prepared and abetted in Belgrade with the cooperation of Servian officials, and executed with arms from the Servian State arsenal. This crime must have opened the eyes of the entire civilized world, ...
— Why We Are At War (2nd Edition, revised) • Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History

... he insisted that the first step in the conspiracy, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, followed soon by the Dred Scott Decision—the latter fitting perfectly into the niche left by the former—"in such a case, we feel it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin, Roger and ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... his mother, addressing him in turn, "you perceive how they are banded against me; in fact, they are joined with their father in a conspiracy to destroy my peace and happiness. This is the feeling that prevails against me in the house at large, for which I may thank my husband and children—I don't include you, Harry. There is not a servant in our establishment but could poison me, and probably ...
— The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... were the conditions from which we drew the materials for our conspiracy. Mrs. Abel, though at first reluctant, consented at last to play the active part in a new piece of experimental Snarleychology. It was determined that we would try our subject with poetry, and also that we would try him with "something big." For a long time we discussed what this something "big" ...
— Mad Shepherds - and Other Human Studies • L. P. Jacks

... dates, correct facts, bet a hundred to one, and are certain about everything. You can easily detect them in some gross blunder in the course of a single evening. They will tell you they were in Paris at the time of Mallet's conspiracy, forgetting that half an hour earlier they had described how they had crossed the Beresina. Nearly all Contradictors are "chevaliers" of the Legion of honor; they talk loudly, have retreating foreheads, and ...
— Madame Firmiani • Honore de Balzac

... been solemnly declared and published throughout Venetia, at which the people stood aghast. For the man to whom this clemency was graciously extended had been condemned and executed between the columns of San Marco and San Teodoro, ten years before—standing accused of conspiracy against the State. There had been many murmurings when the name of this old patrician, holding honorable office in service of the Republic, had been erased from the Golden Book; and he had suffered his ignominious death protesting ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

... four pieces of cannon, and being busied in erecting a fortification with the assistance of the Bandanese, Mr Hinshley also, the master of the Defence, being ashore, and every one hard at work landing the things, except a few left on board to keep the ship, a conspiracy was entered into by some of the men on the 20th March, 1617; and that same night they cut the cables and so drove out to sea. Perceiving this from the small island, we immediately sent a boat after them, advising them to return with the ship: But the mutineers would neither ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... people. But it doesn't do anything of the kind. It merely takes the author's property, takes his children's bread, and gives the publisher double profit. He goes on publishing the book and as many of his confederates as choose to go into the conspiracy do so, and they rear families ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... takes after her; for she strikes me as uncommonly stupid. After losing all her fortune, she brings her sons up so well that here is one in prison and likely to be brought up on a criminal indictment before the Court of Peers for a conspiracy worthy of Berton. As for the other, he is worse off; he's a painter. If your proteges are to stay here till they have extricated that fool of a Rouget from the claws of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, we ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... House once said, "The doctrine of the Land League, expounded by the man who has authority to explain it, is the doctrine of treason and assassination;" and in addition to this strong pronouncement Sir William called it "a vile conspiracy." Both Mr. Gladstone and Sir William Harcourt are now hand-and-glove with the men of whom Mr. Gladstone said at Leeds:—"They are not ashamed to point out in the press which they maintain how the ships of her majesty's navy ought to be blown into ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... of the aristocracy. But here his ill-luck followed him, for London being full of French refugees, and the officials being suspicious of them all, he was warned to leave England, as it was feared that he was connected with some political conspiracy. ...
— Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday • Henry C. Lahee

... will be more plain. I accuse you of devising an infamous falsehood for the purpose of extorting money. Let your witnesses appear in court, and I promise that you, they, and the young man, Mr. Morton, whose claim they set up, shall be indicted for conspiracy—conspiracy, if accompanied (as in the case of your witnesses) with perjury, of the blackest die. Mr. Smith, I know you; and, before ten o'clock to-morrow, I shall know also if you had his majesty's leave to quit the colonies! Ah! I am ...
— Night and Morning, Volume 4 • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The South has nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle between the States was war and not rebellion; revolution and not conspiracy, and that her convictions were as honest as yours. I should be unjust to the dauntless spirit of the South and to my own convictions if I did not make this plain in this presence. The South has nothing to take back. In ...
— Standard Selections • Various

... considering it as a mere name. All propositions, he says, which predicate mere existence "are more or less abbreviated, or elliptical: when fully expressed they fall under either co-existence or succession. When we say there exists a conspiracy for a particular purpose, we mean that at the present time a body of men have formed themselves into a society for a particular object; which is a complex affirmation, resolvable into propositions of co-existence and succession (as causation). The assertion that the dodo does not exist, points ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill

... Ireland during that memorable week, Sir Robert, with great warmth and energy of manner, said, "He was prepared to give his unqualified support to the government. He trusted in the veracity of the ministers when they stated that the conspiracy was wide-spread and imminent, and he was ready to take his part with the crown against those mock kings of Munster of whom they had heard, and against those conspirators who were working to substitute for the ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... it seemed to me—for, apparently, we turned all the corners in the town and followed all the streets there were—I scolding freely, and characterizing that friend of mine in very uncomplimentary words for securing a boarding-house that apparently had no definite locality. But there was a conspiracy—and my bride knew of it, but I was in ignorance. Her father, Jervis Langdon, had bought and furnished a new house for us in the fashionable street, Delaware Avenue, and had laid in a cook and housemaids, and a brisk and electric young coachman, an Irishman, ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain

... in broaching such a conspiracy as I have in my mind," answered Huanacocha. "Nevertheless," he continued, "boldness and caution are sometimes the same thing, therefore will I be bold with you, Xaxaguana, since I think it will not be difficult for me to prove to you that not only our views, but also our interests, are identical. ...
— Harry Escombe - A Tale of Adventure in Peru • Harry Collingwood

... Caesar was busy with the reconstruction of the Senate, the completion of his vast buildings in Rome, and with other far-reaching projects. But during these months the clouds of ill-will were gathering and threatening him on every side. Aconspiracy was formed, of which C. Cassius, 'alean and hungry man,' of a bitter and jealous disposition, seems to have been the real instigator. He persuaded Brutus, astudent of life chiefly in books, that liberty could only be gained by murder, and at last it was ...
— Helps to Latin Translation at Sight • Edmund Luce

... any portion of a romance to the events of ordinary life; but with the exception of those who merely copy from one another, there has been such a conspiracy on the part of Dante's biographers to overlook at least one disenchanting conclusion to be drawn to that effect from the poet's own writings, that the probable truth of the matter must here for the first time be stated. The case, indeed, is clear enough from his account of it. The ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt

... home, a little amused by her melodramatic conduct, but much comforted by the fact that Charles, though ignorant of his part, was with her in this conspiracy. She was met ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... on the other side; "I am convinced poor Marescotti has never touched a morsel of food since that mass—I am certain of it. He always lives upon a poetical diet, poor devil!—rose-leaves and the beauties of Nature, with a warm dish now and then in the way of a ragout of conspiracy. God help him! he's a greater lunatic than ever." This was spoken aside into the marchesa's ear. "If you have a soul of pity, marchesa, order him a chicken before we begin playing, or he will faint upon the floor." ...
— The Italians • Frances Elliot

... break the galling chains; no! the punishment was inflicted with the measured coolness of men engaged in an every-day vocation. It was simply the right which a democratic law gave men to become lawless, fierce in the conspiracy of wrong, and where the legal excitement of trafficking in the flesh and blood of one another sinks ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams

... shows, however, that these three wise men were not sent by the Lord God, but that they were directed by the great adversary, the devil, in his attempt to destroy the babe. Whether they knew it or not, these three wise men were parties to a great conspiracy, originated and carried out by the master mind, Satan, the devil, in his attempt to destroy the seed of promise, the great Savior ...
— The Harp of God • J. F. Rutherford

... if by a sting. He saw that some one had betrayed his plan to the officers. Even fur traders were standing under arms. To this day it is not known who secretly warned the fort of Pontiac's conspiracy; but the most reliable tradition declares it to have been a young squaw named Catherine, who could not endure to see friends whom she ...
— Heroes of the Middle West - The French • Mary Hartwell Catherwood

... is on a pedestal covered with battle pieces, in full armour, and forcing his horse to leap on a man in armour. But the reason why he did not put these designs into execution I have not yet been able to discover. The same man made some very beautiful medals; among others, one representing the conspiracy of the Pazzi, containing on one side the heads of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, and on the reverse the choir of S. Maria del Fiore, with the whole event exactly as it happened. He also made the medals of certain Pontiffs, and many ...
— Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 3 (of 10), Filarete and Simone to Mantegna • Giorgio Vasari

... appearance. Vespasian therefore thought it best to prevent their motions, and to cut off the foundation of their attempts. For although all Samaria had ever garrisons settled among them, yet did the number of those that were come to Mount Gerizzim, and their conspiracy together, give ground for fear what they would be at; he therefore sent I thither Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion, with six hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, who did not think it safe to go up to the mountain, and give ...
— The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem • Flavius Josephus

... account for this, I can only reply that the conspiracy to lead me into proposing marriage to Lady Lena first showed itself on the occasion to which I have referred. In her eagerness to reach her ends, Mrs. Roylake failed to handle the fine weapons of deception as cleverly as usual. ...
— The Guilty River • Wilkie Collins

... I have drawn the history of this conspiracy are Cardinal de Retz's Conjuration du Comte Jean Louis de Fiesque, the Histoire des Genes, and the third volume of Robertson's History ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... much of Shakespeare while in the Panchronicon, found on returning thus accidentally to modern America, that this playwright was esteemed the first and greatest of poets and dramatists by the modern world. Then and there he planned a conspiracy to rob the greatest character in literary history of his just fame; and, under the pseudonym of "Delia Bacon," advanced those theories of his own concealed authorship which have ever since deluded the uncritical and disgusted all lovers of ...
— The Panchronicon • Harold Steele Mackaye

... honours belonging to the rank of Ambassador, not from vanity, but because he thought it his duty to prevent a dignity conferred on him from being depreciated. He imagined[422], that the Dutch, from ill-will to him, had entered into a kind of conspiracy not to treat him as Ambassador, and to make him be considered as a simple Resident[423]; and afterwards to make a crime of his weakness in giving up any part of his right. They denied him the title of Excellency when speaking to him of private business, under pretext that his embassy was ...
— The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius • Jean Levesque de Burigny

... a guard of a dozen men at the Fennell house, to secure the town military stores against any possibility of recapture by another silk stocking conspiracy, and to still further protect the community against any violent enterprise, he organized a regular patrol for the night. If any of the disaffected party were desperate enough still to cherish the hope of restoring their fortunes by force, it must ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy

... for a moment swept the nation, North and South. Frederick Douglas fled to Europe. Sanborn, the treasurer and manager of the conspiracy, hurried across the border into Canada. Howe and Stearns hid. Theodore Parker ...
— The Man in Gray • Thomas Dixon

... Though this monstrous conspiracy was quickly unmasked, and the South Improvement Company lost its charter, secret negotiations with the railway companies enabled the Standard Oil Companies to strengthen themselves by this system of rebates paid out of the pockets of their business rivals. ...
— The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - A Study of Machine Production • John Atkinson Hobson

... to do it with? McNamara has ours. My God! What a mess we're in! What fools we've been, Dex! There's a conspiracy here. I'm beginning to see it now that it's too late. This man is looting our country under color of law, and figures on gutting all the mines before we can throw him off. That's his game. He'll work them as hard and as long as he can, and Heaven only knows ...
— The Spoilers • Rex Beach

... don't know about theory," answered Van Koon, "but I guess I've got some natural common sense. If Fullaway there thinks I'm suggesting that Delkin organized a grand conspiracy to rob James Allerdyke, Fullaway's wrong—I'm not. What I am suggesting, and have been suggesting this last three days, is that Delkin should be asked a plain and simple question, which is this—did he ever tell anybody of this proposed ...
— The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation • J. S. Fletcher

... displayed, he would be a rash man who would guarantee even now the integrity of parliamentary power or the continuance of cabinet rule. In those days, with thirty years of civil war and fifteen more of conspiracy fresh in men's minds, with no alternative to anarchy save Henry VIII., with a peerage fallen (p. 042) from its high estate, and a Parliament almost lost to respect, royal autocracy was not a thing to dread or distrust. "If a lion knew his strength," said ...
— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... without a word for Gustavo. Gustavo looked after him reproachfully. As a head waiter, he naturally did not expect to read the letters of guests; but as a fellow conspirator, he felt that he was entitled to at least a general knowledge of all matters bearing on the conspiracy. He turned back downstairs with a ...
— Jerry • Jean Webster

... attended a court of law, and heard one of those travesties of justice which the Russian officials call a trial for conspiracy. ...
— The Angel of the Revolution - A Tale of the Coming Terror • George Griffith

... father, it is a real conspiracy, though who are those concerned in it I know not. Lionel and I are nor likely to raise a false alarm about anything, as you will say yourself when you hear the story I have to tell ...
— By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty

... yacht. That excellent woman had volunteered to do all that she could to help him. Her husband had obtained situations for his wife and himself on board another yacht—and they were both eager to assist in any conspiracy in which their late merciless master was destined to play the part of victim. When on shore, they lived in a populous London parish, far away from the fashionable district of Berkeley Square, and further ...
— Miss or Mrs.? • Wilkie Collins

... thing I can do," Hunterleys replied grimly. "I am bound to keep my place here. They'll drive me out if they can. I am convinced that the polite warning I have received to leave Monaco this afternoon because of last night's affair, is part of the conspiracy. In plain words, I've got to stick ...
— Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... advisable to inflict. Desiring to get rid of this danger, you undertook their arrest, committing the matter to Sargento-mayor Juan Gonzalez de Casares Melon, a prominent officer; and he carried it out with great expedition and adroitness. Having arrested them, they made known the said conspiracy, and other abominable crimes, and that they had committed the sin against nature. Having proved the accusations, you executed justice on the leaders of the said conspiracy and sent the others to my governor of the Filipinas Islands. Although ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 27 of 55) • Various

... at Windsor that Henry the Fourth, scarcely assured of the crown he had seized, received intelligence of a conspiracy against his life from the traitorous Aumerle, who purchased his own safety at the expense of his confederates. The timely warning enabled the king to baffle the design. It was in Windsor also that the children of Mortimer, Earl of March, ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... the Canadian (French) fur traders had become so hateful to the Indians, that these savages formed a conspiracy for their total extirpation. Fortunately for the white men, the smallpox broke out about this time among the redskins, and swept them away as the fire consumes the parched grass of the prairies. Their unburied corpses were torn by the wolves and wild dogs, and the survivors were ...
— On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) - A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature • John Ruskin

... finally vanquished, was not formed until 1712, and their defeat, as evidenced by their peculiar subjugation occurred within a few months antecedent to the demise of the proprietary. The same people annihilated the colony of Des Vries, in 1632, formed a conspiracy to exterminate the Swedes, under Printz, in 1646; and were the authors of the subsequent murders which afflicted the settlements, before the accession of the ...
— Great Indian Chief of the West - Or, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk • Benjamin Drake

... your feet, as you stand on the convent terrace, is the Villa Mozzi, where, not long ago, were found buried jars of Roman coins of the republican era, hidden there by Catiline, at the epoch of his memorable conspiracy. Upon the same spot was the favorite residence of Lorenzo Magnifico; concerning whose probable ponderings, as he sat upon his terrace, with his legs dangling over Florence, much may be learned from the guide-book of the immortal Murray, so that he who runs may ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857 • Various

... at this time very far from being a communistic movement, as from a natural confusion of names it was thought to be by foreigners. There was a burning jealousy in Paris of the "Rurals," and a real fear, not ill-founded, that a Royalist conspiracy was on foot. The irritations of the siege, however, played the largest part. The National Guard, who had fought very well at Buzenval on January 19th, profoundly moved by the capitulation, had carried off their ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn

... they are deaf to all but danger, They swear they will fley us, and then dry our Quarters: A rasher of a salt lover, is such a Shooing-horn: Can you kiss away this conspiracy, and set us free? Or will the Giant god of love fight for ye? Will his fierce war-like bow kill a Cock-sparrow? Bring out the Lady, she can quel this mutiny: And with her powerfull looks strike awe into ...
— The False One • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... Simpson editorials in big opposition papers undoubtedly produced an effect. I set for De Milt and his bureau of underground publicity the task of showing up, as far as it was prudent to expose intimate politics to the public, Goodrich and his crowd and their conspiracy with Beckett and his crowd to secure the opposition nomination for a man of the same offensive type as Cromwell. And I directed Woodruff to supply Silliman and Merriweather and that department of my "bi-partizan" machine with all the money they wanted. "They ...
— The Plum Tree • David Graham Phillips

... which he encountered everywhere when he went to see men who owned mines. If he offered them a million for a ten-foot hole they would refuse it and demand ten million more, and if he offered them nothing they immediately scented a conspiracy to starve them out and gain possession of their mine. It was the illusion of hidden wealth, of buried treasure, which keeps half the mines in the West closed down and half of the rest in litigation; except ...
— Shadow Mountain • Dane Coolidge

... president of the First National Bank of Montgomery, appeared frequently in the article, which closed with a statement signed by both men that the stories afloat were baseless fabrications; that the company was earning its charges and that the rumors abroad through the state were the result of a conspiracy by a number of stockholders to seize control ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... without energy, or were careless about everything but escape, and so felt no interest in dethroning him and setting up another, when thereby they were not helping their chance of getting out of the Isthmus. However, there was now a conspiracy commenced by some who were unwilling to leave Nicaragua, and who distrusted General Walker's ability to save ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 • Various

... local gentry. The matron was a woman of family, who somehow managed, in her big, white, frilled cap, to be distinguished like an abbess of old. The really toney women of the place came to take tea in her room, and these little teas in the hospital were like a little elegant female conspiracy. There was a slight flavour of art and literature about. The matron had known Walter Pater, ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence

... was looked upon by the people as their lord and chief. By a decision of the court he was obliged to restore to the king certain property which he unjustly held, and he vented his feelings bitterly against the heretic and tyrant, as he called him. In fact, he hatched a conspiracy, which spread widely, through his influence, among ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 9 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality. Scandinavian. • Charles Morris

... smell a conspiracy!" laughed Warrington. "You are putting your heads together to get me ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... runaways plotted in whispers. Upon which conspiracy Lulu brightly entered through the ...
— The Innocents - A Story for Lovers • Sinclair Lewis

... leaders of the Right said at grave conjunctures, "We must write to Bacot." MM. Canuel, O'Mahoney, and De Chappedelaine were preparing the sketch, to some extent with Monsieur's approval, of what was to become later on "The Conspiracy of the Bord de l'Eau"—of the waterside. L'Epingle Noire was already plotting in his own quarter. Delaverderie was conferring with Trogoff. M. Decazes, who was liberal to a degree, reigned. Chateaubriand stood ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... voice had all the tenderness that they knew so well—"this is some conspiracy of those to whom we have shown the utmost hospitality. I would have shielded your king, for he was also my sovereign and I owed him allegiance. But now that is no longer possible, and the time is come. ...
— Romance Island • Zona Gale

... low Chartist wretches! As if he would ever have looked at one of THEIR women! A low conspiracy to get money from a gentleman in his ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald

... called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkenness and gluttony that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says that Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something which is not so much false as startlingly and arrestingly foolish. He might as well say that the two sexes were invented by jewellers who wanted to sell wedding rings. Or again, ...
— George Bernard Shaw • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... This naturally brought him a good many enemies amongst rich and powerful people, who were making plenty of money out of the Government, and doing nothing for it. So, when these persons had a chance of bringing a charge of conspiracy against him, they were right glad of the opportunity; and in the end Cochrane was ...
— Beneath the Banner • F. J. Cross

... and also in disguise obtained entrance into the houses of the rich. When they returned they were secretly admitted by back doors into the palace, and then reported all that they had been able to hear or to collect; taking care with an unanimous kind of conspiracy to invent many things, and to exaggerate for the worse all they really knew; at the same time suppressing any praises of Caesar which had come to their ears, although these were wrung from many, against their consciences, by the dread of ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus

... unity between the soldiers and their master, Hussein Pacha, was tottering on the verge of dissolution; a plot against his life had just been discovered, he had punished the ringleaders with death, and many who had been concerned in the conspiracy felt that there was no safety for them with him. Beaten constantly in every skirmish or battle, they conceived a high respect for the military genius of the invaders, and, ere the close of the summer campaign, offered their services ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various

... never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop." Not content with a superficial survey of whatever he inspected, he seems to have been as intimately acquainted with all the book-selling fraternity of Little-Britain as was his contemporary, Richard Smith; and to have entered into a conspiracy with ROBERT SCOTT[360]—the most renowned book vender in this country, if not in Europe—to deprive all bibliomaniacs of a chance of procuring rare and curious volumes, by sweeping every thing that came to market, in the shape of a book, into their own curiously-wrought and widely-spread ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... the Confederate States climbed over the zigzag fence that enclosed his garden, and continued to approach the rude dwelling which the law had defined to be his castle. Tom did not dare to speak in tones loud enough to be heard by the innocent victim of the officer's conspiracy, for they would have betrayed his presence to the enemy. Sitting upon the top stones of the chimney, he gesticulated violently, hoping to attract his attention; but the man did not look up, and consequently could ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic

... and after nightfall to crown itself with imperishable stars. Wordsworth had that self-trust which in the man of genius is sublime, and in the man of talent insufferable. It mattered not to him though all the reviewers had been in a chorus of laughter or conspiracy of silence behind him. He went quietly over to Germany to write more Lyrical Ballads, and to begin a poem on the growth of his own mind, at a time when there were only two men in the world (himself and Coleridge) who were aware ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell

... organization of the friars, the secret communication of the Nun with Catherine and the Princess Mary, with the papal nuncio, or with noble lords and reverend bishops, was either unknown, or the character of those communications was not suspected. That a serious political conspiracy should have shaped itself round the ravings of a seeming lunatic, to all appearance had not occurred as a possibility to a single member of the council, except to those whose silence was ensured by ...
— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... Mr. Vallandigham, though less valuable, is of the same purport, that "it is vain to underrate either the man or his conspiracy.... He is the farthest possible removed from the ordinary ruffian, ...
— A Plea for Captain John Brown • Henry David Thoreau

... the immortality of the soul, winding up with orgies of sensual depravity with his boon companion Pulci, and all the time making himself an historic name for statecraft; Pope Sixtus IV, at the very heart of the Pazzi conspiracy to murder the Medici— ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... stated her reasons for the step she was taking without undue emphasis. In its severity and quiet determination the letter did not seem like her, and he suspected forgery, sisterly advice, paternal influence—a family conspiracy. There was but one thing to do. He looked through the various furniture for his hat; and with his head full of citations from the lives of artists illustrative of their conduct, he went to her. But ...
— Spring Days • George Moore

... forgot those assumptions," he said between his clenched teeth. "He is a mere Spaniard. He takes this farcical conspiracy with perfect nonchalance. Decayed races have ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad

... :connector conspiracy: [probably came into prominence with the appearance of the KL-10 (one model of the {PDP-10}), none of whose connectors matched anything else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or purveyors ...
— THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.10

... thirteen bulky volumes, comprising the "Ku Klux Conspiracy," being the report of the "Joint Select Committee, to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late Insurrectionary States," on the part of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, reported February 19, 1872, my blood ...
— Black and White - Land, Labor, and Politics in the South • Timothy Thomas Fortune

... being a private individual, the servant of the public, and responsible to no body smaller than the public, has long declined and will continue to decline to join the hateful conspiracy of silence, in virtue of which these daily horrors lie at the door of the most honoured and respected individuals and professions in the community. More especially at the doors of the Church and the medical profession ...
— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby

... came from the kitchen. Ma scolded the potatoes as she fried them, rebuked the biscuits because they had browned a little too soon, censured the stove for its misbehavior in having scorched the biscuits, accused the wood of being a factor in the conspiracy, reprimanded the mammoth coffee-pot that threatened to deluge the steak, and finally chased Andy from the premises when she discovered that he had laid the table with her ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs

... unsuccessful attempt upon the Presidio, in which, as before, the valiant soldiers had repulsed them with great loss on both sides, including the Comandante and his officers: that this was but the first outbreak of a great conspiracy, which extended to all the Tagnos of the settlement, and that no doubt the attack ...
— The White Chief - A Legend of Northern Mexico • Mayne Reid

... custom-house unless the owner can present evidence that he is an officer of the army or navy and that they are the tools of his trade, or has a permit issued by the proper authority. This precaution is intended to anticipate any conspiracy similar to that which led to the great mutiny of 1857. The natives are not allowed to carry guns or even to own them, and every gun or other weapon found in the hands of a Hindu is confiscated unless he has a permit. And as an additional precaution the rifles issued ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis

... form of the conspiracy: Guise gives it out, he journeys to Champaigne, But lurks indeed at Lagny, hard by Paris, Where every hour he hears and gives instructions. Mean time the Council of Sixteen assure him, They have twenty thousand citizens in arms. Is it ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden

... infamous manner in which these witnesses were allowed to testify, than the withholding of such parts of their evidence as they pretended it was improper at that time to bring forward. Thus they protected themselves; for no one durst accuse them lest he himself should be charged as a party to the conspiracy. At this trial Oates said, without a word of dissent from the Chief Justice, 'I could give other evidence but will not, because of other things which are not ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... upon the people to take up arms? Every individual must be animated with this courage; must regard himself as chosen by Providence to commence the task of liberation. Each one must act as though it were he who is to set the world in motion, and were the head of the great and holy conspiracy by which mankind is to be delivered from the tyrant. I told myself so when I saw all Germany sinking; I repeat it to myself every day, and it is my excuse now for having ventured to invite thither ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach

... of their privileges whenever the equalizing effects of a reform are within their intellectual horizon,—what did they do a few days before they passed the law concerning judicial sales? They formed a conspiracy against property! Their law to regulate the labor of children in factories will, without doubt, prevent the manufacturer from compelling a child to labor more than so many hours a day; but it will not force him to increase the pay of the child, nor that of its father. To-day, ...
— What is Property? - An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government • P. J. Proudhon

... reasons," said Hewitt. "First, to mystify you, and prevent any discovery of the people directing the conspiracy; and second, to be able to put you indoors at night and unobserved. Well, I think I have told you all you know yourself now as ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison

... war"—the first time that he has used this word to describe the situation in Ireland—and was confident that the sufferers were, with few exceptions (Mr. DEVLIN, who complained that his office had been raided, being one of them), "men engaged in a murderous conspiracy." He declined to hamper the authorities who were putting it down. Taking his cue from his chief, Sir HAMAR GREENWOOD excused his lack of information about recent occurrences with the remark that "an officer ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, November 17, 1920 • Various

... revolt, and now won over to the Archduke by his promises of toleration, loudly and openly espoused his cause, and their long-menaced alliance with the Hungarian rebels was actually effected. Almost at once a formidable conspiracy was planned and matured against the Emperor. Too late did he resolve to amend his past errors; in vain did he attempt to break up this fatal alliance. Already the whole empire was in arms; Hungary, Austria, and Moravia had done homage to Matthias, who was already on his march to Bohemia to ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... a plant!" he said. "A conspiracy, if you like, between Cotherstone and the authorities. Cotherstone, he's got the smartest solicitor in Norcaster and the shrewdest advocate on this circuit—you know 'em, Mr. Mallalieu—Stilby's the solicitor, and Gradston the barrister—and it strikes me it's a put-up job. D'ye see through ...
— The Borough Treasurer • Joseph Smith Fletcher

... will allege conspiracy and a lot of things, and he can sue us and get the boat back and force us to render an accounting ...
— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne

... God. A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that 339:12 Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner would make a reality of sin, - would make that real which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the 339:15 day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against himself, - against his own awakening to the awful un- reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who 339:18 repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy

... horseback and paraded in the character of the "Repeal Cavalry." This meeting the Irish executive prohibited by proclamation, and on the 14th, O'Connell and other prominent leaders were arrested, and held to bail on a charge of conspiracy. On the 24th of May, 1844, the Irish judges sentenced him to twelve months' imprisonment, and a fine of L2,000. The cartoon of The Probable Effects of Good Living and no Exercise refers to this result; but Punch on this occasion was wrong. O'Connell proved "too many" for the Irish lawyers. ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... he adopts this attitude, when he must have been sure that all were guiltless? He perhaps believes that they are victims of a conspiracy, the object of which is to place them in the power of this Egyptian governor, and he thinks that this submissive attitude is best calculated to secure ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature • Ontario Ministry of Education

... persuaded that we like a man when really we dislike him; if we could, our whole society would soon dissolve in a moral anarchy. But with regard to the works of man, or that part of them which is supposed to aim at beauty, we are in a state of aesthetic anarchy, because there is a whole vast conspiracy, itself unconscious for the most part, to persuade us that we like what no human being out of a ...
— Essays on Art • A. Clutton-Brock

... penniless, with his picture returned on his hands. This disappointment was only the natural result of his own impracticable temperament, but to Haydon's exaggerative sense the whole world seemed joined in a conspiracy against him. 'Exasperated by the neglect of my family,' he writes, 'tormented by the consciousness of debt, cut to the heart by the cruelty of Sir George, and enraged at the insults of the Academy, ...
— Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century • George Paston

... while he tried to keep the flower of modesty in full bloom in his soul, he could not deny that he had given the enemies of his country a great deal of trouble, and subjected them to some heavy losses. Then he recalled the conspiracy on board of the Bronx while he was acting-commander of her; and though it was for the interest of the Confederacy to get rid of so active an officer, he believed it was the vessel and not himself that the conspirators ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... the transition from the French to the English rule created no disturbances, such as Pontiac's conspiracy which so completely disrupted the trade in the East.[5] Continuing the French policy and also their posts and voyageurs, the Scottish merchants of Montreal, organized in 1784 as the North West Company, pushed westward from Green Bay and southward ...
— Old Fort Snelling - 1819-1858 • Marcus L. Hansen

... cities he had conquered, they proved rather restive under the Christian yoke, and guided by Abeniaf finally told the Moors in Northern Africa that if they would only cross the sea they would deliver Valencia into their hands. But this conspiracy soon became known to the Moors who favored the Cid, and they immediately notified him, holding their town which was in dire peril for ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... think how troubled he was at hearing such words as these, since he knew from what he had seen that there was conspiracy and treachery among his own men, and he had no knowledge of how far this had gone, or which of his men he could trust, and so this man, who but a few hours before had been master of the whole valley, and had looked ...
— The Romance of Golden Star ... • George Chetwynd Griffith

... characters ranged downwards by infinitesimal degrees, from the mysteriously doubtful to the notoriously bad. The highly-bred, highly-refined, highly-accomplished young English beauties had no charm for him. He detected at once the domestic conspiracy of which he was destined to become the victim. He often came up-stairs, at night, into my bed-room; and while he was amusing himself by derisively kicking about my simple clothes and simple toilette apparatus; while he was laughing in his ...
— Basil • Wilkie Collins

... he found this house and the other houses combined in a conspiracy of silence against the musical addresses of a swarthy foreigner who had a foothold a yard beyond the curbstone, and who was turning the crank of his instrument with all the rapid regularity of the thorough mechanician. The whole street rang. "'Ah, perche non posso odiarti!'" ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller

... a conspiracy was started in Caracas, but it too failed. Some of its leaders received death sentences, others were expelled from the country and others were imprisoned. In Mexico, in Peru and in the southernmost part of the continent, men were working in favor of ...
— Simon Bolivar, the Liberator • Guillermo A. Sherwell

... destroy their natural enemies the Geraldines, and the Earl of Ormond their head, was appointed General in Munster, to execute English vengeance and his own on the lands and people of his rival Desmond. But the English chiefs were not strong enough to put down the revolt. "The conspiracy throughout Ireland," wrote Lord Grey, "is so general, that without a main force it will not be appeased. There are cold service and unsound dealing generally." On the 12th of August, 1580, Lord Grey landed, amid a universal ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church

... hunting to any one in the dark street. He was continually opening the door, which every newcomer promptly and forcibly slammed shut. When he saw men walk across the room for the express purpose of slamming it he began to cherish the idea that there was a conspiracy on foot to anger him and thus force him to ...
— Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up - Bar-20 • Clarence Edward Mulford



Words linked to "Conspiracy" :   conspiracy of silence, plotter, plot, government, band, Gunpowder Plot, confederacy, secret plan, conspire, political science, coconspirator, politics



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