Book excerpt: John Byrom (1691-1763) was an enigma, a playboy, philosopher, poet and possibly spy. On the one hand a pillar of the establishment, Byrom was also an active and secret Jacobite who conducted a wild affair with Queen Caroline. At least one of Byrom's close associates went to the gallows to protect his good name in high society while George II, unaware of the traitor at the gate, granted him, by Act of Parliament, a monopoly license to teach his new system of phonetic shorthand to leading political and social figures who might have to conceal their communicaitons.