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men was sent over to Flanders, and four thousand more, to be commanded by the duke, were in readiness for embarkation. At the same time (July 16) a new treaty was concluded with the States, unless Louis should abandon some pretensions which he had lately made in favour of Sweden.

Louis knew when to recede as well as advance. During a fortnight his ministers employed all the resources of diplomatic tactics against those of the States, and then, when all men looked for a renewal of war, suddenly yielded (July 31), and the peace between France and the States was signed the same day before midnight. Four days after (Aug. 4) the prince of Orange attacked the French army at St. Denis, near Mons, which town they were besieging. As it is not very likely that he could be ignorant of the actual signature of the treaty of Nimeguen, the blood of the five thousand men who were slain in the action may be said to rest on his head. He probably hoped that a victory would prevent the ratification of the treaty, to which he was strongly opposed.

Spain and the emperor found it necessary to agree to the Peace of Nimeguen, which left to Louis a large proportion of his conquests, and put it in his power to renew the war when he pleased with every advantage.

It is not to be denied, that the opposition in parliament this year played the game of the king of France, and thwarted all the efforts of Temple and Danby to urge the king into a war which was equally for the honour and interest of England. It is also well known, that the lords Hollis and Russell, and the other leaders of the countryparty, were in actual communication with Barillon and Ruvigni, and arranged with them the plan of operations in parliament. These are points which demand some inquiry and explanation.

The country-party had a violent distrust of the king, who they well knew was bent on making himself absolute, and perhaps on changing the religion of the nation; they

also knew that he looked to the money or the arms of Louis for aid in accomplishing his designs: it was therefore their object to deprive him of this support, and they probably thought that a few fortresses in Flanders were not to be put in the balance with the British constitution. On the other hand, Louis acted on the usual maxims of state-policy, and he wished to see his neighbours weak rather than strong; he had therefore no vehement desire that Charles should be absolute or the nation catholic: he was of course as little desirous of beholding a republic in England. What he wanted was, jealousy and disunion between the king and people, so that he might be able to play the two parties against each other, and thus be free from interruption from England in his project of extending the frontier of France to the Rhine, and establishing a dictatorship over the rest of Europe. For this purpose he had, in the beginning of the reign of Charles, kept up a communication with the commonwealth-men; then, seeing a prospect of the king's becoming his stipendiary and vassal, he entered into close relations with him; but the marriage of the princess Mary having proved to him that no reliance could be placed on Charles, he resolved to try to form a connexion with the popular leaders. For this purpose, Ruvigni, who was a protestant and first-cousin to lady Russell, came over in the month of March, and he took occasion to assure Russell and Hollis, that his master did not at all conceive it to be for his interest that the king should be absolute, and that he was ready to aid in causing a dissolution of the parliament. They agreed, on their side, to take care that the grants of supplies should be clogged with such conditions as to be so disagreeable to the king that he would prefer a reunion with France to accepting them. Ruvigni offered to spend a considerable sum in the purchase of members' votes, and begged of Russell to name those who might be gained over. He replied, that he should be sorry to have to do with people who could be bought. He at the same time gave it as his opinion, that there was no chance of a

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dissolution but through the king of France, whose aid for that purpose Ruvigni freely promised. Nothing could in fact exceed the straits in which the popular party then were; they knew if the king could get an army at his devotion, he would destroy their liberties; they were dubious of the king of France, and yet he alone could aid them: we therefore need not wonder at their falling into a course of tortuous policy, which, though morally wrong, is what those who engage in politics in difficult times can hardly ever escape. That nothing injurious to the country and constitution was intended, the names of Russell and Hollis are a sufficient warrant*.

*See Appendix (G).

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CHAPTER XV.

CHARLES II. (CONTINUED).

1678-1680.

Popish plot.-Sir Edmondbury Godfrey.-The Plot.-Impeachment of Danby. -Parliament dissolved.-Trials.-New parliament.-Trials.-Persecution in Scotland.-Murder of archbishop Sharp.-Battle of Bothwell-bridge.— Efforts of Shaftesbury.-Meal-tub plot.-Bill of exclusion.-Trial and execution of lord Stafford.

THE kingdom was now at peace, but the army was still on foot; the country-party were dejected, and began to think that further resistance to the court was hopeless. In this state of things, during the recess of Parliament, the Popish Plot, as it was named, came to fill the nation with alarm.

On the 12th of August, as the king was walking in the Park, a person named Kirby, who used to assist him in his chemical laboratory, came up to him and said, "Sir, keep within the company; your enemies have a design upon your life, and you may be shot within this very walk." On being questioned, he said that two men, named Grove and Pickering, had undertaken to shoot him, and sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, to poison him. He gave as his authority one Dr. Tonge, rector of St. Michael's, Wood-street. This Tonge was a weak, credulous man, and a great alarmist on the subject of popery, against which he published tracts every year. In the evening Tonge was brought to the king, to whom he showed a written narrative of the plot, divided into forty-three heads. He was sent to lord Danby; he said that the narrative had been thrust under his door; that he knew not the author, but had a clue which might enable him to discover him. In a few days he returned, and said, he had met the author in

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the street, who had given him a fuller account, but required that his name should be concealed for fear of the papists. As Danby insisted on seeing some of the papers mentioned in the narrative, after some delay and evasion he was told, that on a certain day a packet of letters, addressed to Bedingfield, a jesuit, the duke's confessor, would arrive at the post-office at Windsor. Danby hastened down to intercept them; but they had already come to hand, and Bedingfield, seeing that they were not the writing of those whose names they bore, and that they contained suspicious matter, showed them to the duke, who took them to the king. Charles at once recognised in the writing a similarity to that of the narrative, and expressed his belief of their being forgeries.

After some days, the person from whom Tonge professed to derive his information came forward. This was a man named Titus Oates, son to a weaver, who having turned anabaptist preacher, and been chaplain to colonel Pride, had after the restoration obtained orders in the established church. He sent his son Titus to Cambridge, where, having finished his studies, he took orders and became a curate, but being indicted for perjury on some occasion, he got to be chaplain in the navy. Here, however, he was charged with an odious offence, and was obliged to quit the ship. He then managed to be appointed as one of the duke of Norfolk's chaplains, where meeting with many popish priests, he became a real or pretended convert to their faith. He was sent over to St. Omers, and thence to Spain, whence he was just returned to England. He had long been acquainted with Tonge, by whom and Kirby he was now chiefly supported.

At the urgent desire of the duke to have the matter sifted to the bottom, the king consented to have Oates examined before the council. Previously to appearing there, Oates went before a magistrate named sir Edmondbury Godfrey (Sept. 6), and made oath to the truth of the narrative, which was now extended to eighty-one articles. He