depiction of King Charles II kneeling beside a book before an altar, with a female figure resting on a cloud in the top right corner; a parody of the frontispiece to 'Eikon Basilike'   

ΕΙΚΩ'Ν ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ ' ΔΕΥ'ΤΕΡΑ. THE POURTRAICTURE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY King Charles II. With his Reasons for turning Roman Catholic; published by K. James. Found in the Strong Box.  
Printed in the Year MDCXCIV.   

The CONTENTS.  

I. ON his Majesty's being converted into the Catholic Church. Page 1.  
II. On his Majesty's accepting of the Scots Proposals, and taking the Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland. p. 6.  
III. On his Majesty's Coronation in Scotland; upon taking the Covenant, and other Oaths, to govern according to the Laws of that Kingdom. p. 15.  
iv On the Divisions amongst the Scots Presbyterians, upon his Majesty's bringing his Father's old Friends into Places of Power and Trust about him. p. 18.  
V On his Majesty's Defeat at Dumbar. p. 20.  
VI On the Defeat of his Majesty's Forces at Innerkeithing, etc. and his raising another Army to march into England. p. 22.  
VII. On his Majesty's Defeat at Worcester. p. 24.  
VIII. On his Majesty's Escape to Whiteladies; from thence to Spring-Coppice; and then to Boscobel house, where he was concealed some time by the Penderels, after he left the Royal Oak. p. 28.  
IX. On his Majesty's being in the Royal Oak. p. 31.  
X. On his Majesty's being concealed at Boscobel- house; Entertainment there by the Penderels; and Journey thence to Mr. Huddleston ' s. p. 34.  
XI. On the Proclamation against entertaining his Majesty, and offering 1000 l. to any that would discover him. p. 38.  
XII. On his Majesty's leaving Mr. Huddleston' s, and riding before Mrs. Jane Lane to Bristol, etc. in order to his embarquing for France. p. 40.  
XIII. On his Majesty's Journey to Trent, and parting with Mrs. Lane there, in order to his embarquing at Charmouth, a small Village near Lime, and his Disappointment by the Skipper's Wife, who locked her Husband up, that he should not carry him. p. 45.  
XIV. On his Majesty's Return to Trent, and lodging at an Inn in Broad-Windsor, in his way amongst Rebel-Souldiers, where one of their Women were brought to bed; and his Concealment in a Place at Trent, where Recusants used to retire. p. 47.  
XV. On his Majesty's employing my Lord Wilmot to procure Money for his Transportation; his hiring a Ship, being known by one Smith an Innkeeper, and his Arrival near Haure de Grace in France. p. 49.  
XVI. On his Majesty's being conducted to Paris, met by his Brother the Duke of York, and entertained at the French Court. p. 51.  
XVII. On his Majesty's offering his Mediation betwixt the Prince of Conde ' s Faction, and that of Cardinal Mazarin, supported by the French King, and the Odium which he thereby brought upon himself from both Parties. p. 53.  
XVIII. On Mrs. Lane ' s Arrival in France: His Majesty's being disappointed of Mademoiselled ' Orleans; and treating with the Duke of Lorraine for the recovering of Ireland. p. 55.  
XIX. On his Majesty's falling in love with one of his own Subjects in France; his marrying her, and having a young Prince by her, who was afterwards created Duke of Monmouth. p. 59  
XX. On the French King's concluding a Treaty with Oliver, by which his Majesty and the Royal Family were to be excluded France, and his going thereupon into the Low-Countries. p. 62.  
XXI. On his Majesty's travelling into Germany and the Low-Countries: The Duke of Glocester' s being importuned and threatened by his Mother to turn Roman Catholic; and the Duke of York's being charged to departed France. p. 64.  
XXII. On his Majesty's being invited into the Spanish Netherlands by Don John of Austria, in name of his Catholic Majesty, upon the Rupture betwixt Spain and France. p. 68  
XXIII. On the Defeat of the Spanish Army, and the Surrender of Dunkirk to the English. p. 70.  
XXIV. On Oliver ' s Death; Richard ' s being declared Protector, outed by Lambert and the Army, etc. p. 72.  
XXV. On his Majesty's being invited to a Treaty on the Frontiers of Spain, betwixt the French and Spanish Ministers, about a Peace betwixt those Crowns: Sir George Booth ' s Defeat: The Confusions which the Nations were cast into by Lambert, and General Monk ' s carrying on the Designs of restoring his Majesty. p. 74.  
XXVI. On General Monk's having brought the Design of his Majesty's Restoration to Perfection: His Majesty's Declaration from Breda, and Entertainment of the Presbyterian Ministers there, who were sent over to him, p. 76.  
XXVII. On his Majesty's being proclaimed by the Parliament: His magnificent Entrance into London, and enjoying the Countess of Castlemain the first Night. p. 80.  
XXVIII. On the Parliament's condemning the Regicides, and appointing an Anniversary Humiliation on the Day of King Charles I' s Murder. p. 83.  
XXIX. On his Majesty's dissolving the Parliament which called him in, and summoning another. p. 85.  
XXX. On the Presbyterian Plots set on foot Novemb. 1661. Sir J. p s forging treasonable Letters to that effect. His Majesty's appointing a Conference at the Savoy betwixt the Conformists and Nonconformists; and influencing the House of Commons to offer Reasons against any Toleration. p. 89.  
XXXI. On his Majesty's selling of Dunkirk to the French King for 500000 l. p. 92.  
XXXII. On the Parliament's beginning to grow sensible of the Encouragement given to the Catholic Religion by his Majesty's Declaration, Decemb. 1662. Their Petition on that head: and his Majesty's publishing a Proclamation against Papists thereupon. p. 94.  
XXXIII. On the News of some more Plots by the fanatics against his Majesty both in England, Scotland and Ireland. The Execution of the Earl of Argyle, Lord Wariston, etc. in Scotland; and some of those concerned in the Plots in England and Ireland. p. 96.  
XXXIV. On his Majesty's making War upon the Dutch, Anno 1664. p. 99  
XXXV. On the Parliament's voting to stand by his Majesty till he had a Redress for the Injuries done to his Subjects by the Dutch. The King's great Care to have his Fleet ready before theirs, putting them off by fair Promises, seizing their Bourdeaux Fleet without declaring War, etc. p. 101.  
XXXVI. On the French King's making Peace with the States. Several Skirmishes, with various Success. The Victory at Sea by the Duke of York; and the Plague which broke out in London in 1665. p. 103.  
XXXVII. On the meeting of the Parliament at Oxford, because of the Plague at London. The King's Speech to them about the Dutch War, and Supplies. The Chancellor's Enlargement on it. The Act for banishing Nonconformists five Miles from Corporations. p. 107.  
XXXVIII. On the Dutch's recalling their Ambassador from England. The King's Letter by him to the States: and the French King and his Majesty's Declarations of War against each other. p. 111.  
XXXIX. Upon the Sea-fights with the Dutch, May and July, 1666. both sides pretending to the Victory: And the French's lying by, though they came as if they designed to assist the Dutch. p. 113.  
XL. On the firing of London. p. 114.  
XLI. On the Parliament's meeting at Westminster after the Fire. His Majesty's Demand of more Money. Their Address against Papists. His Majesty's Proclamation on that Head. The Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters. Declaration of War against Denmark. The Insurrection in Scotland in 1666. The burning of his Majesty's Ships at Chattam by the Dutch, etc. p. 119.  
XLII. On the murmuring of the People at the Consumption of the Treasure. His Majesty's granting leave to the Parliament's Commissioners to take the Public Accounts. His raising an Army of 30000 Men, and disbanding them. On the Parliament's being displeased with it. The Sessions of Parliament in July, October, and February, 1667. His Majesty's Speeches to them: Proclamation against Papists: Displacing of Chancellor Hid, and League with the Dutch, etc. p. 124.  
XLIII. On the Proclamation against Dissenters in 1669. Inviting the Dutch and Swedes into a League with us; proposing a nearer Alliance with the Dutch, and forcing the Treaty of Aix La Chappelle upon the Spaniards and the French. p. 128.  
XLIV. On the Interview betwixt his Majesty and his Sister, the Duchess of Orleans, at Dover; and her Advice to him to break the Triple League, and concur with the French King to destroy the Dutch and the Protestant Religion, and render himself absolute in England. Her leaving one of her Maids of Honour, created afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth, behind her; and her own Death speedily after her Return into France. p. 131.  
XLV. On Colonel Blood ' s Attempt to steal the Crown. A Proclamation against Papists to please the Parliament. The second War with the Dutch. The shutting up of the Exchequer. The falling upon the Dutch Smyrna Fleet before War was declared; and the Declaration of War thereupon. p. 141.  
XLVI. On the Dutch's surprising our Fleet in Southwold-bay, the Duke of York being Admiral. His Majesty's Declaration to the Dutch. The Progress of the French in the United Provinces. His Majesty's and the French King's Proposals to the Dutch, and their rejecting them, and making the Prince of Orange Stadtholder. p. 148.  
XLVII. On his Majesty's suffering the Parliament to meet Novemb. 1673. His Speech to them concerning the Indulgence and the Dispensing Power, and the Necessity of raising more Forces for carrying on the Dutch War. Several unsuccessful Fights with the Hollanders. The Letter from the Dutch to influence the Parliament, who addressed against the Match betwixt the Duke of York and Duchess of Modena. The Prorogation which ensued thereupon. A Proclamation against Papists, and the Consummation of the Marriage. p. 154.  
XLVIII. On his Majesty's Speech to the House of Lords, upon the Address of the Commons against his Declaration of Indulgence. The Answer of the Lords thereunto. The Vote of the Commons for Ease to Protestant Dissenters, and that part of their Address which desired that all in Places of Power and Trust should take the Sacrament according to the Church of England. p. 163.  
XLIX. Upon the Complaints of the Commons, that Ireland was like to be overrun with Popery, because of his Majesty's Proclamation, allowing Papists to live in Corporations, and giving them equal Liberties to the English. Their Address concerning the Danger of the Protestant Interest there; and that Mr. Richard Talbot should be removed from all Public Employment, and denied Access to Court: And their Address concerning English Grievances; with Reflections on the Miscarriages of his Majesty's former Designs of being impower'd to raise Money without Parliament, on extraordinary Occasions; and having an Universal Excise settled on the Crown. p. 166.  
L. On his Majesty's making Application to the Parliament of Scotland, upon his failing of Money from the Parliament of England; the Scots insisting first upon the Redress of their Grievances, and sending Duke Hamilton and others to London for that end. p. 172.  
LI. On the Spanish Ambassador's Proposals for an Union betwixt England and Holland, and declaring that they must break with England if the same were not accepted. The Manifesto of the Dutch to the Parliament of England, wherein they appeal to them for the Righteousness of their Cause. The Parliament's Endeavours thereupon for a Peace; and his Majesty's agreeing to it without including the French King. p. 178.  
LII. On his Majesty's proroguing the Parliament, because of their impeaching his Ministers, forming Bills against Popery, and for the marrying of those of the Royal Family with Protestants, and educating their Children in that Religion. Clamours raised in the Nation, that we were running back to 41. The Court's mediating a Peace betwixt France and Holland, and sending 10000 of their own Subjects into the French King's Service. p. 185.  
LIII. On the meeting of the Parliament again, April 1675. Their falling upon Bills for the Benefit of the Nation, and being diverted by the sudden bringing in of a Test into the House of Lords, to be imposed upon all in Places of Power or Trust, Civil, Military or Ecclesiastical; obliging them to declare their Abhorrence of taking up Arms against the King, or any commissionated by him; and to swear that they would not at any time endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State. p. 190.  
LIV. On the Debate betwixt the Lords and Commons about the Lords hearing of Appeals from any Court of Equity, with the Behaviour of the Bishops in that Affair, and the Opposition which they met with from the Earl of Shaftsbury, etc. p. 199.  
LV. On the meeting of the Parliament after the Prorogation. His Majesty's Demand of Money to build Ships. The Commons insisting upon the Bill for a Habeas Corpus: Against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea: Raising Money without Consent of Parliament: Against Papists sitting in either House: For the speedier convicting of Papists, and recalling his Majesty's Subjects from the French Service; and the Duke of Buckingham ' s Speech for Indulgence to Dissenters. p. 202.  
LVI. On the Motion for an Address by the House of Lords for dissolving the Parliament. The Address' being cast out by the Majority, and the Protestation of the Country Lords thereupon. p. 205.  
LVII. On the filling of the Benches with durante beneplacito Judges. The publishing of some Books in favour of the Papists and Prerogative. The French King's letting lose his Privateers amongst the English Merchants: And the sending of Ammunition from his Majesty's Stores to the French King. p. 211.  
LVIII. On the meeting of the Parliament after the long Prorogation, Febr. 1676. His Majesty's Demand of Money, recommending a good Correspondence to the two Houses. The Question whether the Parliament was not dissolved by that unprecedented Prorogation: Sending some Lords to the Tower for insisting on it. The granting of Money by the Commons. p. 218.  
LIX. On the Commons throwing out the Bill, entitled, An Act for securing the Protestant Religion: and another for the more effectual Convicting and Prosecution of Popish Recusants. p. 224.  
LX. On the Address of the Commons concerning the Danger from the Power of France, and their Progress in the Netherlands: His Majesty's Answer. It's not being thought satisfactory by the Commons, who presented a second, to which his Majesty delayed giving Answer; and the Cause why. His demanding of Money when he did answer. Their giving 200000 l. and Adjournment, with the Cause of it. p. 227.  
LXI. Upon the Duke of Crequis ' s arriving from France with a great Train, and meeting his Majesty at New-market. The Affairs treated of there. The meeting of the Parliament again. Their insisting upon a League with Holland; and his Majesty's Answer. p. 231.  
LXII. Upon the Prince of Orange ' s Arrival at Whitehall, and Marriage with the Lady Mary, eldest Daughter to the Duke of York. The Address of the Commons thereupon; and their insisting upon the Alliance with the Dutch, and War against France. p. 238.  
LXIII. On the raising an Army, on pretence of a War with France: The modelling of them. The sending of Duke Lauderdale to Scotland, to bring down an Highland-Army upon those Parts of the Low-lands which were most Presbyterian. The private Treaty with France. The Discovery of it by the Commons. Their Address to his Majesty to dismiss the French Ambassador. Their Vote in May, 1678. That the King be desired to enter into Alliance with the Emperor, King of Spain, and Princes of Germany. His Majesty's Answer. Their second Address against Duke Lauderdale and other Ministers; and Vote to give no Money till they were secured from Popery and Arbitrary Government. The Treaty of Nimeguen, and the Behaviour of his Majesty's Plenipotentiaries there. p. 241.  
LXIV. On his Majesty's acquainting the Parliament that there was a Peace in agitation. His Desire to keep up his Army and Navy till it were concluded. The Resolve of the Commons for supporting the King in the War against France, or provide for disbanding the Army. His Majesty's Answer thereupon; and the Commons continuing their Resolution to disband the Army, though the King desired the contrary. p. 249.  
LXV. On the relieving of Mons by the Prince of Orange, with the Assistance of the Duke of Monmouth and the English Forces. The Defeat given to the French at that time; and their King's Complaint, that it was contrary to his Majesty's private Articles. The concluding of the Peace: Recalling our Forces: Quartering them in the Country. His Majesty's being in a Consult with the Duke of York, Lord Clifford, etc. which was overheard; and the Person who listened kicked down Stairs by the said Lord. p. 252.  
LXVI. On the Discovery of the Popish Plot in August, 1678. by Dr. Oates and others. The Design of the Jesuits against his Majesty's Life. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey' s taking Dr. Oates his Depositions. The seizing of Coleman, Secretary to the Duchess of York, and his Papers; and the murdering of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey thereupon. p. 258.  
LXVII. On his Majesty's Apology to the Parliament, October 21, 1678. for keeping up his Army. His demanding of Money; and acquainting them with the Plot, and Danger from Popery. The Vote of the Commons upon the Plot, and Orders to apprehend the Earl of Powis, and four other Popish Lords. Their passing of the Bill for raising the Militia; and his Majesty's refusing it. The Execution of Coleman, and some other Plotters of less note. p. 263.  
LXVIII. On the Bill for excluding Papists from both Houses of Parliament; with a Clause, excepting the Duke of York. The Dissolution of the Parliament, as prosecuting the Popish Plot. The calling of another, and ordering the Duke of York to withdraw out of the Kingdom before they met. His Majesty's Speech to them, and Declaration, confessing his Error in governing by Cabals. His dissolving of his Privy-Council, and choosing another; whence the popular Members did quickly desire to be discharged. p. 268.  
LXX. On the French King's seizing several Places in Flanders, etc. as depending on those which were confirmed to him by the Peace of Nimeguen. His and the Spaniards Unkindness to the Duke of York, at that time, in the Netherlands. The Address of the Commons to stand by his Majesty and the Protestant Religion. Their disbanding of the Army. The Discovery of Endeavours to make the Witnesses of the Popish Plot retract their Evidence: And the proroguing of the Parliament upon their growing warm about the Trial of the Popish Lords in the Tower. p. 273.  
LXXI. On the Insurrection at Bothwel-bridg in Scotland. The sending the Duke of Monmouth thither to suppress it, which he effected. The Execution of several Presbyterian Ministers upon it: and the Execution of several Jesuits for the Popish Plot; and Endeavours to stifle the same by the Meal-tub-Plot, which proved abortive. p. 277.  
LXXII. On the dissolving of the Parliament, July 12. 1679. and calling another against October 7. The Return of the Duke of York in the mean time; and his being sent to Scotland. The proroguing of the Parliament after their being chosen. The acquitting of Sir George Wakeman, and others of the Plotters, by the then Lord Chief Justice. The burning of the Pope, etc. in effigy. The presenting of a Petition by the Citizens for the sitting of the Parliament: and Abhorrence of Petitions presented by others. p. 281.  
LXXIII. On the Court's being disappointed of receiving Money from Rome and France. The meeting of the Parliament October 22, 1680. The Proceed of the Commons against such Justices as obstructed Petitions for the sitting of the Parliament. The passing of the Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York, in the House of Commons, nemine contradicente. The rejecting of it by the Lords. The Trial and Execution of the Lord Stafford. The impeaching of the Judges. Their Denial of a Supply to the King. His Majesty's Message to them, and dissolving them, because of their Obstinacy. p. 285.  
LXXIV. On the calling of another Parliament to meet at Oxford, Febr. 1680. The seizing of Fitz-Harris with seditious Libels, designed to have been lodged with Protestant Peers and Commons. The seditious manner of the London- Members going to Oxford. His Majesty's Speech to the Parliament when they met there. Their Impeachment of Fitz-Harris, and Dissolution. p. 289.  
LXXV. On his Majesty's Declaration that the Duke of Monmouth was not lawfully begotten. p. 295.  
LXXVI. On the Protestant Plot. The Trial and Execution of Stephen College. The Commitment of the Lord Howard of Escrick, and the Earl of Shaftsbury, with his Trial and Acquitment. The Quo Warranto against the Charter of London, and other Corporations. The imposing of Sheriffs upon the City of London. The Commitment of Sir Thomas Pilkington and Mr. Shute, than Sheriffs, for opposing it. The calling of a Parliament in Scotland, where the Duke of York represented his Majesty, as Commissioner. The Test enacted there; and the Act for settling the Succession upon the Duke. The Trial and Condemnation of the Earl of Argyle, for explaining the Test; and his Escape. p. 298.  
LXXVII. On the finding of my Lord Grey, Alderman Cornish, and other Citizens, guilty of a Riot, for countenancing the Election of the City-Magistrates. The Discovery of the Conspiracy to assassinate his Majesty and the Duke of York at Ry-house; and the Council of six to manage the Plot: Whereupon my Lord Russel, Algernon Sidney, etc. were out off. The Earl of Essex' s being murdered in the Tower. The Trial and Sentence of Mr. Speke and Mr. Braddon, for endeavouring a Discovery thereof. The Continuance of the Surrender of Charters, etc. p. 303.  
Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. Published in 1686. by King James ' s Authority, who attested that he found them in his Brother's Strong Box, written in his own Hand. p. 309.  
A brief Account of Particulars occurring at the happy Death of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles II. in regard to Religion; faithfully related by his then Assistant, Mr. Jo. Hudleston. p. 316.    

ΕΙΚΩ'Ν ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ ' ΔΕΥ'ΤΕΡΑ.  

CHAP. I. On his Majesty's being converted into the Catholic Church.  
THIS I know will be offensive to my Subjects if it should take air, and therefore in Policy am obliged to conceal it; but that I am secure enough as to God and my own Conscience, I have no reason to doubt: 'Tis the Catholic Church whereof I am now a Member, and it's that Church which in the Bibles of the Heretics themselves is called the Pillar and Ground of Truth; then why should I scruple to submit myself to her Direction?  
Did not my Grandfather K. James, though he mauled Bellarmine, give the Pope the Title of Most Holy Father, and declare his Readiness to meet the Church of Rome half way? Did not my Father, whom the very Heretics acknowledge a Martyr, in like manner, give the Pope those Titles which they call Names of Blasphemy? If he had thought the Catholic Religion damnable, or believed that the Church of Rome teaches the Doctrine of Devils, would he ever have taken a Catholic Princess into his Bosom? or granted such Concessions in favour of her Religion, and suffered it to spread so much in his Dominions? Would he have employed the Irish in his Armies after they had cut the Protestants Throats? or would he ever have made Archbishop Laud his Favourite, who brought such Innovations into the Church of England, and declared his good liking to a Cardinal's Cap, if the Church of Rome were but a little reformed? So that I am safe enough as to what concerns my Soul, having not only the Sentiments of the Bishop of Rome positively for me, but also those of the alterius orbis Episcopus, not at all against me. Then surely I may venture my Salvation on the same bottom with my Mother, and embark in a Church which uncontrovertibly appears not to have been altogether disrelishing to my Father.  
Let it go which way it will, I am of the surest side: the Catholics say, that out of the Church of Rome there is no Salvation; and Protestants acknowledge, that in the Church of Rome there is Salvation: and though it should be true what I have learned from my Tutor Hobbs, (and am indeed inclined to believe) that all Religion is but a Trick of State to keep the People in obedience; yet a Profession of Religion is necessary for a Prince as well as others, according to Machiavel's Maxim, Plebem dum vis fallere, finge Deum: and certainly that Religion of which it is a Fundamental Principle, that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion, is most agreeable to a Prince who would maintain or advance his Prerogative: for where it is allowed, as amongst all Protestants, to examine the Dictates of their Ghostly Fathers, in relation to the Church, it must unavoidably follow, that the People will also claim the like Privilege to canvas the Orders of their Civil Fathers, in relation to the State. Then let the Heretics talk as they please of the Kings of the Earth giving their Power to the Beast: I see that it is undoubtedly the best Expedient for any Monarch who designs to be absolute, to be an obedient Son to the Church of Rome, who can insure him not only his Subjects Persons, but also their Consciences and Purses, seeing they must do and believe as the Church will have them.  
True! it is my Misfortune that a Protestant Bishop, and several Protestant Lords, who have followed me hither, are privy to my Conversion, which might indeed prove fatal to my Affairs, if it were not their Interest as well as mine to conceal it: but seeing their Restitution depends on mine, I have no reason to fear that they will divulge it. And for the Satisfaction of the Church of Rome, though I have no Cause to profess to be of the Religion of Protestants who murdered my Father, and give the Ignominious Character of an Idolatress to my Mother; yet seeing the Principles of the Catholic Church allow Mental Reservation, and that Christ himself did not reject Nicodemus, though a Night-Disciple, the Roman Catholics cannot be angry that I still profess myself a Protestant, especially seeing thereby I shall be the more capable of doing them Service: and thus I find myself obliged to give an early Assent to my Grandfather K. James' Maxim, which he had from Lewis XI. of France, who never learned any other Latin Words, viz. Nescit regnare qui nescit dissimulare. Nor do I know why it should be any greater Stain to my Honour, to feign myself a Protestant for the Crown of Great Britain, than it was to my Grandfather Henry the iv to feign himself a Catholic for the Crown of France; and may my Endeavours have the same Success, but a happier Exit. And seeing the World will have it that there is a God, I can lose no more but a little Breath to make some Addresses if there be none; but seeing it's safer to venture with the bulk of Mankind, than to rely on the Efforts of some Men of Wit, I am resolved to lift up the following Prayer.  
O thou Almighty Being! who createdst the Heavens and the Earth, by whom King's reign and Princes decree Justice, to thee I refer my Cause. for a final Decision. Thou art King of Kings, who puttest down one and settest up another, and therefore the fittest for me to make Application unto. I have been taught by those who call themselves thy Ambassadors, and would have me to believe it to be thy Law, that Kings are accountable to none but thyself, as being thy Vicegerents, and Gods on Earth. Vindicate therefore the Justice of my Cause against those Men who have not only usurped my Throne, but thine, for I am accountable to none but thee: Give Success to my Arms and Endeavours against them: And seeing thou hast said, that Vengeance is thine, and thou wilt repay it, let not the hoary Heads of those who shed my Father's and thy Vicegerent's Blood go down in Peace to the Grave. And give me Strength, O thou most High, to execute Vengeance upon a bloody Nation. Thou who didst grant Samson' s Desire to be revenged on the Philistines for his two Eyes, listen to my Petition. I request thee that I may be avenged for my Father's Blood, and the unjust Usurpation of my own Throne.   

CHAP. II. On his Majesty's accepting of the Scots Proposals, and taking the Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland.  
THE Order of Nature is strangely inverted when the Head is become the Tail: I, who ought to give Laws to my Subjects, must now receive Laws from them; and it adds to the Misery of my Fate, that I must obey. My Father by his Stiffness did lose both his Crown and his Life; and to preserve the one, and obtain the other, I must comply. My Mother, who had no small Influence on his Refusal, does now press me to accept the Terms: so that at once I must abjure my Religion and Prerogative, that I may the better advance them both. It's true that this will reflect upon my Honour, but of two Evils I must choose the least: If I do not comply, my Prerogative is lost, for I shall never be admitted to possess my Crown; if I don't abjure the Church of Rome, I can never promote her Interest, nor be rendered capable of doing her Enemies Hurt. My Mother, who is known to be a Princess of Sense, lays an Obligation of Duty upon me, to submit. Her Zeal for the Catholic Religion is known, and as a Daughter of France she is better instructed in the Pretensions of the Crown, than to advise to any thing that may really lessen the Prerogative in the Conclusion; and therefore I am resolved to take the Advice which she gave me in her Letter, not doubting but that according to her Suggestion there, I shall after my Restitution find an Opportunity to free myself from my Bonds. Nor can it reflect upon my Parts to be governed by my Mother, whose Counsels were Oracles to so great a Monarch as my Father.  
For the Roman Catholic Princes they know my Mind; I sent the Marquis of Montross to the King of Spain, and other Ministers to the Courts of Austria and Poland, to solicit their Assistance for my Restitution, on which the Advancement of the Church of Rome does so much depend. I have likewise the Advice of the Council of France, to comply with the Scots, so that I am safe enough as to any Reflections from those of the Roman Communion, though I profess myself to be of another. I have also tried what may be expected from the Assistance of the Irish, before I would accept of the Proposals of the Scots; but seeing they cannot defend themselves, I am sure they are unable to restore me, and therefore I must depend upon the latter, though much against my Mind: But Heaven, it seems, thinks fit to humble me so far, that I must rely on the Fidelity and Assistance of those whose Stubbornness and Rebellion laid the Foundations of my Father's Ruin. But why should I despond? is it not possible that the Fates may have put this Opportunity in my hand, to revenge his Blood upon them and the Neighbouring Kingdom, according to the solemn Vow which my Brother James and I have made, to sacrifice thousands to the Memory of our Father, and ten thousands to the Resentments of our dear Mother? And as the Scots by their Rebellion were first in the Transgression, may they atone for it by being first in the Punishment.  
True, they are a cunning People, and if they smell the Design, it ruins my Affairs, but I must manage them with Prudence: The Presbyterians are now on the Top of the Wheel, and testified an Aversion to my Father's Blood, which affords me a specious Pretext of caressing them; but if they find me too easy, it will render me cheap, and therefore I must stand aloof for a time. Some of their Commissioners I have already bought off, and those will certainly espouse my Cause; I must alarm them with their Danger from the English Sectaries, and the Designs of that new-raised Commonwealth. This will be a Pretence for bringing in the Cavaliers to defend their Country against the Common Enemy, which will divide the Presbyterians amongst themselves; and if I once get but part of them on my side, it will cover my Designs against the whole: I must pretend to be zealous for their Covenant, and bewail the Sins of my Father's House: I must admit some of their Ringleaders for my Chaplains, and that will attract the Applause of the Mob. I must indulge the Nobility of my Court in their Practices, and that will defend me against the Rigour of their Church: I must profess a great Passion for the Liberties of the Subject, and that will procure me the Concurrence of their States. And by these Methods I hope to accomplish my Designs; for when they are engaged against one another, in the first Place, and Cromwell and his Republicans in the next, let the Loss fall on which side it will, it is my Gain, I shall be rid of so many dangerous Enemies, and their Fall will be the Rise of my Throne: for if the Presbyterians prevail, they are for Monarchy, though limited; and when their old Friends, but present Enemies, the Independants, are subdued, it will be easy for me to screw it a Pin higher, and render it absolute. If the Sectaries carry the Prize, (and who knows but it may be so, for Fortune favours mad Men) their Anarchy will quickly make the Nations weary, and pave the Way for my Restoration: for the Presbyterians, who are for a National Church, will never be quiet under a Congregational Frame; and being also, as I have said, for a King in their Principles, which are two main Heads of Agreement betwixt them and the Church-of- England-men, they will quickly prove too strong for the divided Sectaries, who disagree in their Models both for Church and State.  
My Design, it's true, may seem Inglorious, but there are Precedents which I am not ashamed to follow: My Grandfather, King James, was sworn to maintain the Church and State of Scotland as he found them, but yet made considerable Alterations in both. My Father was obliged by his Coronation-Oath, to govern according to the Laws, and yet did advance his Prerogative above them. My Grandfather, Henry the IVth of France, dissembled both with his Protestant and Catholic Subjects, and yet his Reign is famous to Posterity. But what need any farther Argument; Did not the Council of Constance determine that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics? Then why should I stand upon such a Cobweb-Objection, as the Violation of an Oath to Protestants, especially seeing I have now such an Opportunity as, if lost, can never be regained? The English are already fallen off to a Commonwealth, and the Scots, if I do not accept of their Terms, will quickly send me such a Message as they sent my Father, That if he did not think it worth his while to come to Scotland and receive their Crown, they might perhaps be inclined to make choice of another Sovereign. The Roman Catholics, and Church of England-men, I am sure of; and the Presbyterians I may be sure of, if I comply with their Measures; so that it is best striking the Iron while it is hot, and taking them by the Hand while I may, lest my Friends be dispirited by their long-waiting, and my Enemies be strengthened by their uninterrupted Career.  
But alas! how am I disappointed; the Scots are not so easily to be cheated, they demand my Solemn and Public Declaration, that I accept of the Crown on the Terms which they propose without Equivocation or Mental Reserve; so that I must be obliged to renounce my best Friends, the Catholics and Church-of- England-men; and not only so, but also to root out what they think incumbent both upon themselves and me to maintain. Ah miserable Strait! but yet I have found a way to escape. The Roman Catholic Princes are acquainted with my Heart; and for others, I am not obliged to perform what I swear to them. The Opinion of a Council I have for me already, and it will be no great Difficulty to obtain a Dispensation from the Pope: And if I should afterwards break to the Presbyterians, I am certain of Absolution from the Bishops, some of them having already signified to me, that an Oath forced upon me, is not to be kept, especially when it obliges me to extirpate their Order, which is Jure Divino established in the Church. And if the Presbyterians should know that I were under a Vow to maintain the Church of Rome, or the Church of England, they would tell me I were absolved by the Unlawfulness of the Matter: So that seeing every one of them will allow me to break to their Adversaries, I may allow myself to break with them all. And whereas each Party would secure their own Interest with me, why should not all their Interests truckle to mine. The Kings of the Jews commanded their Priests, and why should a Christian Prince be their Subject? Let me once be but firmly established on the Throne, and then Kingcraft and Priestcraft shall have a Trial of Skill; and if they cannot agree about the Methods of saving their Souls, they may leave it to me how to govern their Bodies. Let the Doctors dispute their probable Opinions, and I will follow my Sense and Interest. There's no more of Religion that is needful to a Prince, than what serves to give Credit to his Affairs. The Catholics entitle me, Defender of the Faith; and the Bishops do swear that I am Head of their Church: If the former offend me, they lose my Protection; and if I be Head of the latter, the Tail must follow; and then I shall punish the Roundheads with its Sting.  
'Tis true, I am obliged to declare my unfeigned and voluntary Assent to the Covenant, but that is also the Effect of Force, and who is't that would not do so much for a Crown? If ever there were a Case wherein it was lawful to prevaricate, it's that of an Injured Prince to recover his Right. If David did lie to save his Life, why may not I do it to recover my Throne? And if Peter, who abjured his Saviour, was pardoned, there can be no Cause for me to despair? But what need is there of all this Debate? if my Works cannot merit, yet my Revenues may purchase Heaven, if Soul-Masses and Pious Legacies have any effect.  
✚ Do thou, O Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, favour my Designs, which do all centre in the reobtaining of my own Right, and establishing that Church which commands its Members to worship thee: Grant Success to those Piae Frauds which have no other Tendency than the advancing of my own Throne, and the restoring so great a Tract of Land to the Roman Church; then shall I perform the Vows which I have made, and sing,  

Omni die dic Mariae  
Mea laudes anima,  
Ejus festa ejus gesta  
Cole devotissima;  
Contemplare & mirare  
Ejus Celsitudinem;  
Dic felicem Genitricem,  
Dic Beatam Virginem  
Sine fine, dic Reginae  
Mundi, laudum Cantica  
Eja bona semper sona,  
Semper illa praedica.  
Omnes mei sensus ei  
Personate Gloriam  
Frequentatae tam beatae  
Virgins Memoriam.   
Ave Maria. ✚   

CHAP. III. On his Majesty's Coronation in Scotland; upon taking the Covenant, and other Oaths, to govern according to the Laws of that Kingdom.  
I Have now weathered the Point so far as to obtain the Crown in spite of the declared War of one Part, and the Jealousies of another Part of my Subjects; and, like a good Pilot, have kept a steady Course betwixt the Gulfs of Scylla and Charybdis; but, Heavens bless me! with what a great deal of Danger! Having now compassed my End, it remains that I contrive how I may handsomely break those Fetters which the Scots have laid upon me. I have Topics enough from whence to argue: I am now in Possession of my Native Right, which in Justice they could not have kept me from. It's but reasonable therefore I make them sensible, by Degrees, that I can lawfully shake off their Usurpation. They have no Right to impose Terms upon the Crown, which is mine by Birth. Nor am I more obliged to keep Contract with them than with Robbers that should assault me on the Highway, and force me to such and such Oaths to save my Life. I do not hold my Crown by the Tenor of their Covenant, but as being descended from Fergus' Loins. And if they reproach me with having used unjust Methods to obtain it, it's no more than what they did to keep me from it; but now when I have it, I am free from all Attainders, and responsible only to God alone. This was the Doctrine of my Father's Chaplains, and this will be justified by the Old Cavaliers, whom I must now bring into Play as I can: It's true I have some Pangs of Conscience for having appealed so solemnly to God Almighty, that I was sincere in my Intentions, and meant as I spoke, and so much the more, that on being invested with the several Parts of the Regalia, I was obliged to renew my Oath in the Sight and Hearing of the People. Nor was it without some Horror that I heard my Chaplain Mr. Douglas insist upon the Gild of my Family, the Duty of a King, and my Obligation by the present Oath; when I considered my previous Engagements to the Church of Rome, the old Cavaliers, and exiled Bishops, to take Care of their Interest at my Restoration. But those Qualms I conceive to be the Result of Opinion, which is fixed in our Minds by the common Representations of the Wickedness of such a Procedure, which I am the rather confirmed in, because the Frequency of the Act takes off that Apprehension of the Gild which at first Commission does stare one in the Face.  
Thou who didst bless the Hebrew Midwives for telling a Lie to the Egyptian Inquisitors that sought after the Life of the young Hebrew Infants, if thou wilt not bless, yet at least pardon me for the Lies which I have sworn this Day, that I may advance thy Catholic Church. O! all ye Saints, hid me under your Protection from the Plots and Contrivances of my Enemies, who are also yours, and do profane the Days which the Church hath consecrated to your Memory. And blessed be thou, O Holy Virgin! who hast hitherto favoured my Designs with such Success.  

Opto nimis ut imprimis  
Des mihi memoriam,  
Ut decenter & frequenter  
Tuam cantem gloriam.   
Ave Maria.   

CHAP. IU. On the Divisions amongst the Scots Presbyterians, upon his Majesty's bringing his Father's old Friends into Places of Power and Trust about him.  
AS I conceived, so hath it happened; the Scots Presbyterians are all in pieces; those that are rigid did at first suspect me, and now they have begun to declare against me, and insinuate already my Breach of Covenant. They are very sharp-sighted, but I must outwit them. Their Clergy are not all of a piece; those who are strictest I must declare against, and fall in with that Party which is most complaisant: If I can but once prevail with them to yield in a little, they'll comply with me more and more by Degrees. The Usurper Oliver being now in their Country, I must improve the Opportunity. The Nobility are easy to be persuaded that a Commonwealth will totally ruin their Honour: The Clergy are mortal Haters of Independency; and the People have an old Grudge against the English; so that it will be easier to unite them, in opposition to the Enemy, than to bring them to a good Opinion of my Government. But as when a Ship is in Hazard, all Hands are employed to save her, I have found it easy to persuade the moderate Presbyterians to admit my Friends to Places of Power and Trust, to assist against the Common Enemy: And then if there be no Probability for me to conquer, I shall be in a better Capacity to destroy. And when the Presbyterians are totally subdued, I shall be the better able to deal with the Independents: And those of the Scots Clergy, who comply with my Designs in reference to the State, will also at length come to be of my Sentiments, as touching the Church; for I can already perceive that the Favours of the Court, and Hopes of Preferment, do dazzle their Eyes. And as for the Puritanical Sect called Remonstrators, I will blacken their Fame by the Imputation of Rebellion, and make them odious to the Country, as Complyers with the English; for which end I will suborn some of my Friends who shall put the Notion in their Heads, to begin a Correspondence, and then accuse them.  
O! all ye Holy Apostles, and thou St. Peter, who art their Prince, pray for a Blessing on my Endeavours: Your Successors teach me, that there is no Means unlawful which can be made use of for the Benefit of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church: And therefore I make my Application to you, that I may be enabled to triumph over the now prevailing Party of my Subjects, who are Despisers of your Holy Order, and pretend to a Parity among Ministers, expressly contrary to the Divine Charter of the Roman See: Tues Petrus; ✚ Sancta Maria, exaudi nos. ✚   

CHAP. V. On his Majesty's Defeat at Dumbar.  
I Have lost the Day, but they are my Enemies who fell, which doth not a little allay my Grief. The Presbyterians say they are punished for my Breach of Covenant, and I look upon it as the Merits of their old Disloyalty; such an easy Matter is it to turn those Occurrences as the Protestants do their Scriptures, like a Nose of Wax. Nor does this Disaster so much affect my Throne, as it does disgrace their own solemn League. Nor does it so much dishearten my Friends, as it will certainly divide theirs: and while Presbytery and Independency strive for the Mastery, the Crown and the Mitre may play their Game. If the Defeat be ascribed to the ill Conduct of the Presbyterians, as I shall be industrious to have it believed, it will open a wider Door for the Advancement of my Friends, as fit for Conduct and Command. And if once an Army be modelled to my Mind, I doubt not of succeeding in my Designs: And by the Opposition which I know I shall meet with from the Roundheads, I shall be further justified in my Breach of Contract with them, as a Party who are Enemies to all Government.  
✚ St. Peter, favour my Designs which are for the Advancement of thy Holy Chair, and bring my three Kingdoms again into the Bosom of the Church, from which, like wand'ring Sheep, they have gone astray; they have left thee, the only Rock on which the Church can be firmly founded: And seeing thou and thy Successors were entrusted with a Power to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to Heretical Sovereigns, you can also absolve a Catholic Sovereign from all Ties laid upon him by Heretical Subjects. ✚ Kyrie Eleyson, ✚ Christ Eleyson, ✚ Ave Maria Gratia plena.   

CHAP. VI On the Defeat of his Majesty's Forces at Innerkeithing, etc. and his raising another Army to march into England.  
THE Scots have showed their Affection to me, but Heaven thinks fit to blast their Endeavours. Nor is it possible for a Kingdom divided against itself to stand. The  Zealots ascribe it to my own Perjury, with my Father's Tyranny, and my Mother's Idolatry: But I rather think that the Curse due to Rebels hath seized on them, and that the Blood of my Father is required at their Hands, who were the first that durst oppose him. How remarkable is that Justice which brings those very Men against them, whom formerly they themselves did assist against him? and that the Covenant on which they founded their Security should now be made the chief Ground of the Quarrel? and that those very Men to whom they sold their Sovereign, should now sell their People, by hundreds, for Slaves? But those Reflections I must keep to myself; and so long as I have need of them, must flatter the Scots, who are now resolved to invade England, and to model me an Army more agreeable to my Mind: and then shall I see if my Church-of- England-Friends will own me in Adversity, as they did my Father in his Prosperity, and so long as he was able to advance and protect them: And if they do not, as I suspect that they will not, because most of them comply with the Currant of the Time, it will also justify my Breach to them, if ever the Fates restore me to my Throne.  
I have now again a considerable Army, and pretty well purged from Puritanical Humours; but still I must pretend a Zeal for the Covenant, to please the Temper of the Scotish Nation, and blunt the Darts which are thrown at me by the Presbyterian Remenstrators; but when we are in England, I know what to do, and how to distinguish my Friends from my Foes: The Catholics and Churchmen shall have the fairest Quarter, though I must still pretend Friendship to the Presbyterians there, if it were for no other end but to make Oliver jealous of them, and because some of them are very popular Men, and testified their Dissatisfaction at my Father's Murder.  
Prosper my Designs, O thou Almighty! for the Advancement of the Catholic Church, the Restitution of the pious Order of Episcopacy, and the Holy Liturgy. Thy true Worshippers, those of the Roman Communion, having found Healing under the Wings of the former, and no small Security in times of Difficulty, by being able to comply with the latter, my Predecessor Edward VI. having owned that it was the Mass-Book translated into English: And my Father, of blessed Memory, having gained it the Approbation of the Spanish Clergy when he ordered it to be translated into Spanish. Blessed Virgin, who sittest as Queen in Heaven, favour my Design; command thy Son to assist me in it: And, O all ye Saints be propitious to my Endeavours! interceded for me at the Throne of Heaven, that I may recover those Thrones from which I am unjustly withheld; and I make a Vow when I am restored, that I shall re-establish Bishops and the Liturgy, in order to the Introduction of the Catholic Religion.   

CHAP. VII. On his Majesty's Defeat at Worcester.  
HOW changeable are all humane Affairs, and how little is Grandeur and Strength to be relied on? I, who not long ago was crowned with extraordinary Pomp, am now in a worse Condition than the meanest Peasant: The other Day I was at the Head of a gallant Army, and now there's not a Man dare be seen to follow me: I was lately guarded by a Forest of Spears, and now I am glad to sculk in a Forest of Trees. O! how does this Disaster wound my Soul? that I who was lately a King over Men, am now exposed to wander among Beasts, and in so much a worse Condition than they, that I cannot so well provide for myself? How do my Enemies now triumph? and what a dreadful Slaughter have they made of my Friends? I was proud of having an Army modelled to my mind, and to be at the Head of so many Cavaliers. How will the Scots Remonstrators, to whose ill Conduct I ascribed my former Defeats, reproach me now with the Conduct of my own, so many of whom are killed in the and others will be butchered like Beasts in the Shambles? Alas! this Defeat is more fatal to me than those at Dumbar and Innerkeithing: The Presbyterians, whose Loss I did not regard, will now say, that Justice has found me out, by cutting off those who were the Pillars of my Hope. How often shall I be upbraided with it, that I am disappointed by those whom I preferred to them? Alas! what can I answer? That I had scarce so many hundreds of my Subjects of England, as I had thousands of those from Scotland: That they should have marched so far into this Kingdom, and be joined by such an inconsiderable Handful: That so many thousands of Covenanters should follow me into this Nation, where the Churchmen are strongest, and yet so few of the Churchmen did join me; so that I came to my own, and they received me not. In truth, this Presbyterian Reflection has something in it, that the Churchmen do follow their Kings for the Loaves, and always worship the Rising Sun. Poor Souls! how many of the Covenanters have their Garments rolled in Blood, for espousing my Cause, though their whole Party suspects me? And how few of my English Episcopal Friends have either assisted me with Men or Money? How do the Sectaries revile the Presbyterians, as Friends to me, because Haters of their Anarchy? And yet how little do I hear of the Zeal of the Churchmen, who formerly pretended to adore the Monarchy? How true have I found it, that their Loyalty to the Crown was measured by its Ability to protect the Mitre? No wonder that they followed and stood by my Father, who undertook the War in Defence of them; but now that I must not declare for their Hierarchy, I perceive a Declension in their Zeal for the Monarchy; but if ever I happen to recover my Crown, than I shall be sure to have their Friendship. And of the ten thousand ecclesiastics that are said to be in England, the far greater part will still keep their Churches, as well as the Majority do now comply.  
Deliver me, O thou Almighty! from my imminent Dangers. Thou who art King of Kings, defend me from those Bloodthirsty Men who have murdered one King, and hunt after the Life of another. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, then why should they call me to an account? Deliver me from their Hands, and vindicate thy own Prerogative from those who have usurped thine as well as mine. When my pretended Friends forsake me, yet do thou espouse my Cause. And as thou hast covered my Head in the Day of Battle, deliver me from those who thirst for my Blood. ✚ Kyrie Eleyson, Christ Eleyson. Ave Maria Gratia plena.   

CHAP. VIII. On his Majesty's Escape to Whiteladies; from thence to Spring Coppice; and then to Boscobel-house, where he was concealed some time by the Penderels, after he left the Royal Oak.  
Heaven's be blessed, that I have hitherto escaped from the Cruelty of those who seek after my Life, that my first Sanctuary should have been a quondam Nunnery, foretold what Party were to be the Instruments of my Preservation: But alas! at Whiteladies I parted with the choicest of my Friends, and God knows whether ever we shall meet again: The Noble Earl of Derby I hear is taken, and will quickly be sacrificed to the Fury of the Rebels; but there is no Remedy against such Disasters, he dies for his Loyalty, which is his unquestionable Duty: And though I be not now able to protect him, yet Heaven is able to reward him.  
How changeable is the Scene of humane Affairs, since Crowns are also liable to the Cross? The Court which did formerly set forth my Glory, I was lately obliged to abandon with Terror, lest they, who at another time would have guarded my Person, should now have been the Cause of a fatal Discovery.  
I who was lately in Royal Apparel, am glad to exchange it with the Garb of a Peasant: my Countenance, which did lately enlighten the Court, is now eclipsed with a Veil of Soot; and my Hands, the Dispenser's of Royal Bounty, are instead of Jewels, embellished with the Smoke of the Chimney. In room of a Palace I am glad of a Coppice, and my Lodging is common with the Beasts of the Field; so that like Nabuchadnezzar, I am driven from amongst Men, and for aught I can see, shall be forced to eat Grass like him, till such time as I am made to know, that the most High ruleth over the Kingdoms of the Earth, and giveth them to whomsoever he will. God will be known by the Judgements which he executes, let my Tutor Hobbs pretend what he pleases. Did not I, the other day, say to myself, Is not this the Army which I have raised for the Defence of my Crown, and the Glory of my Power? And lo, how they are all consumed like Wax, without either gaining Victory or Honour? and this Day the Kingdoms are taken from me, and now I am worse than the meanest of my Subjects.  

On his being in Spring-Coppice.  
My Royal Attendance has now failed me, and I have Hunger instead of Dainties; yet kind Heaven prevents my starving, and hath sent me a little Country Cheer.  
But, good Lord! what a Change? I who used to be served in State, have no other Attendants but a Clown and his Sister; and instead of a Royal Concert of Music, there's the Sound of the Wind on the Trees of the Wood I who used to sit on Cushions of Velvet, am now exposed to the Moisture of the Ground; and in lieu of being covered with gilded Roofs, have scarce any thing to defend me from the Showers of Rain. Nor can I be secure in this comfortless Condition, but am in perpetual fear of my miserable Life, being now exposed to the Mercy of those poor People, who, if they please, might easily betray me; and yet I must of necessity rely on their Faith.   

On his going from Spring-Coppice to Madley in Shropshire, Richard Penderel being his Guide.  
I who had lately the Conduct of an Army, am forced to be conducted by one poor Peasant; and instead of the Battoon of Command, must now be content with a poor Wood-bill; and expose myself to the Darkness and Dangers of the Night.  
Alas! what a fatal Catastrophe? Instead of my Trumpets and Kettledrums, here's nothing but the rustling of my Guide's Leather Breeches: I have now no Flambeaus nor Torches but the Stars, and must foot it after my Leader, over Ditches and Rivers, whithersoever it shall please the Fates to draw me.  
My Subjects, who ought to defend me with their Lives and Fortunes, are now afraid to receive me into their Houses; so that my best Apartments must be the Corner of a Barn; my Royal Bedchamber some part of a Hay-mow; and my choicest Washeses must be the Juice of Walnut-tree-leaves, the better to disfigure my Face and Hands.    

CHAP. IX. On his Majesty's being in the Royal Oak.  
IN lieu of a Palace I am glad of an Oak, whose Leaves must serve instead of my Tapestry; and the Sky is now my Canopy of State: The Stars must content me for Embroidery: the Dew of Heaven must be my Perfume; and one single Rustic my Court and Guard.  

On Colonel Carlis' coming to him, and their being helped up into the Oak by the Penderels.  
I see that Heaven hath not left me quite destitute, but hath now sent me some more suitable Company to be a Companion in my Adversity; and being known in the Country, he may do me good Service.  
I must now mount the Oak instead of my Throne, and its Branches must serve for my Chair of State: The Land nor the Sea have neither been propitious, and now I must make trial of the Bounty of the Air.  
What others do in sport, I am obliged to do per Force; and if I cannot have a Hole with the Foxes in the Earth, I must seek a Retreat with the Birds upon the Trees.  
But alas! the Air is not Man's proper Element, and my weary Limbs have need of a more commodious Restingplace. This looks like Absalom's Punishment, though I was never guilty of his Crime, to be posited thus betwixt the Heaven and the Earth: but God avert the rest of his Fate, lest my Enemies should thereupon be exalted above measure.  
O Almighty Being! why dost thou thus punish me? What Evil have I done in thy sight? Is it a Crime to endeavour the Recovery of my Throne, from which I am driven by a Rebellion worse than the Sin of Witchcraft? Surely thou dost not punish me for my Breach of Covenant with the Scots, for I am taught, that I ought not to keep Faith with Heretics. Nor can these Judgements pursue my Incontinency, which the Priests do persuade me is a Venial Sin, when it's the fault of our Natural Constitution? But Events are alike to the Good and the Bad; then why should I thus disquiet my Soul? My Father, though a very Pattern of Virtue, had a harder Fate than mine has been hitherto. ✚ O! all ye Saints intercede for me: ✚ Blessed Virgin, pray for me, that I may be delivered out of my Straits, and firmly established on my Father's Throne; then shall I encompass thine Altars with Incense, and promote the Catholic Religion to the utmost of my Power. Ave Maria.    

CHAP. X. On his Majesty's being concealed at Boscobelhouse; Entertainment there by the Penderels; and Journey thence to Mr. Huddleston's.  
I Have now exchanged my Forest for a House, and one that belongs to a Loyal Catholic, as if Heaven would still inculcate that I must be obliged to them for my Preservation; and that I must now be punished for the Persecution of my Predecessors, and hid in those very retiring Places where the Priests were forced to abscond from the Severity of the Laws; but if ever I be restored to my Throne in Peace, I'll take care to secure them from such Annoyances.  

On his Majesty's being shaved there, by William Penderel.  
I dissembled a Likeness to my Enemies in their Principles, and now am forced to do the same in my Habit: I am become a Round-head against my Will, that so I may the better avoid their Snares.   

On his dining on a Sheep killed by Colonel Carlis in Mr. Staunton's Field.  
It is hard that I who am Sovereign of the Nations, and aught to have their Lives and Fortunes at Command, should be put to such Straits for needful Provisions; and to take those Methods which are seemingly base; but the common Proverb I find to be true, that Hunger will eat through Stone Walls. My Subjects have unjustly robbed me of my Crown, and it's but just that I should take what I can from them: I did formerly seize their Ships by Sea, but must now be content with a Sheep by Land; and not only so, but to be my own Cook, and glad that I can have Victuals for the dressing.  
I who used to maintain so many thousands, am now put to it to provide for myself: but do thou provide for me, O King of Kings; for I find that not only Subjects, but Kings themselves have need to put up that Petition, Give us this Day our daily Bread.   

On his Majesty's going from Boscobel to Mr. John Huddleston's, on a Mill-Horse, attended by the Penderels, and his Entertainment by the said Mr. John Huddleston.  
The old Proverb is, He that goes softly goes surely, but I am certain it does not reach my present Case, for Expedition is necessary to my Safety, though at present I cannot be expedite if I would. Good Lord! what a Change? From a Coach with six Horses, and many thousands more at my Command, I am now reduced to a single Mill-horse; a Meal-sack is the best of my Royal Trappings, some Country Louts my Guard du Corpse, and Wood-bills the chief of my Arms and Artillery. Thus thou castest down one, and settest up another: He who was but lately a Subject of mean Quality, is now attended with Royal State; and I, who am a King by Birth and Inheritance, am thus reduced to the greatest of Straits. Thus the Omnipotent leadeth away Princes spoiled, and overthroweth the Mighty; and thus he poureth Contempt upon Princes, and weakeneth their Strength; so that this Day may the Vanity of the World be discovered, when Servants are seen upon Horses, and Princes walking on the Earth as Servants.  
Now I am arrived at a Place of Security, where several of my Friends have found a safe Retreat.  
Surely the Saints have interceded for me, and preserved me from all the Dangers of my Way. This ghostly Father is very kind, for he knows that I am still the hope of their Party, and Heaven seems to declare that I must espouse them as my own. They do indeed requite my Father and Mother's Kindness, and are as tender of me as they were of them. Thus may Princes learn to extend their Compassion towards the meanest of their Subjects, when it's in their Power to crush them; for a Mouse may requite a Lion's Kindness.  
I have now the Satisfaction of some suitable Company, whereas before I was immured amongst Clowns: Now here's a Clergyman, a Gentleman, and a Peer, a small Representative of all the three States with whom I may safely advise how to retire; so that in the midst of my Affliction God hath assuaged my Grief. Here I find a more convenient Subsistance, and can take some Repose for my wearied Limbs, till my galled Feet, which are not used to travel, may grow whole again, and fit for another Journey.  
But alas! how variable is the Wheel of Fortune? and how quickly is all my Joy overclouded; I thought I had found a secure Place to hid in, but the Malice of my Enemies pursues me throughout. Yet blessed be God, I have escaped the Snare which they laid for me; he hath broken the Net, and I am escaped in as miraculous a manner as David did from Saul when they were both together in the same Cave; so that as Saul sought David every Day, but God delivered him not into his Hands, he hath been graciously pleased to protect me from the Fury of the Rebels, who have hitherto sought me, but in vain; for God is my Hiding-place, and hath sent his Angels, who smote the Sodomites with Blindness, to do the same to those who sought after me, but have not hitherto been able to find me, though they came into the very place where I was.    

CHAP. XI. On the Proclamation against entertaining his Majesty, and offering 1000 l. to any that would discover him.  
HOW is the World turned up-side down, when they who are guilty of the vilest Treason dare proclaim their Sovereign a Traitor, and they who have no Right to their Estates but through his Clemency, deny him any Residence in his own Dominions? Where the Word of a King is, there is also Power; but now both my Name and Authority are despised, and by an unparallelled Audacity they have taken upon them to abolish the Regal Dignity; and though they be great Pretenders to Religion, yet they do not consider the Divine Prohibition, not to touch his Anointed, nor to do his Prophets any harm, but rather wrest and misapply the Scriptures, and look upon themselves to be the People who must bind the Princes of the Earth with Fetters, and load their Nobles with Chains: But do thou deliver me, O Lord, from the violent and bloodthirsty Man, who hunts after my Life, that the King may joy in thy Strength, and greatly joy in thy Salvation.  
But what do I say, or why should I be discouraged? for all these things will justify my Procedure, when I shall be re-advanced to the Throne of my Fathers, for shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this?   

CHAP. XII. On his Majesty's leaving Mr. Huddleston's, and riding before Mrs. Jane Lane to Bristol, etc. in order to his embarquing for France.  
NOW I must leave my Catholic Landlord, but it's in order to go to a Catholic Country, where, instead of being concealed by a poor Priest, I shall have the Protection of a mighty King: I have hitherto acted the Part of a Master, but now I must learn to act that of a Servant; and instead of being conducted by Men, must submit to the Conduct of a Woman: and though all Passes ought to be given by my Authority, yet now I must make use of another's, and that also procured from the Rebel-Usurpers: So that what I ought to decline in point of Honour, I am forced to comply with in regard of my Safety.  
How mutable are all sublunary Comforts, when he who hath sat as a Monarch on his Throne is now obliged to change both Habit and Name, and he who was born Sovereign over some Millions of Men, must now act the Servant to an ordinary Gentlewoman? he to whom Princes themselves did uncover, must now attend his Mistress with Hat in hand? But Heaven seems to favour my Inclinations, and not to be angry at my hidden Designs; for the Catholics, whose Religion I have embraced, are hitherto the Instruments of my Preservation; and now I must be obliged to the fair Sex, to whom I have a more than an ordinary Propensity.  

On his Majesty's passing through a Troop of Rebels, before Mrs. Lane, undiscovered.  
How hard is my Fate, that I who ought to protect others cannot now protect myself? and that I should be in continual Danger from my Subjects, who are obliged to spend their Lives and Fortunes in my Defence? But the Angels who blinded the Eyes of my Enemies that they could not find me when seeking for me in the House where I was, can as easily smite them with Blindness now when they do not suspect me, and carry me safely through them. O all ye Angels and Saints! as ye tender the Advancement of the Holy Catholic Church, watch over me for Good: The who smote the Host of the Syrians with Blindness, that brought them to Samaria instead of Dothan, do the like to these Men who hunt after my Life, that they may not perceive me.  
Blessed be ye, O ye Saints and Angels! who have heard my Request, and brought me safe through this imminent Danger, and vouchsafed unto me such a signal Deliverance; may I incur your Displeasure, and forfeit your Protection, if when I am restored again to my Throne, I don't remember my Vows, to promote every thing that may tend to the Advancement of the Church of Rome, which allows so much Honour to Saints and Angels, of whose Protection and Guardianship I have had such a visible Demonstration, ✚ Hallelujah.  

Ave Virgo singularis,  
Mater nostri Salutaris,  
Coeli decor, stella Maris,  
Arca mundi mystica:  
Nos in hujus vitae Mari  
Ne permittas naufragari,  
Sed favoris vela Cariola  
Clemens in nos explica.   
Amen.   

On his Majesty's being chid by the Cookmaid at Long-marston, for not winding up the Jack aright; and calling himself a poor Farmer's Son.  
How vain a thing is worldly Grandeur? and how little to be relied on? It was a wise Saying of him who gave his Adversary this Caution, Let not him that putteth on his Armour boast as he that putteth it off. When a few Weeks ago I was at the Head of a gallant Army, I did not at all doubt of the Victory; and now instead of so many thousands to wait upon me, and put my Commands in execution, I am forced to obey an ordinary Kitchenwench, submit to her Reproof, and deny my Quality, as St. Peter did his Master, for fear of what may be the Consequent of her Anger; as David counterfeited Madness to escape the Fury of a Philistine Prince, I must be forced to tell a Lie to excuse myself, for not knowing how to wind up a Jack: How miserable is this Change? that I whose Word and Will ought to pass for an uncontrollable Law to my Subjects, am afraid of a mean and ordinary Servant! Lord, how great a Change is this? that I who am the Head and Fountain of Power, should now be obnoxious to the meanest of my Subjects, who might easily procure my Ruin if they knew me.   

On his Majesty's counterfeiting an Ague at Leigh near Bristol, and his being known by John Pope, Mr. Norton's Butler, there.  
Well may he dissemble an Ague on his Body, who hath not only a trembling, but an aching Heart. To preserve my Health I must feign myself sick; and to retain my Sovereignty I must call myself a Servant, and yet I am not safe in so mean a Disguise. Now I hold my Life from the Courtesy of a Butler, as I have several times lately from that of a Peasant, but with how much Anxiety of Soul God knows: for what Reason have I to trust any of my Subjects, when the far greater Part are avowedly false; and instead of disowning, do glory in their Treason?  
But as Pope bears the Name of my greatest Friend, I have also found him to be none of my Enemy: But how dangerous is my Condition, when the meanest of Habits and Conversation is not a sufficient Disguise? But blessed be God and the Saints, my Protectors, that hitherto I have escaped. ✚ Ave Maria, Gratia plena.  

Lampas Soli, splendour Poli,  
Quae fulgore praeis Soli,  
Nos commenda tuae Proli,  
Moestos fac laetificet.  
O Maria, pro tuorum  
Dignitate meritorum,  
Supra Choros Angelorum  
Sublimaris unice;  
Sede fulgens jam superna,  
Sorte gauds sempiterna,  
Pietate sed materna,  
Nos in imo respice.  
Nobis sis per mundi fluctus,  
Via, lux, dux & conductus  
Salvus ad Coelestia.  
Tene Clavum rege Navem,  
Tempestatem seda gravem,  
Nos in Portum induc suavem  
Tua pro Clementia.   
Amen.    

CHAP. XIII. On his Majesty's Journey to Trent, and parting with Mrs. Lane there, in order to his embarquing at Charmouth, a small Village near Lime, and his Disappointment by the Skipper's Wife, who locked her Husband up, that he should not carry him.  
HOW changeable are the Capriccios of that Tasty Goddess called Fortune? I who entered the Kingdom not long ago with a formidable Army, am now in a straight how to get out of it with one or two in my Company: But though the Goddess of Wisdom be none of my Friend, yet the Goddess of Love continues propitious. It's true, I am obliged to part with one Female Protectress, to whom I hitherto own my Life, but kind Heaven hath sent me another; so that I find the fair Sex to be more inclinable to my Government than the Males.  
How great is the Difference betwixt Prosperity and Adversity? My Predecessors could have Fleets to attend them at Command, and I cannot have a single Bark to transport me for hire. My Commands which ought to be obeyed by thousands of Men, are now controlled by a single Woman; nor dare I so much as dispute her Authority. Here's a small Emblem of my own Condition, for she who ought to obey does now command, and has her Husband not only upon but under the Lock. The whole Nation is infected with the Rebellion, for a Man is not now the Master of his Family, but must be forced to submit to the Command of his Wife, so dangerous is the Example of a People's usurping it over their Sovereign; and thus is the Nation plagued for its Rebellion.   

CHAP. XIV. On his Majesty's Return to Trent, and lodging at an Inn in Broad-Windsor, in his way amongst Rebel-Souldiers, where one of their Women were brought to bed; and his Concealment in a Place at Trent, where Recusants used to retire.  
THAT I might the better avoid the Fury of my Subjects, I designed to have committed myself to the Mercy of the Waves, as thinking it safer to be in a Storm at Sea, than in the middle of a raging Rebellion by Land; but the Fates think it fit to suspend my Designs. I am environed by those who seek after my Life, and forced to lodge with them under the same Roof, but Heaven hath paved the Way for my Escape, and by their Impurity provided for my Safety; so that instead of their having time to inquire after me, the Parish is come to inquire after them, that they may not be at the Charge of their spurious Brats. When such things happened in my Army, they accused my Discipline, but cannot perceive the Faults of their own.  
But, Thanks to the Saints, I am again escaped, and free at present from the fear of my Foes, and have another Asylum and Place of Refuge, where the Holy Fathers did use to retire from the Fury of Protestant Persecution; so that my first and last Retreat must be to the Catholics.  
Blessed be thou, O Being of Being's, that when the Tribulations of my Heart were enlarged, didst hear my Prayer, and deliver me from my Distresses; continue thy Mercies, that I may have Opportunity to advance thy Cause, and seek the Welfare of the Catholic Church! O ye Angels, who protected me in the midst of my Enemies, watch over me in the remaining part of my Life. Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, intercede with thy Son for me, and deliver me from those who seek after my Soul. Ave Maria.   

CHAP. XV. On his Majesty's employing my Lord Wilmot to procure Money for his Transportation; his hiring a Ship, being known by one Smith an Innkeeper, and his Arrival near Haure de Grace in France.  
HOW great is the Change from a King who ought to command, to become a Supplicant that must beg. My Father demanded Loan-money by Authority, and I am glad to desire it with the greatest Humility; He, that he might govern them with an Army; and I, that I may be enabled to fly the Country. My Predecessors had Navies to invade France at pleasure, and I have not so much as a Fisherboat to carry me thither from Danger, but must both pay, and be obliged to those that will be hired.  
They that are eminent in Dignity, aught to be so in Merit, else they can hardly escape being undiscovered in their Adversity. It's almost as hard for a Prince to be concealed in a Disguise, as for the Sun to be hid with a transparent Cloud: I was not long ago at the Mercy of a Butler, and must now be obliged to the Fidelity of an Innkeeper; and how dangerous is it to trust to those who must live by Gain, when then they might have 1000 l. to discover my Person.  
The tumbling of the Waves resembles the Instability of the Mob, who cry Hosanna to day, and crucify to morrow. When the Sky is serene, the Surface is smooth; but when Storms arise, they threaten both Heaven and Hell. What Mountains of Water seem ready to invade the Skies? and how do the bottomless Gulfs seem ready to disgorge upon Hell? yet had I rather be here than amongst my rebellious Subjects, who are swollen by the Winds of Error and Sedition. But Thanks to my Guardian Angel I am within sight of Land, and almost out of the Limits of my cursed Dominions.  
Now am I arrived in a most Christian Country, and under the Protection of the most Christian King. This Place, though it had not been called so before, doth now deserve the Name of Haure du Grace, as having indeed afforded a safe Haven to a Monarch who has been tossed by a Tempest of Rebellion.  

Ave Regina Coelorum,  
Ave Domina Angelorum,  
Salve radix, salve porta  
Ex qua mundo lux est orta:  
Gaude Virgo gloriosa  
Super omnes speciosa,  
Vale, O valde decora,  
Et pro nobis Christum exora.    

CHAP. XVI. On his Majesty's being conducted to Paris, met by his Brother the Duke of York, and entertained at the French Court.  
IT's true I am now safe from the Fury of my rebellious Subjects; but alas I am a King without a People, and like a new married Husband deprived of his beloved Bride. I had scarcely tasted the Sweets of the Throne when I was deprived of my Sovereignty per Force; and instead of giving Laws to my own Subjects, am now constrained to wander amongst Strangers. I had not near obtained a plenary Possession when the Sword of an Usurper did serve me with an Ejection; and instead of going to Paris in Triumph, as did some of my Predecessors, I am glad to go thither as a Supplicant and Fugitive: And whereas my Ancestors did wear the Crown of France, I must now be obliged to that Monarch to preserve me for the Crown of England, and court his Endeavours for my Restitution. Where my Forefathers used to command I must obey, and am glad to be entertained as a Subject where I ought to be a Sovereign. The Kings of France have been Prisoners in England, and now the Monarch of Great Britain is a Fugitive in France: So great is the Difference betwixt a King of England beloved of his Subjects, and one who is at Variance and War with his People; for they who would have enabled me to come hither as a Conqueror, have now constrained me to become a Petitioner.  
But more than enough of this melancholy Theme: I must strive to make the best of my present Condition, in order to establish my future Repose. Here I am safe from the Rage of Rebellion, and enjoy the Society of my Royal Relations. Here I have a Palace instead of a Wood, and the Society of Princes in lieu of Clowns: I hold not my Life from the Courtesy of Peasants, nor am I in hazard of Discovery by tattling Females. Here I can despise the Proclamation of the Rebels, and am neither in hazard by their Flattery nor Force. It behoves me now to reassume my Spirits, and represent my Case to other crowned Heads, and solicit them vigorously to espouse my Cause, lest the bad Example should reach themselves. I must declaim warmly against all Commonwealths, as mortal Enemies to the Name of Kings. I must also alarm the Church of Rome, and make the Pope understand the Danger of his Tiara; and that my Republican Subjects have not only sworn the Destruction of all Crowns, but will involve the Mitres in the same Fate.   

CHAP. XVII. On his Majesty's offering his Mediation betwixt the Prince of Conde's Faction, and that of Cardinal Mazarin, supported by the French King, and the Odium which he thereby brought upon himself from both Parties.  
MY Friends, if divided, can't give me that Assistance which I am sure they might do if they were united, and therefore it's my Interest to have that effected. Circumstances do specify Actions, of which this is a remarkable Instance: If I were upon my Throne, and in full Prosperity, it would be my Advantage to pour Oil into the Flames, that by their mutual Divisions I might triumph over both, and make good my Title to the Crown of France; but now that their Help is my only Refuge, I must endeavour an Accommodation. But of this I am resolved to take special Care, that as much as I can I will side with the Crown, which is the common Interest of all Monarches.  

On his Majesty's being suspected by both Parties.  
The Office of Mediator I find very ungrateful, and he that parts Quarrellers must have Blows for his Pains. Of all Men alive I am the least obliged to my Stars, for their malign Influence blasts all my Designs, so that I can neither be in Peace at home nor abroad: My direful Fate pursues me every where, and not only involves myself, but all my Relations in Ruin. I thought that Monarchy had been sacred in France, and the Persons of Princes not to be approached without Fear: I thought that their Monarches had been successful in making themselves to be looked upon as Gods on Earth, by keeping the greatest part of their Subjects in Ignorance, that there was a God in Heaven: but now I find that the Contagion of Rebellion hath spread every where; and that my Mother, though a Princess of the Blood, is not secure in France; and that that Deference is not paid to the Royal Family in her own Country, which she would have extorted from the Subjects in mine.  
O ye Saints! if ye have Ears to hear, or Hearts to consider, have Compassion on a forlorn distressed Prince, who can neither be safe at home nor abroad: restore me to my Crown, that I may restore your Worship; or if I cannot restore it, that I may at least connive at it. If the Catholic Church have any of your Merits in her Treasure, let them be made use of to my Advantage. Ave Maria.    

CHAP. XVIII. On Mrs. Lane's Arrival in France: His Majesty's being disappointed of Mademoiselle d' Orleans; and treating with the Duke of Lorraine for the recovering of Ireland.  
HOW inveterate is the Malice of my natural Subjects, that not only pursue myself, but those who entertained me, and vent their Rage against a poor Gentlewoman who befriended me. I am not in a Capacity of giving her a Royal Reward, but shall entertain her with Royal Honour; and as she provided for my Safety, I will take care of hers, and repay her with Public Respect for her Private Service.  
My Predecessors of England have matched with the Imperial Family, and must the King of Great Britain and Ireland be thought too low for a Duchess. My Father thought it a Condescension to take a Daughter of France, but I am not thought worthy of a remoter Princess. What vain things are Titles and Honour, without the Substance of Riches and Power! But if I be unsuccessful in Royal Amours, I have not been so in those which are meaner, and can satisfy Nature, though not my Grandeur.  
My Loyal Subjects being unable to defend me; and the French King, though my Kinsman, unwilling to sustain me, I must now have recourse to inferior Princes, whom, if I had my Right, I should be able to command, but now must be obliged to court their Assistance, and quit part of my own Title for a Reward. How hard is my Condition? that I should be reduced to call other Princes the Protector of my Subjects, and with the Addition of Royal, which would denote their Independance. But why may not they protect them as well as me, and enjoy the Name as well as perform the Thing? It's true, my rebellious Subjects will say, that my making Application to Catholic Princes, and not to Protestants, is a shrewd Cause to suspect my Religion; but I must consult my own Interest, and not their Humours. Those of them who are the firmest Protestants are already either jealous of me, or have avowedly declared against me; and for the Pillars of those who call themselves by the Name of the Church of England, they are already privy to my Reconciliation to the Church of Rome, which they don't much disapprove, because I feed them with Hopes of bringing the Church of Rome to an Accommodation with them; and she will certainly do it, that she may the better animate them against the Puritans, who being the most obstinate of all the Heretics, if they were once out of the way, the rest will the more easily be brought to comply: for I perceive my Episcopal Friends do still believe the Church of Rome to be a true Church, and the other Party to be none; and therefore a Reconciliation will be more easy with the former than the latter, especially considering how near they approach in Discipline and Ceremonies to the Church of Rome. The Advances which Bishop Laud's Party made towards their Mother-Church also in Doctrine, will be a great step towards the desired Union; but that which will chief contribute thereunto is the implacable Hatred which my Grandfather and Father did always take care to nourish in those of the Church of England against the Puritans, which is now increased by the late overturning of their Hierarchy: so that if ever I be restored, the one will infallibly assist me to destroy the other; and when the Destruction of the Roundheads is effected, and my Father's Blood at the same time sufficiently revenged, I shall next take the other Party to task; and seeing it is not Principle but Interest which keeps them from complying with the Church of Rome, I'll use my Endeavours to have it accomplished, or by— the Church, or at least the hottest of them, shall smart for it: and thus I shall revenge myself on them too, for playing the Poltroon, and sotting in Taverns, while my Father was led to Execution, and declining to join myself when I entered England.  
But as to my Treaty with the Duke of Lorraine, I shall reap these Advantages from it: If he once be possessed of Ireland, he will be assisted by the Spaniards, to whom the Irish have a natural Inclination; and with his Help from thence I shall keep my rebellious Subjects in the other two Nations in perpetual Vexation, both with Incursions on that side, and from Flanders: Or if this don't take effect, the very Apprehensions of it will alarm the French, and move them rather to assist me themselves, than venture to give the Spaniards such an Advantage; for they may not only join the Duke of Lorrain's own Subjects from the Netherlands, but when the Duke has footing in Ireland, he may easily join the Spaniards in their own Dominions, and invade France.   

CHAP. XIX. On his Majesty's falling in love with one of his own Subjects in France; his marrying her, and having a young Prince by her, who was afterwards created Duke of Monmouth.  
HOW hard is my Fate, that I am still designed to be a Conquest, and that also to my own Subjects, first by the Arms of their Men, and then by the Amours of their Women. One might have reasonably thought that I had received so many Affronts from my own People, that I should never have been enamoured on any of them; but, to my sad Experience, I find it otherwise, and that Cupid tyrannises over Kings as well as others, and commands us as imperiously as we command them, with a sic volo sic jubeo. Alas! that Love is Proof against all Cures, and that I cannot oblige it to withdraw at my Commands, which I find it entertains with as much Disdain as the Waves of the Sea did those of my Predecessor, who smote them with his Sceptre, and forbade them to approach his Chair. Thus I who might be courted by the greatest of Foreigners, must languish in love for one of my Subjects, as if the Fates had decreed both Sexes of them an absolute Conquest over me.  
If I marry her, I am sure to lose my Interest; and if I do it not, I must sacrifice my Content, for her Virtue I find altogether insuperable: I must therefore comply with my Brother James' Advice, and marry her privately before him and a Priest; and thus I may consult my present Repose, and take my measures in time to come by future Contingents.  
Nor am I like to be less unfortunate in the Quality of my own Match, than also in my Allies, by that of my Brother, who is catched in the like Snare; but who can resist the Charms of Love? We must needs deplore the Hardness of our Destiny, to have Mars and Venus triumph over us at once, and each of them force us to an unequal Surrender. Our Father was reputed a Man of Chastity, but it's strange that Incontinence should be our Inheritance: I wish that it may not be hereditary from our Mother, of whose Honour I ought not to be suspicious; but the Current of Fame, and our own Constitution, may justify at least this passing Reflection, which, if it should be true, makes me but Neighbourlike; for my Cousin, the French King, lies under a more public Scandal, and that not without ground, that he's the Spawn of a Priest: For whatever is the Cause, this I find by Experience, that Cardinal Mazarin has more Influence upon him than all the Peers and Grandees of his Kingdom: and though the Laws of Nations, which forbidden the Violation of Hospitality, especially to a neighbouring and injured Prince, might afford me a safe Retreat in this Kingdom; yet I find that I cannot be safe from Insults, because I advised that the Cardinal should be removed.  

On the Consummation of the Marriage, and the young Prince's Birth.  
Hymen I have found exorable, but Mars continues obstinate: I have been successful in my Love, though not by my Sword. My next great Care must be to keep the thing secret, else it will rejoice my Enemies, and disgust my Friends; the former, that I have so much degraded myself, and rid them from the Fear of my Foreign Allies; and the latter, that I have thus put myself out of a Condition of relieving them from the Yoke of a tyrannous Usurper; so that the Sweets which I enjoy are mixed with sour; and my Stars have still a malign Influence. The same Precautions must be used as to my Brother, and we must weather this Point as well as we can.  
As my Comforts increase, so do my Cares; I have a Queen and a Prince, but cannot provide for them as I ought. However there's Vengeance entailed upon my Enemies, for here's one more of the Line to revenge his Grandfather's Blood.    

CHAP. XX. On the French King's concluding a Treaty with Oliver, by which his Majesty and the Royal Family were to be excluded France, and his going thereupon into the Low-Countries.  
SInce the Kingdoms to which I have a natural and hereditary Right, would not entertain me, it's no wonder that this, to which I have only a Title, should refuse it; so that my unlucky Fate hath now stripped me of all my Possessions, both Real and Titular: I have no reason to complain of France's dealing thus with Princes of the Blood, when Britain and Ireland have done so by their natural Sovereign.  
Bless me! how strange a thing is it that the Arms of a traitorous Subject should be able not only to expel me from my own Dominions, but disturb my Repose in those of others? and how dishonourable and unnatural is it for one Monarch to countenance Rebellion against another? But why should I say thus? it is just with Princes as it is with the Pope, he would impose his Infallibility upon others, when he does not believe one word of it himself: So we would have our own Subjects to obey us without Reserve, as being obliged by God so to do; and yet we countenance the Rebellions of one another's Subjects. Thus did my Father make a show at least of countenancing the French Hugonots against their natural Sovereign. My Grandfather, King James, though a great Admirer of Kingcraft, did, in some sort, espouse the Elector Palatine's Quarrel against his Sovereign the Emperor: And my Predecessor Queen Elizabeth supported the Netherlands in their Rebellion against the King of Spain: So that in short, my Church-of- England-Subjects may boast of their Loyalty what they please, but I think they have very small Reason; for they that make no Scruple to countenance the Rebellion of others, will make no Conscience of rebelling themselves, if ever they have occasion. And thus, if there be any thing like Divine Justice, I am punished for the Sin of my Forefathers; and as they countenanced the Rebellions of other Prince's Subjects against them, now others countenance the Rebellion of mine against me; so that amongst us we shall expose the Dignity of Monarchy, and make all our Pretensions be looked upon as a Cheat.  
But it's in vain to dispute, the Fates have decreed it, and I must obey; so that rather than be sent from this Kingdom with Disgrace, or any public Remark, I'll abandon it willingly of my own Accord, and save my Honour as much as I can.   

CHAP. XXI. On his Majesty's travelling into Germany and the Low Countries: The Duke of Glocester's being importuned and threatened by his Mother to turn Roman Catholic: and the Duke of York's being charged to departed France.  
INstead of being a Monarch of three potent Kingdoms, I am now become a Citizen of the World, and must be content to reside where I can find Reception. It's hard that Lewis XIV. should have dealt thus with me; and that the Advice of a Priest should take place to the Disadvantage of a Prince of the Blood Royal of France; that he who covets the Title of the most Christian King, should not be more hospitable to a Prince who suffers for the most Christian Cause; that France should make a League with the Murderers of my Father, and yet erect a Monument to render the Jesuits eternally infamous for stabbing of Henry IV, my Grandfather; that the French King, who pretends to be Absolute himself, should so far approve of my Subjects Rebellion against me, appears with a very bad Aspect: He's not so much afraid of the Influence of the bad Example, as willing to keep the King of Great Britain humble, for fear I should pursue my Title to France; and knowing that Republics are unfit for Conquest, he is rather inclinable to favour the New Commonwealth, and prefer his Interest to his Reputation.  
Nor is it the French King alone who opposes my Designs, but my Mother, I perceive, has a hand in the pie, though I suppose she is misled by an Overcharge of Zeal. It's not my Interest that any of my Brethren should openly profess the Romish Religion, for that were a way to obstruct our Return; and yet she not only solicits but threatens my youngest Brother if he do not openly profess himself of that Church; an Evidence that she had but little regard to my Father while alive, when she tramples so avowedly upon his Commands now that he's dead; if the Εικον Βασιλικε was truly his, wherein he not only advises me against any Change of my Religion, but all the rest of his Children: and though it's true that I have changed mine in Obedience to a higher Command, viz. that of Christ's Successor upon Earth, and for the advancing of my own Interest; yet it is not publicly known, and by Consequence is not scandalous; but for my Mother thus openly to scandalise the World by influencing my Brother to an avowed Breach of my Father's Commands, is no suitable Return for that last Message which he sent her, that his Thoughts had never strayed from her: So that either she must not believe that Book to be his, or is very impolitic to take such Measures. However I will make the best Improvement of it I can, and send for him away from under her Conduct, which will be a good Argument for my Friends in England to prove that I am firm in my Religion; and I will endeavour to persuade her that I do it out of Policy, because I would not come to a Rupture with her.  
My Brother James' being commanded out of France does justify the Policy of my former Conduct, in not staying till I was sent away; which, though disgraceful enough to him, would have been much more so to me: Having had such slender Entertainment amongst Papists, it will make our Friends in England believe that we are still good Protestants, especially now that I make Application for Assistance from Protestant States; so that I must turn every thing to my Advantage as near as I can, though I am not like to do much with the Republican States of Holland, who being jealous already of the Family of Orange, will be afraid lest I support their Interest: Yet it will strengthen my Cause, if I get but a favourable Answer, because it will be an Argument in the Mouths of my Friends, to prove that the Proceed against me are disliked by Foreign Protestants.   

CHAP. XXII. On his Majesty's being invited into the Spanish Netherlands by Don John of Austria, in name of his Catholic Majesty, upon the Rupture betwixt Spain and France.  
INstead of being able to serve myself, every one would serve their turn of me: the Spaniards, who refused my Father a Wife, do now proffer me their Assistance to regain my Crown, that they may the better preserve their own Dominions: My Presence they judge may be serviceable in Flanders, to withdraw my Subjects who have joined the French: and now that I may be useful, they condescend to court me, and my Circumstances oblige me to try my Fate; perhaps my being present in Person may draw over some of my Subjects from the Enemy; and my being so near England may animate my Friends there to some brave Attempt; and seeing Fortune favours the Bold, I'm resolved to adventure, perhaps she may be sated with my past Miseries, and instead of her usual Frowns vouchsafe me some Smiles. The malign Influences of my Stars are, it may be, exhausted, and the Aspect of the Heavens become more propitious. The Tyrant's Oppression does fret my Subjects at home; and if Victory should crown my Head with Laurels abroad, I may soon return with Triumph to my Throne. The Usurper having disobliged the Nobility by the height of Contempt, abolishing the House of Lords, and squeezing the Commons, may perhaps incline them to witness their Resentments, when they hear that I'm at the Head of a numerous Army. If the Church-of- England-men act their Part as the Presbyterians have done theirs, though I confess they are infinitely less obliged, they might quickly give the Usurper such a Diversion as would oblige him to recall his Troops for his own Defence. But, alas! the Miscarriage of all my Designs in England, and the renewed Attempts of my Friends in Scotland, give me reason to fear that the same ill Fate attends me abroad; and therefore I think it best not to be with the Army in Person, but send my two Brothers, and what Men I have, lest my former ill Fortune should give the Spaniards occasion to say, that it had also an Influence on their Affairs, in case their Army should be defeated.   

CHAP. XXIII. On the Defeat of the Spanish Army, and the Surrender of Dunkirk to the English.  
HOW are all my Hopes vanished in a Moment, and my towering Designs brought down to the Dust: My ill Fate not only pursues myself, but involves my Allies in the same Destiny. Those who flatter this fortunate Usurper will doubtless say now, O nimium dilecte Deo, for nothing can stand before him. The Loss of this Battle does mightily affect me; so many of my best Friends having done their utmost to retrieve our lost Cause in it, but in vain; and my two Brethren commanding in Person, have also been made sensible of the Frowns of Fortune; so that the whole Family will be henceforth esteemed unsuccessful: and what dangerous Consequences attend such an Opinion of Generals, Experience hath taught in all Ages. There happened nothing favourable in this Rencounter, but that my Brother James being taken, had the good Fortune to escape: Whence I have some ground to hope that we are preserved for better Times: and though Fortune at present favours Oliver, so that neither Scots, Dutch nor Spaniards can stand before him, the Case will not always continue thus, but the Wheel may turn upon him or his. My Subjects begin already to be weary of the Anarchy in the State; and the Presbyterians themselves of the Confusion in the Church: The Nobility and Gentry are angry to be trod underfoot by his Officers, who are Fellows of inferior Quality: And by their desiring him to take upon him the Title of King, it shows that they have no Dislike to the Office; and being sensible of his Breach of his Oath, by taking the Government upon himself, though a single Person, modelling their Parliaments as he pleases, though he was sworn to maintain their Privileges, and governing them by an Army, though he would not allow my Father the Militia; they'll quickly come to draw such Inferences, that seeing we must be tyrannised over, it were as good to be so by those who have a long time been in possession of the Throne, and will take care to leave something worth the Enjoyment of their Posterity, seeing they believe the Divine Right of a Lineal Succession: whereas they who have no such Principle nor Pretence, do only take care for themselves, and make Hay while the Sun shines.  
The giving up of Dunkirk to the English, is a very strange and impolitic Act of France, if they have not some more than ordinary Assurance of Oliver. Had my Predecessor Queen Mary been possessed of such a Post on the Continent, the Loss of Calais would never have broke her Heart: And if ever it happen that a warlike King enjoy the British Diadem and Dunkirk at the same time, the Kingdom of France may have Cause to repent of this Folly; but, as I said before, they are not so afraid of a Republic.   

CHAP. XXIV. On Oliver's Death; Richard's being declared Protector, outed by Lambert and the Army, etc.  
DEath hath effected what my Arms could not, and rid me of my greatest Enemy. If there be any such thing as a Supreme Being, the Saints and He have certainly heard my Prayers; and on that very Day of the Month when Oliver triumphed over me at Dumbar and Worcester, Fate hath triumphed over him; so that now I may begin to pluck up my Spirits, and hope that Fortune will favour me at length. This Man being dead, whom my Enemies did idolise, they have not such another to fill up his room: and by his nominating his Son Richard to succeed him, he hath at once discovered his Folly and Hypocrisy; his Folly in naming such an one who is unfit for the Charge, and his Hypocrisy in claiming a Lineal Succession, which he did all along so strenuously impugn.  
Richard is deposed by the same Power that set up his Father, which is a very remarkable piece of Justice; the Divine Nemesis hath made them destroy their own Creature, and they will at last destroy themselves. Oliver raised himself by concurring with Enthusiasts, and advancing the Power of the Army over the Parliament, and by the same Method the Frame of his own Government is pulled in pieces.   

CHAP. XXV. On his Majesty's being invited to a Treaty on the Frontiers of Spain, betwixt the French and Spanish Ministers, about a Peace betwixt those Crowns: Sir George Booth's Defeat: The Confusions which the Nations were cast into by Lambert, and General Monk's carrying on the Designs of restoring his Majesty.  
FOrtune gins now to look upon me with a more favourable Aspect, when the Great Potentates of Europe court me to be present at a Treaty of Peace; which, if concluded, may tend to my Restoration, without being obliged to my own Subjects; and then I may introduce the Catholic Religion in an open manner, as the Condition of the Assistance which is granted to me by Catholic Princes.  
But, alas! the malign Influences of my Stars are not yet exhausted, for the Treaty is turned only to a Cessation of Arms; the French are very cold in their Caresses, and the Spaniards have only granted me some Complimental Honours.  
Nor have I been more successful in my Subjects Endeavours, Sir George Booth and his Party are defeated; so that I find the Presbyterians were more successful against my Father than ever they have been since for him or me. And the Church-of- England-men, though they will expect to reap the greatest Benefit from my Restoration, are very slack in their Endeavours towards it.  
The only thing which looks with a favourable Aspect, as to my Affairs, is, that the Nations are madded with so many Changes of Government, and always subjected to the Tyranny of the Army: Their Parliaments, the Conservation of whose Privileges had a great share in beginning the War, are also trampled under foot, which I know must exceedingly disgust the People.  
The main Anchor of my Hopes is General Monk, whom I must caress with great Promises to carry on my Designs, under a pretence of being zealous against me, till such time as he may safely declare himself for me.  
The Scots, I know, are weary of the English Usurpation, and many of the Presbyterians there do still think that I am their Friend; so that it will be easy for him to secure my Interest in that Nation; and while he summons their Gentry to abjure me by the Tender, he may form the Plot for my Restoration.   

CHAP. XXVI. On General Monk's having brought the Design of his Majesty's Restoration to Perfection: His Majesty's Declaration from Breda, and Entertainment of the Presbyterian Ministers there, who were sent over to him.  
NOW Fortune is surely sated with my Miseries, and instead of her Frowns vouchsafes me her Smiles: My Designs at length have proved successful, and now I am mounting to the Top of the Wheel; but that Lady is so fickle and unconstant, that I must be careful of the Measures which I take, and give my Subjects kind Words now, if I would have them to be my Servants for ever. The English Loyalty is purer than that of the Scots, who demanded much harder Terms from me; and seeing I swore the greater, I may very well promise the lesser, being resolved to keep them both alike. And seeing the Puritans complained of being persecuted in my Father's Reign, I must promise an Indulgence to tender Consciences: and, in short, take all possible Methods to sweeten my Subjects, till such time as I be settled upon the Throne, and then I shall punish the stubborn Schismatics with a Vengeance for their old Rebellion. But I must be very cautious, and counterfeit a deal of Piety before the Puritanical Parsons who are sent over to me: I must prepare some Prayers in their own canting Dialect, and order them to be brought where they may hear me at them in my Closet; and for once I'll imitate Oliver, who used always to pray with an audible Voice, by which he drew his Followers into a great Opinion of his Piety. He's a cursed Pattern indeed, but according to the Proverb, Fas est & ab hoste doceri: And if I can but impose upon those Leading Priests, the Cant will take universally amongst the Party, and I shall carry on my Designs with the more Facility. It's true, that according to the common Notion of the World this may seem Atheistical; but seeing the Catholic Church will avouch that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics, it cannot be unlawful for me to dissemble with them; and if there be a God, he is not certainly such as we have him represented, else he had never paved my Way to the Throne, seeing he must know that I never designed to keep one Word of my Promises: so that I have no reason to suffer any Disquiet in my Thoughts upon that account; for when those who call themselves Divines, and make it their Trade, cannot agree whether there be only one God and no Persons, or one God and three Persons; nor yet as to the Rule which he hath left to direct us, nor the Meaning of that which some of them pretend to be the Rule; let meaner Persons trouble themselves about these Speculations, I'll concern myself how to live like a King. And seeing in their own Dialect they call me a God upon Earth, they shall obey my Will as the Vicegerent of Heaven. And since it is uncertain whether there be either a God or a Heaven, I'll ease myself of the Trouble of my Prayers for time to come, as I have already done for some time past; and yet I perceive that my Affairs go on and prosper, while theirs, who do not only pray, but also howl and whine, are on the Declension; and certainly their God must be a very unkind Sovereign, to suffer the best of his Subjects, for so they must be if the Bible be his Word, to lie under the greatest Affliction. Surely I would not do so to the best of my Subjects if I could help it; but if they be such Fools as to think that Afflictions make them the fit for Heaven, qui decipi vult decipiatur, for my part, if I can, I'll take my pleasure here, and venture upon what is to come hereafter.  
There is still one dangerous Rock more on which I must beware of splitting, and that is, lest the People be jealous of my Designs on their Civil Liberties; for let them clamour and talk of Religion as much as they will, I find that to be pinched in the other is their principal Grievance; so that Stiffness in Religion is a thing peculiar to the Scots Presbyterians and their  Followers: However I must be high in my Protestations, that there is nothing which I do so much lay to heart, as the Advancement of the Protestant Religion, and the Conservation of the Privileges of Parliament; that all the Unkindnesses which I and mine have met with from Protestants, have not been able to alter my Opinion, as to the former; nor have all the Invasions which they have made upon my Prerogative, been able to put me out of Conceit with the latter; but that I shall always look upon their Counsel as the best, and be ready to comply with such Measures as they propose for the Advancement of Religion and Liberty.   

CHAP. XXVII. On his Majesty's being proclaimed by the Parliament: His magnificent Entrance into London, and enjoying the Countess of Castlemain the first Night.  
MY Designs have taken, and my Subjects are thereupon returned to their Duty; so that now I am recalled by the Consent of the Nation, who were wearied by the Oppressions of the late Anarchy. I may now with Safety put off my Vizard in some measure, and say with Pope Sixtus V that it's needless to stoop any longer now that I have found the Keys. The People, I perceive, are come to a high Flight of Loyalty; so that my small Escapes will not be taken notice of: And seeing all this Solemnity is for me, why should not I chief reap the Sweets of it? If the Subjects indulge themselves as to Wine and Women, upon this occasion, why should the same be denied to their Sovereign? The best way to carry on my Designs is to begin my Reign with Jollity, which will be grateful to those who have been so long restrained from Liberty. By this means I shall be sure to have the strongest Party; for all men's natural Inclinations, which the Precisians call Lusts and Corruptions, will be certainly for me; and if once they get a Vent, will break out like an Inundation now that they have so long been under a Restraint. The youthful Nobility and Gentry will certainly adore my Reign on this account, as August and Splendid; and the Churchmen will be glad to be from under the Checks and Grimaces of the Puritans: so that the Whole being immersed in Jollity and Pleasure, they'll quickly leave off the Cant of Religion and Property; and they who do otherwise, will be made the Subject of public Ignominy.  
Why may not I have the Countess of Castlemain, as well as David had Bathsheba? The Solemnity of this Day is a much more excusable Tentation than his viewing of a beautiful Woman from the top of his House. If I be privately reproached, as having invaded another Man's Property, I can tell them publicly, that Princes are not to be limited as private Men, they have a Right to the Persons and Goods of their Subjects; and who ought to say to a King, What dost thou? If I keep them from encroaching upon one another, they may very well allow me my Liberty: I am accountable to none but God, and him I will venture to take in my own Hand; the Advancement of the Catholic Church will atone for all other Miscarriages; so that as to this I have no reason to be solicitous; a good End will hollow the worst of Means: and seeing those who are called the debauchedst of Men have sometimes Pangs and Gripes of Conscience, a Licentiousness of Practice is the best Method of the World to reduce such to the Church of Rome, because Pardons may be had for the highest of Crimes; so that a Man may enjoy the Pleasures of Sin, and not only be freed from the Punishment due to it, but also assured of Heaven at last. And herein the Pope does as much as Mahomet, though under a Veil of greater Modesty, and secures to his Followers the Pleasures both of this World and that which is to come: so that I shall take care by this Method to pave the way for the Return of Popery, and make it appear that Debauchery is looked upon by me as the best Test of Loyalty, as indeed it will be; for sure I am that Debauchees, as foolish Men call those who indulge the innocent Appetites of Nature, will never be Enemies to a Reign which allows them in it; but on the contrary, will be my surest Defence against all the Attempts of the Puritanical Precisians.   

CHAP. XXVIII. On the Parliament's condemning the Regicides, and appointing an Anniversary Humiliation on the Day of King Charles I's Murder.  
NOW when the Kingdom is in a Ferment of Loyalty, I must take care to revenge my Father's Death, wherein I shall be sure of the Concurrence of the Parliament, because that same Hand which cut off his Head cut off their Privileges; but I must push it further than I'm afraid they will be willing, and by my Friends and Pensioners procure an Act for an Anniversary Commemoration of my Father's Murder, by which I shall blazon his Virtues to all Posterity, and load his Enemies with the Height of Reproach, which will mightily tend to the Establishment of my Prerogative; for by crying out against his Murder, all manner of Opposition against Sovereigns will be condemned. I am sure of having the Church of England's Assistance, because those that destroyed him did also destroy them; so that they will certainly defend his Cause as their own; and the more that they extol my Father, the more they depress their own Enemies: so that I need not doubt but the Churchmen will express themselves with all the Hyperboles imaginable, to display the Horridness of the Murder, and the Piety and singular Virtues of their Martyr; which will be of special Use to support my Pretensions to an absolute Monarchy: for when the Generality of the Pulpits ring with Declamations for Passive Obedience, it will create an Universal Abhorrence of all such as are for any manner of Resistance; which the Churchmen will find themselves obliged to promote, that they may throw Dirt upon the Presbyterians, who are Enemies to their Hierarchy. And thus by keeping the Protestants at Enmity amongst themselves, and the stiffest and most obstinate amongst them under the Hatches, I shall be the better enabled to destroy the whole, and bring in Popery by Degrees, if not by Head and Shoulders.  
But as to the Regicides, to have them condemned has been no hard matter, because the Parliament did never approve of their Proceed; and from their Condemnation I shall reap this Advantage, that the Means must fall under the same Censure with the Instruments; and all things which contributed to my Father's Death as a pretended Zeal for Religion, and the Privileges of the People, will be looked upon as certain Marks of Disloyalty.   

CHAP. XXIX. On his Majesty's dissolving the Parliament which called him in, and summoning another.  
THis Parliament hath done all that I am to expect from them, and therefore it's expedient that I should dissolve them, it not being safe to trust too much to a Parliament that has such an Alloy: I must summon another, which will be fit for my purpose, and bring in as many of my Companions in Exile as I can: Their Spirits are imbittered by their former Sufferings, and their Purses are still sensible of their Sequestrations, which will make them the more eager for a Revenge; and to help it on, I will still keep them low, and feed them with Promises to carry on my Designs. I must now begin to think of my Engagements to the Catholics; and towards the better accomplishing of them, must restore the Bishops, which I can easily do now that the House is filled with my Friends, who will be glad of such a Revenge upon the Presbyterians. I have weathered the Point in other things of as great Consequence, so that I need not despair of succeeding in this. Let the Scots fanatics upbraid me with the Breach of Covenant, and the English Roundheads with my Declaration from Breda, I am not concerned to regard such Trifles. The former was tyrannically imposed both upon me and my Subjects; and the latter was only an Essay of Policy. When I was under Restraint I might abate of my Prerogative; but now that I am at Liberty I may as lawfully regain it, for I can never be divested of my native Right. They both say that I am God's Vicegerent, and therefore if I part with my own Prerogative I part with his; but if I must follow my own Inclination, I had rather say with the noble Pharaoh, Who is the Lord that I should obey him? And if the Puritans call themselves Israelites, I'm resolved to keep them in Bondage; and though I don't allow them Straw, will exact the Tale of the Brick: I shall expect as much Loyalty and Obedience from them, as from those who have my Favour; and if I find them come short, they shall be sure to smart for it: They are a Company of idle Enthusiasts, and therefore say, Let us go serve the Lord; but they shall serve him in my way, or not at all. I have already overturned their Babel in Scotland, or have rather indeed kept it under, as I found it, for Oliver had pretty well humbled them to my hand; and instead of an Indulgence there shall be a strict Uniformity in England, which will set the Episcopal Party and the Presbyterians together by the Ears; and then the Catholics may take their Advantages to promote their Religion; and I shall improve the Opportunity to advance my Prerogative. When the Pulpits are once emptied of the Presbyterian Parsons, who preach up such rigid Morals, I'll take care that the Bishops shall not employ Precisians, but Men of a more courtly and complaisant Temper, who will allow a greater Latitude both in Doctrine and Example, that the Church may have no reason to upbraid the Looseness of the Court. Nor shall I value the moross Reflections of fanatics upon my Principles and Practice, but contemn them as unworthy of a Monarch's Regard.  
I am happy in the Model of this present Parliament, for they have given me as much as I can at present desire: they have made me an Offering of the People's Purses, Privileges and Lives; have enacted such Laws as will make one Protestant devour another, and do every thing according to my own Mind. How great is the Change betwixt mine and my Father's Days, when the Parliament thought they could never restrain him enough, and my Parliament think every thing too little for me. Thus the Triennial Act, which secured the People's Properties, and was with so much Struggling obtained from my Father, is now made a Sacrifice to my Prerogative, so that their chiefest Fortress is surrendered at once. They have not only provided for my living in Slpendor, but also taken care of my Reputation: And lest some sharp-sighted Fellows should perceive my Design of introducing Popery, they have forbid it to be spoken of on pain of Praemunire, though at the same time I be in actual Correspondence with the Pope; so that I find my Pensions are well laid out; and though at present they be expensive, yet they are but like the putting of a small Quantity of Water into a Pump, to draw out an hundred times more.   

CHAP. XXX. On the Presbyterian Plots set on foot Novemb. 1661. Sir J. P's forging treasonable Letters to that effect. His Majesty's appointing a Conference at the Savoy betwixt the Conformists and Nonconformists; and influencing the House of Commons to offer Reasons against any Toleration.  
DIvide and Command was Machiavel's Maxim, and I find it very necessary for me to put in practice, that my Subjects may not unite against me as formerly against my Father. That I may the better revenge my Father's Death, and my own Injury upon the Puritans, I must find a way to make them be thought guilty of Plots against the Government, which will be readily believed, because they joined with the Parliament against my Father, and look upon themselves as oppressed and betrayed by me; and I need not doubt of its being believed by those of the Church of England, who are their irreconcilable Enemies; for when the one is up, the other must go down: and then I shall reap this Advantage from it, that the Pulpits will thunder Invectives against them, and bring the general Odium of the Nation upon them, by which some of them will be obliged to comply, which will create Divisions amongst their own Party. And some of the moderate Churchmen will be displeased at the Severities used against the Presbyterians; and by this Means I shall break all the Protestants to pieces amongst themselves. To give my Accusation the Face, at least, of Probability, I must take care to have treasonable Letters lodged with their chief Patrons, for which Sir J. P. is a very fit Instrument. It will also be a very proper Method to suborn Fellows to talk of treasonable Designs amongst such of them as are unwary; and if they cannot be indicted for High Treason, they may very well be pursued for Misprision of Treason; and if they themselves be brought to confess that they heard of such Designs, others will believe that they had actually a hand in contriving them; and when once some of them are convicted by Public Justice, and executed accordingly, it will confirm the Belief of a Plot, and strike a Terror into the rest.  
But that the State may not bear all the blame, I must bring in the Church for a share; and though I appoint them by Commission to confer with the Nonconformists about Methods for a Comprehension, yet they shall have private Instructions, not to comply: And that they may not at first perceive my Design, I shall take care to insinuate that their conceding in one thing will occasion all the rest to be called in question; and then by the Influence of the Bishops in the House of Lords, and of the Members of the Clergy's Choice in the House of Commons, I shall bring it to pass that the fanatics shall fall into a general Disgrace, and be reputed not only such in Name, but in Deed, and not at all worthy of a Toleration; which I reckon the best Politics that I can put in practice, to ruin the most zealous Professors of the Protestant Religion first, and then the rest will quickly be brought to comply with my Designs, and abandon that Religion of which they have little or nothing but the Name, or at least render it odious and of small Esteem, by walking unanswerably to its Principles. And if any cunning Fellow shall smell out my Design, I have provided against his daring to speak of it by the Act against those who shall declare me a Papist, or that I have a Design to introduce Popery: And though those who are sharp-sighted may laugh at such a Provision, as rather giving than taking away Cause of Suspicion, yet when it dare not be openly talked of amongst the Vulgar, it will not obtain a common Belief: And the Church of England, whom I support against the fanatics, will certainly support me against their Censures. And thus when I have made one Party of Protestants to bait the other sufficiently, if the Church of England prove refractory afterwards to my Designs, than I shall endeavour, by remitting the Rigour of the Law, to engage the Dissenters on my side, to favour an universal Toleration, by which my Friends the Papists may have ease, if the Episcopal Party begin to grudge at my Favours towards them, or to fear that at last they may dispossess themselves.   

CHAP. XXXI. On his Majesty's selling of Dunkirk to the French King for 500000 l.  
THis I know will be censured as an impolitic Action, and the shutting myself out of the Continent, whereunto this Town opened a Door, by which I might have invaded France and the Netherlands when I pleased. It's true that it was a Monument of England's Glory, but such an one as being erected under the Conduct of an Usurper, is not for the Credit of me nor my Family; and therefore lest it should be an Allurement to re-intice my People to a Commonwealth, I will make it a Sacrifice to my Cousin the French King: Not that I own so much to his Kindness, but that he may supply my present Necessities with his Money. And to testify my farther Resentments of that impious Rebellion, the Citadels which Oliver built shall be razed throughout my Dominions, and the Towns which held out against my Father dismantled; and if it were not that the Consequence would be fatal to myself, every one of them should be sowed with Salt, their Inhabitants made to pass under Saws of Iron, and have their Flesh torn with the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness: But I must pretend other Causes to the People, lest they should be enraged, as that I won't keep up Garrisons amongst them, when there is no need to disturb their Commerce, nor leave it in the Power of other Kings to do it, when the Places which are capable of being garrisoned are dismantled: though in reality it is to prevent the Rebels from nestling there, or having recourse to them to favour their Rebellion, the best way to be rid of the Harpies being to destroy their Nests: And that I may free myself at once, as much as is possible from that viperous Brood, as I have already disbanded the Army, under pretence that I would not keep up one in time of Peace, but in reality because I would not have such a Body of well-disciplined Troops of their Principles together, lest at any time they should make head against me as against their former Masters, the Parliament, Richard, etc. So now I'll forbid their old Officers to stay within 20 Miles of London, and the Remainders of the Troops I'll send to fight against the Spaniards in my Wife's Quarrel; and if they never return, as I hope few of them will, I can very well bear the Loss.   

CHAP. XXXII. On the Parliament's beginning to grow sensible of the Encouragement given to the Catholic Religion by his Majesty's Declaration, Decemb. 1662. Their Petition on that head: and his Majesty's publishing a Proclamation against Papists thereupon.  
IT's a mischievous thing for a Sovereign to be limited, and to be obliged to act the King only by halves. How happy is my Brother of France who is not troubled with such Fetters, but his Will does pass for an  Law. I abhor those Parliaments, for they are nothing else but Spies upon Kings, and dive into their most reserved and hidden Intrigues: I find they begin to suspect my Religion, and grudge at the Favours which I show to the Papists, and therefore I must proceed slowly and surely. Their Zeal to my Prerogative is regulated by their own Interest, which makes them oppose my Dispensing Power: So that I find I am only absolute against fanatics and Republicans; but when I come to meddle with the Church of England, my Power is limited, and the Parliament must then be Sharers of the Sovereignty. Their Petitions against my Administration may issue in Remonstrances against my Government, as it happened in my Father's time, and therefore it is my Interest to flatter them a little; and by a Proclamation against the Papists to create an Opinion of my Firmness to the Protestant Religion in the Public, draw Money from the Purses of the Commons; and so to recoil, to give the stronger and heavier Blow.   

CHAP. XXXIII. On the News of some more Plots by the fanatics against his Majesty both in England, Scotland and Ireland. The Execution of the Earl of Argyle, Lord Wariston, etc. in Scotland; and some of those concerned in the Plots in England and Ireland.  
I Find that I shall bring my Designs about by Degrees, and under the Notion of Plotters execute Vengeance upon mine Enemies, without incurring the Censure of being bloody or cruel. It's true that it may seem hard that I should take the Earl of Argyles Head, who was the Person that set the Crown upon my own: But during this Extacy of Loyalty, in which the Nations are at present, the Method of such Proceed will be the less taken notice of; and it's absolutely necessary for my purpose that the Earl of Argyle should be taken out of the way; the Greatness of his Power, and his Zeal for his Religion, may otherwise prove great Impediments to my Designs: I have Pretences enough against him, because of his Activity in the Parliament's Rebellion; and his Death will be acceptable to the Church of England, because he was Head of the Presbyterians; and the Friends of the late Marquis of Montrosse, and all the Cavaliers, will concur with my Design against him; and though there is no doubt but that he will profess his Innocence on the Scaffold, yet the Authority of a public Sentence will be of greater Weight, or at least restrain the People from open Murmur. By his Death I shall have also this farther Advantage, that the Power of his Clan will be thereby reduced, and neither be formidable to myself nor Successors, it being the Interest of all Crowns to guard against too potent Subjects. As to Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston, though he be not so great in Power, yet he is nothing inferior to the other in Policy, but indeed far above him: and as the Trojans owed their Destruction more to Vlysses' Counsels than Achilles' Arms, it's my Interest to rid myself of a Politician, who is my Enemy, as soon as of one who is greater in Power and Quality. And though it be reckoned no great Policy for a Monarch, newly re-established, to cement his Throne with Blood, yet it is not only good Policy, but absolutely needful, in my case, to sacrifice the Ringleaders of the Presbyterians while they are at present under a Consternation, before they have time to recollect their Spirits, and make head against me; and therefore I am resolved on a Victim of each sort, viz. of their Nobility, Gentry and Clergy; and so Mr. James Guthry, who hath appeared so stout for the Privileges of their Church, as being supreme Judge themselves in Ecclesiastical Affairs, shall smart for his Opinion. And thus I will pave my way to the Enjoyment of my Prerogative, both in Affairs of Church and State, over the Bellies of my Enemies. Nor must it be in Scotland alone where the Effects of my Resentments shall be felt, but in both my other Kingdoms, for I must take care to have the Apprehensions of a discontented Party continued in all the three Nations; of which I shall make these Advantages, that they will serve for a Balance against the Church of England if she grow stubborn, and always serve for a Pretence of a Necessity of keeping up Forces; and the sacrificing of them to the Fury of the Episcopal Party, will be at all times an effectual Means of draining their Pockets, and making them concur to the raising of Money in Parliament: and when at any time I am minded to amuse the People with the Noise of a Plot, it will be the more easily believed, seeing there is a Party, who being exasperated with Oppression, it may be reasonably thought that they will endeavour to procure their own Liberty.   

CHAP. XXXIV. On his Majesty's making War upon the Dutch, Anno 1664.  
LEST the Nation should grow luxuriant with too long Peace, it's sit that I should engage them in War abroad, to prevent their having leisure to tumultuate at home. Had my Father done so, he might have prevented his Disaster. I have Pretences enough of quarrelling with the Dutch, but if they be not thought weighty, I must endeavour to make them appear so. My Pensioners, which I have in the House of Commons, will easily be influenced to find justifying Causes: And seeing the Nation are jealous of their Trade, as their principal Support, to give out that the Dutch have encroached upon that, will be most plausible and taking; and the natural Hatred which the Episcopal Party have against the Dutch Presbytery, and Form of Government, will render them easy to believe the Crimes charged upon them, and make them concur with Zeal enough in their Destruction. And for the other Party, who will certainly murmur and guests at that which is the real Cause of the War, it will afford me an Opportunity to treat them the more severely, and justify the Rigour which shall be used towards them. And in the mean time I shall carry on the common Design of restoring the Church of Rome under such Colours as will not be easily discerned, it being indeed fit to raze out the Memory of that People from under Heaven, and not to leave such a Monument of successful Rebellion against Monarchy and the Catholic Church in Being. It's true that my Design may be taxed with Ingratitude, considering the kind Entertainment that I found amongst them during my Exile: but as I have been happy in palliating my Treatment of the Spaniards, and the Scots Presbyterians, both of whom were very kind to me; I doubt not also to find Excuses for this, which will in some measure satisfy the Public.   

CHAP. XXXV. On the Parliament's voting to stand by his Majesty till he had a Redress for the Injuries done to his Subjects by the Dutch. The King's great Care to have his Fleet ready before theirs, putting them off by fair Promises, seizing their Bourdeaux Fleet without declaring War, etc.  
MY Parliament I do find are made to my purpose, partly by Pension, and partly by Principle; and having them on my side, I am safe enough. If any of the fanatics shall be so bold as to mutter, that Popery is at the bottom of this War; or if the Dutch should give it out so to possess the Minds of Foreign Protestant Princes with prejudice against me, the Parliament's being on my side will knock all their Suggestions on the head; for who will believe that the Protestant Representatives of a Protestant Nation will concur in a Design to destroy their own Religion? But at the same time I'll take care to have it truly represented to the Pope and the House of Austria; and they, together with the French King, who is in the Design with me, will be too strong for all Opposers; and what by their Strength and my own Policy, we shall be able to carry the Design on to perfection. But considering the ill Fate which attended the Spaniards in their Designs against that cautelous People, I must proceed very warily, and hid my Intentions as much as I can, till I find sufficient Advantage against them; and accordingly my Envoy shall have Instructions to assure them of my good Intentions, until such time as I can entrap their Bourdeaux and Smyrna Fleets, which will enable me to manage the War against them at their own Charge: And though such Practices might be esteemed dishonest amongst private Men, yet it will pass for justifiable Policy with Princes; and in the mean time I will order it so as to have my Fleet ready before theirs, and begin Hostilities without declaring War. My Brother the Duke of York shall be my Admiral, of whose Zeal against that Heretical Republic I have no reason to doubt; and this will besides render him popular to the Nation, if he happen to be successful, and pave his way to the Crown if he outlive me, and that I have no Issue, and by consequence secure the Interest of the Church of Rome in these Nations.  
I must magnify the Zeal of my Parliament, and thank them for espousing my Quarrel so kindly, which will keep them still in a good Humour, and make them justify my whole Conduct in the Affair, and whet their Zeal to enact severe Laws against the Nonconformists, who are Men of the same Principles with the Dutch. So that during this Ferment against the Puritans I shall provide for the Security of my Friends the Papists, which will be the more easily overlooked. I have also received Assurance of the French King's Concurrence, who will demand Reparation from the Dutch for his two East-India-Ships which they have taken, and together we shall destroy that Bulwark of Heresy.   

CHAP. XXXVI. On the French King's making Peace with the States. Several Skirmishes, with various Success. The Victory at Sea by the Duke of York; and the Plague which broke out in London in 1665.  
MY Brother of France hath failed of his Promise; so that I find that I h●●● the same Measure dealt to me which I de●●● to others; and he endeavours to take the Advantage of the Dutch and me both: However I'll let him know that I can go on without him: And though I have hitherto gained nothing by this Rupture with Holland, but that Fortune hath favoured them as well as me in small Rencounters, yet I am resolved to push it on as far as I can, and let that proud Monarch know that he is not the sole Inheritor of Henry the IV's Glory and Grandeur.  

On the Victory.  
The Poets are in the right when they represent Justice blindfold, for in good earnest it seems that she determines Causes by chance, and that the good things of this World are made for those who can catch them: and if there be any such thing as a Deity, it sees not as Men see; nor does it act according to those Rules which are in vogue amongst us Mortals. The Dutch pretend to have that which they call Religion and Justice on their side; and in truth if that which is esteemed the Rule of both, be true, their Pretensions are not ill founded, and yet the Victory hath fallen to me. Then seeing we are not certain what be the Rules and Decrees of the higher Powers, it's rational for Men to follow their own Inclinations, and gratify their natural Appetites as much as they can. The contrary Principle seems very unreasonable, that we who look upon ourselves as a happy Race of Creatures should yet labour under a severer Restraint; and that we should be denied the pleasing of what's visible for the pretended Safety of some, I do not know what, invisible Substance. But from this Victory I shall be sure of these following Fruits; In the first place that it will give Credit to my Arms, which have not hitherto been reckoned successful; and in the next it will magnify my Brother's Conduct, which will still contribute to render me the more formidable. It will also create Disorders in Holland, which may be improved to my great Advantage, and it will secure me from the Murmurs of the Rabble at home, who always measure the Justice of a Cause by its Success; and it will be a prevailing Argument with the Parliament to go cheerfully on with their promised Supplies.  
But my Joys are neither long-lived nor unmixed; for though I be Conqueror by the Sword, I'm consumed by the Plague, which rages in the Bowels of my Capital City. No doubt the fanatics will say that it is for the Sins of me and my Family; as Israel was plagued for David's numbering of the People: but as my Subjects are not so well deserving as his, I am not obliged to be so much concerned as he was; nor am I indeed any further, than that it weakens and renders me less able to carry on the War, and will be esteemed by my Enemies as the Hand of God against me. But for the Reflection of the fanatics, I can easily turn it upon themselves, that it's a just Punishment upon the Nation for their unnatural Rebellion, and the horrid Murder of their King and my Father: and if this be once given out at Court, I am sure it will be echoed again from the Pulpit: and as that will justify the utmost of my Severity in Scotland by free Quarter, etc. on the Presbyterians there, it will also defend my Proceed against their Brethren in England, to keep them in Prisons at London, etc. till they die of the Contagion here: And as for myself and my Court, we can remove to a Place of better Air. And though the Bills of Mortality do increase to a prodigy, it's a just Vengeance on the rebellious City: and if it come to the worst, that I should want Men to carry on the War, I can quickly make up a Peace abroad; and when my Subjects are diminished, I am the less in hazard by a Rebellion at home.    

CHAP. XXXVII. On the meeting of the Parliament at Oxford, because of the Plague at London. The King's Speech to them about the Dutch War, and Supplies. The Chancellor's Enlargement on it. The Act for banishing Nonconformists five Miles from Corporations.  
AS this City afforded a safe Retreat to my Father from his rebellious Subjects at London, it furnishes me with the like during the Pestilence which hath seized upon that City for their Rebellion: And as the Londoners had Influence upon the then Parliament to increase their Obstinacy, I doubt not but the University will have Influence upon this to heighten their Loyalty. My Business is now to applaud the Parliament for their advising me to a War with Holland, which hath hitherto been so successful: And as it will convince them that I am willing to make them Sharers of my Glory, it will render them the more willing to make me a Sharer of their Purses: But lest those amongst them who are firm Protestants should perceive my Design, and blame my Conduct for leaguing with Popish Princes to procure the Destruction of the Dutch, I must hid my Designs under a pretence of repaying them in their own Coin; and that my stirring up the Bishop of Munster against them, is only because they have given an ill Character of me to Foreign Protestant Princes: And considering that it was necessary for the Nation's Glory that those stubborn Republicans, who had broke the Power of Spain, should be humbled by England, the Parliament have no reason to be angry at my supplying the Bishop of Munster with Money. And at the same time I will pretend that I am willing to come to a Peace upon reasonable Propositions; and give my Lord Chancellor Order to insist and enlarge upon those Heads, and to declare the Affronts which the Dutch put upon the Royal Family before my Restoration; which as it will incense the Cavaliers in the House, it will silence those who are fanatically inclined. And the better to colour my Demands of Money, I must take care to have the ill Condition that my Magazines for Arms and Naval Stores were in, represented to the full, and the Pains and Charges which I have been at magnified to the life.  
The Parliament I find have answered my Expectations, and not only ordered me sufficient store of Money to carry on the War, but have given a Gratuity to my Brother the Duke, notwithstanding of its having been represented by some, that his Cowardice, under pretence of want of Repose, gave the Dutch an Opportunity to escape better than they would have done otherwise. And that nothing may be left unattempted which may tend to the Ruin of the Protestant Interest, he and I have not only delivered up Monsieur Rohan, who came to acquaint me with the French King's Designs to ruin his Protestant Subjects, and to propose Measures which might have prevented it, and advanced my own Glory, as he imagined, but by my Solicitation I have also got the strictest of my own Protestant Subjects declared uncapable of Trust, except they comply with that which is contrary to their Consciences, and their Preachers to be banished five Miles from Corporations, which is a thing of mighty Consequence to the carrying on of my Design; for by this Means I shall not now be pestered with Returns of Precisians and Republicans for Members of Parliament, nor can they have any share in the managing of the Government: And as for the other Party, they are so much taken up with the Discipline and Rituals of their Church, that they are not very solicitous what Innovations be made in her Doctrine: And I have always found that their Harmony with the Church of Rome, in the outward part, hath engendered in them a better Opinion of the Papists than Presbyterians. And thus at once I strike at the Protestant Interest at home and abroad. It's true that the delivering up of that French Gentleman, and our placing the French Ambassador behind the Curtain, to hear his Complaints and Proposals for Redress, may seem inglorious, and a thing below a Crowned Head: But as it will confirm my Friends the Papists, in their good Opinion of me, it must needs be an Engagement upon the French King, though I am but little obliged to his Care of my Reputation, that suffered the Criminal to be examined as to his Converse with me, while they were breaking him upon the Wheel; but I perceive he thinks it his Interest to keep me low in the good Opinion of my Subjects, lest I should put a stop to the Career of his Ambition, which is his Predominant, as Sensuality is mine: but he is mistaken in his Measures, I am as zealous for promoting of the Catholic Religion as he can be, nor do I care how or by what Methods it is effected, so it be but accomplished. But I shall not trouble myself neither to enlarge my own, nor stop the Course of his Conquests; for I am as much concerned to gratify my predominant Passion, which requires Ease, as he is to gratify his, which is constantly attended with Hurry and Trouble.   

CHAP. XXXVIII. On the Dutch's recalling their Ambassador from England. The King's Letter by him to the States: and the French King and his Majesty's Declarations of War against each other.  
THE Dutch having recalled their Ambassador, imports that they have no Hopes of obtaining a Peace; however, to dazzle the Eyes of the World a little further, I'll send a Letter by him, with an Offer of Proposals to the States, wherein I will charge them as the Beginners of the War, and testify my own Inclination to bring it to an end; which, though it is plain will never obtain Belief, yet will serve for a Pretence, that the Continuance of the War is not my choice, and consequently free me a little from the Odium of the Havoc which the Bishop of Munster, with his Popish Forces, makes in a Protestant Country, and furnish Arguments to my Friends of the Church of England, against those who suggest that my Design at bottom is to promote a Popish Interest.  
The mutual Declarations of War by myself and the French King against each other, will very much contribute to a Concealment of our Designs, and give us an opportunity of destroying the Dutch more advantageously; for I am very well assured that the French Troops, which march to the Assistance of the Hollanders, will annoy them as much as those of their Enemies, and make them quickly repent the calling in of such Auxiliaries: but however there is this which will be gained by it, that it cannot well be thought that my Design is against the Protestant Religion, when a Monarch, who is a professed Papist, and the eldest Son of the Church of Rome, does seemingly oppose me, though by the Message which he lately sent to my Mother, he hath sufficiently informed me as to his secret Intentions; so that betwixt us I doubt not but we shall ruin that Knot of Heretics: And as I have brought their Friends here in England under the Lash of the Law, I will take care to undo their Brethren in Scotland, where by the Concurrence of their new Bishops, and the Zeal of my Privy Council, I can do what I please, seeing all the Presbyterians are excluded the Government: And thus while I set one Party of Protestants against another at home, and dash the Protestants of England against those of Holland abroad, I shall advance the Church of Rome, and my own Prerogative, apace.   

CHAP. XXXIX. Upon the Sea-fights with the Dutch, May and July, 1666. both sides pretending to the Victory: And the French's lying by, though they came as if they designed to assist the Dutch.  
I Cannot always chain Success to the Wheels of my Chariot, nor promise myself Happiness in every Undertaking. I obtained one Victory over the Dutch, and therefore may the better bear with my present Loss; though, at the same time, I must conceal it, to prevent the Grumble of the People, and order all the public Tokens of Joy for a Victory. How true were the French to their Promise of deceiving the Dutch, and making them rely on their Assistance, yet afforded them none; so that though I have not obtained a Victory by this Procedure of theirs, yet it hath considerably diminished my Loss; for if the Dutch had not been deceived by relying on the French, they would have been better provided of themselves, and in a Capacity to pursue the Blow further home: And in truth I must needs applaud the French King's Conduct, in letting the English and Dutch Heretics fight it out, and save his Catholic Subjects for a better Time and Service. From their lying by I shall also reap this Advantage, that though the Dutch proclaim their Victory, it will be the less credible; and my Pretensions to the same will be the better believed: but the Mischief on't is, that their appearing so speedily at Sea, after the Noise of my pretended Victories, gives the People occasion to suspect my Veracity.   

CHAP. XL. On the Firing of London.  
THE Sword, Pestilence and Fire, are three of the heaviest Plagues that can befall a People; and of late I and mine have had our Shares of them. This dreadful Conflagration would be as pleasant to me as that of Rome was to Nero, when he took his Harp in hand and triumphed over its Flames, if it were not that I am liable to the Suspicion of favouring it, because my Brother and my Guards are so foolish and imprudent as to rescue those who are taken in the Fact; and that some Catholics, who are not fit to be entrusted with Secrets, have talked too openly of the Design a great while before it was put in Execution. However, this is a good Expedient to clear both the City and the Air about it, from all manner of contagious Infection: for that I could not set any Bounds unto, but this I can limit; That was the Hand of God, This the Hand of Man; That did promiscuously cut off my Friends and Foes, but This I can order so as to make it fall upon the latter: and after all, if I cannot, as Nero did with the Christians, fasten the Plot of firing the City upon the Dissenters, which the Jesuits have strenuously endeavoured, by tricking some silly Fifth-Monarchy-men into a Plot; yet if I give it only a little finer turn, and allege, that it's the Vengeance of Heaven upon this City, for their being so instrumental in the late Ruin both of Church and State, and not preventing my Father's Murder, the Pretext will be plausible and taking with the Church; for their great Patrons, such as Heylin and others, have oftentimes declared their Dislike of the Bulk and Populousness of the City, and hate it because inclinable to the Puritanical Side: so that these things being prudently insisted upon, and the Clergy's Dislike of the City encouraged, its Desolation and Ruins will be the less regarded, and the Odium wear off from the Papists by degrees, though at the same time they have wisely destroyed that which was looked upon as the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion. And I have also reason to be very well satisfied that hereby they have exhausted the great Treasure of Rebellion. But the main Danger is, lest the Committee of Parliament, appointed to dive into the Causes of the Fire, should trace it as far as St. James' and Whitehall, and then it will lie upon me and my Brother: but if this should be the case, I know of a Remedy, viz. to call it a Forgery of the Dissenters, to bring a Calumny upon the Royal Family, and the Church of England, who are their Adherents; then to be sure, though the Matter be as clear as Sunshine, the Bishops and their Clergy, who know they must stand and fall with me, will maintain my Credit for their own Interest, lest they should be utterly overthrown, as in my Father's time. And the better to cover my Design, I must renew all my former Protestations of Zeal for the Protestant Religion, and advise the Citizens, in the first place, to rebuild their Churches, where they may worship God, and mourn for their Sins, which have brought on such desolating Judgements; and this, together with contributing something towards the Re-edification of the City, and bewailing their Losses on all public Occasions, will conciliate their Respect, and beget a good Opinion of me, which will be sufficient to obviate all the Misrepresentations which the greatest of my Enemies can make of me: and thus shall the Protestant Interest languish, as by a Consumption in the Vitals, while I smite it secretly under the fifth Rib. I know that the censorious fanatics will say that this Fire was carried on by the same Hand that manages the War against the Dutch; and that the City is justly punished thereby for not opposing, but rather concurring with me; and that I have repaid them as I have done all my other Friends, the Dutch, the Spaniards, and the English and Scots Presbyterians: so that for their assisting me with their Treasure to carry on the War against the Dutch, I and my Party have consumed their Substance. But having taken care to have that Faction looked upon as my Enemies, whatever they say against me will be reckoned Spite; and therefore though it be true, it won't be much credited. And for any Improvement which the Dutch may make of it, as that I am punished by Fire in my own Capital City, for endeavouring to bring Fire and Sword upon them; I can easily hear them, and laugh at their Folly, for ascribing that to Providence which is my own Action, and looking upon that as my Punishment which I esteem my Advantage; and so far from being their Gain, that it is their irreparable Loss, for the Puritanical Citizens were their true Friends. It's indeed no small Cause of Triumph to the Roman Catholics, that instead of the Fall of Babylon, as the Heretics call Rome, which they expected in 1666. the greatest City of the Reformation should lie in Ashes, with 89 of their Churches which were polluted with Heresy; 13200 of their Houses; 150000 ls Worth of their Books; and in the whole to the Value of betwixt nine and ten Millions of their Goods: so that for once the Catholics have put the Writ, de Haeretico comburendo, very effectually in execution upon their Houses, the Fire or Plague of God having not long before consumed above a Million of their Persons. And if there be any such thing as a Deity, the Catholics might very well say now, as in their Letter to my Lord Mounteagle, which discovered the Powder-plot in my Grandfather's time, that God and Man had agreed to punish this Heretical Generation.   

CHAP. XLI. On the Parliament's meeting at Westminster after the Fire. His Majesty's Demand of more Money. Their Address against Papists. His Majesty's Proclamation on that Head. The Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters. Declaration of War against Denmark. The Insurrection in Scotland in 1666. The burning of his Majesty's Ships at Chattam by the Dutch, etc.  
THough the Catholics have not been able to blow up the Houses of Parliament, with all the Lords and Commons, yet they have consumed the City, which was both the Fountain of the Heretics Treasure and Strength. And to disable the Party further, I have conveen'd the Parliament, who, I doubt not, will dive to the bottom of their Purses, and supply me with Money to ruin their Brethren the Heretical Dutch.  
Though the Parliament hath been liberal enough in parting with their Money, yet I find they are alarmed at the Increase and Growth of Popery; and accordingly have importuned me with an Address. It is not time for me yet to pull off my Vizard, and therefore I must grant a Proclamation to please them; but the Priests and Jesuits shall still have Protection, as Attendants belonging to my Consort the Queen.  
Their Brethren the Dissenters shall pay for this Animosity of theirs against the Papists; and I will take care that the Laws shall be put in execution against them. Let them remind me of my Declaration from Breda, promising Ease to tender Consciences, as much as they please, I am at liberty to change my Measures according to my Interest. The Presbyterians of Scotland have been condignly punished by Fines, Freequarter, and Military Execution, which hath happily procured an Insurrection according to my Desire. So that now the greatest of my Rigour will be justified; and when they pretend to be Sufferes for Religion, I can accuse them of Rebellion. This furnishes me with a justifiable Pretence to cut off some of their Ringleaders at present, and endeavour the Extirpation of the rest by degrees. And this I am sure to have approved by the Church of England, because the Presbyterians obliged themselves to the Extirpation of Prelacy by their Covenant. This will also serve to heighten the Resentments of the Episcopal Party against the Dutch, when I represent how the fanatics act in concert with them, and do manifestly favour their Designs, by beginning an intestine War when I am engaged with them abroad. Whence they will easily be persuaded of the necessity of complying with my Measures against both, especially when I insinuate the Danger that there is to the Church and the Crown, if the Dissenters should not be rendered uncapable of disturbing either. When I once inspire them with these Sentiments, they will the better concur with my Declaration against Denmark, for siding with the Rebellious and Heretical Dutch; and by this Means my Brother of France and I shall reach a fatal Blow indeed to the Northern Heresy, by the Concurrence of the Heretics themselves: for as my Church-of- England-Subjects will certainly assist me on the Considerations , so the French Hugonots concur with their Monarch to destroy those of their own Religion, they being also screwed up to a high pitch of Loyalty, by the Cunning of the Court, and the Management of their Clergy. And thus when we have deprived our Heretical Subjects of all Support from abroad, it will be the easier for us to destroy them at home.  
How unhappily are all my fine Projects blasted, and my Designs against the  not only miscarried, but they have put theirs in execution against me, burned my Royal Navy in my own Haroours, and ride without Control upon my Coasts. This is indeed an intolerable Disgrace, but I must study how to repair it. The Want of Money were a plausible Excuse, but considering the Tax which I lately had, it will not be practicable, and therefore I must endeavour to excuse it, by charging it on the Treachery of the Dutch during the time of a Treaty; which, though it is not likely to obtain Belief amongst knowing Men, yet it will do much to put a stop to the Murmurs of the Vulgar: and in the mean time I must study how to work a Revenge, and not suffer them long to triumph in their Success. I perceive the French King takes advantage of my Circumstances, and hath deluded me on purpose to carry on his own Designs, by giving out that the Dutch would have no Fleet at Sea this Summer. Let him hug and bless himself for his good Success, I may find an Opportunity to make him repent it: May he flatter himself as a great Politician, and framed by Nature for the Empire of the World, I can sooner accomplish my Designs than he can do his, and satisfy my Desires with those things which I look upon as my Summum Bonum: Whereas he can never satisfy his Ambition; and as he makes me to subserve his Designs, his Money shall also subserve mine; and while he pleases himself with the Thoughts of conquering Europe, I will indulge myself in such Conquests as are more agreeable to my Nature, though at the same time I am resolved to give a check to his growing Greatness, by clapping up a Peace with the Dutch and Danes: and thus I shall revenge myself on him for dealing so dishonourably with me, as to suffer it to be printed at Paris, that my Design against Holland was for advancing Popery   

CHAP. XLII. On the murmuring of the People at the Consumption of the Treasure. His Majesty's granting leave to the Parliament's Commissioners to take the Public Accounts. His raising an Army of 30000 Men, and disbanding them. On the Parliament's being displeased with it. The Sessions of Parliament in July, October, and February, 1667. His Majesty's Speeches to them: Proclamation against Papists: Displacing of Chancellor Hid, and League with the Dutch, etc.  
IT's not without reason that the King of England is by Foreigners called, Rex Diabolorum; for my Subjects are truly headstrong, and ill to govern. What mutinous Murmurs do sound in my Ears daily, and grievous Complaints of exhausting their Treasure, when in the mean time the Nation is neither well governed at home, nor secure against the disgraceful Insults of our Enemies abroad? The Seeds of the old Rebellion begin to spring again, so hard a Matter it is to cure this Nation of the Distemper: However in Policy I am obliged to humour them a little; and to please them will offer to give the Parliament an Account which way the Money that they gave me hath been spent. I know that their Commissioners will scarcely be Proof against Gold; so that I can easily take them off if they become too inquisitive. This yielding a little will give me an Opportunity to renew my Blow with the greater Force. And from their Complaints of the Nation's not being secured against Foreign Insults, I shall take the Opportunity to raise an Army in the Interval of Parliament, but model them so as to render them fit for my Design, if possible, both of raising Money without Parliaments, and advancing the Interest of the Church of Rome. If I cannot have all the Officers avowed Papists, I shall at least order it so that they be not Haters of the Church of Rome; for none shall be promoted without Father Patrick's Approbation. To encamp them near the City will be most commodious, that so they may overawe both it and the Parliament.  
But, alas! I find that my Design is perceived; and the Commons being met, are resolved to defeat it. My Aim was glorious indeed, but my Success unanswerable; so that Nature seems to have designed me for the Conquest of Women, but not of Men. A Prince who has not the Command of his Subjects Purses, can never say that he has the Command of their Persons; for I must comply with the Parliament, because I want Money, or otherwise I am sure they'll give me none. The Army that I raised must again be disbanded; else they'll never be satisfied, nor have their Jealousies removed; so that I find I must take another Method. If the Catholics grumble at the Slowness of my Progress, they may remember that the Work in hand is Church-work. I am resolved never to sacrifice my own Quiet to any Party or Profession of Religion; but now that I have re-obtained my Throne, will labour to keep it, having already experienced the Misery of being reduced to Travel. They may be also convinced from my Failure in this Attempt, that I want not Will but Power to serve them; and that to hurry on the Design by Force is the way to ruin both them and me. It's true, that's a very great Mortification to a Sovereign, to receive a Check from those who ought to obey him; but whatever it hath had upon others, it shall have no great Influence upon me, who am resolved to pursue Ease and Pleasure as my chief Good.  
But the Parliament having taken the Alarm, I must sweeten them by soft Speeches; which with the Assistance of my Friends in the House, will take off their Edg. I will tell them that they shall follow their own Methods in bringing those who have received the Public Money to an account; and that their Grievances shall be redressed. I know that the disbanding of the Forces on their Desire, the displacing of my Lord Chancellor Hid, and dismissing of Papists from my Guards, will be acceptable to them. And to please them yet further, I will publish a Proclamation against Papists; and that none shall frequent the Popish Chapels of , St. James', or Foreign Ambassadors, but those who belong to my Mother, the Queen Consort, and the Ambassador's own Families, though at the same time I shall take care that they suffer no Damage for contraveening it. And to pluck up their Jealousies by the very Roots, that I may give them the more surprising Blow, I will make a defensive Alliance with the Dutch and Swedes, which will remove all their Fears, as to the head of Religion: And another for an effectual Mediation of Peace betwixt France and Spain, which will look with a favourable Aspect towards their Civil Rights: but in the mean time I shall connive at the Progress of the French Arms in the Spanish Netherlands, the better to make way for our Designs upon Holland.  
The Parliament being thus sweetened, I will move for Money to rig out another Fleet, which as soon as I obtain, they shall be adjourned and prorogued, so as they may not trouble me with their Importunities to assist the Netherlands; for I know they will be unwilling of the French King's Neighbourhood, though the same will be convenient for me to accomplish my Designs: for in that case they will be prevailed upon by their Fear to allow me a standing Army, that I may always be provided against such a potent Enemy; and then in a little time I shall rule by the Sword, and command their Money to spend upon my Pleasures.   

CHAP. XLIII. On the Proclamation against Dissenters in 1669. Inviting the Dutch and Swedes into a League with us; proposing a nearer Alliance with the Dutch, and forcing the Treaty of Aix La Chappelle upon the Spaniards and the French.  
IF I cannot ruin the Interest of the Heretics in General, yet I can keep those under who are obnoxious to the Laws which were happily procured during the Height of the Church of England's Zeal and Loyalty. And seeing all my other Measures fail me, I am resolved to drive the Nail that will go. That Fanatical Crew are my greatest Enemies, and therefore I have reason to deal with them as such: Their Rigidity of Principles, and Austerity of Practice, render them odious to all Men who love their Pleasures; and they are no less hateful to me, because of their Politics, as having an inveterate Prejudice against the Prerogative, and being great Patrons of the Privileges of Parliament; so that from those of their Kidney I meet with the greatest Obstructions, for which I have sworn and will take a Revenge: It being moreover my Interest to nourish mutual Animosities amongst my Protestant Subjects, and make the two Factions irreconcilable, that so I may keep them from uniting against me in defence of their Common Religion and Liberties. By this Method I have humbled the Kingdom of Scotland, and I doubt not but it will have the same effect in England.  
It's necessary however for the concealing of my Design, to invite the Dutch and Swedes to a League, who both of them being Protestant States, it will possess the common People, that I have still a Zeal for that Religion; but in reality I shall hereby ensnare the Dutch, and render them more liable to the Fury of France. My being divided from them by the Sea will furnish me with Excuses for delaying to give them Assistance; or if I send them any Forces, I can prevent their being serviceable; make use of them, as I find Opportunity, to seize some of their Towns, or find occasion of Quarrel, and join the French. However, this Triple League will please my Parliament: and to impose further upon them, I will propound a nearer Alliance with the Dutch, and bring the French and the Spaniards to a Treaty of Peace, which my Subjects will look upon as the securing of themselves; but at the same time I will take care to maintain the French Interest, and secure them some considerable Posts upon the Frontiers, that so the Door may be open for a new Invasion, whenever he sees his time. However, I must not be wanting to have my Conduct in this Point applauded to the height; as also my Care for the Honour, Safety and Commerce of my Subjects in this Affair magnified, the better to obtain a Subsidy from the Parliament. The Spaniards I know are dissatisfied at this Treaty, because it obliges them to a Surrender of a great part of their Country; and the French are not well pleased to be stopped in their Career; but I must prefer my own Interest to both: It's for my Reputation to be successful in so weighty an Affair; and it will make me the more valued at home, when they see that I have so much Influence abroad.   

CHAP. XLIV. On the Interview betwixt his Majesty and his Sister, the Duchess of Orleans, at Dover; and her Advice to him to break the Triple League, and concur with the French King to destroy the Dutch and the Protestant Religion, and render himself absolute in England. Her leaving one of her Maids of Honour, created afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth, behind her; and her own Death speedily after her Return into France.  
THE Messenger is enough to procure Acceptance to the Message; for who can deny the Request of such a beautiful Princess, though she were not my Sister? The Message of itself is very acceptable, though infinitely full of hazardous Intrigue. It will reflect upon my Honour to break that League of which I was in a manner the Author, and invited all the Princes of Europe to join in it. It's true, I am pretty well accustomed to breaking of Compacts; so that this will not be my first Essay: and though others may not only hate but contemn me for it, yet this Satisfaction I shall certainly reap from it, that thereby I outwit so many Sovereign Princes, whereas hitherto I have only deceived my own Subjects. Though this League be made with more honourable Persons, yet it was far from being so solemn as the Scots League and Covenant: so that as to what concerns Conscience, I may as well do the less as the greater; and in this I have an Advantage which I wanted in that, as having Lewis the XIVth for a Partner in the Crime, if it be one: and it's pretty manifest to all that know us, that we never intended to be Slaves to our Word.  
To destroy the Dutch and the Protestant Religion, and render myself absolute in England, are all Glorious Designs, but not so easy to be practised as proposed. For my Concurrence in the first I can form plausible Pretexts enough; and if that were once accomplished, the other will be the more easily effected. Great Designs ought to be deeply weighed, and therefore I must give a cautious Answer, but not engage in a positive Promise; yet something I must say to please the Messenger, in order to obtain my Desires of her, which I must confess Nature seems to abhor; but my heightened Passion will neither admit any Limits nor Denial. How happy are they in those Parts of the World where they know no such Restraints as we who are called Christians do labour under? there their Loves are promiscuous, without Offence, and they have no Restraint on the Appetites of Nature, but satisfy all its Desires to the full: Then why should I be scrupulous, or filled with Horror, upon such a Motion of the Flesh as this? It's only the Custom and Tenets which we imbibe, that make such Impressions as these upon us. If the Nations where promiscuous Amours are allowed without restraint, thought it contrary to the Laws of Nature, or had any Qualms of Conscience for the Practice, they would never have allowed it; and therefore my Scruples must altogether be owing to my Education. The Mahometans have no Checks of Conscience for their Polygamy, because their Customs and Principles allow it. And it was the like with those who were called the Saints of the Old Testament. Nay, Let enjoyed his own Daughters; and Abraham had his Father's Daughter to Wife. The first, it's true, was not the Effect of Choice, but I am certain the latter was; and if all be true that I have heard, as in truth from my own Temper I have no reason to doubt of it, there's Cause enough to question whether she be not only the Daughter of my Mother, and not of my Father, and in that case I am but even with Abraham: And as for my violating both my own and the Duke of Orleance's Contracts of Marriage, I may be allowed to come so far short of the Father of the Faithful. Let Puritan and Precisians do what they please, for my own part I will worship no Deity, except Priapus be one; nor do I desire any other Heaven than Mahomet's Paradise. If this should take air, my Fanatical Subjects would improve it against me, and say, that such unhallowed Causes must needs have cursed Effects; and that Popery and Slavery can never be ushered in by any other Means than such as violate both the Laws of Nature and Religion, and open the Sluice to the Height of Impiety. They would quickly tell me that a Custom of Sinning hardens the Conscience; and that such promiscous Amours had no little Influence on the destroying Judgements which have from time to time laid so many of the Heathen Nations desolate, and particularly brought the Sword of the cruel Spaniard upon the Americans: That the Failings of the Old-Testament-Saints are not to be Patterns for those who live under the New: That Abraham's Wife was not his Father's Daughter, but Granddaughter by Law: And that the New Testament hath excluded all Whoremongers and Adulterers from the Kingdom of Heaven; with abundance more of such Cant, which influences me to deny that Faction any peaceable Residence in my Kingdom upon Earth, as being morose, the Leaven of all humane Conversation, and an ungrateful Check upon Jollity and Mirth, attributing that to the Effects of Religion and Divine Zeal, which is merely occasioned by Phlegm and Melancholy.  
The bad Influence which so near a Neighbour as the flourishing Republic of Holland may have to animate my Subjects to re-attempt such a Form of Government, will justify my Policy in seeking its Destruction. And the Roman Maxim of Carthago est delenda, and destroying of those who study to rival us in our Trade and Naval Strength, will be taking with the English Nation: and my Concern in destroying their Religion will be covered, by having the French King for my Ally, who is a Roman Catholic by Profession; so that that Affair will be wholly ascribed to him. As to the Proposal of ruining the Protestant Religion in England, and rendering myself absolute, the Reasons of the Attempt are much easier than the Means; some of which are also not ill concerted, as flattering the Church of England, and engaging them in a severe Persecution of the Dissenters, who are indeed the firmest Protestants. Then as for the rendering of myself absolute, the Doctrine of Passive Obedience hath already paved my way toward it, amongst those of the Church of England: And on the other hand I can trick the Dissenters into a Concurrence with it, by dispensing with the Penal Laws, under which they smart so severely; so that they will contribute to heighten this part of my Prerogative for their own ease: and if once I can secure myself in the quiet possession of this Practice of dispensing with Laws, the rest of my Work will be the more easy, especially if once the Dutch were ruined, and their Countries and best Towns shared betwixt the French and me; for in that case my Heretical Subjects can neither have Assistance from thence, nor Recourse thither. And as for Scotland, the Episcopal Party there having no other Interest but mine; and being wholly destitute of the People's Favour, I am in no danger of any Disturbance from that Kingdom, now that I have brought the Presbyterians in that Country so low: And that which will be no little serviceable to my Affairs, is, that the Parliament of Scotland have made an Act to raise me 22000 Horse and Foot to serve in any part of my Dominions, such cordial Friends are their Episcopal Party to the Interest of the Crown.  
My Sister has not only granted me her last Favours, but left me a very agreeable Present to nourish my Flames. My Brother of France has hit the Mark, and if he continues both to fill my Purse, and satisfy my Love, as my Occasions require, he shall find me a very useful Friend.  
But, alas! my Pleasures are always mixed with an Alloy of Mortification: My Sister's Kindness to me hath been her Death. It might have been thought that the Height of our Rank should have set us above the reach of Spies; and that the Nearness of our Relation should have taken away all Cause of Suspicion, that the Danger of divulging the Secret should have locked it up in eternal Silence; or if it had been otherwise, that it should not so readily have obtained Belief: but I am now convinced of the contrary by the dismal Effects; and yet I must be content, and lay aside all Thoughts of Revenge, lest the thing should be laid open to the View of the World. I must henceforth take care to observe the Maxim of living cautè, seeing I cannot live castè: and though my open Practice has declared that I am not to be bounded by the Customs and Laws of the Country, as to my Love-Intrigues; yet I must be cautious how I entrench on the Laws of Nature, because of the general Abhorrence thereof which is impressed upon all Men. I must also take care that I be not thought to debase myself by the Meanness of my Courtships, and therefore will at least dignify my new French Paramour with the Title of a Duchess.  
It's a great while since I absolved myself from the Trouble of making any Prayer to that Bugbear which Princes and Clergymen would impose upon the World, under the Notion of a Deity, merely to render the People Slaves to themselves: And the principal Reason for easing myself of this Trouble was, because I perceived that all things happened alike to those who are called Good, and those who are called Bad. But if there are any Being's superior to Men, I think that the Notion of the ancient Heathens, who were for a Plurality of Gods, has very much Reason in it; and the Roman Catholic Church seems to own the same thing, though under a different Name, when they have so many Saints and Angels to whom they address themselves, according to the Diversity of their Occasions, which does necessarily imply, that they believe a Plurality of Omnipotent and Omniscient Being's. Then seeing the Case is thus, it cannot be amiss for me, that, in imitation of their Example, I betake myself to Patrons suitable to my present Necessities: And it being Priapus and Venus whose Assistance I do most stand in need of, it's reasonable that I should make Application to them both conjunctly, but chief to the first. Nor can I see why it should be culpable in me to make Requests to them in my Prosperity, seeing my Father is said to have made use of a Prayer taken from an amorous Romance, in the Height of his Adversity, though it had been consecrated beforehand to an Heathen Deity. And whereas he whom Christians look upon as the Omnipotent, hath commanded us in his Word to increase and multiply, without any manner of Restriction, it ought not to be offensive to them if I obey him in this Particular.  
But thou, O Priapus! seeing the Female Deity Venus hath cast a favourable Aspect towards me, as Monarch of the Britain's, who are the lineal Descendants of her beloved Trojans, insomuch that the fair Sex have hitherto received my Addresses very kindly, as becomes those who would be obsequious to that beautiful Goddess; be not thou less propitious to me than she, but assist me to the utmost of thy Power, that I may be capable of a grateful Retribution to the fair Nymphs who bless me with their Favours. I have a stubborn and rebellious People, who are more addicted to War than Love; but do thou inspire them with amorous Inclinations, and wound them with the Darts of Cupid, that they may grow out of Conceit with those of Mars. They are fond of Parliaments, because created by themselves; but if thou wilt be pleased to vouchsafe me thy Favour, I may govern them in time by a Parliament begotten by myself. My Sons shall quickly overbalance the Lords, and their Interests and mine will have no little Influence upon the Commons, amongst whom I can also bestow some of my Daughters. Then shall I erect Altars to the God of Love, and make his Conquests as large as my Dominions. Let those who call themselves Christians admire their own Chastity, and boast of their Temperance as loud as they can, I don't find but their Patron was very favourable to the Adultress; and Nicholas, one of the first of their Sect, maintained a Community of Wives. Do thou assist me, and I doubt not but to make thy Religion triumph over theirs; for I am sure that the Number of those who are led by the Flesh, is greater than the Number of them that are led by the Spirit. Nor is it from me alone that thou art to expect Returns of Thanks, but from Venus herself, and her beautiful Train, and particularly those Ladies who have now devoted themselves to my Service.  
To Hymen I have twice performed solemn Adoration, but to thee I vow perpetual Worship, and will extend my Amours as far as my Prerogative. Do not thou, O Goddess of Beauty! withdraw thy Kindness; but as thou hast favoured my Conquests hitherto, be pleased to enlarge them, that I may become Father of my Country in Deed as well as in Name. I have sometimes been apt to blame the fanatics for their long Prayers, but if they be as intent on the obtaining of their Desires, as I am for the obtaining of mine, I find there's no great Reason for it. I am sure that this is the longest Prayer that ever I made in my Life; and accordingly as I find your Answers I shall proportion my Praises, and repay my Thank-offerings on the Altars of Bacchus; you being the only Trinity whom I adore, and the Eleusina Sacra, my beloved Worship.   

CHAP. XLV. On Colonel Blood's Attempt to steal the Crown. A Proclamation against Papists to please the Parliament. The second War with the Dutch. The shutting up of the Exchequer. The falling upon the Dutch Smyrna Fleet before War was declared; and the Declaration of War thereupon.  
THis is a very bold and daring Attempt, and such as may excite Wonder sooner than Belief. If there be many such daring Spirits among the fanatics, it is not Policy to provoke them too much, lest some attempt my Life, as others have done the Crown. However, seeing the Design hath miscarried, it's fit that I should improve it, which may be done several ways: It will serve as an Argument to heighten my Resentments against the Dissenters, and justify my dealing severely with them. It will also serve for a Subject of Clamour against them to those of the Church of England, and animate them to prosecute the Puritans to the utmost; and at the same time countenance my Pretences of a necessity to dispense with the Laws against them, while I am engaged with a foreign Enemy, lest they should be provoked to attempt something more dangerous, though nothing can be more disgraceful than this would have been, had it succeeded.  
The better to cover the Treaty at Dover, and to prevent the Suspicion of my Sister's having engaged me to do any thing in favour of the Catholics, I must emit a Proclamation against them as usual; and though I never intent to put it in execution, the Neglect will be easily fastened upon the inferior Magistrates. I cannot but wonder at this repeated Zeal of the Parliament against the Growth of Popery, when at the same time they are so zealous for a Popish Form of Church-Government and Ceremonies, and concur to make such severe Laws against their Brethren the Dissenters. This must proceed from some Political but not Religious Considerations. They are without doubt unwilling to part with their Church-Lands, to have the old Tax of Peterpences renewed, and be obliged to submit their Necks to the Pope's Usurpation. These, I don't question, are the Grievances of the Laity; and the Loss of their Benefices and Wives have no less Influence upon the Clergy. Nor indeed is this particular Aversion to Popery to be very much wondered at in the Church of England, seeing Popery in all its Pretensions is not admitted by the Church of France, which has no good liking to the Pope's Supremacy, nor did ever admit the Council of Trent.  
As to the War with the Dutch, I must urge all the Arguments to have it effectuated; which my own Invention, and those of the Cabal, are able to furnish. Their Encroachments on Trade being that which will be most plausible with the Populace, the several Companies must be influenced to make Complaints on that Head against them; or if they won't, yet I can assert it boldly in my Declaration. It's true that the Fanatical Part of my Subjects perceive my Design, and mutter it where they dare do it with Safety; but a Royal Declaration will be sufficient to weigh down the Clamours of such: And though they complain of the Injuries done to my Subjects in the Foreign Plantations by the French, yet all these must be buried in Oblivion; so that I shall order such Complaints to be received, but the Grievances shall never be redressed. I must also represent the Dishonour done to the Nation, by the Dutch's refusing to strike to the English Flag; and the Affronts put upon myself by scandalous Medals and Pictures, which my Pensioners and Friends in the House of Commons will take care to aggravate to the Height. It will be a meritorious piece of Service at this time to find occasion of Quarrel with the Dutch, now when they are out in pursuance of the Triple League, to prevent the Progress of the French in the Netherlands. It is not to be supposed that they will be guilty of such a manifest Breach, as to refuse to strike to my Fleet, or any of my Men of War in my own Seas, and therefore I will order a small Yatch to sail through their Navy on their own Coast; and upon their not striking, as in such a case they will scarcely think themselves obliged to do, I shall have Ground enough to found a Quarrel.  
My next Care must be to prevent the Dutch's coming to a Treaty, or offering Satisfaction, and to declare War when they come near a Conclusion, that so the French may have Opportunity of overrunning their Country; and they and I shall divide the Spoil. But this being a Design of great Importance, I must take care to keep it secret; and therefore it's fit that I should put out of the Council all those that are disaffected to the Intrigue, on the pretence of its being contrary to the Interest of England and the Protestant Religion.  
A War with the Dutch being resolved on, my next Care must be to provide Money, which are its Sinews: The pursuit of my Pleasures, which are the chiefest Good that my Soul desires, have drained my Treasury, so that I must think of some Method to fill it again. My Subjects are averse to this War against their Fellow-Protestants, and will not easily be brought to contribute for carrying it on; but having decoyed abundance of the wealthiest of them to bring their Money into the Exchequer, upon hopes of great Gain, I am resolved to shut it up, and apply the Money found there to the Use of the War. This will be an effectual Means to drain the Purses of my Heretical Subjects; and if they murmur, I shall make use of their own Money to chastise them: but I am in no hazard of a Rebellion upon this account, for although the Loss will affect the whole Nation, yet immediately it reaches only to few: None put in Money into the Exchequer but those who have enough left behind; and for such, they'll be loath to hazard the Loss of the rest by any Tumult or Sedition, especially when Passive Obedience is preached to them daily from the Pulpits, that their Lives and Fortunes ought all to be at the Service of their Prince, who has Power to make use of them as he thinks fit, according to the several Exigencies of State. This being one certain Method of procuring Money to carry on the War at the Charge of my Heretical Subjects, I have another in view, to make the Dutch contribute toward it themselves, and that is by seizing their Smyrna Fleet before War be declared. This, it's true, will look ill, but the Catholic Maxim, that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics, absolves me from all Gild: and if I be successful in the War, as I have very great Reason to hope, than I can justify the Action by the Event, as I did formerly when I fell upon their Fleet before Cadiz; and yet I have weathered out all the Storms of Reproach which were impending over me upon that Account.  
To blind my Subjects still further, I must pretend that nothing but unavoidable Necessity could have prevailed with me to have shut up the Exchequer; but that the Welfare and Advantage of particular Persons must always give way to that of the Public; that it's better to seize the Money of a few, to make use of it in Defence of the whole, than suffer Foreigners to invade us, and hazard our All; that seeing all my Neighbours are preparing for War, it's not fit that I should lay myself open to Surprise; and my Treasure being spent, and my Revenues anticipated, it's but reasonable that I should take the first Money that comes to hand, for defence of the Public. Then as to my attacking the Dutch, I must justify it by charging them with Ingratitude to this Nation, notwithstanding of the many Favours conferred upon them by myself and Predecessors: and I am sure of having the Clergy on my side, because of the Hatred which they have against the Dutch, both upon the account of their Government in Church and State; and they, together with the Court-Party, will raise a Clamour sufficient to drown the Murmurs of the fanatics, whom I have also endeavoured to take off by dispensing with the Laws which are in being against them.   

CHAP. XLVI. On the Dutch's surprising our Fleet in Southwold-bay, the Duke of York being Admiral. His Majesty's Declaration to the Dutch. The Progress of the French in the United Provinces. His Majesty's and the French King's Proposals to the Dutch, and their rejecting them, and making the Prince of Orange Stadtholder.  
THE Dutch by their Diligence have balanced my Dissimulation, and surprised me instead of my surprising of them. This is a remarkable Disgrace to my Brother and me, and will strengthen the former Reflections that have been made on our Conduct, confirm the World in the belief of the Unsuccessfulness of our Arms, and make my Subjects curse our Amours, as the fatal Causes of all their Ruin. It's true that his Carriage in this Affair is highly to be blamed, that he should be so intent on the satisfying of his Passion for a Woman, when his chief Passion ought to have been the acquiring of immortal Honour for me and himself, by executing Vengeance on the Heretical Dutch: But why should I upbraid him with it, seeing this Temper is hereditary to him and me both? I must excuse it to the People as the Fortune of War; and in the mean time comfort myself with the Success of my Allies the French, who have well nigh overrun them by Land, though they have had the better of me by Sea; and that Element does now triumph over their Country, upon which they so lately triumphed over me, they being under a necessity of drowning their Territories, as having no other way to save them from their Enemies.  
That I may the better accomplish my Designs upon them, I must take care, if possible, to divide them, and for that end will publish a Declaration, inviting such of them as are either well affected to me, or weary of the Oppression which they groan under at home, to come hither, with their Effects and Ships, to England, where they shall enjoy the Privileges of my natural Subjects: And as this will create a Jealousy amongst themselves, and occasion a general and mutual Distrust, so it will in some measure take off the bad Opinion which my Subjects may have conceived of me for engaging in this War against their Protestant Neighbours. And to prevent the Fanatical Murmurs which have a tendency that way, I will issue a Proclamation, forbidding all public Discourse amongst the People on that Subject. And to consummate their Ruin, I'll send over new Plenipotentiaries to the States, under a pretence of concerting Measures to stop the Progress of the French Conquests, but really to assure them in what they have got, and to prevent their depriving me of my due share, lest Lewis XIV treat me as Aesop's Lion treated his Fellow-Hunters, who would be satisfied with no less Dividend than the whole. By this Means I shall still bring some of the weaker sort to have a good Opinion of me; and in the mean time shall have the Opportunity to attempt the bringing off of the Prince of Orange from the States, by putting him in hopes of enjoying the Sovereignty, while my Plenipotentiaries shall have Instructions to take care that my Interest be assured with the French King; and then when both of us insist upon high Terms, the Dutch must either submit or be undone.  
Though Plots be well laid, they don't always hold, for the Dutch continue refractory, let us do what we can. I thought that my Interest and Authority might have prevailed with my young Nephew the Prince of Orange, especially when tempted with the Proffer of Sovereignty; but I find he is Proof against all such Allurements: the Blood of the Family of Nassau has got the Ascendant in him; so that I am afraid there's not a sufficient Alloy of mine: I doubt that the Consequence will prove, that my Mother's Present of her eldest Daughter, instead of being serviceable to her Design, will utterly ruin it; for that Family seems to be destined for the Bane of unlimited Prerogative, and they have for a long time been the invincible Champions of the Northern Heresy. I do also foresee an impending Storm from the House of Austria, upon me and France, as if the Fates had resolved to turn the World upside down, and make that Family which did propagate the Catholic Religion with so much Zeal a Bulwark now for the Defence of Heresy. It's strange that the Emperor, after he had intimation that the Design of this War was to root out Heresy from the Western World, should yet oppose me and my Brother of France: but let the greatest of the Bigots pretend what they will, I find that their Interest is their chief Religion, and that confirms me in the Opinion that the whole of Religion is a Cheat.  
However, I resolve to go on with my Proposals, and back my Brother the French King in his Demands of a full Liberty to the Roman Catholics, not only to profess their Religion openly, but also to enjoy the Public Churches. And that this may be the better effected, I must stand by him till he have the best of the Towns which he hath taken from the Dutch ascertained to him, and a yearly Gratuity, the Payment of which may reduce them to Poverty. For my own part, I resolve to insist upon having the Flag, and that they shall strike to me on their own Coasts, that so I may assure myself of the Dominion of the Seas; and some of their best Towns I will demand for Security, that they shall faithfully perform their Contracts with me, to pay me a Million for bypast Damages, and 10000 l. per annum for their fishing on my Coasts. By this Means I doubt not but a fatal Blow may be given to those Heretical Republicans, and the Family of Orange quite destroyed, to the great Satisfaction of all good Catholics, to whom they have been irreconcilable Enemies: and I can easily wipe off the Odium, by charging the Prince with Ingratitude for the Royal Favours bestowed on him by my Family.  
But I find that the stubborn Dutch are neither to be frighted nor flattered, now that they have declared the Prince of Orange their Stadtholder. Nor could they give a greater Instance of their bidding Defiance to France, than by massacring the De Wits, who were thought to be its Pensioners. There's no doubt but that they will look upon themselves as betrayed by me, when I sent over Plenipotentiaries on pretence to favour them; and that yet I should enter into a new Alliance with France against them: and they will exclaim against my Unkindness to my Kinsman the Prince of Orange; but they may remember that the French Massacre was carried on under pretence of an Alliance with the head of the Protestants; and that it can be no Crime for so near Descendants of the Royal Family of France, as I and my Mother, to follow so great an Example of our Predecessors. The matching of my Sister with the Family of Orange, was designed as a Kindness to ourselves, and not to them: So that if they do not answer our Design on their part, it's but reasonable that there should be a Breach on ours: And seeing the Dutch by their Example and Encouragement bid defiance to my Arms in so contemptuous a manner, it's but reasonable that I should chastise them for their Insolence, and not sit down patiently under such a Diminution of my Glory; and I doubt not but my Brother of France and I shall find Means to stir up the Bishops of Cologne and Munster, who are Neighbours to the Dutch, and consequently the greatest Haters of them, both because of their Form of Government and Heresy, to take part with us against the House of Austria. And to prevent the Protestants Belief that the chief Design is against their Religion, we shall influence the Duke of Hanover, by our Gold, to join with us; and he being a Protestant, it will make our Design the less perceptible.   

CHAP. XLVII. On his Majesty's suffering the Parliament to meet Novemb. 1673. His Speech to them concerning the Indulgence and the Dispensing Power, and the Necessity of raising more Forces for carrying on the Dutch War. Several unsuccessful Fights with the Hollanders. The Letter from the Dutch to influence the Parliament, who addressed against the Match betwixt the Duke of York and Duchess of Modena. The Prorogation which ensued thereupon. A Proclamation against Papists, and the Consummation of the Marriage.  
HOW uncomfortable is it for a Monarch to be limited, and not to have the Purls of his Subjects at command? for him to be obliged to use Entreaties to his People, who ought to receive his Dictates without Control? But Necessity has no Law, the Constitution of this Government being such, that English Kings are but a sort of Royal Beggars. I must try if my Parliament will let me have Money now that I am disappointed as to my Hopes of seizing the Dutch Smyrna and Spanish Plate Fleets; and that my Supplies from France come but slowly in. I know that they are jealous of their Privileges, have an envious Eye at my Prerogative, and are particularly startled at the Dispensing Power, therefore I must sweeten them by my Speech, and endeavour to possess them with an Opinion that my Design therein was only to secure myself from Tumults and Insurrections at home, while I was engaged in a War abroad, which cannot be thought an unreasonable Fear by any thinking Man, considering the Troubles which the Puritanical Party gave to my Father. And as to their Objection, that more Favour has been shown to Papists than Dissenters, I can easily answer it, that the latter are abundantly more Loyal than the former, and have been fast Friends both to my Father and myself; and yet they were only allowed their Worship in private, whereas the other Party had theirs in public: but as for dispensing with the Executive Part of the Law, I am resolved to hold it as long as I can. Their Fears that I shall make use of the Forces which I raise to subvert their Liberty and Property, I must endeavour to dispel by fair Promises, and the Interest of my Clergy and Pensioners; and at the same time possess them with a Necessity of my raising more Forces for the Honour and Defence of the Nation, that we may not be insulted over by the ungrateful Dutch, whom my Predecessor Queen Elizabeth did raise from the Dust. I have culled out the Earl of Shaftsbury for Lord Chancellor, who may do me very great Service, because a Popular Man; so that I shall make use of his Influence and Eloquence both to palliate my having shut up the Exchequer, and to demonstrate the Necessity of a War with the Dutch, and at the same time of granting an Indulgence to the Papists.  
I perceive that the bad Influences of my Stars are not yet exhausted; for though I lay my Designs with all imaginable Policy, they do often miscarry. Who would have thought that so many fair Promises, backed with the Earl of Shaftsbury's Eloquence, and the Interest and Influence of my Pensioners, should have miscarried in Parliament? and yet, to my great Regret, I do find that it has; so that nothing will serve but a renouncing of my Dispensing Power, and fresh Assurances, that never any thing of that Nature shall be attempted again; which, rather than want Money, I am resolved to comply with: for if I could but once get a Standing Army on foot, I should soon be able to retrieve it. And in the mean time I shall take care to have all this Clamour against the Dispensing Power and Standing Army imputed to the Jealousies and envious Surmises of the fanatics and Republicans. And from this Obligation laid upon me to recall my Act of Indulgence, I shall at least reap this Advantage, that it will heighten the Animosities betwixt the Dissenters and Churchmen; for I can easily bring it about to have the Refusal of it wholly imputed to the latter: And though I have no reason to be well satisfied at the Check which is hereby put upon my Prerogative, yet it hath thus much of a Cordial in it, that I perceive the Episcopal Party wholly irreconcilable to the Presbyterians, which at some time or other will very much forward my grand Design: and at present it has had so much Influence as to procure me a considerable Sum; though, to avoid the Reproaches of the Fanatical Party, the Parliament won't own that it is for carrying on the War against the Dutch, but to supply my extraordinary Occasions.  
If it were not that I question the Being of a Deity, I should be apt to conclude that God fights for the Hollanders, who have obtained some fresh Advantages against me at Sea: and though they labour under the greatest of Pressures that can be, they do also make good their Cause against the Power of France by Land. And those pernicious Heretics being sensible of the Apprehensions which my Parliament have, that the Consequences of this War may be fatal to the Protestant Interest, they have taken the most effectual Method that can be to possess that Heretical Divan, that the French King and myself aim at nothing less than the Subversion of their Religion, and the Liberties of their State, with that of the Spanish Netherlands. Nor have I any other way to save myself from the Influences of this Accusation, than by insisting on the necessity of destroying those States to preserve our own Trade, and to prevent the Encouragement which they give to those who are Enemies to the established Discipline of our Church.  
There is but too much Truth in the common Proverb, That after one Mischief comes another, for so I find it by sad Experience. Though the Dutch and the Fanatical Party be both of them hated by the Church of England, yet they have Influence enough to foment Jealousies in the Parliament, that their Religion and Liberty are both in danger: And hence comes the Address of the Commons against my Brother's Match with the Duchess of Modena, because a Catholic Princess, and proposed by the French King. 'Tis true that this may indeed seem inconsistent with my reiterated Protestations of taking all imaginable Care to secure the Protestant Religion and the People's Liberties: but amongst so many Concessions I may certainly venture on one Dram of Prerogative, and tell them, that the Marriage is concluded by my Authority, that in Honour I cannot be worse than my Word; and if this will not satisfy them, I'll cool them by a Prorogation.  
What ill Fate is this that attends all my Measures! I did reasonably hope that this Prorogation would have diverted the Commons from insisting on their Address against my Brother's Match; but it seems that the Jealousy which they have conceived has taken deeper Root than to be pulled up so soon, and therefore I find myself under a necessity to prorogue them again, seeing they press me so hard to dissolve the Match, because hitherto only concluded by Proxy. They are become very sagacious, and discern that this Marriage will engage me in new Alliances, which may be dangerous to the Protestant Religion: and that the Princess having so many Relations in the Court of Rome, the Secrets of my Court must needs be open to them, and therefore they are about to render Catholics uncapable of sitting in either House of Parliament: but this is too much for me to concede; and if granted, would ruin my Design entirely; and therefore I must find out some Method to divert the Current, which I cannot attempt with hopes of so much Success any other way, as that of laying the whole Burden upon the fanatics, and the Suggestions of the Dutch, it being both their Interests to create Differences betwixt the Parliament and me; and that therefore I thought fit to prorogue them, that they may have time for second and more moderate Thoughts, because the Enemy would reap more Advantage from our Divisions than they could flatter themselves with the hopes of from their own Arms; and that therefore it's more their Interest to secure me and themselves from our only Competitors and Rivals at Sea abroad, and the fanatics, who are the Brands of intestine Discord at home, the present Evils under which we labour, than to trouble themselves about such remote Consequences as the Fears of the Growth of Popery, because of my Brother's marrying with a Catholic Princess: And in the mean time, that my Friends amongst the Clergy and others, who will certainly espouse the Defence of my Practice, may have Groundwork for plausible Arguments, I will publish a Proclamation for putting the Laws in execution against Papists, forbidden them my own Court, and that of my Brother; which, though it may seem very hard and severe upon our good Friends the Roman Catholics, yet none of them, who are Men of Thoughts, will be much offended at it, when they consider that he and I both have chosen Wives of that Religion; and especially that I take care to have my Brother's Marriage solemnised the very next day after the Proclamation. And to cut off all Pretence of Excuse from the Church of England, whom I design to engage in the Cause with myself, the Marriage shall be consummated by one of their own Bishops at Dover, that Place being already famous for the Alliance which broke the Triple League, on the Influence of my Sister the Duchess of Orleans. And thus I shall retrieve my late Losses, and strengthen my Alliances with France, by matching my Brother with an adopted Daughter of that Crown, there being no more reason for the Parliament's opposing of the Match with this Popish Princess, than that which was talked of with the Arch-dutchess of Inspruck: Whence I perceive, that though the Clamour to enrage the Populace be the Danger of Religion, yet there's nothing but Policy and Interest at bottom: and that they thought an Alliance with the House of Austria not so dangerous to their own Liberties, as one with the House of Bourbon: and their Argument from Conscience hath received a mortal Wound, when the Bill that English Princes should marry none but Protestants was thrown out of the House of Lords by the unanimous Vote of the Bishop's Bench, though their Lordships, at the same time, did as unanimously vote for a Test to make their own Form of Church-Government unalterable: And certainly if they who call themselves the Fathers of the Protestant Church have so little Zeal for the Main of their Religion, I may be allowed a greater Latitude on that Head, and even to oppose it when those ghostly Fathers have given Instructions to their Clergy, to represent the Dissenter as a more dangerous Enemy than the Papist.   

CHAP. XLVIII. On his Majesty's Speech to the House of Lords, upon the Address of the Commons against his Declaration of Indulgence. The Answer of the Lords thereunto. The Vote of the Commons for Ease to Protestant Distenters, and that part of their Address which desired that all in Places of Power and Trust should take the Sacrament according to the Church of England.  
THE Commons having showed so much Warmth against my Declaration of Indulgence, I thought that my Speech would have proven a very good Expedient to have set the Lords at Variance with them, especially when I professed so much Zeal for the Upper House: but I find, that though they differ in respect of their own particular Privileges, yet they are agreed in the common Heads of Religion and Liberty, and consequently in the defence of them against my Designs, as appears by their conjunct Address, wherein they complain of Papists being admitted into Places of Power and Trust, and especially into Military Commands; and instead of standing by me against the Commons, they have only resolved that my Answer to them in referring the Points in controversy to a Parliamentary Decision is good and gracious.  
By the Vote of the Commons for Ease to Protestant Dissenters, I perceive that they are now jealous that those Penal Laws were at first framed for the destruction of the Protestant Interest: but seeing they have denied me the Privilege of dispensing with those Laws, I shall take care to have them kept on foot; and this will be sufficient to render all their Efforts against me faint and of no effect, which would be formidable enough if the Strength of the Protestants were united: And whereas they think that they have done mighty things in excluding Papists from Places of Power and Trust by their Sacramental Test, it demonstrates sufficiently how little they are acquainted with the Principles or Practices of the Catholics, who can have a Dispensation to do what they please for the advancement of their Interest. And that, moreover, there are abundance of Church-Papists, who make no Scruple of Conformity; whereas the Dissenting Protestants, who are the greatest Enemies to my Measures, cannot comply with the said Test: so that instead of excluding their Enemies, they shut out their Fellow-Protestants; or at least will be sure to manage it so as to make it have that Effect; and I doubt not to reap very good Advantage from this Method, and to make it appear to the common Observer, that this manner of Procedure is wholly (as it is indeed in a great part) owing to the Rancour of the Episcopal Party, and not to the Designs of the Court: for I make no question but that the Church-of- England-Clergy will speedily take the Alarm of the Hazard that threatens their Constitution, if once Dissenters have Ease, and be admitted into the Church; so that my Enemies are not ware of my Advantage against them, by having the Pulpits of the Nation on my side. By the Influence of the Bishops, who depend so much upon me, I can make the Pulpits speak in the Court-Dialect, and libel the Proceed of the Commons as the Result of Fanatical and Republican Consults; which being pronounced ex Cathedra, and having the Shadow of Divine Authority, and that of the Civil Magistrate, to back it, will have a more universal Effect than their private Murmur in Clubs and Conventicles. And though this Test may in some measure incommode the bigoted Catholics in my Service at home; yet I will order it so as it shall not reach those who are in my Service abroad; and there I can have a Nursery of Swordmen fit for my purpose, and provide for my Catholic Officers, till such time as the Design for introducing of Popery and Absolute Monarchy be ripe.   

CHAP. XLIX. Upon the Complaints of the Commons, that Ireland was like to be overrun with Popery, because of his Majesty's Proclamation, allowing Papists to live in Corporations, and giving them equal Liberties to the English. Their Address concerning the Danger of the Protestant Interest there; and that Mr. Richard Talbot should be removed from all Public Employment, and denied Access to Court: And their Address concerning English Grievances; with Reflections on the Miscarriages of his Majesty's former Designs of being impower'd to raise Money without Parliament, on extraordinary Occasions; and having an Universal Excise settled on the Crown.  
WHat mighty Clamours do continually sound in my Ears, as to the Dangers which threaten the Protestant Religion? and now that I have given them the most solemn Promises that can be for my Care and Endeavours to preserve the same in England, they exhibit an Address of their Fears as to Ireland, where they strike at once both against my Designs in Church and State, and fall foul upon my Proclamation, granting the Irish Papists the same Liberty with the English Protestants; so that they are resolved to quarrel with my Prerogative in every Particular, and will allow me to be Absolute in nothing but in quelling Dissenters, so little Sense have they of that Religion which they profess, by the Laws of which they are enjoined to love their Neighbours as themselves: but I perceive that they are firmly resolved that none shall have the Privilege to buy nor sell, but such as conform to the Church of England.  
The imprudent Zeal of Mr. Richard Talbot, who glories in being Agent to the Roman Catholics in Ireland, hath animated them not only to address against him, but against employing any Catholics in Ireland, either as Officers or Soldiers. Nor do they stop there, but desire that I should recall my Commission of Inquiry into Irish Affairs, as tending to the Overthrow of the Act of Settlement; and the like as to my Letter, forbidding the Prosecution of the Irish for any Injuries they committed in the late Rebellion; and urge me to banish their Titular Bishops and Archbishops, and to suppress their Seminaries and public Schools, and yet at the same time pretend to be the Patrons and Disciples of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, while they prescribe Laws to their Monarches. I thought it the best Policy to begin to exert my Prerogative in Ireland, by extending Favour to the Catholics there, who did so cordially espouse my Father's Quarrel against the Puritanical Rebels both in England and Scotland, concluding, as I thought with Reason, that the Church-of- England-men would have been willing that the Irish Catholics, who were their Fellow-Sufferers in Affliction, should also be Fellow-Sharers with them in their Prosperity after my Restoration; and that those who had no Scruple of Conscience to join with them in Arms against their common Enemies the Presbyterians, even after they were accounted barbarous for massacring the Protestants, should have had no Disquiet at seeing them Copartners with themselves in my Royal Bounty: but I find that I am mistaken, and that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience is only calculated to the Church of England's Interest, but has no place when that is not the Monarch's chief Aim; for they not only take upon them to quarrel with my Proclamations and Letters about the Affairs of Ireland, but pretend to order who shall have Access to my Court, and who not, as if the King of Great Britain was to be confined to as narrow Limits as the Doge of Venice, so ill founded are those People's Complaints against the Scots Presbyterians, for imposing Conditions upon me before my Coronation; that they themselves who admitted me almost without any, are now for entrenching upon my Prerogative when I am in plenary Possession: And yet because of this pretended Constraint upon me, the Episcopal Party justify my Breach of Covenant with the Scots; so that according to their own Doctrine I may as well break with themselves when I find an Opportunity, because they now take the Advantage of my Circumstances and want of Money to bring me to their own Terms, which is still more palpable from their other Address concerning their own Grievances, viz. my imposing of 12 d. per Cauldron upon Coals, for providing of Convoys; the exempting of my Soldiers from ordinary Justice; the quartering of them on private Houses; the pressing of Men for Land-Service, etc. So that notwithstanding of the Divine Right of Succession, my not being accountable to any but God, and the Height to which their Divines have preached up my Prerogative, they would still reduce me to a King of Clouts. These things being so inconsistent with the Church of England's pretended Principles, I must take care to possess the Clergy of the Danger they are in if such Encroachments upon the Crown be suffered to pass without Animadversion: for as they value themselves upon the Maxim of No Bishop, no King; as if where Episcopacy is not the Government of the Church, Monarchy can never be that of the State; I am sure that the converted Proposition, No King no Bishop, will hold much truer: And if once there be an Encroachment made upon the Crown, the Privileges of the Mitre will never be lasting; and therefore it's their Interest to disown the Maintainers of such Principles for true Sons of the Church, as I can never own them for good Subjects to the State; and so we shall brand them with a Note of Ignominy: But in the mean time I must put the Commons off with a smooth Answer, both my Father and I having sufficiently smarted by provoking Parliaments, though at the same time I shall be sure to prorogue them, that so all their Designs of Ease to Dissenters, and to oppose my Brother's Match, may fall to the ground; and this I esteem a much safer way of dealing, than to withdraw from them, and set up my Standard, as my Father did, who seems to have entailed his Misfortune in War on all his Posterity; for I find that the Minds of those who depend entirely upon me are mutable, and therefore I have less Reason to put Confidence in the Body of the Nation, who brag of their Privileges as a free People. The Churchmen, notwithstanding of their former Flights of Zeal for the Prerogative, do many of them join with those who are for encroaching upon it; and my very Pensioners, who lived by my Bounty, withstood my Designs of having a Power to levy Money upon extraordinary Occasions, and getting an universal Excise settled upon the Crown, because they found that if these things were but once obtained, there would be no need of Pensioners, and consequently an End put to their Salaries and Subsistence. Nor are even the highest of the Clergy, who bind Passive Obedience upon the Consciences of their Hearers, on pain of Damnation, willing to have an Arbitrary Power put in exercise over themselves: and the most obsequious of their Hearers, though they applaud the French King and his Government, are very unwilling to have it introduced here, and therefore concur with the Fanatical Members to oppose the keeping up of a Standing Army; and as they have excluded their Brethren the Dissenters, they are also unwilling that the Roman Catholics should be Sharers with them in Places of Power and Trust: so that my Episcopal Subjects are indeed very Loyal, but it's on this Condition, that they alone may enjoy the Bag; and if either I, or any of my Successors shall put out our hands and touch them in their Property, I make no doubt of it but they will curse us to our Face; and therefore I must take care to drive on cunningly but not furiously, so that when I have a mind to be revenged on any of my Enemies, I must represent them as fanatics and Commonwealths-Men; then shall I be sure to have them baited from the Pulpits, nor shall they find any more favourable Treatment when they come before the Benches.   

CHAP. L. On his Majesty's making Application to the Parliament of Scotland, upon his failing of Money from the Parliament of England, the Scots insisting first upon the Redress of their Grievances, and sending Duke Hamilton and others to London for that End.  
MY Case is very desperate when I must have recourse to the Poorest of my Subjects for Money, and that the Richest refuse it. My Father and Grandfather took such Measures as tended to the keeping of Scotland low; so that it's no wonder that that Nation should have failed them in their Distress. They were obliged by their Coronation-Oaths to live some part of their time there, lest the Substance of the Kingdom should be spent in England by the Nobilities being obliged to frequent the Court: but Reasons of State induced them to do otherwise; for the Scots being a People tenacious of their Privileges, and zealous for their Religion, did oppose their Measures for advancing the Prerogative; whence it became necessary to humble them, lest their Example should have had bad Influence on the two other Kingdoms. My Father, it's true, would have proceeded further, and designed to have chastised their Contumacy with the Sword; but how unsuccessful it proved in the Event, is too late and recent to be forgotten: their Kindness to me was truly remarkable in declaring me their King immediately upon his Murder; but I am afraid that my treatment of them since hath effaced those good Impressions which they had of me then, seeing I have not only overturned the Presbyterians, who were at that time my greatest Friends, but cut off the Chief of their Patrons, and brought the whole Party under the lash. Cursed be the Necessity which occasions my application to them, and may those Disciples of Passive Obedience, the Church-of- England-Men, be dealt with in the same manner as they have dealt with me. They pretended to receive me without any previous Terms, and to own the Divine Right of my Succession to the Throne; but now when I have settled the Discipline of their Church, and brought the Dissenters under their feet, they are also for disputing my Commands, and confining my Prerogative within narrower Limits. I must now try whether their Brethren, the Episcopal Party in Scotland, will be any thing more ingenuous, and if they can really perform what they have so solemnly promised, they have undertaken to assist me with 22000 Horse and Foot wherever I shall have occasion; then surely they may let me have the Money and save their Men, which would do my business in an effectual Manner: and that no means may be left unattempted, I will send the Earl of Lauderdale, their great Patron, to persuade them to it.  
But my cursed Fate continues inauspicious, and I find that the Party in Scotland are very insignificant, being not so much as able to grant me one Subsidy; but instead of that, I am presented with an Address of their Grievances, and a smart Remonstrance against Lauderdale's Ministry, backed by the greatest of the Peers of Scotland, whose Noise and Complaints have reached me in England; and until those be redressed, they won't so much as hear of any Overtures for Money. I was made to believe that an unbounded Loyalty had been so universally diffused through that Kingdom, that the Episcopal Party adored, and the Presbyterians feared me; but Experience teaches the contrary, else what means this bleating of the Sheep and lowing of the Oxen? the Episcopal Party though they alone are capable of being admitted to Parliament, either cannot or will not give me Money, and their Libel of Grievances are but an old Presbyterian Remonstrance newly vamped, being an Impeachment of my Administration both in Church and State, and including Desires in favour of the Dissenters. They complain of the Monopoly of Salt, which hath increased the price of it so much, that what was formerly had for 4, cannot now be bought for 20s. though the Inconvenience of this Monopoly was represented to me. They do also murmur against the Impositions on Brandy and Tobacco; and that the Lords of the Articles who were originally no more than a Committee of the Parliament's appointment, are now advanced above Parliaments themselves: That the Mint and Coinage are corrupted: Persons ignorant and insufficient created Judges: That the Bishop of Edinburgh and others of the Clergy are countenanced in preaching reflectingly upon the Parliament: That Magistrates are illegally imposed upon the City of Edinburgh: That eminent Offices are accumulated upon single Persons; and conclude this Point with the Maladministration of my Revenue, and the Earl of Lauderdale's excessive Greatness. In the next place they complain of the Severity of the Laws against the Presbyterians, and that my own Power is too great in Church-Affairs: so that the Nations seem resolved to join Complaints against my Government; and how fatal the Issue of that may be, I can easily conjecture from bypast times; therefore I must dismiss Duke Hamilton with a favourable Answer, and promise a Redress of Grievances in Parliament, that so I may allay their present Heat. 'Tis happy for me that I have two other Kingdoms by which I can overawe them, or else their Address had been backed by the Sword, and they would probably have brought me on my Knees before their Parliament, as they have done several of my Predecessors, or have cut off my Head; but I shall henceforth endeavour to put them out of a Capacity to deal so by me or any of my Successors. And whereas the Presbyterians do tenaciously adhere to the pretended Liberties of their Forefathers, instead of Rods, by which they were chastised by my Father, I shall henceforth order it so that they shall be punished with Scorpions, that they may be rendered altogether unable to raise any Rebellion at home, or assist the Parliament of England, and the Protestants of Ireland abroad. I will take such effectual Course to render them contemptible, that they shall not henceforth have the Vanity, as in my Father's time, to think that the Representation of their Pressures can find any Acceptance with their ancient Allies of France, to whom they recommended themselves formerly by their Military Services; so that at once I shall revenge upon them the Blood of all my Predecessors whom they have murdered, and turn the best of their Country into a Hunting Field. And herein I doubt not of the Concurrence, or at least Connivance of the English Nation, because of the ancient Enmity betwixt the two Kingdoms; and if once the Scots be subjected, I shall with the more Ease bring England under the Yoke.   

CHAP. LI. On the Spanish Ambassador's Proposals for an Union betwixt England and Holland, and declaring that they must break with England if the same were not accepted. The Manifesto of the Dutch to the Parliament of England, wherein they appeal to them for the Righteousness of their Cause. The Parliament's Endeavours thereupon for a Peace; and his Majesty's agreeing to it without including the French King.  
MY Stars seem to threaten me with a Series of bad Influences; I can neither have Money from my Subjects of Scotland nor England, nor yet the wont Supplies from France: and now the Spaniards are not only become Mediators, but threaten me if I continue the War with the Dutch. What a mighty Change is this, that they who did formerly seek their Destruction, should now interpose for their Preservation, and treat their formerly Rebel-Subjects with that Respect which is due to the best of their Allies: And that his Catholic Majesty, whose Predecessors were the greatest Champions for Popery and Absolute Monarchy, should now become the Patron of Heretics and Republicans. I may hence observe, that Princes pursue different Measures, according to their different Interests, and support those at one time, whom at another they seek to destroy. The Spaniard, though esteemed the most bigoted Papist, yet prefers his Interest to his Religion, and thinks it better to save the Heretical Dutch, than to perish with them; and to preserve their Commonwealth, rather than to lose a Limb of his own Monarchy. And seeing all the Neighbouring Monarches pursue what they think their different Interests, and summum bonum, by such Methods as they themselves think best, I may certainly be allowed to pursue my Pleasures, which I reckon my chief Happiness, by such Methods as I myself think convenient.  
The Dutch take advantage from the Discontents of my Subjects, and labour to foment Jealousies betwixt them and me; and according to their Republican Humour, would make the Parliament judge of my Actions, whereby they would insinuate themselves into my People's Favour, and blacken my Designs as much as they can.  
Accordingly I do find that they have their Aim, and the Commons have declared their Sentiments for a Peace; so unhappy a thing it is when the Head and the Members don't agree, and that Sovereign and Subjects drive different Designs. I must try what Influence a Speech will have upon the Commons, when larded with Promises of securing their Religion and Property; and tell them, that our Enemy's place their greatest Hopes in our Divisions; and seeing they prepare for a War, it will be very dishonourable for the English Nation to be threatened into a Peace, especially seeing the best way to procure an honourable Peace is to treat with the Sword in hand, and to have a good Fleet ready to oppose them, which cannot be effected without a large Supply. I have also taken care to inform the House as to my Treaties with France, of which they have had hitherto very frightful Representations, but cannot prevail with them to believe what I say, so far have their Jealousies got the Ascendant over them, that Popery and Arbitrary Government are ready to break in upon them; wherein the Earl of Shaftsbury proves a very ill Instrument, and foments their Jealousies by discovering my Intrigues, so mischievous a thing is it when great Courtiers fall off from their Duty; so that now the Commons will listen to nothing without a firm Security for their Religion and Property: and the better to insinuate to the People the greatness of their Danger, they have made application to me to appoint a Fast, desire that the Trainbands of London may be raised to suppress the tumultuous Meetings of the Papists, and accuse my chief Ministers of Designs against the Nation, for which they would have them banished my Presence for ever. These are woeful Circumstances to which I am reduced, and afford me but a melancholy Subject of Meditation, when I consider what Pains and Expense I have been at to deliver the Nations from the Bigotry of Religion, by testifying how little I value it in my own Practice, and how careful I have been to discourage it in others; that now when my Parliament hath concurred with me for so many Years, to ruin their dissenting Brethren at home, and Protestant Neighbours abroad, they should at last become refractory and obstinate, and from an overheated Zeal for Religion pursue the same Measures themselves which they have condemned in others. I reckoned that the indulging of a Licentiousness in Practice, would at last have extinguished all Sense of that which they call Religion; but the Event shows that I am mistaken. The fanatics, whom I have prosecuted, will say, that the Judgement of God hath pursued me, and created a Difference betwixt me and my Parliament, who did so unanimously concur to promote their Ruin; and this Cant they will buzz and spread about the Nation, and value themselves upon their Foresight, as having so long ago foretold what is now come to pass; and by this Means work upon the present Fears and Ferment of the Nation: but I shall fall upon a Method to be even with them afterwards, and infallibly turn the Tables upon them. In the mean time I must make the best Improvement of my present Circumstances that I can; and seeing there is no avoiding of a Peace with the Dutch, I must seek for a Pretence to come off with Honour, for which the Marquis de Fresno's Proposals, in name of his Catholic Majesty, come very opportunely: for seeing they are new Proposals, I can easily give out that they are more advantageous than the former; and by seeming to advise with the Commons, whether it be meet for me to accept of them or not, I shall both please them, and salve my own Reputation, for my Allies the French will by this Means see that my concluding of Peace is the Effect of Constraint, and not of Choice, seeing I can neither have Money nor the Parliament's Consent to carry on the War: and if the French King should complain that I act dishonourably in concluding a Peace without him, it will be a plausible Answer, that I am not Absolute as he is: So that having neither Men nor Money at Command, without my Parliament's Concurrence, I am under a Necessity of discontinuing a War, which they are against: And seeing he hath failed me in his promised Supplies, he cannot be angry that I seek for them elsewhere, it being every whit as reasonable that I should satisfy my own Pleasures, as it is for him to gratify his Ambition. And seeing my Parliament have very bad Impressions of the Treaties betwixt him and me, as containing mysterious and dangerous Articles, it's but reasonable that I should draw a Veil over their Eyes, by seeming now to come to an absolute Rupture, that we may afterwards carry on our Designs with less Suspicion: but if none of those Reasons will satisfy him, I am not solicitous, for I know that he can as little be without me as I can be without him; and that a mutual Friendship is indispensably necessary for the carrying on of either our Designs; and if he will be disgusted at this Treatment, he may remember how he forbade me his Dominions at the Instance of a Rebel and Usurper, and how little Care he hath had of my Reputation ever since, but hath continually exposed me both as to the Affair of betraying Monsieur Rohan, the suffering of it to be printed at Paris, that he and I engaged in this War against the Dutch, on purpose to destroy the Protestant Religion, ordering his Squadron to abandon my Fleet in the Day of Battle, and grasping all the Country to himself when he overrun the Hollanders by Land, without the least Design of making me a Sharer, according to our Agreement. But let him be well or ill pleased, I cannot help it: My Parliament have not only testified their Dislike of his Alliance, and this present War, but have begun to attaque me in the Persons of my Ministers, who have hitherto been so necessary both for the promoting of my Prerogative and Pleasures; and therefore in prudence I am obliged to clap up a Peace, not being able to deal both with the Parliament at home, and the Dutch abroad; though I must confess that it is not without a sensible Regret that I must perceive both him and myself robbed of our Prey when it was just betwixt our Teeth.   

CHAP. LII. On his Majesty's proroguing the Parliament, because of their impeaching his Ministers, forming Bills against Popery, and for the marrying of those of the Royal Family with Protestants, and educating their Children in that Religion. Clamours raised in the Nation, that we were running back to 41. The Court's mediating a Peace betwixt France and Holland, and sending 10000 of their own Subjects into the French King's Service.  
IT may be thought strange that a Parliament of such staunch Churchmen should be so uneasy with their Sovereign, and contrary to their professed Principles wound me so furiously through the sides of my Ministers; they condemn the Puritans for insisting so much against Strafford and Laud, whereas they themselves are as violent against the Duke of Buckingam, Earl of Lauderdale, and Earl of Arlington. Whence I find, that let them pretend what they will, their Loyalty is measured by their supposed Interest.  
My being obliged to concede to them in one thing hath emboldened them to press upon me to yield in another: So that having obliged me to put an End to the War, they are resolved to deprive me of the Sweets of Peace, and to rob me of those Ministers in whom I delight, because of their Agreement with me in Practice and Design. If I suffer them to be brought to trial, it will not only discourage others from serving me afterward, but endanger both my Reputation and Safety, and bring me to Repentance when it is too late, as my Father did after he abandoned Strafford. I must not therefore run such a risk, for if I leave them to the Vengeance of the Commons, they will secure themselves by accusing me, and consequently break all my Measures, therefore it is necessary for me to prorogue the Parliament; and if I can be otherwise supplied with Money, shall never call them more, but rid myself of that pernicious Divan, who are an ungrateful Check upon all Monarches. My Father found, by sad Experience, the mischievous Inconvenience of making use of them; and what King is there who will not be easily convinced of the danger of having such an Assembly to control them in their Designs, dive into their Secrets, and chain up their Hands, that I must neither favour what Religion I think fit, marry what Wife I please, nor make such Alliances as I think advantageous, and for my Interest, without their Consent, and Limits, or rather Fetters of their imposing? And thus my illnatured Subjects do continually stun my Ears with their Clamours against Popery; not that they have any true Regard to the contrary Religion which they profess, as may be seen by their Practice, but because of their temporal Interest. Then they break in upon the Peace of my own Family; so that I must neither gratify a Wife, to suffer her to educate a Child in her own Religion, though perhaps the same may be also most agreeable to my own Opinion: Nor must any of my Children, or near Relations, be suffered to marry with Roman Catholics, for fear of the dangerous Consequence to their beloved Heresy. And thus though they pretend to believe that Monarchy is the only Government of Divine Right, and that I hold my Crown from God alone by lineal Succession, they load me with such Fetters that they convert my Diadem to a Crown of Thorns; and how desirable soever a Throne may seem to be, yet by those Restraints they would make it sweeter to the Fancy than the Enjoyment.  
This dangerous Temper must be obstructed in time, and a Method found out to divert their Zeal, and give it some other Current. The fanatics were the last who had them under their Feet, and have still a great Interest in the Nation; whereas the Catholics have now been dispossed for an Age, and have no other Prospect but the Favour of the Court to recover their Footing. Then the Course which does naturally offer itself to my View, is to alarm the Nation with the Danger of relapsing into the Disorders of 1641. which issued in the Destruction of the Church and Monarchy. The Puritans ushered in their Rebellion by Clamours against the Invasions of their Civil Rights by an unlimited Prerogative, and of their Religion by Innovations in Doctrine and Discipline; and that therefore it is a Shame for them who pretend to so much Loyalty, and to despise others upon the account of contrary Principles, to be found tracing their Footsteps. The Clergy, I am sure, will be sensible of the Danger, and will, no doubt, be ready to take the Alarm; and when the Pulpits are on my side, I can diffuse what Opinions and Notions I please through the Nation: and if once the Clergy be possessed with an apprehension of the Danger they are in of losing their Benefices by the fanatics; and that the Gentry, who did formerly smart by Sequestrations, be effectually put in mind of their former Sufferings, and the Probability of running headlong into the same Inconveniencies, by pursuing the Methods which they are now upon; I doubt not but the Current will turn as strongly upon the fanatics and Republicans, as it does now against the Catholics and Courtiers, especially when backed by my Authority, and made the Pathway to Preferment in Church and State; for I shall henceforth take care that none be advanced in either, but such as are willing to concur with my Designs. For the carrying on of which it is necessary that some acute Pens be set at work to defend my Proceed, and draw such Vails over them as cannot be seen through by ordinary Observers.  
It is also necessary for that end, that I employ some fit Persons to negotiate a Peace betwixt France and Holland, which as it will be a plausible Argument of my Aversion to have that Protestant State destroyed, it will give the French King an Opportunity to concert his Measures at leisure, render his Protestants less useful to him at home, and the easier to be destroyed, and enable him to assist me in advancing my Prerogative: for which end he shall have 10000 of my Subjects in his Service, who after they have acquired Experience and Reputation in his Wars, will be useful to me for training up others, and be ready at hand to quell my rebellious Subjects, in case of intestine Troubles.  
The old Cavaliers may be now very useful to me; and whereas they have hitherto complained of being neglected, I will incite them by hopes of having their old Services rewarded, to publish their former Sufferings afresh, and declare that the Parliament is taking the same Methods which did formerly ruin the Church and the State, by which Means I shall bring their Procedure to be hated, and animate the Royalists and zealous Churchmen against them.   

CHAP. LIII. On the Meeting of the Parliament again, April, 1675. Their falling upon Bills for the Benefit of the Nation, and being diverted by the sudden bringing in of a Têst into the House of Lords, to be imposed upon all in Places of Power or Trust, Civil, Military or Ecclesiastical; obliging them to declare their Abhorrence of taking up Arms against the King, or any commissionated by him; and to swear that they would not at any time endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State.  
THE Want of Money obliges me to let the Parliament sit after so long a Prorogation; but, to my great Grief, I perceive that the Vitals and noble Parts of the Nation are in danger by this Contagion of rebellious Principles, which hath raged so long amongst them. Insomuch that whereas it might have been justly expected that this long Prorogation should have cooled them, they fall upon the old Theme of Bills for the Advantage of the Nation; but I am resolved to give them a Diversion by the Cavalier and High Churchman, whom I have inspired with a Desire of Revenge for old Injuries, and put them in hopes of better Success than formerly, if they should have occasion of fight the old Quarrel over again, seeing now they are possessed of the Arms, Forts and Ammunition of the Nation, and are sure of one to head them, who will never be guilty of such a precipitant Action as to leave their Enemies in possession of London, divest himself of the Power of the Militia, or lodge his Power in the Hands of the Parliament. So that the Church and I shall mutually gratify one another, and maintain both Monarchy and Episcopacy to be of Divine Right, and not to be bounded by humane Laws. We have made considerable Steps towards this already; the Act for regulating Corporations hath excluded all Men of different Principles from the Magistracy; the Act of Uniformity hath shut them out from the Ministry; and the Act of the Militia hath left them no Place in the Army: So that it only remains for laying on the Top-stone of the whole Fabric, that we get this Test to be universally imposed, and then we take away all Opportunity from the Parliament to alter any thing in Church or State, and confine them to their proper Work of raising Money. The Bishops, who have their Dependence upon me, must be taught to instruct their inferior Clergy to make use of their Learning to justify and not to examine what their Superiors command: And seeing this Oath secures their beloved Government and Discipline to Perpetuity, they can neither in Gratitude nor Interest decline their Concurrence to promote the same in favour of the Crown; which, with so much Zeal, they desire for the Mitre. If this can be obtained, the Act of Oblivion will be made void, and then we can take a sweet Revenge on the fanatics and Republicans. The better to make it pass, we must endeavour to possess the Parliament, that it's a necessary and moderate Security for the Church and Crown, and will be the most effectual Preservative that can be thought on against such Rebellions as that of 41. The Necessity of it may easily be instructed from the Swarms of fanatics, and Men of dangerous Principles, which abound in the Nation: And all who refuse to give this moderate Security, shall be looked on as tainted with this rebellious Leaven.  
But I find that I must still lay my Account to meet with Opposition; for those Lords who value themselves, as being Patriots to their Country, but in reality a factious Cabal, oppose this Bill with Vigour, as encroaching on the Birthright of the Peers, striking at the Root of the Government, taking away Freedom of Debate from the Houses of Parliament, which have part of the Legislative Power, obliging them to abjure all Endeavours to alter the Government of the Church, whatever the Necessities of the State, or Christian Compassion to Dissenters may require; and therefore they have protested against it; but however I have this Satisfaction, that it is carried against them, and committed. And my Lords the Bishops have behaved themselves bravely in it, by endeavouring not only to have those Protesting Lords personally punished, but the Liberty of exhibiting Reasons with their Protestations abolished, because of their pretending a Christian Compassion to Dissenters: Nor did they show themselves less my Friends in rejecting the Provisoes offered by the Protesting Lords, to secure the Freedom of Debate to Members of Parliament, and prevent Dangers from Popish Recusants. And though they could not answer, yet they could out-vote the Arguments brought against Assertory Oaths in point of Doctrine, and Promissory Oaths, though held unlawful by Grotius; and generally ineffectual, to keep ill Men out of the Government, though they may exclude some conscientious Persons: And as the Bishops cannot justify this their Procedure, without an assurance of Infallibility, which they do not pretend to, it shows that they do not believe the Religion which they profess and teach. And seeing I perceive this to be common among Priests of all Religions, it cannot but justify me, though I should openly profess myself to be of none. I perceive the Country Lords have found out my Design to swear them not to oppose an Arbitrary Government, by binding them up not to resist myself or any having my Commission, though I should command them to do things contrary to the standing Laws; as levying of Money without Consent of Parliament, etc. Or though I should either deliver myself up to the French King, or by Fortune of War fall into his Hands, and either willingly or by constraint command my Subjects to do such things as are contrary to my Royal Dignity: Or in case that a Popish Successor should by Force of Arms endeavour to establish the Catholic Religion: So that I find the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, though inculcated from the Pulpit, as a necessary Article of Faith, on pain of Hell and Damnation, hath not obtained universal Belief amongst the Church-of- England-Laity, whatever it hath done amongst their Clergy, and consequently that the latter are not fit for me to rely upon, as not being able enough to defend me against that Party who proved too strong for them and my Father both; for I am now fully satisfied that such of the Church of England as agree with the Dissenters in Politics, would also quickly unite with them in ecclesiastics, if they would but allow them a sufficient Latitude of Practice: So that hence I have ground enough to persuade the Clergy to declare against all such as Presbyterians in Masquerade, and secret Enemies to their Church-Government, which they do not believe to be jure divino, else they would never boggle at swearing not to alter it.  
I have also this to comfort me, that I am not suspected alone by those Peers, but the Bishops do now come in for a share, it being plainly perceived by the contrary Party, that though they took care for their Discipline, they took none for their Doctrine, that they might be as good as their Promise to the Popish Lords, that the Oath should be so formed as not to bear hard on them, which is still an Encouragement to me to think better of the Catholic Religion than the Reformed; for the Catholic Clergy I find much truer to their Interest than those of the Church of England: If the English Bishops did believe the Truth of their own Religion, they would certainly be more concerned for its Doctrine than Discipline, and not more solicitous to secure the latter against Dissenters, than the former against Catholics; or if they were Men who made conscience of Oaths themselves, they would never be for imposing such Oaths upon others as are contrary to their own Practice: for if they thought it unlawful to endeavour any Alteration in their Church, they would never make choice of such Men for Preferments as Preach and Writ against her Doctrine of Predestination. Those Prelates do exactly resemble the Pharisees, who bond heavy Burdens upon the Shoulders of their Disciples, while they would not touch them themselves with one of their Fingers; and so, though there have been several Alterations made in the Prayers and Rites of the Church since the Reformation by them and their Predecessors, yet they would oblige others by Oath never to endeavour the like, but to maintain their Church as now established by Law; which swears them to maintain the old Popish Canons revived by the First of Elizabeth, which is indeed of a piece with the last Act of Uniformity, that makes Popish Priests capable of Benefices without Re-ordination if they turn Protestants; and yet unchurches all their Reformed Brethren abroad, and declares their Ordination invalid. It's true that all this is for my Interest, and contributes exceedingly to the advancement of my Designs; but at the same time, though I love the Treason I hate the Traitor, and can put no Confidence in those Men, who being false to that which they call their own Interest, can never be true to mine: and hence I perceive, that though they profess otherwise, their Religion is the same with my own; for as I pursue my Pleasures, they pursue their Profits as their summum bonum; and if they may but acquire it, they care not by what Methods. Who then can blame me for disbelieving that Religion which they who are the Fathers of the Church do manifestly disbelieve themselves? or how can I be blamed for favouring Popery as best suited to my Designs, when Protestant Bishops approve of their Ordination, Canons, Ceremonies and Government, and by the choice which they make of ecclesiastics for Preferments, and the Tenderness which they have showed to the Catholics in the management of this Test, it's evident enough that they have no dislike to their Doctrines. However, I am in a great measure obliged to them for standing by me in this Point, though I perceive their principal Motive was to have their own Government rendered as Absolute as my own; and that it should be equally, if not more dangerous for any Man to mutter against the Church, as it is to speak Treason against the State. However if this Oath could be passed, I should be happy in my Government, and rendered abundantly more Absolute, than now I can pretend to be; the present Oath of Allegiance and the Laws not being comprehensive enough, but loaded with ungrateful Restrictions. And as for the Bishops, I know how to deal with them if ever they should happen to grow uneasy; the Wounds of my Sword will be sooner felt than those of their Pastoral Staff; and having rendered themselves unacceptable to the Nation by concurring so much with the Court, and being so violent against Dissenters, they cannot well recover their Interest there, and so must be forced to comply with me; by which means I can easily protect the Crown against the Efforts of the Mitre.   

CHAP. LIV. On the Debate betwixt the Lords and Commons about the Lords hearing of Appeals from any Court of Equity, with the Behaviour of the Bishops in that Affair, and the Opposition which they met with from the Earl of Shaftsbury, etc.  
THE Lords having made so much opposition to my Designs, it's my Interest now to gain the Commons, and own their Pretensions against the Privileges of the Peers: for if by this means I could render the Upper House useless, I should be the better able to deal with the Lower; or if both of them fall by their mutual Heats, I shall be a certain Gainer by their Destruction; or if the Commons once find that I am for them, it may further their passing the Test with more ease. The Bishops I am sure of in the House of Lords, and of my Pensioners & high Churchmen in the House of Commons; who I'm sure will vote according to the Direction of the Court. The Cavalier's Conscience is governed by the Bishop, and the indigent Courtier must live by the Crown; so that both their Votes I may depend upon. The Fanatic I can take off by hopes of Liberty; so that I shall only have the staunch Countryman to oppose me, and it's hard if I be not able to weather the Point against him.  
But my Designs are still very apt to miscarry; and the Earl of Shaftsbury, with others of the Country Lords, have got so much Influence on the Humours of the Nation, that my Project, I fear, will certainly fail: Their Arguments for preserving the Rights of the Lords as an essential Part of the Government, and a necessary Check on aspiring Monarches, are so popular and taking, that they charm the Vulgar, who are made to believe that the Upper House is their chief Security for the peaceable Enjoyment of their Rights and Properties, which may be otherwise destroyed by partial Judges, who depend on the Court for their Honours and Preferments, and are consequently influenced by them in their Sentences. However, I am obliged to the good Will of the Bishops, who do herein behave themselves like true and loyal Subjects, and advise the Lords to quit their Pretensions, though thereby they lay themselves open to Lashes, as concurring to destroy that Government; the Preservation of which for ever, without any endeavour of Alteration, they did so much press to have the People sworn to: but herein they act conformable to their great Principle, that Monarchy and the Lineal Succession is of Divine Right, and not being the Creature of Man's Constitution, ought not to be subject to humane Limitation, but to God alone, from whom it has its Being. The Lords, however, are deaf to all Insinuations, either from the Danger of a Rupture with the Commons or me at this Juncture, which puts me under a Necessity of proroguing the Parliament, and rather to hazard the Loss of the Test, than the Quiet of my Government: for I find that Kings have always been Losers, whenever they came to a War with their Barons and People; and I am not without Reason to think that this Debate betwixt the two Houses is rather fomented to obstruct the Test, than out of any Kindness to my Prerogative, which is sufficiently evident from the inconsiderable Subsidy which the Commons have voted me.   

CHAP. LV. On the Meeting of the Parliament after the Prorogation. His Majesty's Demand of Money to build Ships. The Commons insisting upon the Bill for a Habeas Corpus: Against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea: Raising Money without Consent of Parliament: Against Papists sitting in either House: For the speedier convicting of Papists, and recalling his Majesty's Subjects from the French Service; and the Duke of Buckingham's Speech for Indulgence to Dissenters.  
HAving, during this Interval of Parliament, taken sufficient Care to insinuate the Danger of open Rebellion, such as that in 1641. if the Parliament persist in their late Methods, and to make all those who refuse such Sums as I think best to desire, odious to the Church as Presbyterians, I thought fit to let them meet again, to try whether this Method had had any Influence on them, or if the last Prorogation had any way cooled them. But though the Money which I desired was to strengthen my Fleet for the Honour of the Nation, which I concluded that they would the more easily grant, because in the former Session they complained that the French were grown stronger than us at Sea; yet still I meet with a Repulse; and instead of Money am answered with Complaints and Libels against my Administration. By withholding of Money they make me unable to give Rewards; and now they are about depriving me of the Power of inflicting Punishments: By their Bill of Habeas Corpus they would deliver Criminals from the Irksomeness of long Imprisonments at home, and yet will not agree that they should be sent Prisoners abroad. They are, moreover, so stubborn, as to deny me Money for support of the Monarchy, and yet will not suffer me to raise any without their Consent. Now their Fears of Popery and Slavery come upon them afresh, which with redoubled Clamours they send abroad into the Country, to inspire the Mob with their own Sentiments, and fill the Nation with endless Jealousies. Hence come their Bills for disabling Papists from sitting in either House, by which they would rob me of the Assistance of my best Friends. Nor are they content to stay there, but they are also for having them speedily convicted and punished, according to their sanguinary Laws, which in my time shall never be granted. Nor do their Designs rest here; but as they will not allow me an Army at home, they are now for my calling back such as I have abroad, being afraid that they should learn too much of the French Methods of an undisputed Submission to the Dictates of their Prince. All those disloyal Practices are fomented by Dissenters and others, who are of Antimonarchical Principles, for which in time I hope for a Revenge; and at present am resolved to give them a Diversion, by reviving the Quarrel betwixt them and the Lords; and while they are hot in the Contest about their own Principles, they will remit their Violence against the Papists, and forget the Kindness which they intended to Dissenters; for I have always observed this in their Temper, that when they were kind to the one, they were severe to the other; and when any Man is disgusted with that which they call Tyranny in the State, and Concurrence with it in the Church, they straight have an Inclination to favour the fanatics and Republicans. How could it have happened else that the Duke of Buckingham, whose Father was a Sacrifice to the Resentments of the Faction, should now make Harangues for an Indulgence to Dissenters? So that I plainly perceive that all the Enemies to the Glory of my Crown, do nestle themselves amongst that rebellious Herd. Yet herein at least I shall reap an Advantage, that the Church will more cordially espouse my Quarrel, and oppose such Causes as are favoured by their Enemies, whose Bodies in due time I shall bequeath to the Gallows, whilst the Clergy pretend to send their Souls to Hell.   

CHAP. LVI. On the Motion for an Address by the House of Lords for dissolving the Parliament. The Address' being cast out by the Majority, and the Protestation of the Country Lords thereupon.  
HOW unhappy is it for a Monarch to be tied up to the Humours of his People? and thus it must be so long as Parliaments have any share in the Government, and till the Prince be made Absolute by the Power of the Sword. I thought to have rendered my Parliaments insignificant, and altogether useless to the Ends for which they are chose; and by continuing this Parliament so long, had well nigh effected my Design, having bribed most of them to change their Interest, and taken such Methods as to make not a few of them change their Religion; so that instead of acting according to their Original Commission from the Country, they were wholly led by the Dictates of the Court: but now an evil Spirit of Contention having seized upon the Lords, they begin to control me, as Consiliarii nati; and those whose Interest it is to keep the Government steady, and therefore move to have this Parliament dissolved, because they can no more be called the Representatives of the Country, seeing they have their Dependence wholly upon the Court, and don't vote according to the Mind of those that chose them: So that they are in the same Design with myself to swallow up the People's Liberties, provided they may have some Court-Preferments. The Lords do also insist upon the frequent Calling of new Parliaments, which they allege from the Records to have been their ancient Privilege, and plead the Prescriptions of many hundreds of Years. What pity! that all those Monuments of Rebellion should not have perished in the great Conflagration, that they might never have risen up in Judgement against me; but seeing they are extant, and so violently urged, I'll do the best I can to divert their Force. I can insinuate to the Commons, that these Proceed of the Lords are not the Effect of any Zeal for the People, but merely a Desire of Revenge upon the Lower House, for their late controverting of their Privileges; and an Aversion that any Commoner, by his Service to the Crown, should merit an Advancement to a Dignity equal with their own: By these and such other Arguments as I can suggest, I doubt not to have the present House of Commons on my side. And suppose it true, that they are not the real Representatives of the Nation, as having forfeited that Title, by going contrary to the People's Interest and Instructions; yet the very Name of their Concurrence adds Credit to my Conduct: and I doubt not but abundance of the Members who have found the Sweets of the Privilege of the House, which protects them from their Creditors, and many times confirms their Titles to Estates by Prescription, because while they are Parliament-men they are secured in the Possession; I say I have no reason to doubt but such Men will be against a Dissolution. It was a wise and commendable Practice in my Predecessor Henry the VIIIth, to make Parliaments long-lived, for by that means he had the Opportunity of making them for his purpose, and left a happy Precedent for his Successors. Let the Murmurers grumble as much as they please, and object the Custom of holding Parliaments thrice a Year before the Conquest, and the Act of Edward III. that Parliaments should be holden once a Year, or oftener, I am not tied to those antiquated Rules: If those Kings did not know the Extent of their own Prerogative, I am not therefore obliged to allow any Intrenchments on mine. But since Henry the VIIIth could protract the Duration of a Parliament beyond its former Length, and the Customs of his Predecessors, I may certainly be allowed to exceed the Examples of my Predecessors since his time, especially having the Clergy on my side, who have preached up the Prerogative higher than ever it was in former times, and will defend my Practice by the Authority of their Gods. But I am not to be so easily drawn from what's my Interest by the Allegations or Addresses of some factious Lords; for it's my Wisdom to foment the Misunderstanding betwixt them and the Commons as much as I can: and if I could but once bring them to have a mutual Distrust of one another, and possess the Commons with an ill Opinion of the Arrogance of the Lords, and their encroaching too much upon the Privilege of the Members, who knows but it might procure such a Surrender to me as that which was lately made to the King of Denmark by his People, who could not bear with the Contempt shown to them by their Nobles, and therefore did all of a sudden devolve the whole Power upon the King, and render him Absolute? Or if no such thing should happen, yet by making the House for my purpose I can with the more Ease attain my Desires; and if once the Commons were brought to comply, the Popish Lords, Court-Lords and Bishops, will easily cast the Vote in the Upper House. But let things go as they will, I am sure of this one infallible Method; I can possess the Clergy, by means of the Bishops, that if this Parliament be dissolved, the Mitre and Crown are both in danger; and then all those who are Enemies to my Designs shall be threatened with Hell and Damnation, as opposing themselves to God's Ordinance, to which they ought to be subject for Conscience-sake. And on the other hand, I am very sure that those Gentlemen of the House of Commons, who have spent some hundreds and thousands of Pounds for the Advantages which they had a Prospect of enjoying by being Parliament-men, will never submit willingly to a Dissolution, nor be content to put themselves to the hazard of a new Choice: And I am sure of my Pensioners, for their Usefulness to themselves and me both ceases with their not being Parliament-men; for as in that case they cannot do me any Service, so neither can they tell where to have Subsistence.  
I have had the good Fortune to put a Check upon those factious Lords, and to throw out their Address by the Majority of Votes, in which the Bishops were all on my side, so happily are the Interests of the Church and Crown united. Hence I find the Advantage of dissembling a Zeal for Religion, though in my Heart I believe the whole to be a Cheat; for my professing myself to be the grand Patron of the Church of England, sets all the Clergy at work for me; and they having the Conduct of the People's Consciences, are useful Tools for any Sovereign.  
The Country Lords have protested against the Votes for rejecting the Address, and inserted their Reasons in the Journals of the House, but it signifies nothing, seeing they have lost their Cause; however it shall remain as an Indictment against them: and now that I have their Names as my Enemies on record, I shall take care on occasion to treat them as such, and make them odious to the Country, by charging all the Miscarriages and Heats in Parliament, and consequently the Obstruction of whatever might have been advantageous to the Public, upon them.   

CHAP. LVII. On the filling of the Benches with durante beneplacito Judges. The publishing of some Books in favour of the Papists and Prerogative. The French King's letting lose his Privateers amongst the English Merchants: And the sending of Ammunition from his Majesty's Stores to the French King.  
HAving been hitherto unsuccessful in my Attempts of following French Counsels, raising a Standing Army, bribing Parliament-men, and contriving Oaths to swear the People into Arbitrary Government, I must try some new Methods, and endeavour to carry on my Designs by Shadow of Law: for which end it is necessary that I make a Reform amongst my Judges, and instead of granting their Commission ad vitam aut ad culpam, will make them hold them by a new Tenure of durante beneplacito, by which they will be bound to their good Behaviour, and not dare to disoblige me, but give out my Will as the Oracles of the Law, and then I can effect that by a Shadow of Justice which is not so safe to attempt by Force: and when all Causes come to be decided by Favour in Court, I shall despoil my Enemies, and enrich my Friends, which is the surest way to increase them; for I have sufficient Experience of the Inconvenience of Judges who keep strictly to the Rules of the Law, and therefore shall take care now that Judge Hales is dead, that none of Puritanical Education and Principles shall henceforth fill his Chair: And thus when I can by Forms of Law dispose of my Subjects Lives and Estates, I may perhaps find my Judges as useful as a Standing Army, and worm myself by degrees into Arbitrary Government, by Methods less odious, and not so perceptible.  
I do also find it necessary in order to the taking off of that general Disgust which the People of this Kingdom have imbibed against Popery, that some Authors be encouraged to write smoothly on that Subject, and insinuate a Difference betwixt the Court and Church of Rome, that the latter is not chargeable with the Miscarriages of the former; and that an Union amongst Christians is highly . And in the same manner I must take care to reconcile the Minds of my Subjects to the Prerogative, and brand those who oppose it as Men of ill Designs and Principles.  
But seeing the Noncompliance of my Subjects with the Measures which I take, may probably issue in a Rebellion, it will be my Wisdom to secure a Place of Retreat, to take care beforehand, that I may be made welcome, and order it so as the French King may have Effects of my own wherewith to maintain me if the worst should happen, and be in a Condition to restore me, in case I should be expelled; for I am resolved to take Warning by my Father's Fate, and either to stoop to invincible Necessity, or provide against the severest Lot which may befall me, and not to quarrel with my Subjects without good assurance of Foreign Alliance, and while they are rich, and have Arms and Ammunition: Therefore I shall order it so that the French King may interrupt their Commerce by his Privateers, and seize their Ships, Men and Goods, which will humble them: And in the mean time when they address to me for Relief, I can excuse my being unable to defend them, seeing they are so backward in giving me Money to rig out my Fleet: and that I must not upon the Miscarriage of Privateers break the Friendship betwixt the two Nations, considering the great abundance of Malcontents which are at home, and the Improbability of my receiving any Assistance from abroad, now that the Parliament by their frequent Clamours of the Designs of the Court to introduce Popery and Slavery, had rendered me suspicious to Foreign Protestants. However, that they may not suspect my Concurrence with the French in this Affair, they shall now and then have Orders for my Resident at the French Court to demand Satisfaction; but if they have it, it shall cost them so dear, as to make them quickly grow weary of that Method. This indeed may seem unnatural for a Sovereign to concur with a Foreign Prince to rob his own Subjects, but in my Heart I think they deserve no better; their Priests have from the Mouth of their Divine Oracles preached up the Prerogative, and Greatness of my Power, that my People were created for me, and not I for them; that their Lives and Fortunes are at my Command, and yet they allow me no Power in either; so that it's but reasonable they should smart for their damned Hypocrisy; and it's just, seeing they will not allow me to take it with my own Hand, that I take it from them by the Hand of another. Their Riches and Fullness of Bread gives them occasion to be idle, and leisure to concert their Measures of Rebellion; to prevent which Poverty is the surest Method: And in the mean time the French King allows me to go Sharers with him in the Profit, which my Enemies call by the ignominious Name of a Pension. But seeing my Subjects and their Fortunes are my Property, what reason have I to give an Account to any how I treat them. And seeing I am not to own that I have any legitimate Heirs of my own Body to succeed me, why should I not make my Life as pleasant as I can; which being impossible without Money, it's but reason that I should use my own Methods to come by it, seeing my Subjects are backward to grant me what I need.  
But I have yet a stronger Reason for this kind of Procedure, the Catholics having taught me that it is lawful to kill, by necessary Consequence it must be much more lawful to impoverish my Heretical Subjects, and put them out of a Condition to withstand the Reintroduction of that Religion which they pretend will merit a Crown in Heaven: And if there be any such Place or Reward, I know no other way how I can deserve it; for rather than take such Methods to obtain it, as Protestants think needful, I had better want it. Let those who have a mind to pull out their right Eyes, and cut off their right Hands, do so if they please, I'll keep mine as long as I can. And seeing, according to the Catholics, the Opus operatum is sufficient to carry me to Heaven, I need not be so scrupulous nor nice about the way; it being reasonable that Kings should be allowed a broader Path than others: And that seeing we are God's Vice-gerents on Earth, he should afford us a more commodious Passage than ordinary to Heaven. And that I may the better deserve it according to their Doctrine, I shall not only take care to furnish Lewis XIV. the great Champion of the Catholic Church, with an Opportunity to enrich himself with the Treasures of my Heretical Subjects, but also supply him with Arms and Ammunition from my own Magazines, as I have already taught him the way of building Men of War, and improving his Naval Strength, that if I be not able to effectuate the great Design myself, he or his Successors may do it when I am dead; for I find that it will never be practicable by any English King without very powerful Assistance from abroad. I know that my Measures are condemned, my Designs suspected, and Lists of the Ammunition and Arms which I have sent to France, under pretence of sending them to Jersey, handed about: But I have this Advantage, that my Enemies are not united; and they who are most zealous to oppose me, rendered sufficiently odious to the Church and their Party, who being countenanced by my Authority, are much the strongest, or at least able enough to keep the rest under Hatches: And while they contend against each other, I obtain the Victory over both. I have, however, not only secured myself a Place of Retreat and Royal Maintenance, in case of my being overcome by my Subjects, should there happen a Rupture, but I have also weakened the Magazines of the Nation, and provided sufficient Arms and Ammunition for myself to equip my French Auxiliaries, and assert my Right, or at least have furnished the French Catholics with Weapons against my Heretical Subjects at their own Expense. And if the Church-of- England-men should murmur against this Procedure, it's but a small Degree above what was done by my Father, whom they have canonised for a Saint and a Martyr; it being well enough known that he assisted the French King with his Men of War against his Hugonot-Subjects of Rochel; which, considering the Claim that the Kings of England have to the Crown of France, is much the same with what I have now done: So that they cannot condemn me without condemning him; nor condemn him without condemning themselves.   

CHAP. LVIII. On the Meeting of the Parliament after the long Prorogation, Febr. 1676. His Majesty's Demand of Money, recommending a good Correspondence to the two Houses. The Question whether the Parliament was not dissolved by that unprecedented Prorogation: Sending some Lords to the Tower for insisting on it. The granting of Money by the Commons.  
THE Greatness of my Expense requiring proportionable Supplies, and my Returns from France not being sufficient, I must once more adventure on a Session of Parliament, not doubting but my Pensioners will for their own Interest gratify my Desires. I know that this long Prorogation is beyond all Precedent; but I think that I have the best Authority to make one of any Body, and I am furnished already with a very plausible Pretence, that such a long Recess was absolutely needful to allay so great a Heat as happened betwixt the Houses last Sessions. But however, that the Honour of the Nation lying at stake, I found it necessary to call them together for a Supply to enable me to rig out my Navy, on which so much of our Strength and Reputation depends. The March of my Brother the French King, with his Army into Flanders, I know will alarm and make them apprehensive of their own Danger, which will probably induce them to part with Money for their own Defence.  
But I perceive that my Difficulties are not quite over, for now both Houses begin to question my last Prorogation, and think that it was really a Dissolution; yet the Commons I find the most tractable of the two, because there my Pensioners are most numerous; so that they have passed it over, and fall to their Business: but the factious Lords I find still more obstinate and daring; insomuch that they offer to maintain, that the last Prorogation was illegal, and contrary to all the Laws of Parliament, even before the Judges; and are so confident, that they demand to have their Opinion in it: but though I can rely upon their Determination, yet I don't think fit to gratify the opposite Faction so far, especially seeing I am sure of the Majority in any Question, by the Influence of the Court-Lords and Bishops; and therefore their Impertinence in falling foul upon my Prorogation, as a thing without Precedent, shall be punished by an Imprisonment in the Tower, of the same Nature, which I shall order so, that it shall appear to be the Act of their Fellow-Peers, and not mine. And thus the Ringleaders of the Faction, the Duke of Buckingham, Earls of Salisbury, Shaftsbury, and Lord Wharton, shall have time to consider of the Question in their Confinement; and by this Means others will be deterred from the like Boldness; and the Freedom of Debate, which hath been hitherto claimed and allowed in Parliament, be visibly infringed, of which there is an absolute and very great Necessity; and now more than ever, when some of the Members have had the Impudence to upbraid the House to their Face, that a great part of them are Outlaws, abundance Papists, and no small number Pensioners: And though I cannot but commend the Prudence of my Friends in the House, in not sending the Authors of such scandalous Reflections to the Tower, because they know them to be true; yet such things must be prevented if possible, otherwise I and my Government shall fall into Contempt. However, my Pensioners were rather willing to bear this Affront, than to do any thing that might make their Dissolution or Prorogation necessary; and that they may show themselves worthy of my Allowance, have granted me Money, and that very frankly, without an Appropriating Clause: So that I am at liberty to spend it how I please. And as they have been generous in their Grant, they have been no less as to the Terms, having quitted all their other Pretensions for an Habeas Corpus Act. And thus I find the Advantage of having those who depend upon me chosen for Parliament-men, though I be at the Expense of their Election myself: For what Privy-Counsellor is there that will not justify the most Arbitrary Proceed of the Council-Table in the House, rather than lose his Place in Council? and represent all the Proceed of State to the Advantage of the Crown, rather than lose his Prince's Favour? What Lawyer is there that will not put a favourable Construction upon the Sentence of the Judges, rather than be subjected to the Frowns of the Bench, or excluded all Hopes of mounting it himself? What Captain of the Fleet or Navy but will be for the maintenance of a Standing Force, as knowing that he cannot otherwise have a standing Pay? Or will he not rather defend the Procedure of his superior Officers, than hazard the losing of his Commission? And will he not be ready to declare his Abhorrence of that traitorous Position of taking up Arms against the King, or any commissionated by him? What Commissioner of the Customs or Excise is there that will not rather give the Court a Vote than lose his Commission? Or which of my Domestics will be so bold as to vote against me in Parliament? And therefore I am resolved never to part with my Privilege of having those who depend upon me chosen for Parliament-men, that being the most effectual and least obnoxious Method that can be taken to render myself Absolute; for they are at the same time the Representatives of the Country, and my Pensioners and Servants: and so long as they have vendible Souls, and have most from me, I need not doubt of their being on my side: and when others who are hungry perceive their Fellows to be not only treated with Money, but also at good Tables on the Charge of the Court, it will make them willing to take the same Measures, that they may enjoy the same Advantages. And in the next place I shall take care to have the Sheriffs modelled to my purpose, and then they will determine the double Elections as I would have them: And if the injured Fanatic or Republican complain of the Sheriff, yet the Majority of the Judges can easily vacate his Fine. By this Means those of my Party will always know their own Strength in the House; so that the Intrenchments made upon the People will be judged the Affection of the Parliament-men to the Crown, and not be charged on my aspiring Humour or Ambition. And I know that a Parliament of such a Constitution will rather do any thing than hazard my Displeasure; and not dare to impeach any Man, because they know their own Gild: and so those who are my Tools for promoting the Catholic Religion and Arbitrary Government, shall pass unpunished. But that the Nation may not perceive my Intrigue, and thereupon grow tumultuous, the Commons shall have leave now and then to talk of Grievances, and also to name those who are the Instruments of them; but if they exceed their Bounds, they shall be kicked from one Adjournment to another, chastised by Prorogations, and Abatements of their Pensions, and kept in obedience by Threaten of Dissolution. I have already some Experience of the good Effects of these Methods, for now they have voted me double that Sum for building of Ships that they thought sufficient last Sessions, and continued the double Excise upon Beer and Ale; and have taken care to make the Nation have a good Opinion of their being still a legal Parliament, when so great a Number of the Gentry of the Nation are appointed Collectors of the Money which they have given.   

CHAP. LIX. On the Commons throwing out the Bill, entitled, An Act for securing the Protestant Religion: and another for the more effectual Convicting and Prosecution of Popish Recusants.  
BY committing the factious Lords to the Tower, my Designs run on more smoothly in the Upper House, insomuch that those Bills passed them without any Opposition; but they have not had the same Acceptation amongst the Commons, who have thrown out the first after once reading, and the second in the same manner, with a Note of Disgrace, as being contradictory to its own Title. I perceive that the Commons, though they don't love their Religion for Religion sake, yet they have no mind to part with it because of their Interest; for if Popery were introduced, Arbitrary Government would find its way more easy, and then they could neither be assured of their Places nor Pensions, so that I must contrive some new Method. But were I as happy in the Church-of- England-Laity as I am in their Clergy, there would be no need of such Precaution; which makes me smile at the Apology of the Commons, who are so very careful about the Credit of their Bishops, though they don't look upon their Concurrence with those Bills to be any way hurtful to their Reputation. By this Method they diminish the Authority of their Church, and exalt their own Wisdom above that of their spiritual Fathers, whom they believe to be appointed by Divine Right to oversee and take care of the Affairs of the Church. Nor can the Weakness of their Apology pass without a Remark, that they should think it worth while to excuse them, as not being the Contrivers and Promoters; and yet own that they did not oppose those Bills; nay, they plainly confess that some of the Bishops were of the Cabal that hatched them. Certainly it can never be safe to intrust one's self in that Church which owns that her Guides are blind, or to commit one's Conscience to the Direction of such as don't know how to direct their own. But if the Commons had hit upon the true Reason of the Concurrence of their Bishops, they would find it to have been because the Mitres and Ceremonies, which is all that they mean by their Church, would be sufficiently secured; though Popery were established; and they being in present Possession, might merit a Continuance by promoting the Catholic Interest underhand. Nor can I believe that the Commons don't perceive this, seeing the Bishops advance such Clergymen daily who incline mightily to the Church of Rome in the Doctrine of Justification, which Luther their great Patron owned to be Articulus stantis & cadentis Ecclesiae; and yet they won't admit of one Man to enjoy a Benefice, who does not accept of Episcopal Ordination, and conforms to the Ceremonies, whence it's manifest and apparent that by these they understand the Church. And the Commons themselves, though they seem now to differ a little from the Bishops, yet make use of this Distinction to keep all but those of their own Communion out of any Public Employments: And I am apt to think, that could they but secure their own Interest in a Change, as well as the Bishops can do theirs, they would never make so much to do in opposing Popery, which I am convinced by my own Experience is a Religion best suited of any to such as would live in those Enjoyments which Precisians call carnal Delights; and that the greatest part of the Members are such, I have reason to know, for I am sure it has and does daily cost me Money. And hence I conclude that it does not proceed from any Religious Principle that the present House of Commons do seem more opposite to have a Popish King than the Bishops.   

CHAP. LX. On the Address of the Commons concerning the Danger from the Power of France, and their Progress in the Netherlands: His Majesty's Answer. It's not being thought satisfactory by the Commons, who presented a second, to which his Majesty delayed giving Answer; and the Cause why. His demanding of Money when he did answer. Their giving 200000 l. and Adjournment, with the Cause of it.  
MY Subjects are now upon another Scent; and from the Affairs of their Religion and Property at home, are come to consider of the State of Affairs abroad. I could be very glad that they should have forborn any such Motion, but shall take proper Methods to render it ineffectual. The fanatics and Commonwealth's-men do still foment Jealousies; and having put Checks upon my Designs at home, they are now for curbing my Allies beyond Sea, and putting a stop to the French Conquests. The Netherlands being looked upon as the natural Barrier of England, I must not positively refuse to assist them, but shall form such plausible Pretexts as will excuse my Delay. And in the mean time, though I cannot go on with my part of the Design, the French King may go on with his. However, I have promised them to use all Means in my Power for the Safety of my Kingdoms; but that does not satisfy, and therefore they presented me with another Address, wherein they not only petition as becomes Subjects, but boldly direct, as if they were Masters; by which they do manifestly entrench upon my Power of making Peace and War. By proffering to assist me to the uttermost against France, no doubt they think they have acquitted themselves bravely, though it is no more than what in Duty they are bound to do, let me be engaged in what War I please. But seeing they press so much for my making of Alliances with the Dutch, etc. and to make an actual War with France, I must give my Friends Instructions to argue against it in the House, from the Inconveniences which may attend it; as the seizing of our Ships and Effects by the French, which will afford them a Million to carry on the War; that they will ruin our Plantations abroad, disturb our Trade by their Capers; that they are better provided both of Ships and Ammunition than we; that if we should engage in a War with the Dutch, they would slip the Choler by a separate Peace; and that it's not possible to make any firm Alliance with those of such different Principles and Interest as the Emperor and Princes of Germany. But I find that the other Party are not so easy to be put off: They pretend not to press me to make War, but to make Leagues to prevent War; that now is the critical Season to prevent the growing Greatness of France; that the same Inconveniences will happen as to our Trade, if the War be not begun till three or four Years hence; that we may as well defend our Plantations and Sea-Trade as the Dutch can do theirs; that it's the Effect of the Maladministration of this Reign, that the French are stronger by Sea than we; that the Dutch and Germane Princes will be as firm in their League with us, as they are in that with one another; and that the Dutch would assist us in such things for our Fleet as we were defective in; that the want of a Trade with France would rather be an Advantage than otherwise to the Nation, because their imported Goods, which we could live without, do exceed what we export to their Country a Million per annum; and that my selling of Dunkirk, and making War on the Dutch in 1665. hath contributed to their overgrown Greatness; and abundance of such seditious Reflections. However, I testify my Contempt of them by a profound Silence, until I find a convenient time; and mean while, by the Interest of my Pensioners and Servants in the House, I have got some Money to further my Designs, according to my Demand.  
My Fate is checkered with Variety of Fortune: The Success of the French against the Netherlands, where they have taken some Towns, and defeated the Prince of Orange, will embolden me to carry it with the more Authority against my refractory Subjects, and give a plausible Pretence for demanding more Money, else I cannot be in a condition to defend them against such a powerful Enemy. And whereas they may allege that the 200000 l. which they have lately given, is enough to supply my present Occasions until such time as they meet again, I can answer, that that Sum is otherwise applied: so that the Country shall not be able to see into the true Reason of their Adjournment at this Juncture, but will probably be induced to believe that it is because of their having denied me Money; and during their Recess I shall have leisure to entertain the spendid Embassy which is coming hither from my Brother of France, and concert such Measures as may either render all such factious Divans, as Parliaments, wholly useless, or at least order it so as I shall not be so much subject to their capricious Humours: but by this seeming Difference betwixt them and me, the Nation will be brought to have a good Opinion of this present House of Commons, who will thereby have the better Opportunity to gratify me, and deserve their Pensions; and therefore I made a Demand of 600000 l. which I knew they could not grant, that they might have an occasion of refusing it, and at the same time afford me one of adjourning them with a plausible Pretext.   

CHAP. LXI. Upon the Duke of Crequis' arriving from France with a great Train, and meeting his Majesty at New-market. The Affairs treated of there. The meeting of the Parliament again. Their insisting upon a League with Holland; and his Majesty's Answer.  
HAving adjourned the Parliament, I must now make ready to meet the French Embassy; and London being a Place where there are too many Spies upon my Actions, I design to choose New-market as the fit Place; there we may confer with more Freedom and Security, and adjust Matters better to our Mind. I know that my mutinous Subjects will load this Conference with many aggravating Reflections; but if I can carry my Point, I shall not value that. My Brother of France I know will plead for the Continuance of my Subjects in his Service, because they have not a little contributed to the Glory of his Arms: and he will also insist on the Abolition of all Claims on the account of the Prizes which his Subjects have made of mine, and other things of that Nature, which shall be granted according as I find him liberal in his Supplies of Money. Those Demands, especially the latter, are fit to be made, that the private Agreement betwixt him and myself may be concealed: and for the other, it must also be regulated by my own Interest, and that of the Design which we carry on in conjunction; for by a firm Union betwixt us, we shall add Strength to our common Endeavours, and may in time bring things to a happy Conclusion: But seeing I have no Reason to despair of effecting my part by a Form of Law, considering what Party I have in both Houses, I will prepare to entertain the next Session of Parliament, and contrive Arguments to make them liberal of their Fellow-Subjects Purses, which will be the most effectual Method that I can think of to accelerate my Designs.  
The Parliament being now met, I have renewed my Demands of Money, because they allege that it was not according to the Methods and Rules of Parliament for them to grant me any more at the Close of the last Sessions, when the House was so thin: but that Objection being vacated by their meeting now in a full Body, it might have been thought that they should have fallen upon the Money of Course; but instead of that they insist again upon an Alliance with Holland, as the only mean of withstanding the French: By which I perceive that the Fanatical Jealousies gain ground; they are not satisfied to have me declare War myself, but they would yoke me with the Dutch, who will be sure to inspect my Conduct severely, and then I must act against France in good earnest. I find that all the Objections that I can make, as that such a League would alarm the French, if imparted before made; and that such things are of great Consequence, and require time to be concerted, are easily seen through; and the Commons having taken Umbrage from the extraordinary French Embassy, allege that my Brother of France and I understand one another's Minds: Wherefore I find it necessary to send for the House, and in a public Speech assure them, on my Royal Word, that my calling them together was not only a Design to get Money, as some do insinuate; and tell them positively, that I will neither hazard my own Safety nor theirs, by declaring against France, or leaguing with the Dutch, till they supply me with Money to act and speak as I should; and that therefore it will be their Fault and not mine, if their Security be not provided for. By this means I shall amuse the Public, and prevent the general Disgust of the Nation. And if I can but preserve my Honour with the People, I shall despise the Reflections of particular Men; for herein I think Saul acted truly like a Monarch, that though Samuel had denounced the Anger of God against him for disobeying his Commands, he was not in the least solicitous about that, but prayed that the Prophet would honour him before the People: he took care of his Concerns for this Life, let it far with him as it would for what was to come. But to what I say myself, my Friends shall have Instructions to add, the Right of making Peace and War is in me alone; that if they withhold Money, I will neither declare War, nor make Leagues; that I have already exhausted my own Treasury in rigging out 44 Ships of War to preserve their Trade, and convoy the Merchants, and yet the City of London is so ungrateful as to refuse me Credit for 200000 l. and therefore if my People perish, it's their own Fault. Those Suggestions will be readily imbibed, and diligently improved by the Courtiers and Clergy, and then let my Enemies insist as much as they please upon the Necessity of shutting the Door towards France, else our Treasure and Trade will creep out, and their Religion and Tyranny creep in: I am sure to have the Advantage of them when my Dictates shall be delivered from the Pulpits once per Week, as the Oracles of Heaven. And thus I shall make void all their Efforts for lessening the Power of France, which I perceive they dread, as carrying with it the Bane of their Heresy and Republican Principles; and therefore it's as necessary for my Design, that the Power of the French King be kept up, as it is necessary for theirs that it should be brought low.  
I am unhappy, that notwithstanding of all my Pensions an Address for an Alliance with the States, etc. should be carried in the House, and have but two Negatives against it, especially considering that they allege it to be unprecedented to grant any Money till the Wars and Alliances for which they are demanded be signified in Parliament; which plainly implies their Distrust of me, that though I should have the Money, yet I would not answer their Address; which is so mischievously composed, and so strongly backed with popular Reasons, that it seems to be calculated for possessing the Subjects that I would never suffer the French King to increase his Strength so much, to the manifest Hazard of my Kingdoms, if I were not engaged in the same Design with him. I do also perceive that the Allegations of my Friends in the House, of their entrenching upon my Prerogative, by directing me with whom to make Alliances, is nothing regarded, but their Practice defended by former Precedents of Parliaments, who have not only advised to Alliances, but also confirmed them, as in the Reigns of Edward III. Richard II. and Henry V etc. And though my Pensioners were more serviceable in voting against the Manner and Words of the Address, than formerly that there should be one, yet they are worsted by a considerable Majority; so unhappy is it for a King to depend upon the Humour of his Subjects, which is as unconstant as the Waves of the Sea, and liable to the Toss of every Wind; for however complaisant they have formerly been, yet now they are all on a fire again about Popery and France: So that I find myself under a Necessity of cooling them by an Adjournment, and checking them by a severe Speech for entrenching on my Prerogative of making Peace and War, in such an unprecedented manner, while King and Parliament were not at mutual Enmity. By which they would seem to claim a Privilege not only of directing me what Alliances to make, but also to insinuate, that it were not in my Power to make any without their leave; so that I shall be looked on by Foreigners as a King merely in Title. I shall also take care that their Proceed shall not dare to appear in print. Whereas my Speech shall publicly proclaim their Disloyalty; and the Speaker being made to my purpose, I shall hinder the Commons from debating the Adjournment, or diving into the Intrigues of the Court; for if ever they begin to meddle in it, he shall have Orders to quit the Chair; by which the House must break up of Course: and then the French shall have liberty to pursue their Conquests without Interruption by the Clamours of my Heretical Parliament; who, as also those that they represent, shall be duly chastised in time convenient.   

CHAP. LXII. Upon the Prince of Orange's Arrival at Whitehall, and Marriage with the Lady Mary, eldest Daughter to the Duke of York. The Address of the Commons thereupon; and their insisting upon the Alliance with the Dutch, and War against France.  
THe safest and most secure way of ridding one's self of an Enemy, is to smite them under the fifth Rib, while they embrace them on pretence of Kindness. And as Charles the IXth of France, and Queen Katherine, contrived the Destruction of the Protestants under the Covert of a Marriage with their Chief the King of Navarre, I may carry on the like Design by matching my Niece with the Prince of Orange. Saul gave his Daughter Michal to David to be a Snare to him: Nor is it out of any Kindness to my Nephew the Prince of Orange, that I do now marry him upon my Niece. He hath not hitherto behaved himself so like a dutiful Nephew, as to deserve such a Favour, having not only been the chief Support of the War against the French, but encouraged the Dutch boldly in their Wars against myself. But it may be this Match may take him off, or at least will afford me an Opportunity of attempting it with more Vigour and Frequency than hitherto. However, let the Success as to that be what it will, this Advantage I am sure of reaping from it, that my Protestant Subjects will be thereby pleased; and their Jealousies, as to my Design of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Government, abated: so that being the less suspected, I shall go on with the more Success, and forward my Purpose. My Parliament, I perceive, are pleased with this Alliance, and have therefore ordered me an Address of Thanks; yet their Fears and Jealousies are not so much quieted, as to leave me at freedom from their Solicitations, but still they insist on my not admitting any Treaty of Peace, by which the French may be left in possession of any thing that they have taken since the Pyrenaean Treaty; and confine their Promises of Support to my making a War with France. How happy are unlimited Monarches, whose Will is their Law, and whom their Subjects dare not control? but my Stars have not yet blessed me with any such Influences. I cannot imagine how this fanatical discontented Humour hath got so much the Ascendant of this, which was once a Loyal Parliament; or that my Pensioners and Friends should come so far short of their wont Devoirs: Perhaps the late Checks which they have met with by my Speech and Adjournments, have given them some Umbrage to suspect that they are not long-lived; and therefore they would now endeavour to recover their Credit with the Country: They discovered before, by the Motions which some of my Friends made of impowering me to raise what Money I pleased upon extraordinary Occasions, that I was grown weary of Parliaments themselves, and that my Bounty to them would cease with their Usefulness to me, and therefore are taking care to make their Fortunes another way; and so run out violently for a War with France. I must humour them a little to further my own Ends, and pretend to be for such a War, that I may once get their Money, and then I can lay it out which way I please. I shall also make an Advantage of it another way, by obliging the French King to open his Coffers, on pretence that I must otherwise comply with my Parliament. And by this Means I shall be sure to have Money one way or other. If the Commons must be gratified with a War on France, it's but reasonable that it should be carried on at their Expense, and therefore I will demand no less than a Million. I know that my PRetences of Alliances with the Dutch, and Agreement to the Prohibition of a Trade with France, will be irresistible Arguments to carry my Demand; and those I am resolved to improve to the utmost.   

CHAP. LXIII. On the raising of an Army, on pretence of a War with France: The modelling of them. The sending of Duke Lauderdale to Scotland, to bring down an Highland-Army upon those Parts of the Low-lands which were most Presbyterian. The private Treaty with France. The Discovery of it by the Commons. Their Address to his Majesty to dismiss the French Ambassador. Their Vote in May, 1678. That the King be desired to enter into Alliance with the Emperor, King of Spain, and Princes of Germany. His Majesty's Answer. Their second Address against Duke Lauderdale and other Ministers; and Vote to give no Money till they were secured from Popery and Arbitrary Government. The Treaty of Nimeguen, and the Behaviour of his Majesty's Plenipotentiaries there.  
THE Parliament having given Money; it remains for me to improve it: and that they may be induced to believe that it shall be applied to the Ends for which it was given, an Army shall be raised, but such as I hope will put me in a Condition, that I shall stand in no more need of Parliamentary Supplies. The principal Posts in Church and State are already so well filled with Persons suited to my Designs, that I can scarcely have better. And now I must take care to model the Army; to have most of the Soldiers, if possible, composed of such Men as are either Catholics, or but Protestants in Name; and the Officers, in like manner, either altogether Catholics, or such who by taking the Test to qualify them for their Office, may nevertheless advance the Catholic Cause: for which Reason I am happy in the Constitution of the Church of England, it being so framed, that moderate Catholics may easily comply with it. The Army being formed, my next Care must be how to get them paid, for the Money granted by the Parliament will quickly be consumed upon them and my necessary Pleasures: and therefore seeing the French King and Catholics press me to the furtherance of their respective Designs, it's highly reasonable that the same should be carried on with their own Money. I having done my part in being at the Expense of raising an Army, they are obliged to maintain them: and if to the 300000 l. per annum, which the French King is obliged to pay towards it, the Conclave of Rome, and the Catholics in England, will contribute their Shares, the Work will be done, and I shall no more stand in need of such tumultuous Divans as Parliaments, who instead of granting me Money, which is their only Province, do dive into my Counsels, and obstruct my Measures. It will render me obnoxious to Discovery and Censure, to keep a Correspondence with France and Rome in my own Person, and therefore I think it adviseable to do it by my Brother, who can better keep the Pope and Cardinal Howard to their Promise than I can do: and if the Business should happen to be perceived, he being a Subject can easily make his Escape, and retire a while till I weather out the Storm.  
That I may prevent as much as in me lies all Impediments of what Nature soever, I have also taken care to put Scotland out of a Condition to oppose me, as remembering very well that the Presbyterians of that Nation were the first who made head against my Father; and therefore I have consumed the Substance of the richest and most fanatical part of the Kingdom, by bringing down an Army of Popish Highlanders to take Free Quarter upon them; for which the frequent and numerous Meetings of the Presbyterians hath furnished me with a Pretence, I having taken such Methods, that either they should have no Meetings at all for hearing Sermons by their own Ministers, or be obliged to meet in the Fields, and not in Safety there neither, except they put themselves in a Posture of Defence; and if they do that, I carry my Point, and have a fair Opportunity of charging them with Rebellion, and taking my Measures against them accordingly. I am also secure as to the meeting with any Obstruction from Ireland, having indulged the Papists in that Kingdom so far as they have got the Ascendant, and put such Men in all Places of Power and Trust as are sincere and cordial for my Designs: so that I had no Reason to despair of bringing things to a good Issue, if the Influences of my Stars, which are always malignant, had not discovered my private Treaty with France, and raised a new Ferment of Jealousy amongst the Commons, who upbraid the Court for want of Sincerity; that at the very time when they talk of an actual War, they should enter into secret Treaties with their Enemies. And hence I am importuned by another seditious Address, that I should immediately proclaim and declare War against the French King, recall my Ambassador from his Court, and dismiss his from mine. So that notwithstanding of the severe Check which I gave them by my Speech the last time that they presumed to give me such Directions, they persist still in the same Method. And to expose me to my Subjects, in revenge of my having exposed them formerly in the Gazette for their Disobedience, they have publicly declared that they have a Bill ready to assist me with Money if once I declare War, which they solicit me to undertake, that the French King may be so reduced as to be no longer terrible to my Subjects. And lest the People should not take notice of this Address, they have voted another, wherein they press, that I may be desired to enter into an Alliance with the Emperor, King of Spain, and Princes of Germany, and the Dutch. Heu quantum mutatus ab illo! What Difference is there betwixt a King newly enthroned or restored, and one who has reigned till his People are weary of him? Who would have thought that a Parliament which hath enabled me to trample upon their Brethren the Protestant Dissenters, and punish them for their rebellious Practices and Principles, should fall into the same Crimes themselves for which they condemn others? What Difference is there betwixt the Scots Presbyterian Remonstrances, and the Addresses of this Church-of- England-houses-of-common? Can any Fanatic libel my Administration with greater Severity than they have done? and yet upon the account of their opposing the same things in my Father which they themselves do now oppose in me. How have they endeavoured to load them with Reproaches, and render them odious to all Posterity, as Enemies to Monarchy? But seeing the Case is thus, I will pursue my own Measures; and instead of declaring open War against France, assist them with Provision and Ammunition underhand, on pretence of supplying the Isle of Wight, etc. And by my Interest with the Pope's Nuncio, and the Catholic Princes concerned in the Treaty of Nimeguen, will labour to have them accept of the French King's Proposals of Peace, and that will put an end to the Importunity of my Parliament for declaring a War against France. But for an Answer to their Address, they shall know that I don't value neither them nor it so much as to answer any thing of that Nature, without the concurrent Advice of the other House, which may perhaps throw a Bone of Contention betwixt them.  
The Storm increases instead of abating; and now they address a second time to alarm the Nation, as if they lay under imminent Dangers from the Clandestine Practices of ill Men; and urge to have the Duke of Lauderdale removed from my Presence; which they back with a Vote that they will give no Money till they be secured from Popery and Arbitrary Government: a terrible Alarm from the Representatives of a Nation, who are looked upon as the Preservers of their Civil Liberties. I know no other way to remedy this Disaster, than by proroguing the Parliament to allay their Heat; and in the mean time take care to have my Proceed justified from the Pulpits. Nor am I any happier in the French King's Friendship, he is far from being punctual or true to his Word, and by consequence hath failed of giving me the 300000 l. per annum, which he promised. And I have another Evidence of the Mischief that attends a King's being obliged to his Subjects for Money; that the French King does in an inglorious manner threaten to discover our private Treaties to the Parliament, and to create a Rupture betwixt me and my People, if I press him too hard. Had I the Purses and Persons of my Subjects at command, as he has his, I should as little value his Kindness as he does mine: Or could I but have subdued those irregular Passions which have enslaved my Soul with the Baits of sensual Pleasure, I needed not have been obliged to him for Money. However, seeing Fate hath brought me into those Circumstances, I must do my best to get out of them as well as I can; and order my Ambassadors at Nimeguen to retard the Peace, that by the prospect of a War I may draw Money from the Parliament. And the better to stop the Peace, my Plenipotentiary at Nimeguen shall have Orders to demand the free Exercise of the Catholic Religion throughout the Dominions of the States, which I know they will not grant; but by this Means I shall recommend myself to the Pope's Nuncio: and the zealous Catholics, who seeing my own Forwardness, will solicit the Pope and Conclave of Rome to give me Assistance; and then perhaps I shall be able to carry on the Design myself, without the French King's Concurrence, and reap all the Glory alone.   

CHAP. LXIV. On his Majesty's acquainting the Parliament that there was a Peace in agitation. His Desire to keep up his Army and Navy till it were concluded. The Resolve of the Commons for supporting the King in the War against France, or provide for disbanding the Army. His Majesty's Answer thereupon; and the Commons continuing their Resolution to disband the Army, though the King desired the contrary.  
THE Treaty of Peace being no longer to be concealed, I must now acquaint my Parliament with it; and because I know they will be for disbanding my Army upon it, I will urge for Reasons to the contrary, the common Maxim, that it's best treating with Sword in hand, and therefore inconvenient for me to disband my Army, or lay up my Fleet till the Peace be fully concluded. And seeing this cannot be done without Supplies, I must press for renewing of the additional Excise, and making up the Defect of the Poll-Bill; for the more I have of their Money, the less they will be able to rebel: and to render them as little suspicious as may be of my Designs, I will offer it to their choice, either to provide for their Subsistence till a Peace be concluded, or to furnish Money to disband them, with an assurance that whatever ill Men may suggest, my Designs were always leveled at the Public Good. But let me take what Measures I can, the Jealousies of my Parliament will never be quieted; and, to my Grief, I perceive that they smell my Designs, which are only to possess myself of their Money, and keep up an Army to render myself absolute: They dread that the Soldiers will rather make themselves Work than be idle; and therefore have resolved that the Army is burdensome to the Nation; that they will support me in maintaining a War against France, or otherwise provide for disbanding them. Seeing they are so very hot, it's my Interest to cool them, which cannot be better effected than by a mild Answer; and to offer them as a Reason, that seeing hitherto the French King hath only granted a Cessation, and not a Peace, it's fit that I should continue my Fleet and Army till the latter be agreed on, and in the mean time to press for Money for their Subsistence.  
What a mischievous thing is this horrid Suspicion, which causes Men to pry into one another's Secrets, and obliges Princes to be on their Guard against their own Subjects! And yet though I carry it with all imaginable Secrecy, it's impossible for me to avoid being suspected, and in a great measure traced: they whisper about, that I never raised this Army with a Design to disband them; and being afraid that I should have Money from France to maintain them, are resolved to furnish me wherewith to discharge them, though I have earnestly pressed for their Continuance. And thus it is to be a Sovereign by halves. However, it not being safe to controvert the Matter too far, I am resolved to pass the disbanding Act, but will observe it no further than suits my Measures. I am pretty well accustomed to Violation of Oaths, which have a degree of Solemnity beyond mere Acts of Parliament. The Money which they give to disband them, will serve for some time to maintain them; and then I may be otherwise provided, or make them at least provide for themselves, and earn their Bread before they eat it. It's strange that I may not adventure upon that which Oliver the Usurper did before me: He was so far from being checked by his Parliaments, that he gave Laws to them by his Army; and why may not I attempt the like? And though I be sworn to the contrary, yet may defend it as he did, by Reasons of State, until such time as I arrive at that height of Power, as to make my Will pass for a Law: But this is more easily hoped for than effected. However, if I can handsomely weather out this Storm, it's not impossible to be brought to pass.   

CHAP. LXV. On the relieving of Mons by the Prince of Orange, with the Assistance of the Duke of Monmouth and the English Forces. The Defeat given to the French at that time; and their King's Complaint, that it was contrary to his Majesty's private Articles. The concluding of the Peace: Recalling our Forces: Quartering them in the Country. His Majesty's being in a Consult with the Duke of York, Lord Clifford, etc. which was overheard; and the Person who listened kicked down Stairs by the said Lord.  
IT's some Comfort to have Fellows, though it be but in Affliction. The French King, who hath for a long time been on the top of the Wheel, is also liable to be turned downward, having lately received a considerable Check by the Defeat at Mons. This is a sensible Diminution of his Glory: But though at another time it would have been a joyful Hearing to the Kings of England, it is not so to me now, because it's a considerable Balk to our common Design. There is also this mortifying Circumstance in it, that the Laurels which are pulled off from his Head, are planted on that of the Prince of Orange; who, though my Nephew both by Birth and Marriage, yet I cannot cordially love him, because he pursues Measures so contrary to mine. And though I cannot but in some measure be satisfied to hear of what may tend to the Honour of my own Child, whom I cannot but love by the Instinct of Nature; yet I could have wished he had been otherwise employed, and that his Valour had been signalised at this time, as well as at others, on the contrary side. Two such promising Princes embarquing in the Protestant Cause, may prove fatal to the Interest of Popery and Absolute Monarchy, if they be blessed with a few more such Victories as this: and that I must, in compliance with my own Inclinations, endeavour to hinder, lest my stubborn Subjects should make choice of the Son to chastise the Father, as it happened to my Predecessor King James III. of Scotland, whose rebellious States made his Son Generalissimo against him. I am also pressed with another Difficulty, which is how to excuse this to the French King, who upbraids me with it as a Breach of the private Treaty, that my Son and Subjects should fight against him: I can truly say, that neither the Duke nor they did engage in that Action with my Consent; and that the thing is wholly owing to the Prince of Orange, whose Conduct and Courage, I have reason to dread, will mar all the Designs which Lewis XIV. and I have so long concerted. This Disaster makes it necessary to conclude a Peace, and then we may contrive at leisure how to retrieve it.  
The Peace being concluded, I must recall my Forces, which now I perceive become grievous to the Spaniards; and I hope to employ them to better purpose at home than ever they were abroad. Let the fanatics murmur and belch out their seditious Reflections upon my violating the Act for disbanding the Forces, I am Proof against such Tongue-shot as theirs: I can find out a Pretence for keeping them still on foot, as being necessary to over-awe the French, who being now at Peace with every body else, may reasonably be thought to have Designs against me, as having first obliged them to the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, and now by my Forces have contributed to bring them to a Peace. These Regiments being brought over from Flanders, will restrain the Tumnlts which I have reason to fear from the mutinous Humour in which my Subjects are at present; and in a little time I can augment my Army, if I had but Money. It's true, that in the late Consult divers Expedients were proposed for obtaining it, either from the French King, the City of London, or the Parliament: But to have it from the former can never be relied on; and if he supply me once, I am not sure that he will do it a second time, his own ambitious Designs having carved him out Ways enough for his Money: Neither is it safe for me to be so much obliged to him, lest he should at some time or other improve it against me, as he did lately threaten to discover our secret Intrigues to the Parliament, when we charged him with being worse than his Word, and failing in the Money which he had promised for the common Design. I know the Ambition of his Heart inclines him to aspire to the Universal Monarchy; and therefore I must be on my Guard against him. The Proposal of borrowing Money from the City of London I know impracticable, they have already denied me Credit; and it's nothing but to render myself too mean to desire Money of them again. The Project of bringing them to it by Force were no more than what they merit, but the Consequences may prove fatal to my Designs. The City of London being the Head of the Nation, has a natural Influence on the whole Body Politic; and if the City be once enraged, I must not expect to have the Kingdom long in quiet: And I have the more reason to be cautious on this Head, because the Loss of the City was the Loss of my Father's Life. It's true that my Lord Clifford's Advice of declaring myself barefaced, and out-braving all Difficulties, were a thing very beseeming a Monarch: but my Experience is greater than his; Dulce Bellum inexpertum, War is sweet till it be tried. Had he three Crowns to lose, as I have, his Courage would not be so great: for he that never enjoyed the Sweets of Life, does not know how to value them; but I have had Experience both what it is to want and possess them. I know that this Nation, though very well prepared by that which fanatics and Men of their Kidney call Profanity, is not yet ripe enough to embrace downright Popery. The Miscarriage of the Father may very well serve as a Warning to the Son: He fell in an Attempt less obnoxious; and I have no great reason to hope for better Success in one which is more displeasing. The People are very well satisfied with as much of Popery as Queen Elizabeth left; and whoever designs to introduce more, must do it insensibly, by promoting such Clergymen as are Wellwishers to it; bringing in Favourers of the Roman Catholics into the University by side-Winds, and filling all Places of Power and Trust with those who are for the Design: But it is not safe for me to trust myself to the Conduct of such furious Men as Clifford, who has not Prudence enough to govern himself. It can not be defended by any sort of Politics to treat a Person who is capable of divulging an important Secret in that manner, as he did the Gentleman who overheard us at the door, that being the very Method to have it made public: and therefore though for the Conveniency which I should thereby reap in the Administration of my Government, I could wish as well as he or any other, that Popery were established; yet seeing I believe that all Religion is the Contrivance of Politicians, I shall never hazard my own Quiet for any one sort of it. As for the last Proposal of getting Money from the Parliament, I am resolved to try it, and must be preparing my Arguments beforehand to move them to grant it.   

CHAP. LXVI. On the Discovery of the Popish Plot in August, 1678. by Dr. Oates and others. The Design of the Jesuits against his Majesty's Life. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's taking Dr. Oates his Depositions. The seizing of Coleman, Secretary to the Duchess of York, and his Papers; and the murdering of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey thereupon.  
NEver was there any Prince so much exposed to the Capriccios of Fortune as myself: So that of all Men alive I am the least obliged to offer Incense at her Altars. In my Youth I was expelled my Dominions by fanatics and Enthusiasts; since my Restoration I have been continually perplexed by the perverse and stubborn Humours of the Church-of- England-men, though I restored their Discipline: and now my Life is sought after by the Roman Catholics, whom I have so much obliged in the whole Course of my Reign, even to the hazard of my Crown and Government. I perceive that my seeming Neutrality enrages the Bigots of all Parties against me: And hence the Jesuits do now seek to dispatch me, because I am not willing to follow my Lord Clifford's Advice, and go their pace. They promise themselves undoubted Success in their Designs, considering the French King's Power, my Brother's Zeal for their Church, and the Constitution of my present Army: and because I am not willing to push on further than I conceive is for my Interest, they are therefore willing to rid themselves of me. O ungrateful and mischievous Generation! I am now convinced that it's not without Reason that the Society of the Jesuits is hateful even to some Catholic Countries; and that their Motto, Cavete vobis Principes, is proper enough for them: yet such are my Circumstances, that I dare not testify my Hatred to their Order, because of their revengeful and vindictive temper. They who did not spare two Henries of France, though professed Catholics, will never spare me who am esteemed a Protestant: and therefore though I do not love them, I dare not avow that I hate them; for they are not only to be dreaded for their Courage but for their Conduct, which is very observable in this Particular. They know that I have all along kept down the fanatics; and therefore if they had succeeded in their Murder, would have fathered it upon them; and for this end have, by their Interest amongst my Courtiers, got Mr. Cleypool, Son-in-law to the late Usurper, committed to the Tower, as having had a Design against my Person. This they did reasonably conclude would have obtained Belief amongst the Vulgar, because of the Disgrace I put on his Father-in-law's Corpse, and my Severity against the whole Herd of Dissenters; and by this means the Church of England should have been so inflamed against the fanatics, that they would have done the Jesuits Work to their hand, by ruining their Brethren, and so weakening themselves. Yet thanks to my Stars I have escaped the Snare; and now being warned, can provide for my own Safety, though it will be a very hard Matter to escape their Fury: Nor do I know any better Method than by my Brother's Interest to assure them of being favourably dealt with, and make as if I did not believe the Accusation. By this means I shall prevent those Efforts of their Revenge which their own Preservation may put them upon, if they think that I do really believe them guilty; for I doubt not but my Brother and they both will be ready to capitulate with me on these Terms, that they may enjoy my Protection against the Resentments of the Nation, who are terribly incensed by Dr. Oates' Discovery, and the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, for taking his Depositions. Nor am I indeed any further pleased with this Detection of the Conspiracy than as to what concerns my own personal Danger; for my Measures were well laid to have effected what they do so violently desire, but their Precipitance and too much Haste hath spoiled all.  
By Dr. Oates' Treachery to the Catholics, with whom he was engaged, it's easy to observe that Conspiracies are dangerous, and that all Men are not to be entrusted with Secrets of State; for let ecclesiastics of all Persuasions inculcate the binding Force of Oaths as much as ever they please, yet when it comes to their own turn, they break or observe them according as their Interest directs. The Danger of Conspiracies may be further observed from Coleman's Conduct; Princes had need to be well assured of the Fidelity of those whom they intrust with their Secrets. Can any Man have imagined that one in his Station should have been so blab-tongued, or that he would not have been more careful to have concealed his Papers? It's for my Brother's Interest and mine both, that he should suffer Death, though it's our Policy to feed him with Hopes of a Reprieve at the Gallows, left out of Revenge for our dropping him he should discover what he knows. And though the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey be barbarous, yet it's justifiable enough by Reasons of State, it's better that he should fall, than that the Crown should be made to totter, as it must certainly have done, if what Coleman had told him should have been publicly known: for I could neither in Honour nor Safety have abandoned my Brother, which would both have endangered my Throne and Reputation, it being impossible for him to have been brought to a public Trial, without a Discovery how far I am concerned in the Plot. However, to prevent popular Tumults, which would certainly happen if none of those who are accused be brought to Punishment, I must seem to countenance the Prosecution of the Plot to prevent the People's having any Pretence for executing Justice themselves; which, by the great Multitude of Swordmen that attended Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Corpse to the Grave, I may reasonably conjecture they have Inclination enough to do. And seeing these  Fellows who were entrusted with the Commission to kill him, had so little Prudence as to commit the Fact within the Verge of my Consort's Palace, it behoves me to give way to Justice against them, lest the world should think it had been contrived at Whitehall. And the time of the Parliament's Meeting drawing near, I must be very cautious how I take my Measures, and contrive in what manner it's fit to accost them.   

CHAP. LXVII. On his Majesty's Apology to the Parliament, October 21, 1678. for keeping up his Army. His demanding of Money; and acquainting them with the Plot, and Danger from Popery. The Vote of the Commons upon the Plot, and Orders to apprehend the Earl of Powis, and four other Popish Lords. Their passing of the Bill for raising the Militia; and his Majesty's refusing it. The Execution of Coleman, and some other Plotters of less note.  
THE Parliament being to meet, I must bethink myself of an Apology for not disbanding my Army according to the Act. And seeing they insisted so much upon the Preservation of Flanders, as the Barrier of this Nation, I must urge the Necessity there was of keeping them on foot for that end, and so turn their own Arguments against them; which will, by the Assistance of my Friends, draw a Veil before the People's Eyes; and at the same time this affords me a specious Reason for demanding Money, as having spent what they gave me last to maintain the Army. And if this should raise Heats amongst them, as I have Reason to think it may, I shall thence have a justifiable Pretence for proroguing them again, as designing a manifest Invasion of the Rights of the Crown. And by this means I shall acquit myself of my Promises to the Catholics, in preventing a thorough Scrutiny into their late Plot; and give those  Bigots, who intended my Death, a convincing Evidence, how necessary it is for them in their present Circumstances to preserve my Life: for if I should happen to miscarry at this Juncture, when the Kingdom is in a Ferment, on account of their Conspiracy, it will certainly issue in the Ruin of their Affairs, and the perpetual Exclusion of my Brother from the Throne, his Enjoyment of which is the thing that they expect with so much Impatience.  
But that I may the better screen myself from the Jealousies of the Parliament, it's necessary that I should inform them of the Popish Plot, and the Danger of my Person, and the Protestant Religion, if they don't fall upon effectual means to prevent it. This cannot in Justice give any reasonable Ground of Offence to my Friends the Catholics, seeing I only dissemble to do them the more Service. Nor have they any greater reason to be angry at my suffering some of the inferior sort to be cut off, and some of the chief ones committed, it being always good Policy rather to lose a Part than hazard the whole. This I shall take care to impart to the great ones: and so long as I secure my Interest with them, I need not value the other.  
The Commons, I perceive, are not to be diverted by a false Scent, as I did hope they would by my Apology for continuing the Army, and new Demand of Money, but are now very eager in pursuit of the Plot, and have voted it a damnable Design to root out their Religion and Government, have procured Warrants to apprehend the Earl of Powis, with the Lords Stafford, Arundel, Peter and Bellasis; so that I must of necessity comply with committing them to the Tower, where I shall take care to keep them in salva, though not in arcta custodia, and by that means save them from popular Fury. By my compliance in this I shall the better stave off the Odium of refusing the Bill for raising the Militia, though the Commons have voted it as necessary for their Safety. And I can easily palliate my so doing under the Notion of a Tenderness for my Prerogative, which being an old Plea, can never be suspected of being framed on purpose to favour the Plot, though at the same time I have no more Cause to repose myself on the Fidelity of the Country, than they have to entrust me with a Standing Army. I have met with no such Encouragement of late from their Civil Representatives in Parliament, as to make me confide in their Military Representatives in an Army: The Militia of the Nation were never Friends to my Father; nor do I know what reason they have for a greater Respect to the Son. If I should gratify the Commons in this, I have reason to dread the Issue; for having been so bold as to libel my Administration when they had no Forces to back them, I have no reason to doubt but that they would advance a Step higher, if they should have an Army which they could depend upon. Let them exclaim against my Conduct, for denying to raise the Militia, though at the same time they are encompassed with an illegal Army, as loud as they can, I am to prefer my own Interest to their Humour, and will always value my own Prerogative and Pleasure above the Will of my Subjects, who were born for me, and not I for them, according to the Doctrine of their own beloved Church, which can never stand if Popery fall: and I doubt not but their Clergy will quickly have their Eyes open to see it; for whenever the Tide runs strong against Popery, their Bishops decline, and Dissenters are favoured: and whenever the Stream is turned against the fanatics, the Mitres triumph, and Papists are encouraged: of which my Father's Reign and mine have afforded many incontrovertible Instances; and I doubt not but the Event will verify my having been a true Prophet.  
Foul Water quenches Fire as well as that which is clean: and so the Death of some of the meanest Plotters will satisfy the present Resentments of the People. And thus the greatest of Cities will condemn their own Suburbs to Destruction in case of a Siege, so they can but save the Body of the Place. The Heathen Romans thought it their Honour to devote themselves to the Infernal Gods to regain a Battle in hazard to be lost; and why should not the Christian Romans follow their Example? Those ordinary Fellows who have suffered on account of the Plot, will have more than a sufficient Compensation by a Place in the Roman Calendar of Saints; so that they have no reason to upbraid me for suffering the Law to take place against them; since, according to their own Doctrine, their Martyrdom does not only merit a Release from Purgatory, but the Enjoyment of Heaven itself: And by the sacrificing of Coleman I shall gain this Point, that the Vulgar will think I prosecute the Plot in good earnest; whereas at the same time I punish him for his too great Freedom of Speech, and prevent his using the like for time to come. Nor can the Papists themselves blame me for it, when they consider how much I am exposed in his Letters, which discover my Intrigues with France and Rome; and that he was so much a Fool as to have Copies of them by him.   

CHAP. LXVIII. On the Bill for excluding Papists from both Houses of Parliament; with a Clause, excepting the Duke of York. The Dissolution of the Parliament, as prosecuting the Popish Plot. The calling of another, and ordering the Duke of York to withdraw out of the Kingdom before they met. His Majesty's Speech to them, and Declaration, confessing his Error in governing by Cabals. His dissolving of his Privy-Council, and choosing another; whence the popular Members did quickly desire to be discharged.  
MY Pensions and Favours have been ill bestowed, since they are useless to me now in my greatest Strait. The Current of the House runs so strong upon the Plot, that I must find out some Method to stem the Tide. They are now so bold as to strike at my Brother, which is as much as if they should bid me to look to myself. I have gained one Point by the Assistance of the Bishops and Court-Lords, that though the Bill to prevent Catholics from sitting in Parliament, was principally leveled against him, yet I have got a Clause added to except him: and though it's true that this is a declaring him a Papist to the World, yet the Reasons for my doing so outweigh the Inconveniences: for now the Catholics will be the less pressing upon me to declare myself of their Party; when, besides the Stratagem which I formerly used to make my Brother declare himself, by threatening that I would sue for a Divorce, and marry another Wise, by whom I might have Children, I have now got his Religion declared in Parliament. But because this will rather alarm than appease the Nation, I don't find it convenient to continue this Parliament any longer, lest they should at last become headstrong and ungovernable: And rather than be controlled by them, to whom I have given so much Money to so little purpose, I had rather have my Designs checked by another, for I have but small Hopes of having a better. But this Advantage I shall reap from the Dissolution, that it will stop the farther Enquiry into the Popish Plot for a time, and give my Friends the Catholics a Breathing, by which they may recover from their Consternation, and take such Measures as are best for their Interest. At the same time I shall have some liberty to enjoy my Pleasures, for that's the way whither the Bias of my Soul inclines; and without dissolving this factious Divan, I could neither have so well provided for my Brother's Safety, nor the Desires of those charming Beauties, in whose Caresses I place my chief Happiness; for I had rather repose my Head in Venus' Lap, than be strutting in the Field with Mars' Helmet.  
The Dissolution of the Parliament at such a Juncture, I know will render me liable to abundance of Censures; and, amongst others, that I have done it to stifle the Discovery of the Plot: I must therefore take such Measures as will serve me for a Shield against this Accusation; which, together with the calling of a new Parliament, may be an Argument for me in the Mouth of my Friends. Nor can I think of a better Expedient than by ordering my Brother to leave the Kingdom for a time, but with all Assurances imaginable of my inviolable Friendship: And this, with the suffering of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Murderers to be brought to Trial, will at least blind the Eyes of the unthinking sort, and make my Pretences of having dissolved the Parliament on the account of their frequent Entrenchments upon my Prerogative, the more credible.  
The new Parliament being met, I laid before them my Designs to unite the Minds of my Subjects; that in order thereunto I had excluded the Popish Lords from the Parliament, executed several of the Plotters, and Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Murderers; that I had moreover disbanded as much of the Army as I had Money to do it with, and will disband the rest when they enable me; that, to take away all Subject of Cavil, I had discharged my Brother from my Dominions; and that I was ready to join with them in any good Laws against Popery: and, to drive the nail home, did plainly confess my having been formerly misled by Cabals, and declare my Resolution of governing henceforth by the Advice of my Parliaments and Privy-Council: and, to please them further, did choose such Persons for Members of the latter, as were known to be Zealots both for their Liberties and Religion. By this Method I quieted the Ferment in which the Generality of People were, and saved myself from a sudden and tumultuary Revolution; and at the same time my Friends the Catholics had leisure to provide for themselves, and my Brother withdrew from the impending Storm with Safety. But this I perceive was not durable, for the popular Privy-Counsellors finding that I only made use of them for the Credit of my Affairs, did quickly grow weary, and desire to be dismissed: and now my new House of Commons insisting on the same Courses which the former had taken, go on to impeach the Popish Lords in the Tower, and have voted a Bill to disable my Brother from inheriting the Imperial Crown of this Realm; and to make this go down the more smoothly with the People, they assign, as the Cause of their Vote, that the Hopes of his Succession hath been the chief Cause of this Conspiracy for the Destruction of myself, and altering the Government. By this Means they would possess the Kingdom with Fears of unavoidable Ruin to their Liberties and Religion, if the Duke be not excluded from succeeding to the Crown; and endeavour also to insinuate their Loyalty in taking care for my Preservation: but I have no great mind to trust to their Friendship; their Predecessors in 1641. were as ample in their Protestations of Loyalty as they, and yet took up Arms by my Father's Authority against his Person, and never made any stay till they cut off his Head. I know myself to be much more criminal in their Sense than ever he was; and that my Concurrence in the Popish Plot can be demonstrated with much more Ease than ever could his Commission to the Irish Rebels: And I have no reason to doubt but they will think that a Concurrence with the Papists, to cut off the English Protestants, is a Crime of as heinous a Nature as that of destroying the Irish Protestants, and will certainly decree it as severe a Punishment; and therefore I cannot be blamed if, for my own Preservation, I study how to give them a Diversion.   

CHAP. LXX. On the French King's seizing several Places in Flanders, etc. as depending on those which were confirmed to him by the Peace of Nimeguen. His and the Spaniards Unkindness to the Duke of York, at that time, in the Netherlands. The Address of the Commons to stand by his Majesty and the Protestant Religion. Their disbanding of the Army. The Discovery of Endeavours to make the Witnesses of the Popish Plot retract their Evidence: And the proroguing of the Parliament upon their growing warm about the Trial of the Popish Lords in the Tower.  
THough I be unsuccessful and encumbered at home, yet my Ally the French King is fortunate abroad; and, like a true Politician, does order his Affairs so as to make himself a Gainer both by Peace and War: Whether he gives Obedience to Mazarine's Dictates, as an obedient Son or tractable Scholar, I shall not determine; but sure I am he puts his Commands in practice, and values Treaties no more than as they conduce to his Interest. However, it's more politic for him to seize those Towns, as granted to him by Agreement under the Notion of Dependencies, than under any other Pretence whatsoever. And this I rejoice in, not only as it contributes to promote the common Design, but also because I have the Practice of so great a Monarch, as an Argument for my own Conduct; and the Authority of so great an Ecclesiastic as Cardinal Mazarine, to justify me in point of Principle. But however well pleased I am with this Matter, I cannot be satisfied with his Treatment of my Brother, who is a kind of Exile for following his Dictates, and therefore deserved kinder Entertainment at his hand: but I smell his Design, he is unwilling that his civil Reception abroad should extinguish his Desire of returning home, because he knows that his Presence is necessary here to confirm the drooping Catholics, and keep Life in his Party; for I know that he is jealous lest I should concur with my Parliament, rather than admit of an Interruption of my Pleasures. As for the Unkindness of the Spaniard, it is no Surprise; for whatever  they have to the Advancement of the Catholic Interest, yet they are angry at us for promoting that of France in opposition to theirs. And seeing the Case is so, I am resolved that my Brother shall return home.  
But I must first rid myself of this Session of Parliament; the Commons being so much overacted with Zeal, that they have presented me with an Address, wherein they promise to defend my Person and the Protestant Religion, and to revenge any Violence that may be offered to me. They exclaimed formerly against the Scots Covenant for measuring their Endeavours, to defend my Father, according as he stood up in defence of their Religion, and now they themselves run into the same Error, though the great Doctors of their Church pretended to teach and believe that Loyalty was an essential Point of their Religion: for now they join the Defence of my Person and that of the Protestant Religion together; which is as much as to say, that if I don't concur with them in the defence of the one, they will take no Care for the defence of the other. Then as for the revenging of any Violence that may be offered to my Person, I know what they aim at, but can provide for the defence of myself better than they, or at least in a way more agreeable to my Design. The Catholics are not such Fools as to cut me off now, for that were the way to ruin their Affairs, seeing my Brother's Interest is not yet established; so that I have no Fears on that Head yet. Neither have I any reason to trust their fair Promises now that they have deprived me of the Defence of an Army which was modelled to my Mind: Besides, it's below a Monarch to own that he needs the Defence of any one part of his Subjects against another, when he himself is born to defend the whole. However, I must submit to the Humour of the Multitude; and seeing I can neither have Money from France nor them to maintain my Army, I can the more easily dispense with having them disbanded: And by conceding this Point I shall put some stop to the Jealousies of the Nation; and my proroguing the Parliament to save the Popish Lords, whose Trial the Commons do so earnestly demand, will be of so much the easier Digestion. And by this Favour to the Catholics I shall engage them more firmly on my side; for the Interest of those Lords, whose Preservation depends on mine, will prevent Assassinations from the Bigots of their Party; and during the Recess of Parliament we shall have leisure to recover our lost Ground, and find out Expedients for taking off the Evidence of the Popish Plot that may not be so obnoxious to a Discovery as those which have been made use of hitherto, which have rather confirmed than discredited the Belief of the Plot.   

CHAP. LXXI. On the Insurrection at Bothwell-bridg in Scotland. The sending the Duke of Monmouth thither to suppress it, which he effected. The Execution of several Presbyterian Ministers upon it: and the Execution of several Jesuits for the Popish Plot; and Endeavours to stifle the same by the Meal-tub-Plot, which proved abortive.  
HAD my Subjects of the Episcopal Communion in England been as true to my Interest as their Brethren in Scotland, my Affairs would have appeared e'er now in a better Posture. The former are nothing so steady to the Interest of Monarchy and Episcopacy as the latter, which may easily be evinced from the Endeavours which the English Parliaments have used both to establish Liberty to Dissenters by a Law, and to limit the Succession and Administration of their Kings. My Episcopal Subjects in Scotland do on the contrary, make no scruple to put my Commands in execution, though against the Letter of the Law; and by a just Severity upon their Brethren the Presbyterians, beyond what the Laws in their strictest Interpretation will allow, they have procured this Insurrection, which happened very opportunely for my Affairs. By this means I have not only humbled the Presbyterians there, and suppressed their rebellious Field-Conventicles, but have a plausible Pretence for making the Laws still more severe against them; forfeiting their Estates to gratify my hungry Courtiers; cutting off such of their Preachers as I have in my hands; and ridding the Country of so many rebellious Fellows as I have taken Prisoners; so that I shall be sufficiently revenged on the pestilent Heretics for the Lives of so many of my Friends the Catholics as they have cut off on account of the Plot, which I was obliged to give way to to prevent being suspected thereof myself.  
I shall also gain this by the Scots Insurrection, that the Duke of Monmouth, whom I employed as General to suppress it, will be thereby rendered the less popular amongst the Presbyterians in that Nation, and their Friends the Dissenters and Republicans here: So that if ever he attempt to ascend the Throne, he will find it the more difficult, or at least be made less capable of obstructing the Design of introducing Popery, for his Zeal against which the Faction applaud him.  
I shall also make this Improvement of that Fanatical Insurrection, that it will serve to alarm the Church of England, and convince them of the restless Endeavours of the Dissenters to overturn their Discipline and Government, and by consequence make them the more apt to believe the Plots which shall henceforth be charged upon fanatics here to destroy the Government both in Church and State; which will be the best Expedient that we can think on to turn the Plot, which hath been prosecuted with so much Vigour against the Papists, upon their own Heretical Brethren the Dissenters, from whom its much easier to possess them with Apprehensions of Danger, than from the Catholics, because their Interest is greater in the Nation; and that they have smarted by them more lately than by the other: And if I can do my Catholic Friends this piece of Service, as I have not the least reason to doubt but I shall, they may very well dispense with my having sacrificed some of their Priests and Jesuits, that I might with the less Suspicion advance their Cause.  
I thought that my Design of burying the Popish Plot in Oblivion, by fathering another upon the Presbyterians, could scarcely have miss taking effect, especially when so dextrously managed by one of Dangerfield's Parts; but the Fates are not yet propitious to my Endeavours, nor is the measure of my Crosses entirely filled up. This Plot was sufficiently well laid; and had those Papers which were scattered in the fanatics Lodgings been but happily seized, without suspicion of any Tricks, the Presbyterian Plot would have passed for current, for I should have been certain of having it trumpeted by the Clergy from their Pulpits: But seeing it hath proved abortive, I must take more care for time to come; and have no reason to despair of succeeding in some Attempt of the like nature, for I am sure of having the Clergy on my side.   

CHAP. LXXII. On the dissolving of the Parliament, July 12. 1679. and calling another against October 7. The Return of the Duke of York in the mean time; and his being sent to Scotland. The proroguing of the Parliament after their being chosen. The acquitting of Sir George Wakeman, and others of the Plotters, by the then Lord Chief Justice. The burning of the Pope, etc. in effigy. The presenting of a Petition by the Citizens for the sitting of the Parliament: and Abhorrence of Petitions presented by others.  
THIS Parliament proving refractory as well as the other, I find myself under a necessity of dissolving them, for I am sensible that they will never be fit for my purpose. Perhaps the dissolving of two such Parliaments successively may prevent the choosing of another of the same stamp, and therefore I am resolved to try the Experiment. In the mean time I can, with the more Safety, recall my Brother; for if the Parliament be dissolved, there's none else that dare to ask the Reason why. And if any of the Council shall dare to mutter against it, according to the Earl of Shaftsbury's Example, they shall be certainly discharged as well as he.  
The new Parliament is of the same Complexion with the old. Whence I perceive that the Contagion hath spread so broad and wide in the Nation, that all Ranks and Degrees of Persons are infected: But seeing my Subjects are resolved to be cross, and choose such Men to represent them in Parliament as thwart my Designs, I am resolved to be as cross to them, and prorogue the Parliament from time to time: so that if they are not like to answer my Design, they shall not have an opportunity of answering theirs, till I have taken such previous Measures as I think fit for my purpose, and see whether I can have Money by any other Method. For which end I will try both France and Rome; and if neither of them answer my Ends, I shall have opportunity to attempt the buying off of some of the leading Members: And if that should also miscarry, I will send my Brother to Scotland, that he may be out of their way, for I am sure of his being well entertained there by my Episcopal Council, who will order it so as to make him seem acceptable to the whole Nation: and that will strengthen his Party here; and at the same time such of his Friends as find themselves pressed by the Stubbornness of the English House of Commons, may find Sanctuary there under his Protection. I doubt nothing of the Zeal of the Scots Episcopal Party for his Interest, because the Constitution of their Church makes them depend wholly on the Crown; and in that my Politics proved very successful, to have a Law for leaving the Government of their Church wholly at my Disposal. Nor do I doubt but the particular Inclination which that Kingdom hath always evidenced to a Monarchical Government, and the singular Respect which they have hitherto showed to Fergus' Race, will have a considerable Influence on them, to preserve the Succession in the right Line. And during these Prorogations I shall also have the Opportunity of making the English Clergy to my purpose; and order it so, that my durante beneplacito Judges shall acquit such of the Plotters as come to trial here; which will give a mighty stop to the Credit of the Conspiracy, and be an Argument for the Nullity of the Plot from the Pulpits, when it's evident beforehand that it's disbelieved by the Bench, for the Colour of Justice adds very much Strength to any Cause.  
The extraordinary Heat of the Rabble against Popery, and such Protestants as concur with the Measures of the Court, makes it absolutely needful for me to keep off the Parliament as long as I can: for seeing the Mob are so insolent at present, as not only to burn the Pope in effigy, but such also of their Fellow-Hereticks as are addicted to my Interest, it's more than probable, that if they were countenanced by the Authority of such Parliaments as those which I have had of late, that their Insolence would not stop there; of which the Petition of the Citizens for the sitting of the Parliament is no obscure Indication: but that the Odium of hindering the Parliament to meet should not lie wholly upon me and the Court, I have ordered it so, that a part of the Subjects have declared their Abhorrence of such Petitions; which affords me a plausible Argument for what I have done, seeing the Sense of the Nation, as I shall take care to have that of my own Party esteemed to be, is against it as well as mine: And by these Abhorrences I have ground to conceive Hopes that my Design for engaging the Churchmen on my side has actually taken.   

CHAP. LXXIII. On the Court's being disappointed of receiving Money from Rome and France. The Meeting of the Parliament October 22, 1680. The Proceed of the Commons against such Justices as obstructed Petitions for the sitting of the Parliament. The passing of the Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York, in the House of Commons, nemine contradicente. The rejecting of it by the Lords. The Trial and Execution of the Lord Stafford. The impeaching of the Judges. Their Denial of a Supply to the King. His Majesty's Message to them, and dissolving them, because of their Obstinacy.  
NO wonder that those who are avowed Enemies to my Designs should refuse me Money, when those who are zealous for the same, and promised Assistance both by Men and Money, do now fail me: that the Court of Rome, who compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes, should deny Money when it is only required to propagate their Faith, may justly seem strange; but as for the French King's doing so, it's easy to conceive that he hath been thereunto influenced by Reasons of State. It was his Interest to create Jealousies and Discontents betwixt me and my Subjects, not only to prevent our uniting against him, but that both of us might fall as an easier Conquest, though it's horribly inglorious for him to take such Methods. But why should I say thus, seeing all the great Princes that ever aspired to the Universal Monarchy did make use of Fraud as well as Force? However, during my Life I shall prevent his Design to cheat me of my Crown; and if I can carry on my Work without him, as it is the more hazardous, it will be also more glorious: and by the Divisions which have from time to time been carefully nourished amongst my Protestant Subjects, I doubt not but in time I may obtain my Desires without his Assistance.  
The Parliament being met, they are as bad to the full as I suspected, and tread in the same Steps with their Predecessors, and discharge their Fury upon such of my Justices as obstructed Petitions for their sitting, and accuse them as Betrayers of the Rights and Liberties of the People, because they witnessed their Zeal for the Prerogatives of my Crown. Nor does their seditious Procedure stop here, but they have unanimously voted a Bill for excluding my Brother from the Crown, cut off the Earl of Stafford for his Accession to the Plot, and impeach my Judges. The Fall of that Lord I must needs lament; but it is as venial for me to let him fall a Sacrifice to popular Vengeance, as it was for my Father to give up the Earl of Strafford to his rebellious Parliament, though he was much more necessary to him than ever this Lord was to me. But as for the excluding of my Brother, and impeaching of my Judges, I must never give way to it, for that would infallibly issue in the Destruction of myself. My stubborn Subjects have deprived me of my Army, so that I cannot establish my Authority by the Sword; and if I suffer myself to be likewise bereft of my Judges, than I shall be utterly disabled from carrying on my Design, either by Military Power, or the Shadow of Law. As to the Exclusion of my Brother from succeeding to the Crown, it can in no manner be admitted. And here I have a very good Plea against them: The Clergy have preached up the Divine Right of a Lineal Succession; and if that be so, I can maintain my Argument by the Laws of God; and I doubt not but my Judges will give it out as the Laws of the Land. If I should give way to his Exclusion, it would weaken myself, for then my Enemies might reasonably act with the greater Boldness against me, when they should be in no fear from my Successor to punish such a Practice.  
The Lords having thrown out the Bill by the Influence of the Bishop's Bench, is enough to justify me in the Eyes of the World; for why should I consent to the disabling of my own Brother from succeeding to me upon the account of his being a Roman Catholic, when the Protestant Bishops, who are the ghostly Fathers of their Church, make no Scruple to own his Right of Succession, and testify their Hatred against the Bill? In this they have done me remarkable Service, and I doubt not but their Example will have Influence on the Clergy. But to prevent all Suspicion, as much as is possible, that I have any Design to re-establish Popery, I will send them a Message, that I am ready to agree to any other Expedients for securing them against it. And thus when I have made such Proffers, and have the Bishops and their Clergy on my side, it will look very presumptuous in any Party whatever, so much as to whisper a suspicious Word of my Intentions. And if the Commons adhere tenaciously to their Bill, and refuse to drop it, there's none who will dare to blame me if I dissolve them.   

CHAP. LXXIV. On the calling of another Parliament to meet at Oxford, Febr. 1680. The seizing of Fitz-Harris with seditious Libels, designed to have been lodged with Protestant Peers and Commons. The seditious manner of the London-Members going to Oxford. His Majesty's Speech to the Parliament when they met there. Their Impeachment of Fitz-Harris, and Dissolution.  
THE City of London being a perfect Nest of Rebellion, it's reasonable to give them a Mortification, by summoning the Parliament to meet elsewhere: and as Oxford hath been always signal for Loyalty, both to my Father and myself, I will gratify that Place with the meeting of this Parliament, which will engage the Clergy more firmly on my side, especially the young Nursery which is now a breeding up there. And as by this Method I shall oblige my real Friends, it's probable that it may cool the Courage of my Enemies, especially when they find themselves at a distance from their factious Accomplices at London, and surrounded with my Soldiers and Guards at Oxford.  
It is not without some appearance of Reason that my stubborn Subjects do boast of the Divine Care and Providence which seems to watch over their Persons, Religion and Liberties; for not only the Plots of Catholics against them have been discovered and baffled, but all my Designs of fastening Plots against them upon the Government have miscarried. The Disappointment of this, which was managed by Fitz-Harris, may be of very ill Consequence, if there be not care taken to prevent, or at least baffle his Discovery, which he has been such a Fool as to make now that he is taken. How unhappy have I and my Courtiers been in the Tools that we chose to carry on our Designs: for every one of them have not only discovered whatever they were employed in, but also who set them at work; which incenses the Nation against the Court. But without attempting we can never be sure of any thing; and it is some Satisfaction when we do miscarry, to be able to say with Phaeton, Magnus tamen excidit ausis. This Design was considerable, though not successful; for had the Plot but taken, and those seditious Libels been found upon the Persons to whom they were intended by the Penny-post, it would have afforded a plausible Pretext for charging them with a Plot; and then I could have rid myself of so many dangerous Enemies by colour of Law. The Commons are sensible enough of the Importance of the Design, and therefore have impeached Fitz-Harris, in order to have a full Discovery who set him at work, which to be sure they would take care to publish through the Kingdom: but by my Interest in the House of Lords I have got that Impeachment rejected; and the Heat of the Commons in this, together with the Posture which the London-Members came in to the Parliament at Oxford, will furnish Pretence enough for dissolving them, it being altogether intolerable that Subjects should put such mutinous Affronts upon their Prince, as to distinguish themselves by Badges in their Hats, with printed Mottoes upon them, to insinuate as if I had a Design to introduce Popery and Slavery. So that I doubt not but to make a good Improvement of this extraordinary Heat discovered by the Citizens, and can easily make it a sufficient Groundwork to build a Plot on, that shall not be so apt to tumble down about the Ears of the Workmen, as those which have hitherto been attempted; for here's Overt-act plain enough. It's not to be supposed that the Citizens and their Members did come in this posture, without previous Consultation: nor can it be thought that those Lords and Commons who have so frequently complained of my Administration publicly, and are so much incensed now at my opposing their Design of excluding my Brother, should never have talked about those Affairs in private Cabals, and propose Expedients to deliver themselves from that which they call Popery and Slavery, the two things of which they are so much afraid. And if I can but prove any such Consults or Conferences, as I need not despair of effecting it by some false Brethren of their own, let them extenuate the matter as much as they please, by alleging that it was no more than what was talked in Parliament, and agreeable to the Association proposed by the Commons, according to the Pattern of that signed in Queen Elizabeth's time, upon the account of Jealousies of the same Nature. I say, let them make those and a hundred more such Apologies, if I can fasten it upon them, I shall prove it a Plot, and punish them accordingly for it. And if I succeed in this, as I have no great reason to doubt but I shall, seeing the Judges are made to my purpose, it will not only justify all the Measures which I have taken hitherto, but also such Severities as I may have occasion to put in practice in time to come; for if once I get a Protestant Plot to be believed and fixed upon those Lords and Commons who have always been most averse to my Designs, and made the greatest Clamour against the Court, than all that they have from time to time alleged of my Purposes to introduce Popery and Slavery, will be looked upon as the effect of Envy, and a mere Contrivance for the better carrying on of their Designs to overturn the Government in Church and State. And if once I get but some of them convicted by colour of Justice, than I may charge the Design upon the whole Party with Confidence; and I am sure to be seconded by the Pulpit and the Bench, whose Arguments against the Fanatical Plotters will have so much the more Weight, that the Parliament by their Influence would proceed to thwart me in the matter of the Succession, which is unalterable by Divine Right, notwithstanding of the fair Proffers which I made to them in my Speech, of concurring with the Trial of the Lords in the Tower, and harkening to any Expedients by which the Protestant Religion might be preserved, and the Monarchy not destroyed. And seeing the Fathers of their own Church do own their Loyalty to be an essential Part of their Religion, and Monarchy to be of Divine Right; and that rather than break the Chain of Succession, they are content to have a Popish King, which the other Party think so dangerous to their Religion, I may very well be excused to value the Monarchy and Succession at least as much as they; and I am sure that I can't well value it higher, seeing its apparent that they prefer it to their Religion, as probably thinking that to be the more disputable Point of the two. And if it be so, as I have very great Reason to believe it is, I am the more confirmed in my Scepticism as to all Religion; for that Monarchy is not thought to be the only Form of Government by Divine Institution, is apparent enough, because there are so many Republics, both Protestant and Popish, which are all of them defended as lawful Governments, by the greatest Doctors of both Churches. But seeing the Popish Clergy value their Religion above all sorts of Government or Governors, as appears by their exauctorating Kings, and defending their Murder or Dethronement when they fall off to Heresy, I have reason to conclude that they are the more serious of the two; and with the other Arguments which they urge as the Antiquity, Universality, and Infallibility of their Church, this is to me a strong Presumption that their Religion is the truest of the two, seeing it has evidently more Influence upon its Followers, of which it has also the greatest Number, and amongst those a great many Men of undeniable Learning and Parts.   

CHAP. LXXV. On his Majesty's Declaration that the Duke of Monmouth was not lawfully begotten.  
HEre I find a mighty Struggle of Nature against declaring my Son illegitimate; but seeing I have got over those things which foolish Bigots reckon Divine, why should I stand upon that which is merely humane? It's known to the World that I have violated those Oaths which I made to God, then why should I scruple to deny that I was ever under a Matrimonial Vow to any Woman but Queen Catharine? I had rather be esteemed wicked than weak, and have it said, that I was unchaste than foolish, as every one will conclude me to have been in doing as much as in me lay to sacrifice the Interest of my Crown to an impotent Passion, for a handsome Woman; and that for the Satisfaction of my present Desires I should have hazarded a Deprivation of all my future Dignities, by contracting such a mean Alliance as would not have excited the Compassion, but exposed me to the Contempt of other Sovereign Princes. It's true, my Brother James may, for one reason, justly condemn me in his Heart, because I would not let him disown his Match upon the Foresight of my Restoration, though in strictness he has no Reason, seeing our Circumstances do so much differ. His Father-in-law would have resented such an Injury to the utter Disappointment of my Return, if I should have contenanced him in that Design; but there is no such hazard in my Case now. And if he should have any hard Thoughts of me upon that account, he's very ungrateful, seeing it is chief for his sake that I do it, though at the same time I have also a Prospect to the Merit, which according to the Roman Doctrine attends such Actions as are done for the Advancement of the Catholic Church, that in case there be any such thing as a future Reward for such good Deeds, I may by this Means insure it; and at the same time I revenge myself on this undutiful Son, for associating himself with those who are my Enemies, and have all along opposed my Designs. Private Men do many times disinherit their Children upon Disgusts, and why should not a Monarch have the same Liberty? My great Grandmother, Marry Queen of Scots, declared her Son, my Grandfather, a Bastard, to prevent his succeeding her, because he was educated in the Protestant Religion; and she being enregistered as a Saint in the Roman Calendar, it can be no Crime to follow her Example.  
This Procedure may be also justified from Reasons of State; seeing he is become so popular amongst those who are Enemies to my Government, they may perhaps take upon them to make him Head of a Rebellion against me, and think to justify themselves by his Right of Succession, and the Interest which he has to preserve the Nation upon its true Basis: So that the most effectual way to give a Check to any such Designs, which I have Reason from his Circular Journeys into the Country to suspect may be in embryo, is to declare him illegitimate, which will lessen his Reputation, seeing it will easily obtain Belief, that I would not declare him illegitimate, if it were not so, merely for the Credit of my younger Days, when I professed so much Piety, that I may not be thought to have acted the Hypocrite from my Cradle.   

CHAP. LXXVI. On the Protestant Plot. The Trial and Execution of Stephen College. The Commitment of the Lord Howard of Escrick, and the Earl of Shaftsbury, with his Trial and Acquitment. The Quo Warranto against the Charter of London, and other Corporations. The imposing of Sheriffs upon the City of London. The Commitment of Sir Thomas Pilkington and Mr. Shute, than Sheriffs, for opposing it. The calling of a Parliament in Scotland, where the Duke of York represented his Majesty, as Commissioner. The Test enacted there; and the Act for settling the Succession upon the Duke. The Trial and Condemnation of the Earl of Argile, for explaining the Test; and his Escape.  
THE Parliament being now dissolved, and I by Consequence at liberty from such an impertinent Check, it's convenient for me to carry on my Designs with all imaginable Vigour; and having found an opportunity against one of the Faction, who was a talkative meddling Fellow, I am resolved to have him tried for High-treason at Oxford, seeing the London-Jury have acquitted him. Let the Faction complain of its being contrary to Law, and what else they please, it's for my Interest that he should be cut off, to be a Terror to others, and gain Belief to the Plot: Oxford being a Place of noted Loyalty, I doubt not of having him found guilty there, seeing I have Evidences enough ready, who will swear treasonable Words against him; and he being once convicted, it will not only reflect upon all the rest who attended the London-Members to Oxford, but upon the Members themselves, and the whole Party of Lords and Commons that countenanced the Bill of Exclusion. And I am certain of this Advantage against all of them, that the Church of England will be their Enemies, because of the Favour and Inclination which they have evidenced to Dissenters. And when College shall be condemned by due Forms of Law, it will reflect upon the Sheriffs of London for having picked such a Jury as acquitted him.  
Having begun with Stephen College, and been successful in my Endeavours, I am now resolved on higher Game, and therefore have caused the Earl of Shaftsbury, and the Lord Howard, to be seized as Ringleaders of the Faction. It's true that I could not promise myself such Success in London as I had in Oxford; but however in attempting it I have gained thus much, that of the Crimes wherewith the Earl of Shaftsbury was charged, some will be believed; and his being acquitted in London will furnish me with farther ground of Quarrel against the City, and countenance my Quo Warranto against their Charter, as to which I am sure of the Sentence of the Judges: And if I could once but humble that Source of Rebellion, it would render the rest of my Work easy throughout the Nation: And if the Charters of Corporations were once in my possession, I shall be able to choose what Men I please to represent them in Parliaments, which will be no small Advantage to my Designs. It is indeed a very bold and daring Attempt; but finding that hitherto my Proceed have met with no Opposition by way of Arms, I have the more Encouragement to go on, especially seeing I have got the Church on my side, who are happily alarmed with the Insinuations of their own Danger from the opposite Party: so that I doubt not of bringing this Affair to a happy Conclusion, by letting the hungry Church-of- England-Justices lose upon the Dissenters Estates, and giving those of Doctors-Commons a full Power over their Consciences and Purses; by which means the Party will easily be prevailed on to believe that my seizing of the Charters is only designed to exclude Dissenters from bearing any share in the Magistracy of the Nation, or assisting in the choice of Parliament-men: so that if once I get a House of Commons modelled to my mind, I can easily make my party good in the House of Lords; and then I or my Successors may effectuate, by the People's seeming Consent, what hitherto we have not been able to accomplish. The City of London having behaved itself so rebelliously, I am resolved to be further revenged upon them, and to deprive them of their liberty of choosing Sheriffs, for opposing me, in which some of the most Factious are already committed: And because the Herd of fanatics did unanimously concur with them, I shall take care to have them duly prosecuted and punished according as their Merits require.  
My Episcopal Subjects in Scotland have acted their part, and evidenced a Loyalty without any Reserve, having dispensed with my Brother's not taking of the Oath which was incumbent on him, as Commissioner, and settled the Succession without any Scruple: They have, however, enacted a Test for the Security of their Religion, which I can easily assent to, for pleasing of the Rabble, and furnishing the Episcopal Party an Answer to the Reproaches of their Brethren the fanatics, who allege that they have no Zeal for the Religion which they profess. But though I am very well satisfied with my Friend's Loyalty, yet in truth I cannot commend their Policy, that they should not have taken more care to avoid such plain Contradictions in their Test, as furnish Objections against it, not only to the fanatics, but also to many of their own Party. It's true, they are the more excusable, that herein they were out-witted by some of the opposite Faction; who, though they had a hand in the framing it, refuse it themselves: but I took care to have had the Earl of Argile beheaded for his Behaviour in that Affair; whereby I should not only have punished him for his own and his Father's former Rebellions, but have also deprived the opposite Faction of a Head, but the cross Fates have decreed his Escape: Yet I am so much a Gainer by the Affair, that his forfeited Estate will reward some of my zealous Friends, and his Sentence will terrify the rest of my Enemies, as it hath pleased my Church-of- England Zealots, because of his Inclination to the Scotish Kirk. This Behaviour of the Parliament and Church of Scotland will mightily strengthen my Friends of the Church of England in their espousing mine and my Brother's Cause, which will not a little contribute to the running down of the Dissenters, our irreconcilable Enemies in both Nations.   

CHAP. LXXVII. On the finding of my Lord Grey, Alderman Cornish, and other Citizens, guilty of a Riot, for countenancing the Election of the City-Magistrates. The Discovery of the Conspiracy to assassinate his Majesty and the Duke of York at Ry-house; and the Council of six to manage the Plot: Whereupon my Lord Russel, Algernon Sidney, etc. were cut off. The Earl of Essex's being murdered in the Tower. The Trial and Sentence of Mr. Speke and Mr. Braddon, for endeavouring a Discovery thereof. The Continuance of the Surrender of Charters, etc.  
THE Citizens, I perceive, continue still tumultuous, and are mighty tenacious in asserting the Right of choosing their Magistrates, though there is a Quo Warranto against their Charter. It is therefore my Interest to punish those who encourage them, that for time to come they may be deterred from such Practices; and therefore I shall order it so that my Lord Grey, Alderman Cornish, and such other noted Citizens as countenance their Proceed, shall be indicted as Rioters; and I doubt not of having them found guilty accordingly: which will both reflect upon their Credit, and affect their Estates.  
But all this while I play at nothing but small game; and this way of proving Plots by Consequence and Inferences is not so satisfactory to the Public: for the Faction evades them, by alleging that all those things with which they are charged amount to no more than a zealous Appearance for their Liberties, to which they have a Right by Law; so that I must find out a Method to charge their Ringleaders with something of a more heinous Nature, that may appear odious in the Eyes of the World; and not only render the Persons, but the Cause also hateful: By which means I shall be justified in cutting off the Chief of the Faction, as the Lord Russel, Algernon Sidney, etc. and afford a plausible Pretext for committing the Earl of Essex and others. But seeing it will be looked upon as improbable that such Persons as the Duke of Monmouth, Earl of Essex, Lord Russel, Colonel Sidney, Mr. Hambden, etc. should be concerned in any mean or base Design against my Life, or my Brother's, by way of Assassination, I have taken order that the Plot shall consist of two Parts, viz. one of levying War against me to overturn the Government in Church and State, whereof those great Men  shall be given out as the Managers; which as it will justify the Reasonableness of my having declared the Duke of Monmouth illegitimate, so it will be the more readily believed that he is engaged in such a Design to revenge that Affront. The other part of the Plot, which shall be given out as a Design to have assassinated myself and the Duke of York, I have, by the Advice of some of my Confidents, laid it so as to have it charged upon meaner Persons, as Walcott, Rumbold, etc. And being provided with the Lord Howard of Escrick, and other Evidences fit for my purpose, the Matter shall be sworn boldly home. And thus shall I revenge myself on those Men who have appeared with so much Zeal against me and my Brother, and rid ourselves of such dangerous Enemies. And at the same time, to make the Belief of the Plot obtain amongst the People, I will order a Day of Thanksgiving for the Discovery, which will give the Clergy an occasion to run down the fanatics, and assert the Truth of their Design to overturn the Church and State, under the specious Pretext of consulting how to preserve and maintain their Religion and Liberties. By this means I may go on to cut off their Ringleaders securely, and the Lord Russel and Algernon Sidney particularly; the former for having dared to carry up the Bill of Exclusion to the House of Lords, and because he is popular, and the apparent Heir to a great Estate of Church-lands, which will make him vigorous in his Opposition to Popery; and the latter, because of his being an old Rebel against my Father, a Person of Antimonarchical Principles, and one whom the Faction admires for his Counsel and Conduct. I know what will be urged in their Defence, as that their innocent Discourses and Meetings are aggravated; that the Evidence against them is infamous and defective; and that my Attorney and others are moved with Bribes, and the Prospect of Preferments from the Court, to harangue them out of their Lives: but those Cobweb-Objections I can easily break, now that the Tide runs with as much Violence against them as they carried it formerly against the Catholics; for which I am obliged to my Bishops and Clergy, who have espoused the Business with so much Zeal, because I have turned the Chase upon the fanatics. And to engage them yet further, I have ordered some of the Scots Presbyterian Gentry, etc. who lurked about Town, to be sent to Scotland, that so the Plot given out to be carried on in both Nations by the fanatics and Republicans, may acquire the more universal Credit.  
The Death of my Lord Russel I perceive is a great Mortification to the Party, who are now as much dejected as they were formerly elevated in the time of the Popish Plot and seditious Parliaments. But that which pleases me most is, the bringing of the Protestant Interest in my Kingdoms so low, and splitting them to pieces by a Wedg of their own, though I have been deserted, in a great measure, both by my Friends of France and Rome. But my Brother, I perceive, carries the thing too far; and I find it generally suspected, that all was not fair in relation to the Earl of Essex: yet the News of his having cut his own Throat was of singular Use to advance the Credit of the Plot, and contributed much to my Lord Russel's Condemnation. And though I have no reason to bewail his Loss, because he might have proved a dangerous Enemy, yet the Merit of the Father makes me regret the Fate of the Son, which I could wish had been more favourable.  
I perceive that it's dangerous to go on in this Method too fast; and I must not give my Brother too much way, lest I should indeed dig a Grave for myself: and therefore having gratified the Catholics enough at once, I may very well be allowed to pause a while, and consider whether I may not be shipwrecked in the Tempest that I have raised, before it be too late; and therefore I think it necessary to recall the Duke of Monmouth, whose natural Affection will make him tender of my Preservation. And by this means I shall have a Check upon my Brother, though at the same time I must not allow the Plot to be decried, but find it convenient still to sacrifice Colonel Sidney, and suffer Speke and Braddon to be prosecuted, for offering to call in question the Earl of Essex's having been felo de se. And in the mean time I will take surer, though slower Measures to bring about my Designs: For the Heads of the Faction being now cut off, and the whole Party brought under Hatches, I judge it better Policy to divest the Corporations of their Charters gradually, while the Churchmen are in the surrendering Humour, than to pursue these severer Methods with heat, lest the People should come at last to be enraged, and rise in an universal Rebellion; for if my Brother be suffered to follow his own Conduct, he will quickly run himself and me both off the Stage.   
FINIS.   

Here follow the Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. Published in 1686. by King James' Authority, who attested that he found them in his Brother's Strong Box, written in his own Hand.  

The First Paper.  
THE Discourse we had the other Day, I hope satisfied you in the main, that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth; and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scriputre is in print, That none can be that Church, but that, which is called the Roman Catholic Church. I think you need not trouble yourself with entering into that Ocean of particular Disputes, when the main, and, in truth, the only Question is, Where that Church is, which we profess to believe in the two Creeds? We declare there to believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church, and it is not left to every fantastical Man's Head to believe as he pleases, but to the Church to whom Christ left the Power upon Earth to govern us in Matters of Faith, who made these Creeds for our Directions. It were a very irrational thing to make Laws for a Country, and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws; for then every Man will be his own Judge, and by consequence no such thing as either Right or Wrong. Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those Uncertainties, as to give us a Rule to go by, and to leave every Man to be his own Judge? I do ask any ingenuous Man, whither it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy, or to interpret the Scripture by it? I would have any Man show me, where the Power of deciding Matters of Faith is given to every particular Man. Christ left his Power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven, and left his Spirit with them, which they exercised after his Resurrection: First by his Apostles in these Creeds, and many Years after by the Council at Nice, where that Creed was made that is called by that Name; and by the Power which they had re-received from Christ, they were the Judges even of the Scripture itself many Years after the Apostles, which Books were Canonical and which were not. And if they had this Power then, I desire to know how they came to lose it, and by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church? The only Pretence I ever heard of, was, because the Church has failed in wresting and interpreting the Scripture contrary to the true Sense and Meaning of it, and that they have imposed Articles of Faith upon us, which are not to be warranted by God's Word. I do desire to know who is to be Judge of that, whether the whole Church, the Succession whereof has continued to this day without Interruption, or particular Men who have raised Schisms for their own Advantage?   

The Second Paper.  
IT is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation: Every Man thinks himself as competent a Judge of the Scriptures as the very Apostles themselves; and 'tis no wonder that it should be so, since that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church, dares not bring the true Arguments against the other Sects, for fear they should be turned against themselves, and confuted by their own Arguments. The Church of England (as 'tis called) would fain have it thought, that they are the Judges in Matters Spiritual, and yet dare not say positively that there is no Appeal from them; for either they must say, that they are Infallible, (which they cannot pretend to) or confess that what they decide in Matters of Conscience, is no further to be followed, than it agrees with every Man's private Judgement. If Christ did leave a Church here upon Earth, and we were all once of that Church, how, and by what Authority, did we separate from that Church? If the Power of interpreting of Scripture be in every Man's Brain, what need have we of a Church or Churchmen? To what purpose then did our Saviour, after he had given his Apostles Power to Bind and Lose in Heaven and Earth, add to it, that he would be with them even to the end of the World? These Words were not spoken Parabolically, or by way of Figure. Christ was then ascending into his Glory, and left his Power with his Church, even to the End of the World. We have had these hundred Years past, the sad Effects of denying to the Church that Power in Matters Spiritual, without an Appeal. What Country can subsist in Peace or Quiet, where there is not a Supreme Judge from whence there can be no Appeal? Can there be any Justice done where the Offenders are their own Judges, and equal Interpreters of the Law, with those that are appointed to administer Justice? This is our Case here in England in Matters Spiritual; for the Protestants are not of the Church of England, as 'tis the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal; but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at the present to their Fancies; which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from, they are ready to embrace or join with the next Congregation of People, whose Discipline and Worship agrees with their Opinion at that time: so that according to this Doctrine, there is no other Church, nor Interpreter of Scripture, but that which lies in every Man's giddy Brain. I desire to know therefore of every serious Considerer of these things, whether the great Work of our Salvation ought to depend upon such a Sandy Foundation as this? Did Christ ever say to the Civil Magistrate (much less to the People) that he would be with them to the End of the World? Or, did he give them the Power to forgive Sins? St. Paul tells the Corinthians, Ye are God's Husbandry, ye are God's Building; we are Labourers with God. This shows who are the Labourers, and who are the Husbandry and Building: And in this whole Chapter, and in the preceding one, St. Paul takes great pains to set forth that they, the Clergy, have the Spirit of God, without which no Man searcheth the deep things of God; and he concludeth the Chapter with this Verse, For who hath known the Mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the Mind of Christ. Now if we do but consider in humane Probability and Reason, the Powers Christ leaves to his Church in the Gospel, and St. Paul explains so distinctly afterwards, we cannot think that our Saviour said all these things to no purpose: And pray consider on the other side, that those who resist the Truth, and will not submit to his Church, draw their Arguments from Implications, and far-fetched Interpretations, at the same time that they deny plain and positive Words; which is so great a Disingenuity, that 'tis not almost to be thought that they can believe themselves. Is there any other Foundation of the Protestant Church, but that if the Civil Magistrate please, he may call such of the Clergy as he thinks fit for his turn at that time; and turn the Church either to Presbytery, Independency, or indeed what he pleases? This was the way of our pretended Reformation here in England; and by the same Rule and Authority it may be altered into as many more Shapes and Forms as there are Fancies in men's Heads.    

A Brief Account of Particulars occurring at the happy Death of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles II. in regard to Religion; faithfully related by his then Assistant, Mr. Jo, Hudleston.  
UPON Thursday the Fifth of February, 1685. between seven and eight a Clock in the Evening, I was sent for in haste to the Queen's Back-stairs at Whitehall, and desired to bring with me all things necessary for a dying Person. Accordingly I came, and was ordered not to stir from thence till farther notice; being thus obliged to wait, and not having had time to bring along with me the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, I was in some Anxiety how to procure it: In this conjuncture (the Divine Providence so disposing) Father Bento de Lemos a Portugez came thither, and understanding the Circumstance I was in, readily proffered himself to go to St. James', and bring the most Holy Sacrament along with him.  
Soon after his Departure I was called into the King's Bedchamber, where approaching to the Bedside, and kneeling down, I in brief presented his Majesty with what Service I could perform for God's Honour, and the Happiness of his Soul at this last Moment, on which Eternity depends. The King then declared himself, That he desired to die in the Faith and Communion of the Holy Roman Catholic Church; That he was most hearty sorry for all the Sins of his Life past, and particularly for that he had deferred his Reconciliation so long; That through the Merits of Christ's Passion he hoped for Salvation; That he was in Charity with all the World; That with all his Heart he pardoned his Enemies, and desired Pardon of all those whom he had any wise offended; and that if it pleased God to spare him longer Life, he would amend it, detesting all Sin.  
I then advertised his Majesty of the Benefit and Necessity of the Sacrament of Penance; which Advertisement the King most willingly embracing, made an exact Confession of his whole Life, with exceeding Compunction and Tenderness of Heart: which ended, I desired him, in farther sign of Repentance and true Sorrow for his Sins, to say with me this little short Act of Contrition.  
O my Lord God with my whole Heart and Soul I detest all the Sins of my Life passed for the Love of Thee, whom I love above all things; and I firmly purpose by thy Holy Grace never to offend Thee more, Amen, Sweet Jesus, Amen. Into thy Hands, Sweet Jesus, I commend my Soul; Mercy, Sweet Jesus, Mercy. This he pronounced with a clear and audible Voice; which done, and his Sacramental Penance admitted, I gave him Absolution.  
After some time thus spent, I asked his Majesty, if he did not also desire to have the other Sacraments of the Holy Church administered unto him? He replied, By all means, I desire to be Partaker of all the Helps and Succours necessary and expedient for a Catholic Christian in my Condition. I added, And doth not your Majesty also desire to receive the precious Body and Blood of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist? His Answer was this, If I am worthy, pray fail not to let me have it. I than told him, it would be brought to him very speedily, and desired his Majesty, that in the Interim he would give me leave to proceed to the Sacrament of Extreme Unction; he replied, With all my Heart: I than anointed him, which as soon as performed I was called to the Door, whither the Blessed Sacrament was now brought and delivered to me.  
Then returning to the King, I entreated his Majesty that he would prepare and dispose himself to receive. At which the King raising up himself, said, Let me meet my Heavenly Lord in a better Posture than in my Bed. But I humbly begged his Majesty to repose himself: God Almighty, who saw his Heart, would accept of his good Intention. The King then having again recited the forementioned Act of Contrition with me, he received the most Holy Sacrament for his Viaticum, with all the Symptoms of Devotion imaginable. The Communion being ended, I read the usual Prayers, termed the Recommendation of the Soul, appointed by the Church for Catholics in his Condition. After which the King desired the Act of Contrition, O my Lord God, etc. to be repeated. This done, for his last spiritual Encouragement, I said,  
Your Majesty hath now received the Comfort and Benefit of all the Sacraments, that a good Christian (ready to departed out of this World) can have or desire. Now it rests only, that you think upon the Death and Passion of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ, of which I present unto you this Figure (showing him a Crucifix;) lift up therefore the Eyes of your Soul, and represent to yourself your sweet Saviour here crucified, bowing down his Head to kiss you, his Arms stretched out to embrace you, his Body and Members all bloody and pale with Death to redeem you; and as you see him dead and fixed upon the Cross for your Redemption, so have his Remembrance fixed and fresh in your Heart. Beseech him, with all Humility, that his most precious Blood may not be shed in vain for you; and that it will please him by the Merits of his bitter Death and Passion to pardon and forgive you all your Offences: And finally, to receive your Soul into his blessed Hands: and when it shall please him to take it out of this transitory World, to grant you a joyful Resurrection, and an Eternal Crown of Glory in the next. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Amen.  
So recommending his Majesty on my Knees, with all the Transport of Devotion I was able, to the Divine Mercy and Protection, I withdrew out of the Chamber.  
In Testimony of all which I have hereunto subscribed my Name.  
JO. HUDLESTON.   

ERRATA.  
PAge 105. line 2. read happier. Ibid. l. 3. after Restraint supply than the Brutes.