THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF K. CHARLES II. AND K. JAMES II.  
Printed in the Year 1690.   

PREFACE.  
IT is one of the Encomiums given to Suetonius, That he made Public to the World, the Vices and Miscarriages of the Twelve Caesars, with the same freedom with which they were by them Committed. And there is no question, but one of his chiefest reasons for so doing, was this, Because he would not deceive Posterity; and all agree that he was Contemporary with the Three last. So that the Enormities of Domitian could not but be fresh in his Memory when he wrote his Life; and there might be several Persons Living, as might have the same Partial Affections for Domitian, as there are now Adorers of C. II. and J. II. For which reason there is a wary Caution among some People, That Truth is not always to be spoken. Which perhaps may be sometimes True, but as the Case stands with these Sheets, not at all to be taken notice of; The pains of this short History, being as well to Vindicate, as to Inform; and written in Opposition to one of the French King's most Scandalous Libels, and bitter Invectives against our Present Sovereign; Entitled, The True Portraiture of William Henry of Nassau, etc. Now to have made a Particular Answer to all the Extravagancies and Impertinent Flams of a Malicious Libeler, would have been a Fending and Proving, altogether fruitless. It was therefore thought the more concise way, to bring the Two Last Reigns upon the Stage, and then let all the World judge of the Furberies and Tyranny of those Times, and the Integrity, Sincerity, and Sweetness of Their Present Majesty's Reign. As for the Truth of what is here contained, I will not Apologise for it; for as to the more secret Transactions, the Consequences and Events are my Testimonies; and for what was more publicly carried, there are the loud and general Complaints of the Kingdom to confirm it. So that I shall say no more.   

THE SECRET HISTORY, etc.  
WHEN Charles the Second was restored to the Thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, never any Monarch in the World, came to the Possession of so large a Dominion with more Advantages to have done good for himself, to his Subjects at home, and to his Allies abroad: The People all experienced in Martial Discipline, as having but newly sheathed the Sword of Civil War and Foreign Conquest, so that their Valour was dreaded abroad wherever he should have menaced an Enlargement of his Territories. Besides all this, he had the Love of his Subjects, equal, if not superior, to any Prince that ever reigned before him; and he had the Affection of ●is Parliament to the highest degree.  
But after all this, he was no sooner settled in his Throne, but through the Influence of Evil Consellors upon a disposition naturally vitions and easily corrupted with Effeminate Pleasures, he abandoned himself to all manner of Softness and Voluptuous Enjoyments, and harbouring in his Bosom the worst of Vices, base Ingratitude, betrayed himself that he might betray his People. For where the Constitution of a Nation is such, that the Laws of the Land are the Measures both of the Sovereign's Commands, and the Obedience of the Subjects; whereby it is provided, that as the one are not to invade what by Concessions and Stipulations is granted to the Ruler, so the other is not to deprive them of their lawful and determined Rights and Liberties; there the Prince who strives to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Society is the Traitor and the Rebel, and not the People who endeavour to preserve and defend their own. Nor must we ascribe the Miscarriages of his Reign altogether to the remissness of his Nature; but to a Principle of Revenge, which his Mother had infused into him, not so much for the loss of her Husband, but out of her inbred Malice to the Protestant Religion, which no where flourished in that Splendour as in England, fostered an● cherished by the vowed Enemy of this Nation, his Brother the D. of York, who ha● been openly heard to declare in his Bed chamber at St. James', That he was resolved to be revenged upon the English Nation for the Death of his Father: And what an Ascendant this Brother had over him, the whole Kingdom has felt by sad and woeful experience. For indeed the King had all along an Affection for him, so entire and baneful to the Nation, that he could only be said to Reign, while his Brother Ruled. With all these Royal Virtues, and imbred and fomented Animosities, to render him at his return a Gracious Sovereign to this Kingdom, let us trace him from his Cradle to find out those Princely Endowments, which invisibly increasing with him as he grew in Years, dazzled in such a manner the Eyes of the doting Politicians of that Age, to recall him, against that known and vulgar Maxim of Common Prudence.  
— Regnabit sanguine multo  
Ad Regnum quisquis venit ab exilio.  
When he was but very young, he had a very strange an unaccountable Fondness to a wooden Billet, without which in his Arms he would never go abroad, nor lie down in his Bed: From which the more observing sort of People gathered, that when he came to Years of Maturity, either Oppressors and Blockheads would be his greatest Favourites; or else that when he came to reign, he would either be like Jupiter's Log for every Body to deride and contemn; or that he would rather choose to command his People with a Club, than rule them with a Sceptre. And indeed they that made the first and last Conjectures found in due time they were not altogether in the wrong. For the Throne was no sooner empty by the death of his Father, before he could be permitted to seat himself in it, but he gave us a plain discovery what sort of People they were, who when he came to Reign were most likely to have the Principal Room in his Favour and Trust, and by whose assistance he was in hopes to tyrannize over his English and Scottish Subjects.  
For when the Parliament of Scotland sent to him, as he was then cruizing about Guernsey, to treat with him about receiving him to be their King, he would not so much as transact with them, till he had first sent to Ireland, to assure himself whether those Rebels, who had murdered no less than two hundred thousand Protestants were in a condition or no for him to cast himself upon their Assistance. But those hopes failing, in regard they were in a fair way to be subdued themselves, he was at length inclined to entertain the Overture made him by the Scots. And yet even then was his mind so full fraught with the thoughts of Despotical Dominion, and purposes of introducing Popery into his Territories, that had it not been for the P. of Orange, he would never have complied with the Terms which the Scots had order to propose, tho' no other than what were necessary for the security of the Lives, Liberties, Laws, and Religion of his People. And how he employed his wooden Billet afterwards, may easily be understood by his many acts of barbarous Tyranny over those poor People, and the Slavery under which the whole Nation began so lately to groan.  
Being admitted to the Sceptre of Scotland, at what time the Scourge of English Victory hung hourly over his Head; though he was diligently watched and observed by Men of Piety and Virtue, he could not forbear the satisfaction of his Youthful Inclinations to all manner of Wantonness and Lasciviousness: insomuch that having in the Year 1650 to the many Fornications and Adulteries which he there committed, added the perpetration of a Rape upon a modest and virtuous Lady, he had incurred the general disatisfaction of his best Friends. However since they had brought him in, and restored him to the Regal Dignity, and that what was done could not now be undone, they deemed it no less their Duty, to retrieve him, if possible, from those infamous and violent Courses, and to that purpose concluded, that the Danger, as well as the Sin and Scandal of the Crimes he had committed, should be privately represented to him by some of the most sober Noble Men and Ministers. But some declining the Office, as apprehending it would be ungratefully received by the young King, others not deeming they had that Awe upon him which was sufficient, it came at length to be devolved upon the Marquis of Argyle. For they supposed, that if he harkened to any Person it would be to him, not only by reason of his Quality, but because he had been the chief Instrument of persuading and prevailing with the Parliament to call him home to inherit the Crown of his Ancestors, when most of the Members were thinking to exclude him. But though that Noble and Prudent Peer managed the Address, which upon that Occasion he made to the King, with the highest Piety of a Christian, and the greatest Submission of a Subject; yet the King looked upon it as so Sacrilegious a Crime, that any one should presume to rebuke him for his Darling Pollutions and Impurities, that he resolved that nothing should expiate the Offence but the Blood of that Great and Virtuous Nobleman.  
It is true, he was destroyed upon a pretended legal Process, but they who considered that it was for strained Faults and Failings of a Person who never acted but in a public joint way, without any sinister or treasonable Design against the King or his Father, and against which he was either able to defend himself by Acts of Approbation or Oblivion in verbo principis, than which there could not be a more Supreme, Sacred, and inviolable Security; or by an insuperable Necessity: They who remembered the Marquisse's faithful Endeavours for restoring the King to the Crown of Scotland, thought it a severe Case, and looked upon his Condemnation as unjust, and his Life an ungodly Sacrifice to the angered Lust of a Lascivious Prince. He had called God and all the Records of Heaven to witness his Innocency, as to the most pungent Articles against him; and to avoid giving the Parliament the trouble of a Defence, in all humility he threw himself down at the King's Feet, and wholly submitted himself to his Mercy. Nay, when all this would not do, he put in a Justification for himself, so full of Reason and good Proof, as was thought would have satisfied all Mankind. But notwithstanding all this, such was the remorceless Cruelty of our good natured Prince of Mercy and Clemency, that nothing but so Noble a Person must be a Victim to his private Animosity.  
Nor does the getting him put to death by a seeming Course of Law excuse or extenuate the Gild of the Fact, but is rather an Aggravation of it before God and Men, in regard the Law which is designed for the security of Men's Lives, was here wrested and perverted to their Destruction.  
And in imitation of this unjust Prosecution it was, that when the D. of York hunted the Son of this Noble Man to death, and was told by the Scot's Lawyers, that there was nothing in what the Earl had said or done which could be made Criminal by the Law of the Land, his Highness was pleased to reply, But cannot it be wrested to Treason?  
Nor was the King less early in Hypocrisy and breach of Promise. For the confirmation of which to be a Solemn Truth, there needs no more than to lay the Foundation of the Proof upon his own Words and Solemn Engagements. For in the King's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons just before his Restauration, he has these Words.  
We assure you upon our Royal Word that none of our Predecessors have had a greater esteem of Parliaments than We have, as well in Our Judgements as from Our Obligation. We do believe them to be so Vital a part of the Constitution of the Kingdom, and so necessary for the Government of it, that We well know, neither Prince nor People can be in any tolerable degree happy without them; and therefore you may be confident, that We shall always look upon their Counsels, as the best We can receive, and shall be as tender of their Privileges, and as careful to preserve and protect them, as of that which is most near ourselves, and most necessary for our own Preservation.  
This in part demonstrates his Prevarications with Man: Now for his Prevarication with Heaven, we must produce another Paragraph of the same Letter, wherein he uses these flattering Expressions.  
If you desire the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion, We have, by our constant Profession of it, given sufficient Testimony to the World, That neither the unkindness of those of the same Faith towards Us, nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession, could in the least degree startle Us, or make Us swerve from it, and nothing can be proposed to manifest Our Zeal and Affection for it, to which we will not readily assent. And We hope in due time ourselves to propose something to you for the Propagation of it, that will satisfy the World, that We have always made it both Our Care and Study, and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it.  
As for the first, his Veneration for Parliaments, the succeeding Transactions of his Reign, which are to be related, will manifestly make it appear how far those Words were from his Heart, when dictated by his Lips.  
And as for the second, his Zeal for the Protestant Religion, nothing could render him more a Hypocrite then such a Profession, when at the same time he was both himself a Papist, and under Promises and Obligations to the Pope and the Romish Clergy, to destroy the Protestant and introduce the Roman Catholic Religion, as afterwards appeared by the Attestations of Ocular Witnesses, who often saw him at Mass during his Exile: and was yet more evident by a Letter under his own Hand, written in the Year 1652. to the Pope himself; which once was printed in Whitlocks Memoirs; but upon the considerations of the danger that might ensue upon divulging it at that time to the World, torn out before the publishing of the Book. However to supply that defect, we shall here insert the Propositions that were sent by him to Rome, while he was in Scotland, professing the Presbyterian Religion, and carried thither and pressed forward by one Dalie, an Irish Priest, and Confessor to the then Queen of Portugal, under the Title of Propositions and Motives for and on the behalf of the most Invincible King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, to Pope Innocent X. in the Year of jubilee 1650. Which Dalie, taking France in his way, spoke with the Queen-Mother, and received her Directions for the better management of the Affair.  
Most Blessed Father,  
Our Agent at present residing at Rome, with all humility shows to your Holiness, That the principal cause and occasion of that Regicide tyrannically perpetrated upon the Person of Charles the First, Father of that foresaid Charles the Second, by his Rebels and cruel Subjects (the like whereof was never heard of from the beginning of the world, not only not among civil Nations, but even among the most barbarous themselves) have been the graces, favours and concessions▪ so often and so many ways extended to the Catholic Religion, and the Assertors and Professors thereof, in the Kingdoms both of England and Ireland: The truth of which appears, in that the foresaid Charles the First gave Authority to the Marquis of Ormond by several Commissions, for the establishing and perfecting all Conditions with the Confederate Catholics of the Kingdom of Ireland, of sufficient security for the Catholic Faith. Furthermore, the said Charles the First, tearing lest the said Ormond (being an Heretic) should not satisfy the said Confederates in all things; He sent thither the Marquis of Worcester, a Man truly and wholly Catholic, with a more ample Commission; in which Commission the said Marquis of Worcester had full Authority of concluding a Peace with the said Confederate Catholics, and of giving them Conditions altogether satisfactory, as well concerning Liberty of Religion; as also as to other Injuries that had been done unto them, which the said Marquis of Worcester, making with them an absolute Peace, did abundantly fulfil.  
Further, this appeareth in that the said Charles the First, even in England itself, did by Commissions set the Catholics, namely the said Marquis of Worcester, Sir Arthur Ashton, and many others, over his Armies, and made them Governors of Cities, Castles, and strong Holds, notwithstanding the clamour of the People against it, and which was not a slight Motive of the Regicide committed upon him, whereby it appears, that although the said King Charles the First died not a Catholic, yet he died for them.  
Again, (most blessed Father!) the same Agent most humbly represents, That the present King Charles the Second, the true and undoubted Heir of the foresaid Charles the First, and of all his Kingdoms (to whom the said Kingdoms belong of right, according to that of Christ, Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,) while his Father yet lived, was known to have good and true Natural inclinations to the Catholic Faith, following which, and going on in his Father's steps, he did not only recommend it to the Marquis of Ormond, but gave it him in express Command to satisfy in all things the Confederate Catholics in Ireland, namely, That he should grant them the free exercise of their Religion, That he should abrogate the Penal Laws made against them, and that he should restore to the said Catholics, whether Laics or ecclesiastics, their Lands, Estates, Possessions, or what other Rights did at any time belong unto them, and by the said Laws had been unjustly taken away; in obedience to which Commands, the said Marquis in the Name, and by the Authority of the said two Kings, namely, Charles the First and the II. made and concluded a firm Peace with the said Confederate Catholics; by the conclusion of which Peace, the said present King and all his Dominions, hath involved himself with the Catholics in an irreconcilable War against the Parliamentarian Regicides of England, whose Blood therefore the said cruel Tyrants insatiably thirst after, as they did after his Fathers.  
The said Agent further offers to your Holiness, That the inhuman Regicides do wickedly usurp to themselves in the Dominions aforementioned, all the Authority of the King, do most cruelly persecute all the Catholics both in England and in Ireland, partly by condemning them to Banishment, partly by thrusting them into Prisons, and otherwise corporally punishing them; and lastly, by putting them to death, a Witness of the truth hereof, is that great slaughter made by Cromwell, in the taking of the two Cities of Drogheda and Wexford, and other places, where all the Catholics without distinction of either Sex or Age were slaughtered; witness hereof also the raging persecution and death of Catholics in England: by all which, and by their Parliamentarian Decrees, themselves, and their Covenant with God (as they call it) it is evident even beyond the clearness of the light of the shining Sun, That these Tyrannical Regicides do ultimately intend and put forth all their Power for the utter destruction of all Catholics, and to extirpate by the Roots, and wholly to extinguish the Catholic Faith throughout the World, openly asserting and boasting with great glory, that these things being once finished in those Dominions, they will then invade France, and after that run through Germany, Italy, and all Europe, throwing down Kings and Monarches, whose very Titles are most odious and abhorrent unto them: Briefly, they have no other thing in their Aim than these two, namely, The extirpation of the Catholic Religion, and the destruction of Monarchy: To which wicked Machinations of theirs, forasmuch as they could never have any the least hopes, that either the King or his Father should at any time in the least assent; they have put the one to death▪ and the other to exile: And these Rebels now with a nefarious boldness, have lately called themselves a Commonwealth.  
To meet with and prevent the infernal endeavours of such Rebels, our Agent most humbly offers to your Holiness the following Propositions.  

1. That your Holiness would make an annual supply out of your own Treasury unto the said Charles the Second, of considerable sums of Money, suitable to the maintaining the War against those Rebels against God, the Church, and Monarchy.  
2. That you would cause and compel the whole beneficed Clergy in the world, of whatsoever Dignity, Degree, State or Condition soever, to contribute the third or the fourth part of all their Fruits, Rents, Revenues, or Emoluments to the said War, as being Universal and Catholic. And that the said Contribution may be paid every Three Months or otherwise, as shall seem most expedient to your Holiness.  
3. That by your Apostolic Nuncio's your Holiness would most instantly endeavour with all Princes, Commonwealths, and Catholic States, that the said Princes, Commonwealths, and States, may be admonished in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and induced to enter into, and conclude an Universal Peace; and that they will unitedly supply the said King. And that they will by no means acknowledge the said Regicides and Tyrants for a Commonwealth, or State; nor enter into, or have any commerce with them.  
4. That by the said Nuncio's, or any other way, all and every the Monarches of all Europe may be timely admonished, and made sensible in this Cause; wherein, beside the detriment of the Faith, their own proper Interest is concerned: The foresaid Tyrants being sworn enemies to all Monarchy, as they themselves do openly assert, both by Word and Writing; and to that end, both in Germany, Spain, France, Polonia, etc. and in the very Dominions of the Great Turk, they have raised dangerous Insurrections; being raised, they foment them: and to that purpose, they supply the Charge, and make large Contributions to it.  
5. That your Holiness would command, under pain of Excommunication, ipso facto, all and singular Catholics, That neither they, nor any of them, directly nor indirectly, by Land or by Sea, do serve them in Arms, or assist them by any Counsel, or help to favour or supply them any way, under whatsoever pretext.   
Holy Father! The premised Remedies are timely to be applied, by which the Catholic Faith, now exposed to extreme and imminent hazard, may be conserved; an infinite number of Catholics may be preserved from destruction, Monarchy may be established; and the most invincible King of Great Britain restored to his Rights: All which things will bear your Holiness to Heaven with their Praises, whom God long conserve in safety, etc.  
The Propositions and Motives abovesaid (if occasion be) our Agent will more largely set forth viva voce.  
Nor could there be a more evident Demonstration of the King's kind Inclinations to the Head of the Romish Religion, whom he had so dutifully courted from Scotland, then that soon after his Return, he justified the Bloody Massacre committed by the Papists in Ireland in the Year 1641. For that the Lord Antrim appearing at the Court of Claims guilty of those execrable Murders, and of that most detestable Rebellion, and being thereupon to forfeit his Estate, as he had justly deserved, the King, by a Letter under his own Hand, as well to the Privy Council, as to that Court, avowed, That whatever the said Lord had done, it was by Commission and Authority from his Father; Which as it serves to clear a great portion of our Doubts and Suspicions of the Son's Integrity to the Protestant Religion; so it was a shrewd Argument, that all that glister'd in the Father was not Gold.  
But being eager to be restored, he was forced to put on a Protestant Mask, and to wear one Religion in his Face, another in his Heart; and no question but he had Plenary Toleration from his Ghostly Father for what he did. He had watchful Eyes over him. And to show that as he was a great Lover of Comedies and Interludes, so he could act his part with e'er a Moon or Lacie of 'em all, there is a Story must not be omitted, which may serve to light us into the Occasion how he came to gain the Addition of Pious. Otherwise, as it is impossible for us to give any Account why Virgil so often gives the Epiphet of Pious to his Hero AEneas, after he had so dishonourrably cheated and broke his Faith with Queen Dido; so is it as little to be expected that we should afford a Reason why Charles the Second should be so universally dignified with the Name of Pious, after such a Prank of Hypocrisy as we are going to relate. Certainly he could not be thought to be akin to AEneas; for we can never deduce his Extraction from the Loins of Anchises (perhaps from Venus we might) and therefore the Cause must be sought for nearer home. Well then, the Story is this.  
While he lay at Breda, daily expecting the English Navy for his Transportation, the Dissenting Party fearing the worst, thought it but reasonable to send a select Number of their most eminent Divines to wait upon his Majesty in Holland, in order to get the most advantageous Promises from him they could, for the Liberty of their Consciences. Of the number of these Divines, Mr. Case was one, who with the rest of his Brethren coming where the King lay, and desiring to be admitted into the King's Presence, were carried up into the Chamber next or very near the King's Closet, but told withal, That the King was busy at his Devotions, and that till he had done they must be contented to stay. Being thus left alone (by Contrivance no doubt) and hearing a sound of groaning Piety, such was the Curiosity of Mr. Case, that he would needs go and lay his Ear to the Closet door. But, Heavens! how was the good Old Man ravished to hear the Pious Ejaculations that fell from the King's Lips!— Lord,— since thou art pleased to restore me to the Throne of my Ancestors, grant me a Heart constant in the Exercise and Protection of thy True Protestant Religion.— Never may I seek the Oppression of those who out of the tenderness of their Consciences are not free to conform to Outward and Indifferent Ceremonies.— With a great deal more of the same Cant.— Which Mr. Case having overheard, full of Joy and Transport, returning to his Brethren, with Hands and Eyes to Heaven up-lifted, fell a congratulating the Happiness of Three Nations over which the Lord had now placed a Saint of Paradise for their Prince. After which, the King coming out of his Closet, the deluded Ministers were ready to prostrate themselves at his Feet; and than it was that the King gave them those Promises of his Favour and Indulgence, which how well he after performed, they felt to their sorrow.  
Soon after he arrived in England, where he was received with all the Pomp and Splendour, and all the Demonstrations of Joy that a Nation could express; but then, as if he had left all his Piety behind him in Holland, care was taken against the very first Night that his Sacred Majesty was to lie at Whitehall, to have the Lady Castlemain seduced from her Loyalty to her Husband, and enticed into the Arms of the happily restored Prince. Which was not only Adultery, but Incest in the Lord's Anointed, it being the Opinion of several Persons, who had reason to know more than others did, that she was his Sister by the Mother's Side, as being begotten by the E. of St. A. upon the Queen's Body, after the Death of C. the First: which is the rather to be believed, for that I myself have often heard Mr. R. Osborn, then at Paris with the Exiled King, affirm, That he saw the said E. and the Queen solemnly married together.  
But he was more kind to the D. of Portsmouth, than to any of his Mistresses; and thence it was, that she might not lie under the Scandal of being a Whore, that after he had made her a Duchess, he made her also his Wife; that is to say, he married her by virtue of his Royal Prerogative, at the Lord A's House, by the Common Prayer-Book, according to the Ceremonies of the Church of England: A thing in some measure justifiable in a Prince, since the Law allows all Men one Wife; and therefore a King, who is above Law, may surely have two. And upon this ground perhaps it was, that upon a Lord Mayor's Day, being at Mr. Eaton's in Cheapside, where the King usually stood, upon some Discourse that brought it out, she cried; Me no Whore; if me thought me were a Whore, me would cut mine own Throat. And by the same Dispensing Power he provided also for her Children: And therefore having no less adulterously begotten a Daughter upon the Lady Wood, he joined her in holy Wedlock to one of his Sons whom he had begot after the same Legitimate manner upon the Body of the Duchess of Cleveland; according to the Answer of Tamar to Ammon, of which he wanted not Sycophant Priests enough to put him in mind.  
But these were Peccadillo's readily forgiven by the Religion which he inwardly embraced, which could readily dispense with such Trifles as these, provided he went thoroughstitch with the Work which his Ghostly Fathers had cut out for him. Which was the reason, perhaps, that he made choice of a Devotion so conformable to his lustful Inclinations. For certainly what was said of Harry the Eighth, might much more properly he said of him, That he spared no Woman, whether Virgin, Married, or Widow, in his Venereal Heats; Which filled his Court so full of Pimps and Panders, that there was hardly any Preferment about his Person for any other. This was that which rendered the D. of L. one of the most ill-favoured of Men, so amiable in our Caesar's Eyes: And this was that which advanced several others to their gilded Coaches, and Places of the greatest Honour and Profit about the Court. Tho nothing was more mournful, then to see those vast Sums of Money which the Parliament so profusely gave him for the Honour and Security of the Nation, so extravagantly and prodigally wasted upon his Strumpets, of which two were Common Harlots, of Actresses taken from the Bawdy Stage to his Royal Bed. A thousand Pounds every Munday-morning, for the Smiles of a Gilt; when his necessary Servants pined and starved for want of their weekly Board-wages, and the strength of the Kingdom, his Seamen, were forced to serve his Enemies for Bread.  
Thus from the first hour of his Arrival into these Kingdoms, (for I dare not call them His) he set himself by his own persuasion and influence to withdraw both Men and Women from the Laws of Nature and Morality, and to pollute and infect the People with all manner of Debauchery and Wickedness. He that ought to have shone like the North Star in the Firmament of Royalty, to direct his Subjects in the Paths of Virtue and Honesty, was the Sovereign Ignis fatuus to misguide them into all the snares of Ruin and Perdition, Execrable Oaths were the Chief Court-Acknowledgements of a Deity; Fornications and Adulteries the Principal Tests of the People's Loyalty and Obedience. And whether it were to affront God who had preserved and restored him to his Throne, or to be revenged upon the Nation, for inviting him so unanimously to wield the Sceptre of his Ancestors, certain it is, that he made it his business to live in defiance of the Fear and Authority of God, and to poison and corrupt the Minds, and deprave the Manners of the English People, as might easily be observed through the whole Course of his Reign.  
But the King had been well instructed in his Exile, and had sufficiently learned in his banishment that undoubted Maxim of Tyranny, that the only way to alter the settled Government of a Nation, and to introduce Slavery and Popery, the support of Thraldom, was to weaken and make soft the Military Temper of the People by Debauchery and Effeminacy, which generally go hand in hand together. Knowing therefore that Regis ad Exemplum totus componitur Orbis, he gave these lewd Examples himself, on purpose, that after he had thus Enervated the Minds and Resolutions of his Subjects, he might the more easily trample upon their Necks, and reduce them under the perpetual Yoke of Antichrist, in expectation of his Mother's Blessing, and to fulfil the Agreement between himself, the Pope, and the French King.  
Certain it is, that the Kingdom was never in a better Posture for the King to work upon it, then at the time of his return into England. For such were the Contests for Superiority, among those who had taken upon them the Government after the death of Oliver, such the Confusions and Disorders that from thence arose, that no body could probably see where would be the End of the general Distraction, unless it were by reducing all things to their Primitive Condition, under a Prince whose Title was so fair to the Crown. Though a great Blunder in Politics, which the necessity of Affairs at that time made to pass for an Act of Prudence. But such an Act it was, to which all Parties were the more inflamed by the King's reiterated Oaths, Promises, and Declarations, to those of the Church of England, to maintain the Protestant Religion; to the Dissenters, that he would indulge their tender Consciences with all the Liberty they could rationally desire, and to All in general, that he was a most really zealous, and unalterable Protestant. And so infatuated they were with these ingratiating Wheedles, that should all that knew him beyond Sea, both at Colen and in Flanders, have spoken their discoveries with the Voices of Angels; nay should the Letter which he wrote with his own hand in the year Sixty two to the Pope, have been shown them in Capital Letters, they would have been all looked upon but as Fictions, and Inventions to obstruct the Happiness of the Nation. The People therefore adored him as the end of all their Miseries, the Dissenters, upon the Relations of their Ministers returned, thought themselves happy in the reports of his Mercy and Piety, and the Parliament doted upon his Oaths and Promises, so that no Prince in the World could ascend a Throne with more Love and Affection, or with a greater Reputation in the Opinion of the whole Nation. What could be more inhuman, more immoral, more barbarous, then by all the Violations of Royal Faith and the Word of a King, to disappoint the Hopes and Expectations of a People that had such a Confidence of his Religion and Virtue? Though perhaps such a failure might have been attributed to his Weakness and want of Conduct. But to set himself, after so high a Veneration of his Virtues, such a prostrating of their Lives and Fortunes at his Feet, in Combination with a Foreign Prince, the only professed and mortal Enemy of their Welfare, to destroy their Religion, subvert their Laws and Liberties, to undermine and impoverish their Estates and Fortunes, and to reduce a Plump, Wealthy, and Well-nourished Nation, into a Skeleton of a Kingdom, what could be more infernally ingrateful? Yet that this was the Study and Practice of his whole Reign, the following Passages will make Geometrically demonstrable.  
The King was not ignorant that he was furnished already with a stock of Gentlemen, who being forced to share the Misfortunes of his Exile, and consequently no less imbittered against those whom they looked upon as their Oppressors, he had moulded them to his own Popish Religion and Interests, by corrupting them in their Banishment with him, to renounce the Protestant Doctrine and Worship, and secretly reconcile themselves to the Church of Rome: Insomuch that Mr. R. offered to prove one day, in the Pensionary House of Commons, that of all the Persons, yet Persons all of Rank and Quality, who sojourned with the King abroad, there were but three then alive, viz. P. Rupert, the Lord M. and Mr. H. Coventry, who had not been prevailed upon by his Majesty to go to Mass. Nor could their being restored to their Estates at his return, separate them from their Master's Interests; for that besides the future Expectations, with which the King continually fed them, and the Obligations that the Principles of the Religion, to which they had revolted, laid them under, they had bound themselves, by all the Oaths and Promises that could be exacted from them, to assist and cooperate with him in all his Designs for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion and introducing of Popery; though they were dispensed with from appearing barefaced. So soon therefore as the Parliament that gave him admittance into the Kingdom was Dissolved, the King called another, the first of his own Calling; and so ordered the Matter, that the greatest part of the Masked Revolters got in amongst the Real Protestants: By which means all things went trim and trixy on the King's side. They restored him the Militia, which the Long Parliament had wrested out of his Father's hands; they sacrificed the Treasure of the Nation to his Profuseness and Prodigality, the only Virtue in him that saved us from utter Ruin; for had he been more sparing he had done us more mischief. They offered up the Rights and Liberties of the People, by advancing his Prerogative; and what was most conducing to the King's Popish Designs, they made him, by private Instructions, those Penal Statutes, which divided the two prevailing Protestant Parties, and set them together by the Ears, by arming one Party of the Protestants against all the rest; such a darling advantage to the Papists, and upon the obtaining of which, he set so high a value, that neither the necessity of his Affairs at any time afterwards, nor the Application and Interposure of several Parliaments, for removing the grounds of our Differences and Animosities by an Indulgence to be passed into a Law, could prevail upon him to forego the advantages he had got of keeping the Protestants at mutual Enmity one with another, and making them useful to their own Designs, of supplanting the Protestant Religion, and re-establishing the Idolatry of Rome. Nor was this all, but that he might carry on his Popish Designs the more safely and covertly under the cursed Mask of Hypocrisy, he procured the passing of an Act in his Pensionary Parliament 1662. whereby it was made forfeiture of Estate and Imprisonment, for any to say the King was a Papist, or an Introducer of Popery. Nevertheless, notwithstanding he was thus become a Protestant by the Law of the Land, to repeat how he exerted the Power given him by the P2rliament; how he persecuted and prosecuted the Protestant Nonconformists from one end of the Kingdom to the other; how he caused them to be Excommunicated, imprisoned and harassed, when unto a Papist in the Three Kingdoms was so much as troubled or molested, is a thing that would be altogether needless, as being so well known to the World, and still too sadly remembered by Thousands of Families, that to this day too deeply wear the Scars of his Cruel Dilaniations. However it showed sufficiently the aim of our dear Defender of the Protestant Faith, which was to weaken and enervate the Protestant Party, that so they might be come the more easy Prey to Popish Rage and Cruelty, when the blessed Hour should arrive, for the putting in Execution those bloody designs with which he had been so long travailing; which because he could not carry on without assistance, therefore although he were sometimes obliged by the necessity of his Affairs, and in compliance with the Times, to palliate his Contrivances, to make use of sincere and real Protestants, yet they who were admitted into his secrets, and in whom he placed his chiefest Trust and Confidence, were always Papists. He who would needs have himself enacted the best Protestant in his Dominions, took no notice, that whosoever was reconciled to Rome, stood debarred from all Offices, and obnoxious to several kinds of punishment, but still out of the number of Papists, or else such as were of no Religion at all, (which was the same thing for his purposes) chose his Ambassadors, Generals, Ministers of State, and many of his greatest Bishops too. What else recommended Sir W. Godolphin to be Ambassador in Spain, or Sir Lionel I. to be his Plenipotentiary at Nimeguen, and afterwards his drudging Sham-plot Secretary. It was his being a zealous Roman Catholic that preferred the Lord Clifford to the Treasurer's Staff, with several others of the same stamp to other high Preferments, more Eminent for their Dignities than for their Parts; and lastly, what was it but this Indulgence, and finding ways to dismiss the Papists without any harm or damage when Indicted or Presented at the Sessions, that advanced so many Beneplacito Judges, and continued them in their Places.  
I had almost forgot another very great kindness which the same Parliament did him; which was at the Private Instance of the King, to abrogate the Triennial Act, by which the sitting of Parliaments once in three years was infallibly secured to the Kingdom. So well did his Majesty know where the Shoe pinched him; and so crafty was he to take his Advantage from the Delirium and Frenzy the Nation was in upon his Restoration, to obtain the repealing of the Principal Laws by which his wriggling into Arbitrary Government would have been curbed and restrained.  
But whether it were that the Prodigal Zeal of those Members began to cool, conscious perhaps that they had already opened too large a Gap to Tyrannous Invasion upon the Liberties of the People, which they had so treacherously laid at the King's Mercy; or whether it were that the King resolved to quicken his pace to Arbitrary Rule, to the end he might see Popery flourish in his own Days, certain it is that his next Attempt was to make the Parliaments themselves the Ministers and Instruments of his own Popish Ambition, and our Slavery. In order hereunto he falls a buying and purchasing, at certain and annual Rates, the Votes of the Members; at what time the greatness of the number of those who stood ready for Sale, as well as their Indigencies and Lusts, made the Price at which they were to be bought so much the easier. Now being thus hired by his Majesty, with their own free Offerings of the Nations Money; How many Bills did they pass into Acts for enslaving and ruining a third part of the Kingdom, under the Notion of fanatics and Dissenters, and all this in gratitude for their Salaries, and to accomplish the Will and Pleasure of their Lord and Master the King, whose bought and purchased Vassals and Slaves they were?  
All this while what can we say or think other, but that the Purchaser as well as the Sellers were equally guilty of betraying the People who had entrusted them? And then to make a Precedent by Law for Tyranny, those Hirelings empowered the justices of the Peace to disseise Men of their Estates, without being convicted and found guilty by Legal Juries, of the Transgressions whereof they stood accused: By which they not only overthrew all the Common and Statute Law of the Land, but they subverted and altered the Fundamental Constitution, in making English Men liable to be ruined at the Arbitrary Pleasure of the King. And as an addition to this, those Mercenary Members, by the Orders and Directions of their most Pious and Protestant Paymaster the King, past another Law, which was styled the Act for Corporations, by which Men of Principles and Integrity were debarred all Offices of Magistracy in Cities and Corporate Towns. The woeful Effects of which the Kingdom not long after both saw and felt, in the Surrenders of Charters, and betraying of Franchises, by Persons upon whom the Government of the Corporations came to be devolved by Virtue of that Act. For that had it not been for that Act which excluded so many honest, able, and virtuous Men, the Persons whom the King for his by-ends nominated for fit and loyal Men, would never have risen above the Office of Scavengers, or Headboroughs, or Constables at the highest. To this, as a thing that mainly contributed to the King's design of enslaving us, we may subjoin their passing an Act whereby they did both limit and confine the number of those that were to present Petitions to the King, not to exceed Ten Persons. Let the Matter to be represented be ne'er so important, or the Grievance to be redressed never so illegal and oppressive, yet it was made no less than a Riot, if above Ten Persons addressed themselves to the King to crave the Benefit of the Law. A Trouble which the King carefully provided against, knowing how many Laws he had to break, and how burdensome and oppressive he must be to the People, before he could complete the Fabric of Slavery and Popery which he was erecting.  
Nor was this all; for the King strenuously pursuing his Design of being sincere and cordial to the destruction of his People, had so bephiltered them with his Potions of Aurum Potabile, that they passed another Act to his Heart's desire, whereby they placed the whole and sole Power of the Militia in the King: not only encouraging him to use Force in compassing his Arbitrary Designs, but binding up the Hands of the People from defending themselves against armed Violence upon their Religigion, Liberties, and Lives. Add to this the vast sums which they gave him, beyond what the Support of the Government, or the Defence of the Nation required: Which might have produced fatal Consequences, but that the King knew as little a Measure in spending, as that unhappy Parliament did in giving. The King therefore conscious of his own Failing, and finding that through his own Wastfulness, and the Importunities of his consuming Misses, he could not depend upon any limited and definite Sum for accomplishing his Promises to his Holy Father the Pope, and his trusty Confederate the French King, got Two Bills prepared and carried into the House, the Passing of which had completed the Nations Misery, and made him Absolute. The one was to empower his Majesty upon Extraordinary Occasions (of which he would not have failed to have been the Judge as often as he pleased) to raise Money without a Parliament: And the other was, for settling a Universal Excise upon the Crown. The Passing either of which, the King well knew would have soon ●nabl'd him to have governed by Bassa's and janissaries, and redeemed him from having any further need of Parliaments, or any apprehension of having the Instruments of his Tyranny impeached by Them.  
But what the King had so finely projected to enslave the Nation, and obtain whatever he had a mind to, proved the Ground of their Disappointment, and the Occasion of the Nations Escape from the Snare that was laid for it. For the Mercenary Members foreseeing that the passing these Bills would have put an end to their Pensions, by rendering them useless for the time to come, consulted their Gain, and preferring it above what the Court styled their Loyalty, fell in with the Honest Party, and so became assistant in throwing out the Bills. However, the very bringing the Bills into the House, was as clear an Evidence of the King's Intention to alter the Government, and enslave the Nation, as if they had passed into Laws. And some of his Minions, that knew the King's Drift, and the inside of his Heart, were so zealous for him to have gained this Arbitrary Power, that they would have it argued and spoken to in the House of Lords. And who but the Popish Lord Clifford should be the Man that ventured to undertake the Business? And accordingly, he made a long Harangue in praise of Absolute Monarchy, and how much it would be for the Interest of the Kingdom to have his Majesty entrusted with a more unlimited Authority. Which some of the Lords resenting, with a Warmth and Indignation becoming Persons, who by the Constitutions of the Governmeut were designed for a Bulwark against the Encroachments of Regal Power, and as a Fence about the Liberties of the People, the Motion not only died without being seconded, but Clifford, even by him who had encouraged him in his Attempt, was called a rash Fool for his pains. However, Pious AEneas finding the Nation grew sensible of his covert Intentions and Encroachments upon their Laws and Liberties, and despairing to get any more Acts passed in Parliament toward the promoting his Designs, resolved to husband the Laws he had already obtained, as much as he could, to the Ruin of the Nation; and where they failed of being serviceable to his Ends, to betake himself to other Methods and Means. And therefore, besides the daily impoverishing, confining, and destroying of infinite numbers of honest and peaceable People, under pretence of executing the Laws, he made it his Business to invent new Projects to tear up the Rights and Liberties of the People, by ways and means which had not the least shadow of a Law to countenance them; of which more in due place.  
Having made this fair Progress toward the enslaving both the Souls and Bodies of his own Subjects at home, let us take a View of his Zeal to the Protestant Religion abroad. And first, for the Protestants of France, his Care and Tenderness for them may be easily conjectured from hence, that the first Edicts issued forth by Lewis the Fourteenth for their Persecution, bear date with the Time and Year of his Most Protestant Majesties Restauration. And from that day to this, in stead of interceding or concerning himself in their behalf, he has, by his own Example, and his strict Correspondence with the French King, both countenanced and encouraged their Oppression; which the French King at that time, when he was formidable in the Love of his Subjects, durst no more have prosecuted, than Mazarine durst proceed in his Fury against the Hugonots, when more Pious Oliver bestirred himself in their Favour. But our Protestant Monarch was so far from sending Succour to the French Protestants, that he betrayed those to the Rage of the French Tyrant, that came to invoke his Aid in their behalf.  
For when Monsieur Rohan came into England, to acquaint his Pious Majesty with the Resolutions taken at Paris, to persecute, and if possible, to root out the Reformed in France, and proposed such Overtures to the King as would have been greatly for his Glory and Interest, yet no way contrary to the Allegiance of that poor People, he remitted the Monsieur to his Brother the D. of York, who not only informed the French Ambassador of the Gentleman's Errand, but placed him behind the Hangings, to hear whatever Monsieur Rohan had to represent and propose to him. Which although the Ambassador could not but abhor in the two Brothers, and was ashamed of in himself, yet he could do no less then inform his Master of what he had seen and heard. Upon which the poor Gentleman, upon his Return out of England, was so narrowly watched, and so closely pursued, that being apprehended upon the Borders of Switzerland, he was carried back to Paris and there broken upon the Wheel.  
Nor did it satisfy the King, and his dear Brother the Duke, to have thus betrayed as well as abandoned the Protestants in France; but with the utmost Malice that Popery could inspire into them, they sought the Destruction of the Seven United Provinces, upon no other Account but of their being Protestant States, and for giving shelter to those who being persecuted by himself and his Confederate the French Tyrant for their Religion, fled thither for Protection and Safety. For knowing what in due time they intended to bring upon the Protestants at home, they thought it most requisite to destroy those Protestant States in the first place, that there might remain no Sanctuary for their persecuted Subjects. And indeed, abating this and one more Ground of their Quarrel with those States, never was a War undertaken upon more unjust and frivolous Pretences, than those Two which the King engaged in against the Seven Provinces, in the Years 1667. and 1672. Nor can any thing justify the Discretion and Wisdom of those Wars, had they not been undertaken merely in subserviency to the promoting Popery and Slavery; seeing that upon all other Grounds that Reason and Prudence can suggest, it was the Interest of England, as still it is, to preserve the Government of Holland entire. Nor can we have a truer Account of the Grounds upon which the two Monarches of England and France agreed the War against Holland in the Year 1672. then by the Representation which the French Ambassador made of it both at Rome and Vienna. For tho' his Public Declaration pretended no more but that it was to seek Reparation for the Diminution of his Glory, yet the Account he gave to the Pope of his Master's, and consequently of our Protestant Monarch, his strict Confederate's undertaking that War, was, that he did it in order to the Extirpation of Heresy. And in the same manner they sought to justify the Piety of that Enterprise to his Imperial Majesty, by alleging, That the Hollanders were a People that had forsaken God, and were Heretics, and that all good Christians were bound to associate and unite for their Extirpation. Upon which account, it seems, our King and the Duke thought fit to exchange the Appellation of Good Protestants for that of Good Christians. However, from hence it was plain what sort of Good Christians they were, since it was as evident, that their uniting with France in that War, was to destroy the Protestant Dutch Heretics. And that we may yet more fully understand the Motive upon which the King embarked in that bloody and expensive War, it is worthy observation, how that when the French King made it one of his Propositions upon which he would be contented to receive the States into his ancient Friendship, That they should not only allow the Public Exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion over all the United Provinces, but that they should appoint a Salary to the Priest allotted to the Churches which the Papists by that Demand were to enjoy; the King of England being no less concerned for Popery then his Brother of France, gave the States to understand by his Plenipotentiaries, That without their Concession of the foregoing Demand of the King of France, he could not return to Peace with them. So that not only from the Motive upon which the War was commenced, but from the Proposals which he urged them to consent to, in order to a Peace, we have a most convincing Proof of his Majesty's being no zealous Protestant, but rather quite the contrary; and of his pious Inclinations to the Extirpation as well as weakening the Protestant Religion in the United Provinces. Certainly a most thankful Acknowledgement, and Royal Requital of those Provinces, for the many Kindnesses which they had vouchsafed him during his Exile, and for their Favours, their liberal Entertainments & the high Honours which they had paid him, when he made their Country the last Stage of his Retreat, in order to his Return to his Crown and Kingdom. But this must be ascribed to his Zeal for promoting the Catholic Religion, which atones for all Defects of Justice and Gratitude, and aught to be imputed to those Principles of Popery which he had sucked in with the French Air, and which have a peculiar Virtue and Faculty to expel all Morality and good Nature.  
These being the real Grounds and Motives that induced the King of England to begin that Impolitic War against the Dutch in the year 1665. whatever was openly and publicly pretended, how strangely was the Parliament deluded and blinded by the King's Oaths and Protestations of his Zeal for the Protestant Religion! What vast Sums of the Subjects Money they gave the perfidious Monarch, to defray the Expenses of that unnecessary and baneful War, is too well known; and yet after all, saving one brisk Engagement, ill-managed, tho' with some Loss to the Dutch, at length no Fleet was set out, and the choicest of the Royal Navy either burnt or taken in Harbour, to save Charges. And tho' the French at length joined themselves in assistance with the Dutch against us, yet by the Credit he had with the Queen Mother, he so far imposed upon Charles the Second, no less ready for his own private Conveniencies to be imposed upon, that upon assurance, which no Man of Prudence and Foresight would have believed, that the Dutch would have no Fleet at Sea that Year, he forbore to make ready, and so incurred that ignominious Disgrace at Chatham, the like to which the English never suffered since they claimed the Dominion of the Sea. And which was more, as he had been beholden to his great Friend the King of France for the Ignominy he had suffered, so was he glad to receive the Peace from his Favour, which was concluded at Breda.  
And now we come to the best Act that ever he did in his Life, had he had the Grace to pursue it; which showed how happy a Prince he might have been, had he been ever faithful to his own and the Interests of his People, and that Religion which he outwardly professed.  
For upon conclusion of that Peace, having leisure to look about him, and to observe how the French had in the Year 1667. taken their Opportunity, and while we were embroiled and weakened by the late War, had, in violation of all the most Sacred and Solemn Oaths and Treaties, invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Netherlands, which had always been considered as the Natural Frontier of England; the King then prompted more by his own Fears, than out of any kindness he had for the Nation, judged it necessary to interpose, before the Flames that consumed his next Neighbour should throw their Sparkles over the Water.  
Thereupon he sent Sir William Temple, than his Resident at Brussels, to propose a nearer Alliance with the Hollanders, and to take joint Measures against the French: Which Proposals of Sir William Temple's being entertained with all Compliance with the Dutch, within Five days after Two several Treaties were concluded between the King and the States: The one, a Defensive and Stricter League than before, between the Two Nations; and the other, a Joint and Reciprocal Engagement to oppose the Conquest of Flanders, and to procure, either by way of Mediation, or by Force of Arms, a speedy Peace between France and Spain, upon the Terms therein mentioned. And because Sweden came into the same Treaty within a very little while after, from the Three Parties concerned and engaged, it was called the Triple League. In pursuance of which, the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle was also forced upon the French, and in some manner upon the Spaniards, who were very unwilling to part with so great a Part of their Country by a Solemn Treaty. But both the King and the Hollanders thought it a very great and good Work, and judged it an extraordinary Happiness, not only for Spain, but for all Europe, to come off with a broken Pate, and to have at least for that while kept France from going farther.  
Besides all this, to tie the Knot the faster, and take even the very thoughts from the French King of ever stirring, or being troublesome to his Neighbour, the King sent an Extraordinary Envoy to several Princes of Germany, to invite them into the Triple League, and his Minister to persuade them to it, laid open with no less heat than plainness, the danger all Europe was in; urging the insensibility of most Princes, and their carelessness, the watchful Ambition of the French, the Greatness of their Forces, and the little Reason there was to trust him. In fine, omitting nothing that could Alarm all the World, and procure a general Confederacy against the Common Oppressor. More than this, in regard the Spaniards were very much wanting to themselves, by their backwardness in the Payment of the Subsidies promised to Sweden; the King of England, being not without some fears, lest the Swedes should fall off, uless the Money agreed upon, were paid them without farther delay; he offered to advance part of it himself, and had accordingly done it, in case the Dutch would have advanced the rest.  
The Kidg of France thus stopped in his Career by the Triple League, and by the Peace of Aix la Chapelle, soon after concluded, though for a while he dissembled his dissatisfaction, yet resolved to untie the Triple Knot whatever it cost him. To which purpose the Duchess of Orleans was sent over, as one that would be a welcome Guest to her Brother, and whose Charms ●nd Dexterity, joined with her other advantages, would give her such an ascendent over him, as could not fail of Success; ●nd indeed she acquitted herself so well ●f her Commission, that she quite supplanted all the King's good Councils, and by yielding to his Incestuous Embraces, while the D. of B. held the Door, so charmed his most Sacred Majesty, and he quite and clean forgot his Triple League, and entered into a new and stricter Alliance with France than ever. 'Tis true, the Peace was dear bought by the Zealous Lady, in regard it cost her her Life upon her return into France. For though she might seem to have atoned for the Crime, and to have merited forgiveness from her Husband, by the advantageous League which she had pleasantly syrened her Brother to make with the French Monarch; yet jealous and incensed Orleans was not so much a lover of his Country, as to remit the Indignity done to his Bed, or such a Bigot as to pardon the Woman that had sacrificed his Honour to the Interest of Popery. However the Articles being thus sealed at Dover by his Majesty, the Marquis of Belfonds was immediately sent hither, and a Person of great Honour sent thither, and so the League itself being drawn into form, was ratified on both sides.  
This Treaty was for a long time a work of Darkness, and lay long concealed▪ til● the King of France to the end the King of England, being truly set forth in hi● Colours, out of a dis●air of ever being trusted or forgiven by his People hereafter, might be pushed to go on barefaced and follow his steps in Government, as well as Religion, most treacherously and unking-like, caused it to be Printed at Paris; though upon Complaint made at the French Court, it was again stifled, and the Author tho' he had his instructions from Colbert, to humour the King, committed to the Bastile for a short time, and then let out again. However the Book being Printed, some few Copies lit into safe hands; from whence take the Substance of that Mystery of Iniquity as follows.  
After that M. de Croisy, the French Ambassador at London, had laid before the Eyes of the King of England, all the Grounds which his Majesty had of Complaint against Holland, etc. He told him, that the time was come to revenge himself of a Nation that had so little respect for Kings; and that the occasion was never more favourable, seeing many of the Princes of Germany were already entered into the League; and that the King of France was powerful enough to be able to promise to his Allies in the Issue of that War satisfaction, both as to their Honour and Interests, whereby he prevailed with that Prince to enter into secret Alliance with France. And for his greater Assurance, and the more to confirm him, Henrietta Duchess of Orleans went for England, and proposed to her Brother, in the Name of the Most Christian King, that he would assure him an Absolute Authority over his Parliament, and full Power to establish the Catholic Religion in his Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. But withal she told him, that to compass this, before all things else, it would be necessary to abate the Pride and Power of the Dutch, and to reduce them to the sole Province of Holland; and that by this means the King of England should have Zealand for a Retreat in case of necessity, and that the rest of the Low-Countries should remain to the King of France, if he could render himself Master of it.  
This is the Sum of that famous League concluded at Dover, framed and entered into on purpose, for the Subjugation of these three Nations to Popery and Slavery.  
However as at first this Treaty was kept so close, that it was no way to be discovered, so before the Effects appeared, it was necessary that the Parliament, after the old wont, should be gulled to the giving of Money, for the carrying on this grand and deep Conspiracy. The Parliament met Octob. 24. 1670. where the Lord Keeper Bridgeman, guided more by his Instructions than by any knowledge he had of the devilish Design, omitted nothing to make Both Houses sensible of the great Service done to England, and in a manner to all Mankind, by chaining up the devouring Lion, that was never satiated with Prey; and the more to incite their Liberality, he told them of several other Leagues, which the King, for the good of his People, and the Advancement of the Trade of the Nation, had made with other Princes; as the D. of Savoy, the King of Denmark, and the King of Spain; by which, as his Lordship was pleased to say, it was evident, that all the Princes of Europe sought his Majesty's Friendship, as acknowledging they could not secure, much less improve, their present Condition without it; concluding, that for the Support of these Alliances, the annual Charge of His Majesty's Navy, came to no less than Five hundred thousand Pounds, nor could be maintained with less.  
Upon the telling of which Story, notwithstanding the immense Sums lavished to no purpose, or rather to our Loss, in the former War with Holland; notwithstanding they had given the Additional Duty upon Wines for Eight years, amounting to Five hundred and sixty thousand Pounds, and confirmed the Sale of the Fee farm Rents, no less their Gift, being a part of the Public Revenue, to the value of one Million, and Eight hundred thousand Pounds, they could not hold, but gave with both hands again a Subsidy of Twelve Pence in the Pound to the real value of all Lands, and other Estates proportionably, with several more beneficial Clauses in the Bargain; to which they joined the Additional Excise upon Beer, Ale, etc. And lastly the Law Bill, which being summed up together, could not be estimated at less than two Millions and half.  
So that for the Triple League here was a Triple Supply, and the Subject had now all the reason to believe, that this Alliance which had been fixed at first by the Public Interest, Safety and Honour, was by these three Grants, as with three Golden Nails, sufficiently clinched and riveted. But now therefore was the most proper Time and Occasion, for the King and his chosen Ministers to give Demonstrations of their Fidelity to the French Monarch, and for his Sacred Majesty by the Forfeiture of all these Obligations to his Subjects, and the Princes abroad, and at the Expense of all this Treasure, given for quite contrary Uses, to recommend himself the more meritoriously to his Patronage.  
The Parliament, therefore, after they had given all this Money, were presently Prorogued, and sat no more till the latter end of February, 1672. that there might be a competent time allowed, for so great a work as was designed, and that the Architects of our Ruin might be so long free from the busy and odious Inspection of the Parliament, till the work were finished. And now all Applications made by his Majesty of Great Britain, to induce Foreign Princes into the Garranty of the Peace of Aix la Chapelle, ceased; while on the other side, those who desired to be admitted into it, were here rejected. The Duke of Lorraine, who had always been a true Friend to the King, and for his Affection to the Triple League, had incurred the French King's Displeasure with the loss of his Country, Seized upon in the year 1669. against all the Laws not only of Peace, but Hostility; yet by virtue of the Dover Treaty, was refused the favour to which others had been so earnestly invited; and though his Envoy was sent back with Compliments and many Expressions of Kindness, yet he was told withal, that the French Invasion was a torrent not to be stopped at that time: which was as much as to say, the Case was altered and the Triple League must signify nothing.  
At the same time also the Emperor, by a Letter, invited himself into the same Garranty, in conformity to one of the Articles of the said Treaty of Aix. Upon receipt of which Letter, the King assured the Spanish Ambassador, that he was glad his Imperial Majesty was so ready to come into the League, and told him, he would cause an Instrument to be prepared in order to his Admission. But when the Resolution was taken, and orders given for preparing the said Instrument, it was moved, that Mr. Secretary Trevor, (who was not initiated in their holy Mysteries) might not have the drawing of it, though it was his proper Province. By which means the Popish Cabal having made themselves sole Masters of the thing, at first a reasonable honest Draught was brought in; but before it was perfected, Monsieur Colbert being consulted, the King was possessed with an opinion, that the admitting the Emperor would be attended with dangerous Consequences, and that in case he came into the League, his Majesty would be engaged in all his Quarrels, and bound to make his Forces March into the farthest parts of Germany, as often as it should happen to be Invaded by the Great Turk; which Secretary Trevor opposed as much as he was able, and endeavoured to satisfy the King, that the Garranty of the Triple League, as well as of the Treaty of Aix, related only to Hostilities, either from France or Spain; yet the wary Men of the Cabal being on the King's side, carried it, and so the Emperor was put off with a Flamm.  
Nay, so soon as the Two Confederate Monarches had thus made a shift to cut the Gordian Knot, the now pitiful, but formerly vaunted Triple League, was trampled under foot, turned into Ridicule, and less valued than a Ballad. Insomuch, that to talk of admitting others into the Triple League, was reprehended in print as a kind of Figure of Speech, commonly called a Bull.  
And farther, to show how much he hated the thoughts of the Triple League, which he had made for the good of Christendom, his most Sacred Majesty suffered an Agent of his, one Marsilly, whom he had sent to invite the Swissers into the Garranty, who was Surprised and taken Prisoner by the French, in the execution of the Commands he had not many Months before received from Whitehall, to be broken upon the Wheel at Paris, though one single Word from the King would have saved his Life. Neither did he take it ill, that upon the Scaffold, Twenty Questions were put to him relating to his own Person: or that in such a public and infamous Place, a strict inquiry should be made as to what had passed between him and the King of England; for that was the best Title they could afford him for all his late Favours.  
And thus it is plain, that the Triple League was broken, for no other ends than to be subservient to the ends of the French King, to ruin the Dutch, and to bring the Three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, under the Yokes of Arbitrary Power and Roman Catholic Idolatry, after a total Abolition of the name of Parliaments, and subversion of the Fundamental Laws, Gratias tibi piissime atque invictissime Rex, Carole second. And tha● he might not, as much as in him lay, meet with after-rubs, Mr. H. C. dispatched into Sweden to dissolve the Triple League in that Kingdom; which he did so effectually, by co-operating with the French Ministers in that Court, that the Swede after it came to Rupture, never assisted to any purpose, or prosecuted the Ends of the said Alliance, only by arming himself at the expense of the League, first under a disguised Mediation, acted the French Interest, and at last threw off his Vizard, and drew his Sword on the French side in the Quarrel. And at home, when the Project ripened and grew hopeful, the Lord Keeper was discharged from his Office, and both he, the D. of Ormond, Prince Rupert and Secretary Trevor, were discarded out of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, as being too honest to comply with the Intrigues then on foot: Mr. Trevor being the first Secretary of State that was ever left out of a Commission of that Importance.  
All things being so well thus far disposed toward a War with Holland, there wanted only a Quarrel, and to pick one required much invention. The East-India Company was summoned to know whether they had any thing to object against them: but the Dutch had so punctually complied with all the Conditions of the Peace at Breda, that nothing could there be found out. And as to the Triple League, they were out at the same time in pursuance of it, and to be ready upon occasion to relieve the the Spanish Netherlands, which were then threatened by the French. But at length a way was found out that never happened, because it was never so much as imagined before, by sending the Fanfan, a sorry inconsiderable Yatcht, but bearing the English Flag, with Orders to sail into the middle of the Dutch Fleet, single out the Admiral, and to fire two Guns at him; a thing as ridiculous, as for a Lark to dare a Hobby.  
However, the Commander in Chief, in respect to his Majesty's Colours, and in consideration of the Amity between both Nations, paid the Admiral of the Yatcht a Visit, to know the reason of his Anger; and understanding it was because the whole Fleet had failed to strike to his Oyster-boat; the Dutch Commander excused it, as a thing that never happened before, and therefore could have no Instructions in it; and so they parted. But the Captain of the Yatcht having thus acquitted himself, returned full freighted, with the Quarrel he was sent for. Which yet for several Months was passed over here in silence, but to be afterwards improved as the design ripened: For there was yet one jolly prank more to be played at home, to make the King more capable of what was shortly after to be executed upon his Neighbours.  
The Exchequer for some years before, by the Bait of more than ordinary Gain, had decoyed in the greatest part of the most wealthy Goldsmiths, and they the rest of the Moneyed People of the Nation, by the due payment of Interest, till the King was run in Debt, upon what account no body knew, above Two Millions: Which served for one of the Pretences in the Lord Keeper's Speech at the Opening of the Parliament, to demand and obtain a Grant of the forementioned Supplies, and might plentifully have sufficed to disengage the King with Peace and any tolerable Good Husbandry. But as if it had been perfidious to have applied them to any of the Purposes declared, instead of Payment, it was privately resolved to shut up the Exchequer, lest any part of the Money should have been legally expended, but that all might be appropriated to the Holy War in prospect, and those far more pious Uses to which the King had dedicated it.  
This Affair was carried on with all the secrecy imaginable, lest the unseasonable venting of it should have spoiled the Wit and Malice of the Design. So that all on a sudden, upon the First of january 1671. to the great astonishment, ruin, and despair of so many interested Persons, and to the Terror of the whole Nation, by so Arbitrary a Fact, the Proclamation issued forth, in the midst of the Confluence of such vast Aids and so great a Revenue, whereby the Crown published itself Bankrupt, made Prize of the Subject, and broke all Faith and Contract at home, in order to the breaking of both abroad with more advantage.  
What was this but a Robbery committed upon the People under the Bond and Security of the Royal Faith? by which many hundreds were as really impoverished and undone, as if he had violently broken into their Houses, and taken their Money out of their Coffers. Nay, that would have looked Generous and Great, whereas the other was base and sneaking. Only it seemed more agreeable to his Majesty's Temper, to rob his Subjects by a Trick, than to plunder them by direct and open Force.  
Of alliance to this, only with some more Grains, if more could be, of Vileness and Unworthiness in it, was that Action also, of seizing part of the Money collected for the Redemption of Slaves out of Algiers, and fetching it from the Chamber of London, where it lay deposited to that end, into the Treasury, from whence it was to be disposed and made use of for the Enslaving the Nation. Could there be an Action of greater barbarity, than to take the Charity and Benevolence of good People, which had been given toward the Releasing of poor Christian Captives from Mahometan Thraldom, and to turn it either into Wages for his Myrmidons, or into Pensions to reward suborned Witnesses for swearing the Innocent out of their Lives?  
There remained nothing now, but that the King, after this famous Exploit upon his own Subjects, should manifest his Impartiality to Foreigners, and assert the Justice of his intended Quarrel with the Hollanders. Thereupon the Dispute about the Flag, upon occasion of the Fanfan Yacht, was started afresh; and a great noise was made of infamous Libels, horrid Pictures, Pillars set up, and Medals coined to the infinite dishonour of his Majesty's Person, his Crown and Dignity; tho' not one of those Libels or Pictures could be produced; and as for the Pillars, they never had any Being, but in the Imaginations of those that made it their Business to raise Jealousies between the two Nations. 'Tis true, there was a Medal coined, which might have been spared; but so soon as it was known in Holland that Exceptions were taken at it, the Stamp was broken to pieces.  
Then the Difficulties which arose about the Surrender of Surinam were improved to the height, and this after Secretary Trevor had adjusted the Matter with the States. Though these things were handled so nicely, as if they had been afraid of being prevented in their design, by receiving all the satisfaction they could have desired from the Dutch. The Dutch therefore being not conscious of any Provocation which they had given the English, but of their readiness, if there had been any, to repair it, and relying upon the Faith of the King's Treaties and Alliances, pursued their Traffic and Navigation through the English Seas without the least suspicion. And accordingly a numerous and rich Fleet of Merchantmen from Smyrna and Spain, were on their Voyage homeward near the Isle of Wight, under a small Convoy of five or six Men of War. This was the Fleet, in expectation of which the King had so long deferred the War to plunder them in Peace. The Wealth of this was that, which by its ponderous weight, turned the Balance of all his Public Justice and Honour. With this Treasure he imagined he should be in stock for all the Wickdness he was capable to act, and that he should never after this Addition stand himself in need, nor his Instruments in fear of a Parliament. To this purpose Sir R. H. being pitched upon for the Exploit, according to his Instructions, fell in among them, with the Squadron under his Command: But the Dutch Merchantmen themselves, and their small Convoy, so bestirred themselves, that Sir Robert finding himself not strong enough, was forced to give over the Enterprise; So that all the Booty that was gotten hardly sufficed to pay the Surgeons and Carpenters.  
And so hotly did the King pursue his Chase of the Protestant Religion, that while he was so piously and justly Violating his Royal Contracts upon the Sea, in order to his mastering the Protestant Religion abroad, he at the same time was undermining and sapping it at home. For while he was trying his Fortune in Battle with the Smyrna Fleet, a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was Printing off at the Press, as a more proper means than Fasting and Prayer, to propitiate for Success to his Enterprise, and to the War that must second it.  
By this Declaration, all the Penal Laws against Papists, for which former Parliaments had given so many vast Sums, were in one Instant suspended, in order to defraud the Nation of all that Religion which they had so dearly purchased, and for which they ought at least, the Bargain being broken, to have been reimbursed.  
By all which, it was plain that the King did all that lay in his power toward the advancement of Popery and Slavery, but that still his luck was nought. For, having been thus true to his great Design, and made so considerable a Progress, though with an inauspicious beginning, at length he thought it high time to declare the War, after he had begun it. And though in subservience to France and his Dover Treaty, he undertook to be foremost to discompose the State of all Ch●istendom; and though he made himself Principal to all the horrid Destructions, Devastations, Ravage and Slaughter, which after that ensued, yet had he the Confidence, in the winding up of his Manifesto, to expose the following Words to the World.  
And whereas we are engaged by a Treaty, to support the Peace made at Aix la Chapelle, We do finally declare, That notwithstanding the Prosecution of this War, we will maintain the true intent and Scope of the said Treaty; and that in all Alliances which We have, or shall make in the Progress of this War, We have and will take care to preserve the ends thereof inviolable, unless provoked to the contrary.  
And yet it was as clear as the Sun, that the French had by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, agreed to acquiesce in their former Conquests of Flanders, and that the English Swedes and Hollanders, were reciprocally bound to be aiding against whomsoever should disturb that Regulation: Besides the League Offensive and Defensive, which the King had made with the State's General; all which by this Conjunction with France, was dashed in pieces. So that what is here declared, were it reconsilable to Truth, yet could not consist with possibility, unless by one only Exception, that the English, who by their new league with France, were to be the Breakers of the Peace of Aix, and by the Triple League, were to fulfil their Obligations to both Parties, should have sheathed the Sword in our own Bowels.  
But such was the Zeal of the King and his select Instrument, for the Promotion of Slavery and Popery, that it easily transported them to say what was untrue, or to undertake what was impossible, for the Service of the French.  
And now the French King seeing the English engaged past all retreat, comes in with his Fleet; not to fight, but only to sound our Seas, to spy our Ports, to learn our Building, to learn our way of Fight, and to consume ours, and preserve his own Navy. For no sooner had the D. of York, as the design was laid, suffered himself to be shamefully surprised, but the Vice-Admiral, the Earl of Sandwich, was sacrificed, and the rest of the English Fleet so torn and mangled, that the English Honour was laid not in the Dust, but in the Mud, while his Royal Highness did all that was expected from him, and M. d'Estrees, who commanded the French, did all that he was sent for.  
There were three other several Engagements of ours with the Dutch the next Summer. But while nothing was tenable at Land against the French, so it seemed, that to the English every thing was impregnable at Sea, which was not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct of the then Commanders, but rather to the unlucky Conjunction of the English with the French, like the Disasters that happen to Men by being in ill Company.  
In the mean time, the hopes of the Spanish and Smirna Fleet being vanished, the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray farther Charges, and the ordinary Revenue of His Majesty, with all the former Aids, being in less than one years' time exhausted; the Parliament, with the King's most gracious leave, was permitted to sit again at the time appointed. At what time, at the King's and the Lord Keeper's usual daubing way, the War was first communicated to them▪ and the Causes, the Necessity, the Danger so well painted out, that upon the King's earnest Suit, the Commons, though in a War begun without their Advice, readily Voted the Royal Mumper no less than One million two hundred and fifty thousand Pounds; though they would not say it was for the War, but for the King's extraordinary Occasions.  
Nevertheless it was but yet a Vote to Embryo; and therefore now beginning in grow more sensible of the true Causes of the Quarrel they prepared an Act before they let the Money-Bill slip out of their Hands, by which the Papists were obliged to pass through a new State Purgatory, if they intended to be capable of any Public Employment.  
The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned, which though His Majesty had, out of his Princely and Gracious Inclinations to Popery, and the Memory of some former Obligations, granted for the sake of the Papists, yet greedy after the Coin, he was pleased to cancel at the humble request. as he pretended, of the Parliament, and declared, it should be no Precedent for the future: After which compelled by his want of a fresh Supply, he passed the Bill concerning the Papists, in exchange for the Money; and then the Parliament growing uneasy, they were again sent a Grazing for a good while. The King hoping when he had the management of the Cash, to frustrate the Effect of the Act which he had passed against his good Friends the Roman Catholics.  
And now the King having got the Money in his Hands, a new Project was set on foot to set up an Army in England, for the introducing of Slavery and Popery, under pretence of Landing in Holland: Which was raised with all the Expedition imaginable; over which, as Colonel Fitzgerald, an Irish Papist, was made Major General, so were the greatest number of the Captains and other Officers of the same Stamp. And because that pretence was soon blown over, it was afterward still continued on foot, under the more plausible Colour of a War with France.  
But after all these cunning Contrivances to alter the Religion and Government of the Nation, the King being disappointed in all his Projects, and finding that the Parliament, grown more sensible of his abstruse designs, and alarmed at his extraordinary new Militia, both Burdensome and unnecessary for any other Employment but the support of Arbitrary Power, would give him no more Money, but began to call his Ministers in question, was forced to make a Peace with the Dutch, and disband the Army to his great regret. However, what he could not do at hope, he resolved to do abroad; and therefore the English, Scotch and Irish Regiments, that were already in the French Service, were not only kept up in their full Compliment, but new numbers of Soldiers were daily transported thither, to make up in all a constant Body of Ten thousand Men. Which was done on purpose that he might have an Army trained up under the French Discipline and Principles, ready seasoned to be called back into England for the Execution of any opportune Enterprise upon his Protestant Subjects.  
Thus far we have seen the King's inveterate Malice to his Neighbours and Allies the Dutch, merely upon the account of their being Protestants, and Protectors of the Protestant Religion, and his pernicious Conjunction with the French King, to their utter Destruction and Desolation. A continued Series of Treachery and Faith-breaking, which only that Romish Principle, That there is no Faith to be kept with Heretics, could have infused into his Breast. Now let us take a short view of his Carriage, from the beginning of his Restoration, to the French King, the Mortal Enemy of his Subjects, and the Religion which they profess.  
It is well known in general, how much the Extraordinary Kindness of Charles the Second to Lewis the Fourteenth, has contributed to that vast increase of Shipping and Experience in the Art of Navigation, to which they are now arrived; which no Prince in the World that might have been so strong at Sea as his Majesty might have been, with half the Expense which he squandered away to ruin the nation, had he been sensible in the least of his own Grandeur, the welfare of his owe Subjects, and the danger of having so potent a Rival for the Dominion of the Sea, which God and Nature seemed to have appropriated to himself. We have been told of brisk Messenger sent to the French Kings, so soon as they did but lay the Carcase of a pitiful Flyboat upon the Stocks. But such was the Complaisance of our Supine Monarch, that he not only connived at the industrious Preparations of the French King, but lent him his helping Hand to make him Master of his own Rights. When they had none of their own, he sent Vice-admirals', and other considerable Sea-Officers, to encourage and promote the setting out of their Fleets. He pitied their want of Experience in Sea Affairs, and out of Compassion and Brotherly Love, lead their rare Seamen by the Hand, trained them up in his Fleets, and among the best of his Seamen, taught them the Skill which they had been forcod to toil for by the Experience of many Ages; and to crown all, even to fight for them, and to interpose between them and Danger, with so good Success, that the French Squadron, as if the Engagement had been only designed for a Diversion and Entertainment to them, came off as fresh and as whole, as when they first sailed out of their own Ports, was such an unparallelled Kindness, that nothing but the extraordinary hopes the King had placed in him, of being his great Assistant for the compassing of his pernicious designs upon his own Subjects, could have made him condescend to.  
But to come to Particulars, It was a strange Demonstration of the King of England's kindness to the French Interest, though to the unspeakable Detriment of his own People, that after all those Expressions in the Lord Keeper Bridgman's Speech, of the Treaty between France and the King of England, concerning Commerce, wherein the King would have, as he said, such a singular regard to the Honour and Trade of this Nation, notwithstanding the intolerable Oppression upon the English Traffic in France, ever since the King's Restoration, he had not in all that time made one step toward a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him; no not even at that time, when the English were so necessary to him, that he could not have begun the War without them, and therefore at such a Conjuncture might probably have condescended to some Equality of Terms. But the King of England well understood how careful the French King was to preserve and increase the Trade of his Subjects, and that it was by the diminution of that Beam of his Glory, that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation. The King therefore, the more to gratify him, made it his constant Maxim, to burden his English Merchants here with one Hand, while the French in his own Territories loaded them no less with the other. So that when the English Merchants in London had prepared a Petition to the King and Council, to complain of the Oppression which their Factors and Agents lay under in France, with a true State of their Case, and a short account of their Grievances, information thereof was given to the Court, by which means the Perusal of the Papers being transmitted by the King ●o his Instruments, all further Prosecution of the matter was stopped by his Connivance and Authority, and the Merchants were put off with a Promise, that the French Ambassador should be acquainted with their Complaints, and that they should be redressed through his means. Which proving ineffectual, upon their farther Applications for redress, they were Hectored, Browbeaten, Ridiculed, and might have met with fairer Audience from Monsieur Colbert.  
Nor was it only in the matter of Commerce, that the King of England had obliged the French Tyrant, but even in the War itself. For that except the irresistible Bounty's o● so great a Prince, to some particular English Instruments, and a little Subsistance Money for the Fleet, frugally parted with, the King of England had put him to no Charges, but the English Navy Royal had served him all along, No Purchase, No Pay. He had tied the French King to no Terms, had demanded no Partisson of Conquests, had made no humane Condition, but had sold him all for those two Pearls of high Value, the True Roman Catholic Worship, and the true French Government.  
So soon as the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland, by the Awe of the Parliament, the French King, as a mark of his Displeasure, and to humble the English Nation, let lose his Privateers among the English Merchants; insomuch that there was no security of Commerce or Navigation, notwithstanding the Public Amity betwixt the two Crowns, but at Sea they Murdered, Plundered, made Prize, and Confiscated all they met with: Their Piccaroons lay before the Mouths of our Rivers; hovered all along the Coast; took our Ships in the very Ports, so that we were in a manner blocked up by Water; and in this manner it continued from 1674. till the latter end of 1676. without Remedy. And yet all this while that the French made these intolerable Depredations, and Piracies upon the King's Subjects, they were more diligently than ever supplied from England with Recruits, and those that would go voluntarily into the French Service were encouraged, others that would not pressed, imprisoned, and carried over by main force and constraint: And by the King's connivance, his own Magazines were daily emptied, to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition, of which the following Account affords but a small Parcel, in comparison of what was daily conveyed away, under colour of Cockets for jersey.  
Granado's without number, shipped off under the pretence of unwrought Iron.  
Led Shot One and twenty Tuns.  
Gunpowder Seven thousand one hundred thirty four Barrels.  
Iron Shot Eighteen Tun Six hundred Weight.  
Match, Eighty eight Tun, nineteen hundred Weight.  
Iron Ordinance, Four hundred forty one; Quantity, Two hundred ninety two Tuns, nine hundred Weight: Carriages, Bandeliers, Pikes▪ etc. the quantity uncertain.  
All this, and what more beside, not then discovered, was exported from London to France, from june 1675. to june 1677.  
And thus was the French King gratified for undoing us by Sea; by Contributing all the King could rap and rend, of Men and Ammunition, to make him more Potent and Formidable to us by Land.  
Another great Instance of the King of England's extraordinary Kindness to the French King was this, that while he stormed at the Dutch for not promoting as he pretended, the coming away of some Families that were unwilling to leave Surinam; he found no fault with the French for keeping him above four years out of St. Christopher's; nor for destroying in the mean while that part of the Island which belonged to his own Subjects. So great a piece of rudeness it was thought, to press too hard upon the French King for performance of Articles on his side. Nay, the French Commanders in those Parts, did not scruple to assert, that there was a very good understanding, in relalation to that Island, between the English and French Court; so great a kindness the King had for the French, so little for his own Subjects.  
Nor must we omit, that when the Orders of the French Privy Council, Commanding all their Sea Officers and Commanders in the Islands of America, to secure to their Master the Sovereignty of those Seas, were brought by a Person of Quality into the Cabinet Council at Whitehall, they were at first declaimed against, but soon buried in oblivion, and put up amongst the useless Papers, though the French, in pursuance of those Commands proved afterwards so vexatious to the English, that thethen Governor of jamaica sent word, that notwithstanding their old Quarrel with the Spaniards, it was much easier to keep a good Correspondence with them, than with our dear Allies the French.  
Nor must it be forgot, as an Eminent Mark of our Sovereign's Deference to the French Interest and manner of Government, that in the year 1677, upon notice that a Great French Ambassador was coming over into England, he Adjourned his English Parliament, that he might have the more Elbow room to entertain his better beloved Friends. For all things at that time moved between France and England, with that punctual Regularity, that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres, so that immediately after the Recess of the English Parliament, over came the D. of Crequi, the Archbishop of Rheimes, M. Barillon, with a Train of three or four hundred Persons of all Qualities, (you would have sworn they had been the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France, with a proportionable number of their Commons) met the King at Newmarket, so that it looked like another Parliament; and that the English had been Adjourned for their better Reception.  
Much of their business no doubt was concealed, but so much came to light, that they pressed the King to continue his Subjects in the Service of France; because the Parliament at that time most earnestly pressed, and was preparing a Bill for their being called home. They also demanded an Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France, upon account of all Prizes made of the English since the year 1674, till that day and for the future. And the King on the other side required a further supply of French Money. And certain it is, that though the English Parliament was kept a loof from the Business of War, Peace and Alliance, as improper for their meddling withal; yet with those three Estates of, France all things were negotiated and transacted with the greatest confidence imaginable. To which purpose they were Adjourned from Newmarket to London, and there continued till the return of the English Parliament, but then dismissd home, though with all the Signs and Demonstrations of mutual Affection imaginable.  
And indeed the effect of their Negotiation soon after appeared; for the Parliament still insisting, that the King's Subjects might be recalled out of the French King's Service; pressing the King to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive, with the States-General, and taking up a Resolution, that they would proceed upon nothing, till satisfied in the Business of the French Affairs and Popery; they were put off by Adjournments from time to time, or as it may be more truly said, kicked from Adjournment to Adjournment, as from one Stair down to another, to the end the French King might have the more leisure to complete his Conquests in Flanders.  
And from this last usage of his Parliament, we may justly take occasion to recollect his Behaviour all along to the Grand Council of the Nation, of which in his glavering Letters before his Restoration, he had so high an Esteem, and thought them so necessary for the Government of the Kingdom, that neither Prince nor People could be in any tolerable degree happy without them; yet to which his Malice was so inveterate, after once he came to be safe in his Throne, that no Man could use them with more Scorn and Contempt.  
His first Parliament began at Westminster the Eighth of May 1667. a Parliament so kind to him, and so confident of the Sincerity and Integrity of his Words, that they gave him back the Triennial Bill, and laid themselves at his Mercy, to do with them what he pleased; whereas before they had power to Assemble every three years by an Enacted Law. And no less frankly they surrendered the power of the Militia into his Hands; of both which Acts, being done in haste, they had leisure enough afterwards to repent.  
But notwithstanding all the great Kindness of this Parliament, and their more than extraordinary Liberality to the King, of several Millions of the People's Money, which was with the same profusion wasted upon his Pleasures, and the carrying on his Designs for the Introducing of Popery and French Government, not a Penny hardly for the good of the Nation, while the Seamen were fed with a Bit and a Knock, and the Merchants that supplied the Stores of the Nay were cheated of their Money, and never paid to this day; with what Scorn and Contempt he used them, and how far from that Esteem and Veneration he professed to have for them, while he was wheedling for his Restoration, is apparent to all the Kingdom. 'Tis true, the King continued them till all men of Impartial Knowledge and Judgement thought them Dissolved by Law; and till at length they were Dissolved by himself the Twenty fifth of january 1678. Not that they Sat so long; but were discontinued and contemptuously spurned from Meeting to Meeting, many times by the intimated Orders, and to promote the Designs of the French King, and never suffered to Sat, but when the King was in extreme necessity of Money. Among the rest of these Prologations, there was one at a time when the greatest urgency of Affairs, the greatest danger that ever threatened the Welfare of this Nation, required their Sitting, when they were diving into the bottom of the Popish Plot, and endeavouring to bring to condign Punishment the chief Instruments which the King had made use of to compass his Arbitrary and Popish Design. But than it was that the King to screen his wicked Ministers from Public Justice, preferred the Caresses of the expanded nakedness of a French Harlot, before the preservation of three Nations. For than it was, as Mr. Andrew Marvel, with a Satirical Indignation expresses it. 
That Carwel, that Incestuous Punk,  
Made our most Sacred Sovereign drunk;  
And drunk she let him give the Buss,  
Which still the Kingdom's bound to Curse.  This was the Effect of that night's bloody debauch, which continued till the morning, and all the morning till the Parliament was Dissolved, or Orders at least given for the doing it. For the Duke of York, and the rest of the Conspirators, being very uneasy under the terrible Inspections which the two Houses made into the Secrets of this Popish Plot, but lately discovered, would not endure their Sitting any longer. On the other side, the King, being alarmed by the detection of so many designed Contrivances against his Person, to remove him out of the World, for which the Papists had so little reason, unless it were to make him more hasty than stood with the Rules and Methods of his Politics, was the more willing to let the Parliament sit, for fear of exasperating the Nation at such a ticklish Conjuncture of Affairs as at that time, when all the Protestants of the Kingdom were awakened by such dreadful Consternations and Jealousies. What therefore could not be obtained by open Persuasion when His Majesty was sober and sensible, must be wrested form him when he was intoxicated. To this purpose Portsmouth was fully instructed what to do, and as being privy to the whole Conspiracy against the Kingdom, was entrusted to manage the Business. The Night was spent in Carousing and Buffooning, so that His Majesty by Morning was far from that Condition in which he used to appear at Chapel. In the Morning Portsmouth retired with the King and two Great Ladies more, into a more Private Room, where to bind him the faster in her Charms, and that he might have no time for second Thought, the three Ladies placed themselves before his Eyes in the posture of the three Naked Goddesses, in expectation of their Sentences from the Trojan Shepherd; and in that Posture going to the Sport of Questions and Commands, when it came to Portsmouth's turn to Rule, she asked her Monarchical Subject, whether he would have Two Commands and One Question, or Two Questions and One Command: To which when the King replied, One Command and Two Questions: The Strumpet presently cried our, Then I command ye to Dissolve the Parliament. Ahassuerus could have said no more, nor have been more absolutely obeyed; for that very Morning the Parliament was Prorogued accordingly; notwithstanding all that P. Rupert, when he heard the Resolution was taken, could urge with all the vehemency imaginable against it; while the D. of York stuck close to his Brother, and told him his Cousin raved. So that the Duke, that advised for the Ruin of the Nation, was believed; but the Prince, who spoke his mind freely for the good of the Kingdom, was dismissed for a Madman.  
So well did the King act his part, that when his well-meaning Counsellors lent their assisting hands to prevent the Consequences of French and Popish Dictates, they were mistaken in the Man, and gave their wholesome Advice to him that was bound not to take it, and was himself the Primum Mobile of all the Disorders which they besought of him to remedy.  
During this Sessions of Parliament, many foul things came to light: For while the King had raised an Army, and pressed the Parliament for Money to maintain them, under pretence of making a War with France, which was the earnest desire of all the Protestant part of the Kingdom, the Parliament were fully informed, that while the King boasted of the Alliances which he had made for the preservation of Flanders and the Protestant Religion both at home and abroad, he was secretly entered into Treaties and Alliances at the same time with the French King; and Mr. Garraway of the House of Commons had gotten a Copy of the Private Treaty between the King of England and the French King, at the same instant, that the Secretary and all the Court Pensioners cried out a War; insomuch that such of the Conspirators as were in the House began to blush when they saw the Cheat so palpably discerned. It was farther discovered, that a great Favourite of the Duke's had been sent over into France, under a pretence of Expostulating, and requiring satisfaction for the Injuries which the English had received from the French: but in reality, to carry the Project of Articles for the Peace, and to settle and confirm all things fast about the Money that was to come from France, and to agree the Methods for shamming the Confederates about their Expected Alliances. They found themselves cheated of all the Pole Bill Money, which they had given so little a while before, upon the assurance of a War intended against France; the greatest part of which they perceived was immediately, though appropriated to the French Wur only, converted to other uses, as the paying of old Debts, so that very little was left to pay for any Necessaries bought, or to be bought, toward the pretended War with France.  
Nor were they ignorant of the real Design, for which the King had raised his Army, and what care the King and his Brother took, that there should be no other Officers in that Army, than what were fit for the Work in hand, which was to introduce Popery and French Government by main force; Four parts of Five being downright Papists, or else such as resolved so to be upon the least intimation. The Duke recommending all such as he knew fit for the Turn, and no less than a Hundred Commissions being signed by Secretary W. to ●ish Papists, to raise Forces, notwithstanding the late Act; by which means both the Land and Naval Forces were in safe hands: And to complete the Work, hardly a Judge, Justice of the Peace, or any Officer in England, but what was of the Duke's Promotion. Nor were they ignorant of the private Negotiations carried on by the Duke, with the King's Connivance, with the Pope and Cardinal Norfolk, who had undertaken to raise Money from the Church, sufficient to supply the King's Wants, till the Work were done, in case the Parliament should smoak their Design, and refuse to give any more. Nor was the Parliament ignorant what great Rejoicing there was in Rome itself, to hear in what a posture his Majesty was, and how well provided of an Army and Money to begin the Business.  
The Parliament also understood, while they were labouring the War with France, and to resist the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Power, that the King underhand assisted the French with Men and Ammunition of all sorts; and soon after that a Cessation was concluded both at Nimeghen and Paris; and that the King had got some money from France for that job; by which means the French King was now sure to hold all his Conquests abroad, which, had England been real to the Confederates, might have been easily wrested again out of his Hands. But it seems it was not so much Money as the King expected, which made him angry, so that he began to threaten, that if the French King did not perform his Promise of 300000 l. Annuity for three Years, he would undo all he had done against the next Parliament. But the French King derided those vain Threats, menacing in his turn, that if the King of England would not be content with his Terms, and do and say to the Parliament, according to his directions, he would discover both him and his Correspondents, in betraying the Nation, and discover all his secret Contrivances against the Kingdom, as afterwards he Published the Dover Treaty at Paris; which was the reason, that after that, His Majesty of England never durst disoblige the French Monsieur, but became a perfect Slave to his Interest: a Bondage he never needed to have undergone, had he been but half as sincere to his English Parliament. But to them he was never true, with them he always broke his Faith and Royal Word; insomuch, that after they had given him Money to Disband his Army, he employed the Money to another use, and kept up his standing Forces, to the great Terror of the People in all parts of the Kingdom.  
So that now all things running on the Papistical side to their Heart's desire, what with Popish Soldiers, Popish Officers, Popish Counsels, Popish Priests and Jesuits swarming about the Town and Country, and France at leisure to help them who had helped him to be more a Conqueror by the Peace, than he could have expected by a War; the Duke of York was for the Kings pulling off his Vizard, and for setting up Alamode of France, according to what had been so often debated at White hall and St. James'.  
But while the King and his Brother were thus riding Post to ruin the Laws and Religion of the Kingdom, the Discovery of the Popish Plot by Dr. Oats, broke all their Measures for a time, by laying open the Secret Contrivances of our English Castor and Pollux for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Government.  
This Plot was no sooner made known to the King, but he imparts it to the Duke, not the knowledge of the Plot, for that they both knew before, but the News of the Plots being discovered. Upon which they set themselves, with all the care they could, to stop the farther Progress of the Discovery. To which purpose the Duke gives notice of it to his Man Coleman, and the Priests and Jesuits in the Savoy; by which means, what Papers and Persons were to be concealed, and conveyed away, was carefully looked after. All this while by this ●easonable detection of the King and his Brother to the Priests Jesuits, Oats himself narrowly escaped Massacred.  
Oats finding himself thus betrayed and abandoned by the King, applies himself to Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, with a Scheme of the Plot fairly drawn up, by that means to be introduced before the Council, to have the Business there unfolded; which with much ado was done; and Oats sent for to be Examined at Whitehall; where he managed himself with that Courage, that though he were Browbeaten and opposed most strenuously, though there were many that studied by all the ways imaginable to dash and confound him, yet it was impossible; he stood as firm as a Rock, and gave such pregnant Reasons for what he said, that the Council, how unwilling soever to meddle, or stir in his behalf, yet at last were constrained, by the clearness of his Evidence, to grant Warrants for the seizure of several Priests that Night, who were taken and sent to Prison.  
Upon this followed the Assassination and Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, perpetrated by the Countenance and Connivance of the King, as well a, by the Contrivances and express Command of the Duke. For proof of which, a little opening of the Cause and Occasion, and a short relation of the Effects, Consequences and Events which enstied upon it, will both enlighten us to the truth of the Matter, and confirm our Belief, who were the Authors of and Accessors to it▪  
For, as has been already said, that Gentleman had received an Information upon Oath from Dr. Oats, about a Plot against our Laws, Lives and Religion. But finding something in the Deposition that reflected upon Mr. Coleman, with whom he had an intimate Acquaintance, he thereupon took an opportunity to let him understand what Information he had receeived, and to tell him, that the only way to justify his own Innocency, was to contribute all his Endeavours and Assistance to prevent so Bloody 〈◊〉 Design. But Coleman, instead of denying ●he Truth of those things which Sir Edmund related, or offering his Endeavours ●o obstruct the Progress of it, or to de●eat the Success of the Plot, not only acknowledged that there was a Conspiracy ●gainst our Laws, Liberties and Religion, but that it was advanced so far, and seconded by Persons of that Quality in the Nation, and Figure in the Government, there was no possibility to give a Let or Disappointment to it. And more particularly he told him, that the King was the Principal Author and Chief Promoter of the whole Design of overthrowing the Protestant Religion, and altering the Government: which Coleman calling to mind after his being committed to Newgate, and considering that by that means Sir Edmond was enabled to come in a second Witness against him: he therefore ordered it so; as not only to get the Duke acquainted with his own danger, but that His Highness and others, whom he had mentioned in conversation with Sir Edmund, were in the seem Predicament, and would certainly be brought upon the Stage. To which he received this Answer from the Duke, That he should not be apprehensive of any danger from Sir Edmund, in regard there would be a way found to prevent his hurting Coleman, or any body else. Now that he was thereupon most barbarously Murdered, is a thing too well known: and then by whose Authority it was done, the Circumstances make it plain.  
First, the Circumstance of the Place, as being committed in one of the Courts of the King's Palace, in some of the Apartments of which the Murdered Body was also concealed for several days. The next circumstance was, the guarding of the Gate and Avenues of the Palace so strictly all the time, and denying the People their wont Liberty of access to the House, and passage through, which could not have been done, but by the King's Authority. Nor would the Duchess of Portsmouth, and somebody of the same Sex, greater than She, have adventured to have gone and viewed the Body, while it lay there concealed, by which they involved themselves in the Gild of the Crime, but that they knew they could not be called to an Account for it, considering by whose Connivance and Command the Fact was committed. Nor was it a less Argument that the King was privy to the Fact; That he protected from Justice both the Duke and others which were charged with that Murder: Than which nothing more than the doing of it with his own hands, could lay him under the Reproach and Infamy of it before Men, and under the dreadful Gild of it before God.  
Add to this, That when we consider the Motives that urged the necessity of this Murder, which was Colemen having acknowledged to Sir Edmund, that the King as well as the Duke was in the Conspiracy to alter the Government, and overturn our Religion, it would be nonsense to believe the King less willing to have him destroyed than his Brother: Since no Body at that time was so sorry for the detection of that part of the Plot as the King; neither did any body labour afterwards to baffle the belief of it, as he did. Nor had he any thing in the World to excuse himself for so doing; but that he was the principal Author of all that part of the Popish Plot, which related to the overthrow of the Laws and Religion of the Nation, and the destruction of the chief and most zealous Protestants in the Kingdom, as was sufficiently acknowledged by Coleman, not only to Sir Edm. Godfrey, but to the Committee of Parliament that examined him in Newgate. Which was so plain, that nothing influenced those Gentlemen to conceal that part of his Confession in their Report to the House, but their pity and compassion to the King, which would not permit them to expose him so black, as in truth he was to the Nation; though it was as certain, that they frequently imparted their Knowledge to their Friends.  
Nor did it a little add to confirm the Truth of what is here related, That Emissaries should be sent from the Court to deal underhand with the Coroner, and the Jury, to have gotten a Verdict of Felo de se. But the proofs of his being murdered were so apparent; such as his Neck being broke, and the cleanness of his Shoes, that nothing could corrupt the Jury from bringing it in otherwise than it was.  
Under these Distresses did the King and the Duke labour: Terribly afraid of the approaching Parliament, for the sake of their Popish Minions and Instruments, whose utmost care and industry could not prevent it, but that several of Coleman's Letters and other Papers were found, which detected the Negotiations of the King and Duke (for all the World can never separate them by maintaining that the Duke durst ever have transacted such Treasons abroad, being then no more than another Subject, without his Brother's Consent) so that they were in an extraordinary quandary, whether the Parliament should Sat or no. But the King's extreme necessity for Money, prevailed upon him to let them Sat: Besides that, the King, who all along acted under his Protestant Mask, was sensible that the Kingdom would have cried out shame, had he put off the Parliament of such a Conjuncture of Combustion and Distraction as that was.  
 
〈…〉 spent the Money upon his other Occasions▪ and kept up the Army 〈◊〉. Nevertheless, to excute the Fraud and Ch●at which he had put upon the disgu●●ed Nation, he tells the Parliament, That he had been obliged to k●ep up his Troops, to keep his Neighbour's from absolute Despair; and that he had been solicited from abroad not to disband them. Now, was ever such a Story told by a Prince, and vouched in the face of the Nation by a Bred Lawyer, viz. his Chancellor, to justify the Breach of a Law of the Three Estates of the Kingdom as soon as made, and then to fl●m the Parliament off, with Christendom and the World's commending us for breaking our own Laws, to patch up a Peace, which tended to nothing but the Ruin of those for whom it was made? The sum of which was, in short, That the King, to serve his own Arbitrary Ends, had run h●mself 〈…〉  
〈…〉 that many Papers of great Importance had with a more than ordinary Industry been conveyed away; yet by those that were found, so much appeared, that the House Voted it to be a damnable Plot, to root up and destroy the Religion and Government of the Kingdom; and privately got the Lord Chief-Justice S●broggs to sign Warrants for the Apprehending the Popish Lords; which was done accordingly: And, for their further Security, they prepared a Bill for putting the Nation into a posture of Defence, and for raising the Militia throughout the Kingdom to be in Arms for so many days. Which passed Both Houses without any difficulty; but the King, out of his Zeal to the Protestant Religion, refused to pass it. And then it was, that the Parliament found too late the Compliment which they had passed upon him in returning him the Power of the Militia, which he made use of to keep up Standing Armies for their Destruction, but refused for the Security of the Nation.  
This therefore not prevailing, they began to provide against Papists sitting in either House; and framed a Bill with a Test to be taken by every Member of both Houses, or else to lose their Seats. This, though his Protestant Majesty durst not openly oppose himself, yet after a close Consultation held at St. James'▪ he ordered all his Instruments in the Lord's House to withstand the passing of it there; which though they could not effect, yet they prevailed so far, that they got a Proviso in it for the D. of York whereby they did him the kindness as to declare him a Papist to all the World.  
After this, the Parliament proceeded to the impeaching of such Persons as they had found to be deepest in the Contrivance of all our Mischiefs; but That His Majesty looked upon as a Business that so nearly concerned his own Honour, that like his Father, when the D. of Buckingham was accused of poisoning his Father, he would not endure the Parliament in such a jehu-like Chase after the Popish Conspirators, but foot-balled them again with a Prorogation for several Months. So careful was his Protestant Majesty to stifle as much as in him lay, and to prevent the Prosecution of an Infernal Plot, which he knew was so deeply laid, like the Axe of Popery, to the root of all his Protestant Dominions.  
Nor was this all; for so soon as he had dismissed the Parliament, and had secured his Accomplices, he took all the care imaginable to discredit Oats and Bedlow's Evidence; Forty One was again inculcated into all the Ignorant Pates about the Town, and Merry-Andrew Roger had his Pension out of the Gazettes continued to ridicule the Plot, which he did in a most lewd and shameless manner; and Money given to set up a new Divinity Academy in a Public Coffee House, to act the Protestant Whore of Babylon, and give about his Revelation-Cup to the Raw Inferior Clergy, and instruct them in better Doctrine than ever they learned in the University.  
Nor did he stop at the endeavouring to discredit the Testimonies of those Witnesses, but sent his Head-Emissaries to corrupt them to a denial, and retracting what they had discovered; and when that would not do, Knox and Lane were suborned to accused Oats of Buggery, thereby to have taken him. Acts of the foulest ignominy, which whether a Protestant King would have encouraged, to the ruin of the Religion which he professed, in partial postcrity will determine with a clearer and more unclouded sight: For we, God knows, are so dazzled with those Illustrious Beams of feigned Protestant Majesty, that we are not able to stare upon those Rays without blinding our Eyes, out of a false Devotion to the Sun of our vain Imagination.  
Add to this, his endeavouring to corrupt the yet untainted Members of the House, and buy their Votes, to the utter exhausting of his Treasure, for that which was then called Secret Service. And which was more than all the rest, his Dissolution of this Enquiring Parliament, at the Solicitation of the Duke, and the rest of his guilty Minions, by the Advice of a certain Lady, who to save her Husband from the Impeachment he lay under, persuaded them to get the King totally to Dissolve the Parliament; using this Argument, That in regard the Nation were so dissatisfied in this, it would be a means to gain him the favour of the people, and baffle the Impeachment, by getting it Dissolved; especially when it should be known, that it was done by his procurement: So that the Lady's Advice being followed, the Parliament was as easily Dissolved, as it had been a little before lasciviously Prorogued, after a continuance of Seventeen Years, to the great Admiration of all men; though indeed it proved in some measure a happy day for England▪ For the Dissolution so enraged the Band of Pensioners, finding their Service so slighted, and their livelihood lost, that they began to talk loud, and discovered those things which were no way for the disadvantage of the Nation.  
But here we are 't observe the extraordinary Diligence of his Protestant Majesty, to get the next Parliament fit for his Turn, which was suddenly to be called, to stop the mouths of the People.  
To which purpose all the Money that could possibly be spared out of the Chequer, was issued out to C. B. to manage the Elections all over the Kingdom, under the old Notion of secret Service, in one Article 1500 l. in another 2000 and the Guinea's stew about the Country far and near to the Corporations, to hire places, and get fit men, the Heads of the Counties and Corporations were sent for, and told what men would be serviceable and acceptable to the King; and particularly the Gentlemen of Essex were sent to, by the Ch. Just. Schroggs, and cautiones that they should not choose Mildmay, whatever they did. And new Charters were obtained fo● some Corporations, with new Privileges, and 〈◊〉 them down to be hung out at the Windows, to animate the People to choose such men as they were directed. What could more have been done by a Protestant Prince, to destroy his Protestant Subjects, and advance the Roman-Catholick Cause?  
But when the Conspiraters saw that nothing would, but that they perceived that they were deceived in their Expectations by the unanimous choice of the People, than all ways were studied to put them upon Rocks, and to set them together by the Ears, and throwing in Bones among them, and by working them to fly upon the Ministers of State, as the only infallible means to blow them up; as being sure of the King's Resolutions to interpose between them and danger, whatever became of the Parliament and Kingdom. If this failed, the King was furnished with another contrivance, which was so cajole and delude them, by pretending all the Sincerity and Reality in the World, when he meant quite the contrary; and rather than miss of his Designs, to publish himself to Posterity, the greatest Knave in nature; and to let the world know how much he could outdo Tiberius in dissimulation.  
To this purpose, when the Project of the King's rejecting the Commons Choice of their Speaker, failed, though it were done on purpose by the King to pick a quarrel with the House as soon as they sat; the King pursuing his old methods of speaking with his Lips, what was farthest from his heart, went to the House of Lords, and there tells the Parliament a plausible Story, how he had consented to the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament; to the Execution of several Criminals, both upon the score of the Plot, and the Murder of Sir Ed. B. Godfrey; but above all, how he had commanded his Brother to absent himself from him, because he would not leave the most malicious men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him towards Popish Counsels. In all which there was not one word of Thruth, as to the Motives that engaged him to do what he did.  
For as to the Exclusion of the Popish Lords, he knew it was what he could not avoid, unless he would have absolutely thrown off his Protestant Mask, which he was sensible it was not seasonable for him then to do. As for the Jesuits that were hanged for the Plot, he pleased himself as well as the people, by sacrificing a few inconsiderable Miscreants to his own Revenge, for ingratefully plotting against his Life, who had all along been so faithful to their Cause; and indeed it was but just they should die like Knaves and Traitors, who had been such fools to mistrust so true a Protestant Prince. As to the Murderers of Sir E. B. G. what could he have done less, except he would have exposed himself to the Clamour of the whole Nation? That would have been the greatest folly in the world, for a Man that loved to sleep in a whole skin, as he did, for the preservation of three or four Rascals convicted of a bloody Murder, to have sacrificed his Honour and his Safety to public Scandal and Resentment.  
And then as for the Removal of his Dear Brother, it was done after a long and deep Consultation upon these Considerations: First, That the Duke's being out of the way, might stop the farther Examination of the Plot in relation to himself, and thereby one of the Chief Conspirators be preserved safe: And secondly, For a show that the King was such an Enemy to Popery and Popish Counsels, that he would not suffer so much as the Breath of a Brother near him, for fear of infection. For in these Gracious Protestant Acts, lay all his hopes of making the Parliament give Credit to his Words, and getting Money from them, at a time when the French King most treacherously failed him Tho while the King was thus endeavouring to cast a Mist before the Parliament's Eyes, it was most certain, that before the Duke went, the King had promised him, That nothing should be acted or done, without being first imparted to him; insomuch, that the Speech which was to be made to the Parliament, was concluded on before he went; and though he were absent in Flanders, where Expresses reached him almost every hour, yet the Grand Politicians of the Conspiracy stayed behind, and watched his Affairs at home, as diligently as if he had been here in person.  
Nevertheless the Parliament, not being to be deluded by all those seeming Acts of Protestant Grace, took little notice of those gaudy Trappings of the King's Discourse, but fell briskly to work upon the Plot, and the Murder of Sir E. B. G. to which purpose they made choice of a Secret Committee to pursue that Business, by whose means great things were discovered; insomuch, That there were very few of the chiefest of those who were nearest about the King, and most effectually possessed His Ear, but were found to have some hand or finger in the Grand Conspiracy. According to the Proverb, Show me the Company, and I'll tell thee the Man; which put the Parliament to lay all other Considerations aside, but those of securing the Nation against Popery and Arbitrary Government; in order whereunto, they began to think of bringing the Lords and others in the Tower to their Trials: And upon a report of their Committee, of the D. of York's Letters, wherein it appeared what great joy had been conceived at Rome for the Duke's Conversion, even to draw Tears from his Holiness' Eyes, with several other Papers, discovering much of the Court-Intreagues with Rome and the Fathers; they Voted the hopes of his coming to the Crown, to be one of the chief Causes of the Popish-Plot; and ordered a Bill to disinable him to inherit the Imperial Crown of the Realm.  
These Proceedings were of so high a Nature, and so directly tending to the overthrow of that structure, which the King and the Duke, with the assistance of their Popish Counsels had been so long and so assiduously erecting, that it was thought requisite to treat them with all the Art and Subtilty imaginable; which produced two of the greatest Masterpieces that ever were acted by the Conspirators ever since their first designing Popery and French Tyranny. The first was to blind and cozen the House of Commons, by seeming to show an utter dislike of all former Councils that had brought the Nation to the condition it was in. In pursuance of which, the old Council was dissolved, and the greatest Sticklers against the Plot, and for the Protestant Religion, chosen into their room, to the end the King might not be thought to be any longer influenced by Popish Advice; and that if any miscarriages happened, they might be all laid to their charge; or that miscarriages might receive a more candid interpretation, as being done by such good men, against whose fidelity the Nation had no exception. And thus were those Gentlemen gulled in, under pretence of the King's more particular trust and favour, to countenance many illegal contrivances, to retrieve the bad condition of the Papists, under the notion of their Approbation: So that if Dissimulare be Regnare, never had any Monarch more of Kingcraft in him than ours had, to the destruction of his own Subjects.  
The next Device was to turn the whole Plot, and the Odium of it, upon the Protestants, under the notion of Presbyterians and fanatics: Which how well it pleased the King, will afterwards appear.  
The first Project had this effect, That many of the Leading Men for the Country, of both Houses (for the same alterations were made among the Commissioners of the Treasury, and Lords of the Admiralty) being inveagled and drawn aside by the Temptations of Places both of Profit and Honour, their vigour began to cool, and the unbiased Party in both Houses were left to stand by themselves. Four or five of the most Popular in the Council were wrought off; and whatever Matters were of importance for carrying on the Popish Cause, were first agreed on in the Private Cabal, and then brought into the Council; where if such Matters met with strong opposition, the King's Pleasure that it should be so, overruled the Debates, and all things passed as ordered by the King in Council, not with the Advice of his Council. And then such as did not heartily join, had good words given them, and were told that all was meant well; which made several give credit, and believe the rest were real. By which means, all that was done by the King and His Coadjutors, was acted behind the Curtain, and the Popular Gentlemen were only made use of as Vmbrello's to shade the Conspirators from the scorching Heat of the People's Discontent: So fine and subtle were the Wiles of Popery, above the reach of plain and downright Protestant Politics.  
But in the midst of these Court-Intriegues to run down the Plot, the House of Commons went on vigorously both against the Plot, and the Popish Delinquents; which grated so hard upon the Popish Party, and was such an obstruction to their Designs, That the King compassionating their Grievances, more than those of his Protestant Subjects, gave way to the Dissolution of the Parliament; yet with promise of another to meet toward the latter end of the year, under pretence of frequent Parliaments; but, in reality, to try if He could get another fitter for his turn.  
And now the King having laid aside the Parliament, and freed his Instruments from the Terror of it, was so far from not permitting himself to be influenced by Popish-Councellors, that he began to play his old pranks; and first of all the popular Protestant Lords of the Council were by degrees decently laid aside, and the Duke was sent for home; the Lord Shaftsbury for opposing it, being severely reprimanded in Council, with a wonder how any person that sat at that Board, durst so boldly affront his Royal Highness? For the Face of Affairs was changed, and the King was now swimming in his own Element again. Only it was strange that he was no more concerned to see the strain of the whole Kingdom run against him: For notwithstanding all his industry to have brought in his Band of Pensioners again, it was found, the new-chosen Parliament, which was by this time ready to sit, was likely to prove worse for his turn than any of the former: Which made him have recourse to his old shift of Prorogueing, which was done by Proclamation, to gain a little time for the acquitting of Sir G. Wakeman, which the C. J. Scroggs had engaged to his Prince for a Gracious Smile, and to the Portugal Ambassador for a round sum of Guinea's to help him out with his purchase in Essex. To which purpose, how he acted his part, is so well known, that I need not here repeat it: only thus much, That as it redounded very much to the Butcherly Indigent Chief Justice, and together with many other good Offices, continued him for a while in his Place; so it was no less for the advantage of the Papists, who from thence took the boldness to affirm there was no Popish Plot. So kind was His Protestant Majesty to help out his desponding Friends at a dead lift, in order to the Sham-plot, which he was afterwards designing.  
For now the Parliament being put off, was at leisure to advise with his Popish Instruments, who were no less sedulous to give their advice to the utmost that their active Brains could reach. By this sedulity it was, that the Meal-Tub Anti-Plot was contrived, and hatched: Only Tools were wanting to manage, and carry on the Treacherous Design. Therefore not knowing where else to find Miscreants fit for such Diabolical Enterprises, all the Goals about the Town were raked for needy Profligates. It will be needless to give a particular History of that which has been so sufficiently discovered for an abominable Imposture: It shall only therefore suffice to give the World an account, when the King and his Accomplices had laid the Contrivance to trepan the chiefest part of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation, that would not comply with his Popish and Tyrannical Designs, what Favourites those Rakehells were to His Sacred Majesty, upon the account of the Villainy which they had undertaken to go through with. For it is well known, that when Dangerfield was fetched out of Newgate, and presented to Old Rowley at Whitehall, as a fit Instrument for the Devilish work of the Meal-tub-Plot, then resolved upon, the King was so overjoyed he had found such a Rascal for his turn, That he set him down on a Couch, kissed him, hugged him, and embraced him with all the caresses of Love imaginable, insomuch that the Newgate-Bird himself could not choose but be surprised at his Sovereign's kindness. His entertaining afterward the same unpardoned coiner, and common Cheat, privately in his Closet for an hour together at a time; and ever and anon giving him his hand to kiss, was no less an argument of his pious Indulgency to premeditated Villainy; while his Princely Favours and Familiarity were only reserved to encourage audacious Treachery; and his Frowns only bestowed upon the Detectors of the public Enemies to God and his Kingdom. To which, we may add the severity used in checking the Lord Mayor, for taking Dangerfield's Discovery after he was committed to Newgate, for meddling, as it was termed, with that which nothing concerned him. And indeed, it may be said of the Meal-Tub-Plot, That it was a piece of Treachery so foul and ignominious, that it would have hardly passed for curr●nt in open War against a public Enemy; and which aggravates the Crime yet more, was His Majesty's Liberality of several times to Dangerfield, besides his allowance of Twelve pound a week out of the Privy-purse.  
The miscarriage of this blessed Design, caused a second proroguation of the Parliament, upon hopes of 200000 l. from France, whi●h was dexterously prevented by the Duke of Buckingham; which the King so ill resented, that his Attorney-General had Orders in Council to Indict him of Buggery, with a Design to have taken away his Life, and repair the French disappointment by the Confiscation of his Estate, had the project taken. Never so much Villainy in contrivance, never so much Money ill spent, and never worse luck.  
But nothing could daunt the Popish Projectors; and therefore, though the Meal-Tub-Conspiracy was quite baffled, yet there was another quickly hatched, of the same stamp and nature, though carried on by other Instruments. Nell Wall, an Irish Papist, and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall; but afterwards, for her Religion, advanced to be one of the French Duchess' Women, and so to the King's Favour, by which she became a great States-Woman, as well as a common Whore. To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered, and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Duchess, and then to the King, where he was told, That the Plot would undo them, unless a way could be found to make a Counterplot: therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it; for that no Cost should be spared, but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service. Draw, Painter, here, England's pious Protestant Monarch, Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine, and her Close-stool Wench, against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both. The business of this Irish Tool, was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets, and carry them to White-Hall, where he had Audience, and private Conferences with Nell Wall, the Duchess, and the King himself; and where he had sometimes given for secret service, a Hundred, and Two Hundred Pound at a time; and was no less slabbered by his Gracious Sovereign, than Dangerfield had been before. So zealous were We for the Popish Cause, that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery, that We would have declared ourselves even to have kissed the Tail, as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World.  
Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion, That when one Sergeant, a Priest, made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland, which he caused to be transmitted to the Court, with an intention to have discovered several others, he was first bribed off by Pillory-Carr, then sent for into England, slightly and slily examined, had his Pardon given him, and sent back with Five Pound a week, to say no more. And in this game, that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done, Sir. L. jenkin's showed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity, being just entered Secretary in the room of another, who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool, as well as Knave, did. Among whose good Services to his Master, we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power, to conceal the Murder of the Priest at Abbeville in France, upon intimation that he was coming into England, to make a farther discovery of the Plot: Which together with his fasting, and other infallible tokens, showed him to be plainly, what was well enough known before, Father Goff's Creature, as well as the King's and Duke's.  
Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation, to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time, no less than seven times, before permitted to sit, on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland, and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again, and retrieve their Losses in England; and in this Interval it was, that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome, and others their Associates, for Money to strike while the Iron was hot, in regard that Scotland by this time was secured, and all things in such a forwardness, that now or never was the time; but the Pope, had such an ill opinion of our Sovereign's Fidelity, that he slipped his neck out of the Collar, and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty.  
Thus missing money from Rome, and the rest of their Popish Associates, and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash, there was no way but one at a forc'd-put, which was to let the Parliament sit, and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation, the King in a framed Speech told them, of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes, and particularly with H●lland; and how necessary it was to preserus Tangier, which had already run him in Debt. Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money.  
But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations, fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom, such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting, the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning, and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury, before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusancy, before they could make their presentments, the prosecution of the Popish-Plot, and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham; all which they looked upon to be of greater moment, than the King's Arguments for his wants. For it was well known, that by His perfidious Dealings abroad, he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes, to whom he sent, that they slighted his Applications, as one upon whose Word they could never Rely. And as for the preservation of Tangier, there was nothing less in his Thoughts: A fine Credit for a Prince, and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity, that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom, nor no other way to work them to ●hose ends, unless by forging untruths, to make them accessary to the betraying of the people, that had entrusted them.  
The Parliament therefore bend all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery; concluding that the Duke's Apostatising from ●is Religion, was the sole Evil, under which ●he N●●●ons in a more particular manner groaned and consequently, that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismounted. But the King being re●●lved not to forsake his Brother, whatever become of the Kingdom, out of a pro●ense ●alice to the Nation, and foresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people, rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him, took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses, that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money; upon the Duke's undertaking to furnish him, he Dissolved this Parliament too, with promise of another at Oxford, to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow.  
In the mean time, all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection; preparative to which, Judges were selected, with Dispositions, Thoughts, and Minds, as Scarlet as their Gowns. And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people, that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty. A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery, beyond the parallel of History. A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly o● it, designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood, under the colour and forms of Justice; and yet, who but he who in his last wheedling Speech to pick the Nations Pocket, had promised to Consent to any Laws against Popery, at the botto● of it? Who but he, the Suborner and Instructor of Fitzharris, and the Gratifier of him too with his own Hand? And why was W— p readmitted to his and his Brother's Favour, but to be the principal Broker for Witnesses, and grand Minister of Subordination for the carrying on this bloody Design; that since he could not advance his Fortune by the prostitution of his own Daughter, he might do it by betraying the Innocent to slaughter. What a crew of Devils in the shape of Men, a Regiment of Miscreants, in whom all the Transgressions of the Law, and Morality, were mustered together? I say, what a band of such Caitiffs were rendezvoused, and with that Money which Parliaments gave to promote the Security of the Kingdom, carress'd and pampered, even to excess, for the destruction of the Innocent? And all this at the expense of him, that bore the Style and Character of our Gracious Sovereign. For full proofs of which, there needs no more, than to look into the Trial of Fitzharris himself, and observe the Shuff●ng and Hectoring of Portsmouth, and her Close-stool Wench, Mrs. Wall, when they were asked the Question about the Money that was given him at White-Hall; and yet one would have thought that the modest and humble Address, and Petitions of so ma●y Parliaments to secure the Lives and Religion of his people; that the care and tenderness which they had still, out of mistake, for his person; that the prostrated Complaints of a distressed Nation; and that the foresight of these dismal Calamities he was bringing upon three spacious and opulent Kingdoms, might have interceded for some Compassion, had there been a grain of common Humanity in his Adamantine Heart; or that the heat of his Lust had not petrified all his pity.  
And yet as horrid as this Plot was, which nothing could equal, but that horrid Plot of his own, which this was contrived to cove● and stifle by excelling it, was carried on with all the vigour imaginable; insomuch, that the more fatal Libel than the Gorgon's Head that was to kill unseen, was ready prepared for the Work, and the Train ready to take fire, had not Everard's Jealousy of some design upon himself, outwitted Fitzharris, and first betrayed him, to save his own Bacon.  
To recite the particulars of a Design already so well known, and publicly exposed to all the World, would be a repetition altogether needless. This however was observable, that we were come to the height of Tiberius' Reign; when Informers, and 〈◊〉 Accusers, a sort of Men found out for th● Ruin of the Public; and for the punishment of which; no Laws can be too severe, were encouraged and courted with Rewards. Nullus à poena hominum cessavit dies; decreta accusatoribus precipua premia; nemini delatorum fides abrogata; omne Crimen pro Capitali receptum, etiam paucorum simpliciumque Verborum. No day passed without some punishment inflicted; great Rewards given to Informers; no Informer but what was believed; all Crimes were adjudged Capital, though merely a few idle Words. Such a Harmony there was between these times, and the pernicious Reign of that Master in Cruelty and Dissimulation, Tiberius.  
But the Roguery being discovered, while Fitzharris thought to have put Everard upon this Dilemma, either to hang, or prove the Libel upon others, he came to run himself into the Noose. Lord! into what an Agony it put the King, the Duke his dear Brother, and their then juggling Instruments! that the King, who a little before was so overjoyed with the account of the Contrivance, which was given him at Whitehall, that he could hardly contain himself from displaying the Raptures of his Soul, was now so highly incensed against Fitzharris, that he was heard to say, He should die, if there were no more Men in England. But his Confession to the Recorder, Sir George Treby, and others, what the design of the Conspiracy was, that is to say, to thrust papers into the pockets and Lodgings of such and such Gentlemen, and then to seize them with the papers about them; so enraged his Employers, that he was presently locked up in the Tower, out of the reach of all Men, but the Lieutenant, to damn him for spoiling so hopeful a Design; and Secretary jenkin's, who was only admitted to him, either to threaten or cajole him with fair promises into a Recantation. But above all things, there was such a dread among the Conspirators, lest the Parliament should come to the knowledge of the depth of the Design, that their resolute insisting to have the Cognizance of the Crime within their own jurisdiction, was the occasion of their sudden Dissolution. After which, a Chief Justice was exalted on purpose, to hang Fitzharris out of the way, to prevent his farther discovery, though the rejecting of Fitzharris' Impeachment by the Lords, was a thing so new and unusual, as to the Proceedings of Parliament, that the Commons, who knew the Law, as well as the Judges, voted it a Denial of Justice, and that no Inferior Court should dare to try an Offender by them impeached. But the Judge's overruling the Law, and the Court overruling the Judges, no sooner was the Parliament Dissolved, but Fitzharris was Hanged, and by that means many a Mystery of Iniquity concealed.  
The dissolution of this and the foregoing Parliament was justified by a Declaration in the King's Name, which being published with all the severity and reproach that could be cast upon those worthy Patriots, verified the Report of what the King had been heard to say, That he would make the name of Parliaments to be forgotten in England.  
However, the Parliament being blown up, and the King running away in a pretended panic fear from Oxford, to colour the ensuing projects of Plotting and Subornation, no sooner was he settled again at London, and Fitzharris Hanged to the great joy of those that adored him before, but the Gazett was crammed with Addresses from all parts of the Nation, to thank the King for his expressions and promises to Govern by Law, which was no more than his Duty: But those Addresses were only signed by the unthinking, loose, and rascally part of the people, who were not sensible of the mischief which was thereby intended, which was, to make the Nation out of Love with Parliaments, thereby to unhinge the Government, and to introduce Tyranny and Arbitrary Power. And that th' Addressorse were only the Canaille of the Kingdom, with only a Tool of Quality at the Head of them, the Conspirators well knew; which was the reason they never durst adventure to call any more Parliaments upon the Credit of their Addresses, notwithstanding the mighty brags of their Number and Reputation in the Countries.  
As for the Trial of Fitzharris, I shall say nothing of it, as being already in Print. Only this is to be observed by the way, That no Attorney or Sollicitor-General durst have been so officious, as to go to the Grand-Jury themselves, make fine Speeches to the Jury, and solicit the finding of the Bill, had they not been encouraged to do what they did by Men of highest Authority in the Nation: Nevertheless the Jury would not proceed without the Opinion of the King's Bench, which was, That they must find the Bill, without taking notice of the Impeachment. For which the Valour of the C. J. being highly applauded at Court, was sufficient to let the World know what sort of Justice influenced the Court: And which might also be as well farther discerned by the Judge's overruling the weighty Arguments of Fitzharris' Council in behalf of his Plea, though the most Learned Lawyers in the Nation, without giving any Reason at all for what they did.  
Nor was it less observable what care and industry was used at Court, after they had got Fitzharris condemned, and under the terror of Death, to make him disown his Confession in Newgate, and accuse Sir G. Treby, Sir R. Clayton, and the Sheriffs, of forcing the Information from him; and to lay the Libel to the Lord Howard: And for this, they could find out no other Instrument but one H— s, who was said to be a Papist, and Chaplain to the French Duchess. But the hard Case was this, That when they had got him, in hopes of his Life, to retract all that they desired, yet he must be hanged at last; though, for fear he should again, when he saw himself deluded, make a Counter-Recantation, he was buoyed up with assurances of Pardon, till the very moment of his being turned off the Ladder. For whatever the Conspirators pretended, they never designed his Pardon, but only to get a Recantation from him; and after he was hanged, to make it public in print, on purpose to cast an odium upon Persons of worth and sincerity, and wipe off the Reproach of their Infidelities from themselves. However, H—s gave him a Passport to Heaven for ●hat he had done: For b●ing asked by Fitzharris' Wife, who knew the falsehood of her Husband's Recantation, Whether her Husband, having wronged so many Innocent Gentlemen, could be saved, if he went out of the World with such a Lie in his mouth? H—s told her, Yes, and accordingly did absolve him as well in his Wife's presence, as upon the Cart before he was executed. Though Fitzharris not willing to trust to the Doctor's Absolutions, for the ease of his Conscience, wrote two Letters, one to his Wife, and another to his Father, discovering the whole mystery of his Recantation; which he gave sealed to the Doctor, by him to be delivered to his Wife; Which the Doctor promised to do, but like a faithless Priest of Rome, carried them to Whitehall, where they were never heard of more. Which may give an occasion to posterity hereafter, among the rest of the Tragedies of this Prince's Reign, to insert this Story, under the Title of the Trepanner.  
But Fitzharris being hanged, out comes his pretended Recantation, which his Wife hearing cried about the Streets, and viewing it, asked H— s, whether those were her Husband's papers, or no? Who told her, They were. To which, when he replied, That then her Husband was damned, for that she knew all those things to be false: H—s made answer, Never fear that, for I gave h●m Absolution before he departed.  
However upon the Groundwork of this Recantation, a Committee of Subornation was erected at Whitehall, consisting of L. I. the L. C. and four more, by whose directions W— p mustered up together Turbervil, Dugdale, and all the Irish Evidence who had been most conversant with the E. of Shaftsbury, upon the account of the Irish Plot, together with one Booth, by whom a full detection of the whole Villainy has since been made, with a full disclosure of all the Artifices made use of, to have corrupted the Integrity of that honest Gentleman C. Wilkinson. And all those Varlets were now listed and received into pay by the said Committee of Subornation; and a Swearing-School being set up by W— p, according to his directions from the Committee, he gives to every one their distinct Cues and Lessons, to con and get by heart against occasion should serve. By the settlement of the Committee, which was approved, as was every thing else they did by his Protestant Majesty, Smith, alias Barry, and Dugdale, were to have their Arrears paid, and their Salaries to go on. Fitzgerald was to have all the Money he wanted for bringing the Evidence in, and present supplies for such as could be got to take part in the Villainy. The Macknamars' were to have, one of them Forty, the other Twenty Shillings a week; Hains and Denis the same proportion: Fitzharris' Wife had Fifteen pound a month, and her Maid Twenty shillings a week; and the inferior Scoundrels, such as Eustace Commins, Twelve shillings a week: And for the more convenient defraying of these Expenses, it was, That His Majesty was so earnest with the Parliament for Money, under the pretence of Foreign Alliances, and the preservation of Tangier. What will posterity say, when they shall hear of a Prince exhausting the public Treasure, to support Subornation, Perjury, and the Charge of ungodly and Arbitrary Trials; to cover an Infernal Plot, contrived by Priests and Jesuits, and to which himself was privy, with the Ruins of his Innocent people? For after Ages will need no other proofs to clear their Impartial Judgements, than the fatal consequences of the Bloody Combination: Which being rightly observed, they will find by the eagerness of the chase, how maliciously and industriously these Bloodhounds hunted after Blood, and how closely they pursued their Innocent Game, till they had driven them into the Pit of Perdition.  
Colledg's Trial is too well known to be here repeated; but after Ages will observe, how he was removed from London, where he had been acquitted, to another remote Country, where his Prosecutors were assured of his Destruction, by deluded Ignorance, and partial Knavery; how he was accused, and testified against by Naboth's Evidence, the scandal and reproach of all mankind, whose Memories stink upon the Earth, and would soon be forgotten, but that their Names are made use of to transmit the Infamy of their Employers to posterity. They will observe, not only how he had been long barricadoed up from all Advice; but how his Pockets were ransacked of all the Papers conveyed to him just before his Trial, on purpose to deprive him of all helps to make his Justification; how he was denied the Panel of the Jury, and the assistance of any Friend to stand by him. They will observe, that his Prosecutors were in great want of Evidence against him, when they were forced to rake the Goals for Miscreants to Swear against him; and give from thence a shrewd conjecture of the sufficiency of their Testimony. They will observe how eagerly and vehemently the King's Council laboured the Prisoner's downfall, as if they had been to have forfeited their Places, had he been acquitted. All which severities were palpable demonstrations of that Innocent Man's being determined to Destruction, right or wrong, on purpose to lay the foundation of farther Butcheries.  
So that being fleshed by this Success, the next attempt of the King's Justice, was upon the Earl of Shaftsbury, for the same pretended Treason for which College had suffered. And here posterity will make the same Observations and Conclusions in general, as in Colledge's Case: But more particularly will after Ages easily conclude from hence, that it was not for any Contrivance of his Lordship, but by a project of Court and Popish Revenge, to destroy a person, who by his Courage, Wisdom, and Good Intelligence, had Opposed and Defeated so many of their Designs against the Religion and Welfare of the Nation. For that this Plot upon his Lordship was so early Communicated to Rome and other Foreign parts, That it was talked of at Paris, and in Flanders, some time before his Lordship was Imprisoned in England. They will observe the Injustice done his Lordship, in refusing to let him see or know the persons that deposed against him, which was not denied either to Coleman, or the Jesuits; and which being so contrary to Law, was a plain Demonstration, that either the Witnesses were not thought of credit sufficient to support the Confinement of so great a Peer; or else that it was not convenient to trust the general course of their Lives to be scrutinied too soon. They will admire at the horrid Injustice done his Lordship, in refusing to give an Oath to those that offered to have sworn two Indictments of Subornation against the False Testimonies produced against his Lordship; The first precedent of such an Illegal Obstruction of Justice.  
They will observe the Treachery that was used to have betrayed his Lordship into the Snare. For what greater piece of Treachery could there be, than after they had intercepted a Letter directed to his Lordship out of France, from a Gentleman that had commanded a Regiment of Horse in the Service of C. the I. which Letter was only to desire his Lordship, to befriend him with a Receipt of the Gout, they added to it a Postscript, wherein the Gentleman is made to tell his Lordship, That he was able to furnish him with Forty Thousand Men from France, to oppose the D. of York: and so sent it back again into France, to have been returned into England, and intercepted a second time, but that by a strange providence the Letter happened into the Gentleman's own hands, who was not a little consternated at the alteration.  
The Motives that induced the Court to begin with this Great and Eminent Peer, will be easily discernible to succeeding Ages. For to what man of Sense and Reason, is it not apparent, that it was the Policy of the Court, That their Revenge against this Earl should not be adjourned, till they had tried the Credit of their Witnesses upon other considerable Persons, for fear lest by his Lordship's Industry and Abilities, he should not only have detected and exposed the whole Intrigue, but have broken the Engine, by which the two Brothers thought to have made themselves Absolute Lords of the Laws and Religion of the Kingdom. For which reason, it was thought best to assault him, by way of surprise, and to hurry him to prison, upon a pretended Conspiracy, which People would be astonished at, but not have time to unravel. For the King and his Brother were assured, That the convicting of the E. of Shaf●sbury upon a Charge of Levying War, and Conspiring to seize his Person, would be a kind of moral proof against every other Person whom they had a mind to accuse of the same Crime. Since people would be easily persuaded, That a Person of his prudence and conduct, would not easily embark himself in such a dangerous Enterprise, without a proportionable number of persons, who by their Power, Quality, and Interest, might be supposed to be able to carry it on. So that all the Noblemen and Gentlemen of England, that ever had any Converse or Acquaintance with the Earl, supposing them to be persons obnoxious to the Court, were involved in his Ruin.  
But it will remain an Eternal Monument of Reproach upon Royal Subornation, That after all the Industry of the Court, and their obsequious Instruments, after all their laying their heads together, to form cohering and probable Proofs of the charge intended to be laid against him, after an Illegal Trick devised to have Tried him within their own Jurisdiction of the Verge; which was so contrary to Law, that it was exploded by their own Bene placito Lambskin men; that at length he was acquitted by a Grand Jury, the most Substantial for Estates, Integrity, and Soundness of Judgement, that had been returned for many years in the City, to the never dying praise of the two Sheriffs, Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Shute. A Disappointment, which so incensed the King and his Dear Brother, That they resolved to make an Islington Village of the Chief Metropolis of the whole Nation; and what they could not do by Fire, to effect by wresting from them their Franchises and Privileges, far more Ancient than the descent of those that wrested them for a time out of their hands. For this Reason, the Attorney General was ordered to bring a Quo Warranto against the City Charter, under the pretence of their Petitioning for the Sitting of the Parliament; a thing so far from being a Crime, that it was the undoubted Right of the Nation. And yet such was the awe, which the Antiquity and Legality of the Charter had upon the Judges, that the Fountain of Justice was forced to shift his Chief Justice, till he could fix upon one that durst adventure to pronounce Sentence against it. Which as it was the greatest Invasion that could be against the Ancient and Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom, so it plainly laid open the King's Pious intentions of Governing by Law, which according to the new Interpretation of the Court, was the downright Subverting all that was most Sacred and Valuable in the Nation. For what was all this Bustle for? But as Charters of all other Cities and Corporations were chopped and changed throughout the Nation, to the end the King might have it in his power to violate the electing of a Parliament, and nominate and obtrude upon all Persons of the Kingdom, his own Slaves and Creatures, Papists, and Traitors to their Country; so by reducing one of the most Ancient Corporations, and levelling it with one of the meanest Villages in the Kingdom, that he might command the Mayor and Sheriffs, and by their means the Juries of the City, on purpose to have the Lives of all his Protestant Subjects at his mercy.  
And that this was his end, was apparent by the Consequences; for when once the King by the overthrow of the Charter, had made sure of his own Sheriffs and Juries; Heavens! how were the Laws of God and the Kingdom wrested by misinterpretation! how were the Precepts even of Morality itself transversed; the Witnesses for the King caressed and countenanced in their known Subornations; the Testimonies for the pretended Criminals browbeaten and run down, and all the Arguments of Law and Reason, urged by the most Learned Council of the Nation, overruled by Hectoring and Swaggering Judges, to take away the Lives of the Lord Russel, Coll. Sidney, Armstrong, Cornish, and several others, merely to gratify the Rage of Popish Revenge. Such were the Violences of the Court at that time, in the defiance of Justice, as if all fear of giving account to future Parliaments, had been thrown off, or that they never intended to be troubled with them more, till they had framed the Nation into such a posture, as to choose such Members as would not only forgive such Villainies, but go sharers with them in the Spoil of the Kingdom. And indeed the eager Thirst of all the Great Men at Whitehall, was so apparent, that nothing could be more, by the violent Contests for Sheriffs fit for their Turns, before they were Masters of the Charter; insomuch, that they laboured it with that Zeal, as if they had been contending pro Aris & Focis; and some of them were heard to say, That upon that hung all their hopes; and without it they were undone. For by the Verdicts of such Juries that such Sheriffs should return, they were in hopes to cut off all that in their Stations had appeared for the Exclusion of the Duke, or had showed their constant Zeal for the Protestant Religion, and the Laws of the Land; which is easily demonstrable from the Catalogues of those that suffered, or were forced to shelter themselves in Foreign Countries from the Malice of their Revengeful Prosecutors. Nor was it less remarkable, that as all along they embarked themselves in Designs pernicious and destructive to the King and Kingdom; So that the structure of this was built upon as wicked a foundation, was evident from the Instruments selected and encouraged by the favour of the King and his Brother, to promote it. For as they made use of the Scum of the World to perjure men out of their lives; so they made use of the Scum of the City, such as Dodson, Masters, Cradock, Mern, and others of the same stamp, to give them the command of Juries proper to complete the Tragedies. A most ready and clever way to extirpate by degrees, the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties. But that this was the Design of getting Court-Sheriffs, Sir G. jefferies', who well knew the minds of his Superiors at Whitehall, was neither afraid nor ashamed to own. For having after the Trial of Sir Patience Ward, desired him to give his Worship a Meeting at Sir Robert Claytons'; he there told him after an insulting manner, That he had satisfied his Revenge for the Loss of the Recordership; and besides, that having such Sheriffs as they desired, they had now the Law in their hands, and could have the Life of whomsoever they pleased. Otherwise it had been impossible, but for the Treachery of the Judges that encouraged the Injustice of a packed jury, to have found the Lord Russel guilty of death, when the whole of what was villainously sworn against him, was in the opinion of far more honest, and equally Learned Lawyers, but Misprision of Treason; or to have convicted Colonel Sidney upon Innuendo's, made out of old Papers found in his Study, and never published.  
But than followed the barbarous and horrid Murder of the Earl of Essex, which how far it could be laid to the King's Charge, is somewhat as yet in the dark. However, that the King could find no other Morning to accompany his Brother to the Tower, but that very Morning that the Earl was murdered, will no doubt very much augment the Suspicion of future Ages; and it will be as oddly looked upon, that when Letters and Proposals were sent to some Great Persons near the King, That if His Majesty would but grant a Pardon to two or three Men that should be named when the Favour was granted, the whole Mystery of the Contrivance should be discovered, and the Contrivers and Actors be particularly detected; such a Proposal should be slghted and neglected.  
There was also another Letter, containing the same Offers, addressed to the Countess of Essex, and sent open to one Cademan, a Bookseller in the New-Exchange, which was also carried to one of the Secretary's; notwithstanding all which, there was not the least syllable published to encourage any Inquisition after that Nobleman's Blood; which as it amazed all rational people at that time, so it will reflect upon the King himself, and his memory to all succeeding Ages.  
Now, after all these Tricks and Stratagems of the King, to introduce Tyranny and Slavery, to stifle the Popish-Plot, by throwing it upon his Protestant Subjects; after such an obstinate and steadfast Conjunction with the sworn Enemy of the Nation, the French King, for the Subversion of our Laws, Liberties and Religion; after so many Slights and Contempts to put upon the Grand Council of the Kingdom, which he never Assembled, but to empty and drain the Purses of the Nation; so that there was not a Law which he consented to for the public Good, not a gracious Speech or Declaration to protect and preserve the Protestant Religion, which the people did not purchase at a dear rate, while the Dissenters, among the rest, paid for the very Thorns and Briars that tore their own Backs; all this designed on purpose to render the Name of Parliaments odious; and lastly, a League concluded with the French King, for their total Subversion. After so many Bloody Executions of the chiefest Patriots, and constant Assertors of the Protestant Faith, to believe the King, by whose Authority, and by whose Countenance and Permission all this was done, to be that sincere Protestant which he professed himself to be, is for a Man to shut the Windows of his Understanding against the Light of common Reason.  
But to shut the Door against all Objections that can be made in his behalf; there is one proof yet remaining behind, which must be an undeniable Convincement to all the World, of the truth of what has been hitherto said, as standing still recorded under his own Hand, if the Original of the Instructions be Exant, and that is the following Memorial of his Ambassador to the King of Poland, in the year 1667.  
Most Illustrious Prince,  
THE King, my Master, has Commanded me to let Your Majesty know the Resolution he has taken in all Points, to concur with the Most Christian King, in giving Your Majesty all possible Assistance for the Establishing Your Majesty's Title in such ways, as Your Majesty shall think most effectual for the securing Your Crown and Dignity, and the further Honour of Your Queen, and Royal Issue: The King my Master being truly sensible of the Great Misfortunes of those Princes, whose Power must be bounded, and Reason regulated by the fantastic Humours of their Subjects. Till Princes can be freed from those Inconveniences, the King my Master sees no possible prospect of establishing the Roman Catholic Religion  
If this be not enough to discover his Inclinations, and the whole drift of his Intrigueing Reign, there can be nothing sharp enough to penetrate the stupid and besotted Bigotry of those that stand up in his Justification. But notwithstanding the wilful Blindness of such People, it is to be hoped, that other Men less biased, and having the same just pretences to common Understanding, have a greater value for their Reason, than to forfeit it to Prejudice, and an Interest, now exploded by all the sober part of the World: And having once disintangled their Judgements from the Encumbrances of jure Divino Nonsense, they will then find, that the whole Course of his Reign, was no more than what this Memorial discovers; and that the frequent Breaches of his Word and Promises, both to his Parliaments and People, were but the Effects of the Religion he professed and owned in his Ambassadors' Memorial; one of the chief Principles of which it is, Not to Keep Faith with Heretics; and by which, he was obliged to be more faithful to the King of Poland, than the King of Heaven. Hence it was, that notwithstanding his Declaration from Breda, designed and penned, to obtrude a seeming appearance of Truth, and specious Face of Integrity upon the Nation; after he came to be Restored and Settled; we found ourselves deceived in all that we expected from the Faith and Credit of his Royal Word. To which, we may subjoin that other famous Declaration, upon shutting up of the Exchequer; Wherein, though his Sacred Word, and Royal Faith, were in plain emphatical Terms laid to Pledge for Repayment, yet the Events in the Ruin and Impoverishing of so many Families, did no way consist with his gracivos and solemn Promises.  
As for the Covenant, whathever the Oath were, it matters not here to dispute; but they who were Witnesses of his taking it, observed, that if ever he seemed Sincere in what he did, it was in binding his Soul by that solemn Oath; and yet he not only openly and avowedly broke it, but caused it to be burnt in all the three Nations, by the Hands of the Common Hangman. Where can we find a more matchless piece of Dissimulation, than in his Signing that Declaration in Scotland, which he published under the Title of A Declaration of the King's Majesty, to his Subjects of the Kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland; which, because it has lain long dormant, and was doubtless designed to have been buried in Oblivion, may not now be unseasonable revived again, to show how much the World was deceived in him; and how little reason his Admirers have to have so high an Opinion of him. The whole is too long to be Inserted in these few Sheets; but that which most conduces to our purpose, is as follows.  
HIS Majesty taking into Consideration, the merciful Dispensation of Divine Providence, by which he has been recovered out of the Snare of Evil Counsel, and having attained so full a Persuasion and Conscience of the Loyalty of his People of Scotland, with whom he has too long stood at distance, a●d of the Righteousness of their Cause, as to join in one Covenant with them, and to cast himself and his Interests wholly upon God, and in all matters Civil, to follow the Advice of his Parliament, and such as shall be entrusted by them; and in all matters Ecclesiastical, the Advice of the General Assembly, and their Commissioners; and being sensible of his Duty to God, and desirous to approve himself to the Consciences of all his good Subjects, and to stop the Mouths of his and their Enemies and Traducers, does in reference to his former Deportments, and his Resolutions for the Future, declares as follows.  
Here is a jove Principium, the Motives that induced His Majesty to make this Declaration, were no Considerations of State-Policy; but in acknowledgement of the ill-merited Mercies of Divine Providence conferred upon him, a Covenant between God, the People, and Himself, like that of David in Hebron. Now see what ensues.  
Tho His Majesty as a dutiful Son, be obliged to honour the Memory of his Royal Father, and to have in Estimation the Person of his Mother; yet doth he desire to be deeply humbled and afflicted in Spirit before God, because of his Father's harkening to, and following Evil Counsels, and his Opposition to the Work of Reformation, and to the solemn League and Covenant, by which so much of the Blood of the Lord's People has been shed in these Kingdoms: And for the Idolatry of his Mother, the Toleration whereof in the King's House, as it was matter of great stumbling to all the Protestant Churches, so could it not but be a high Provocation against him, who is a jealous God, and visits the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children. And although His Majesty might Extenuate his former Carriages and Actions in following the Advice, and walking in the way of those who are opposite to the Covenant, and the Work of God, and might excuse his delaying to give Satisfaction to the just and necessary Desires of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland, from his Education and Age, and from his Evil Counsel and Company; yet knowing he hath to do with God, he doth ingenuously acknowledge all his own Sins, and all the Sins of his Father's House, craving Pardon, and hoping for Mercy and Reconciliation through the Blood of jesus Christ.  
And his Majesty having upon full Persuasion of the justice and Equity of all the Heads and Articles thereof, sworn and subscribed the National Covenant of the Kingdom of Scotland, and the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, does declare, That he has not sworn and subscribed these Covenants, and entered into the Oath of God, and his People, upon any sinister Intention, or crooked Design for obtaining his own Ends: but as far as humane Weakness will permit, in the Truth and Sincerity of high Heart. And that he is firmly resolved, in thd strength of the Lord, to adhere thereto, ane to prosecute to the utmost of his Power all the Ends thereof, in his Station and Calling, really, constantly, and sincerely, all the days of his Life.  
After such a solemn Stipulation between Heaven, and the Nation of Scotland, no wonder, that he had recourse to the Church of Rome for Absolution. For seeing, that he had such a Confidence of St. Peter's Power derived to the Pope, there is no other Argument to be urged in his behalf, that either he thought there was any Faith to be kept with Man, or that he believed in God. And how far the Breach of this, when we reflect how much he was abandoned to Misfortune, and the Reproach of Infidelity, both at Home and Abroad, pursued him to his Grave, is worthy the serious Consideration of his Brother, and Lewis the 14 th'. But who could rationally hope that he should deal sincerely, and above-board with the World, whose whole Course had been to deal thus deceitfully and treacherously with God? He who made it his business to impose upon the Allseeing Eye of the Heavenly Majesty, might easily bear with that Infirmity of his, of not scrupling the deluding Nations, and abusing the Credit of Mankind. 'Twas his Practice to be a Papist in his Closet, and a Protestant in his Chapel; to be this hour at the Mass, bearing a Part in the Romish Ceremonies upon Christmas-Eve at Sommerset-House, and the next day communicating after the maning of the Church of England at White-Hall. This the Duchess of Cleveland, well knew, and therefore had been often heard to say, That She did not embrace the Catholic Religion out of any esteem that she had for it; but because that otherwise she could not continue the King's Mistress: And consequently Miss of State.  
Add to this his sending the D. of Monmouth into France, with an express Command to reconcile himself there to the Church of Rome: So that his whole Life may be said to be made up of Contradictions; and that to save others the trouble of charging him with falsehood, he employed his own Tongue in all his public Speeches and Declarations, to give his own Heart the Lie; and justly merited the Character, which a certain Person gave him, to carry with him to his Grave; That he was an irreconcilable Enemy of the Protestant-Religion, a Parliament, and a Virtuous Woman. But what cared he, who being put in mind to consider what Infamy the History of his Life and Reign would entail upon his Memory, replied, That he cared not though the World made a Whistle of his Tail, when he was dead. Neither indeed was there any true Zeal for any Religion to be believed in a Man, who coming into the Chamber of a certain Peron, and finding a Bible there, reproached the owner for having less wit than he took him to have, since he troubled himself with such a Book.  
But though he had long trifled with the Papists, his beloved Friends, and indeed had so carried himself, that neither Papist nor Protestant could tell what to make of him, yet the Papists resolved they would be no longer dallied with by him: And therefore so soon as he had made all things ready for his Brother's Exaltation; after he had prevented his Exclusion from the Throne, and put all the power of his Dominions into his Hands, to give way for him that truly Reigned while he but only wore the name of King, he was struck with an Apoplexy, as it was given out (for let the true Cause be what it will, a Prince always dies of some Disease or other in the Physician's Catalogue) but such were the Circumstances of his Death, that Men began to discover their Suspicions freely to the World, before he was cold. However it were, certain it is, that he was Absolved from all his sins by his great Friend john Huddleston; and that the Priests gave him extreme Unction: At what time, one of his Relations forcing his way into the Room, and seeing them at it, could not forbear saying, That now they had Oiled and Greased his Boots, they had made him fit for his journey. And this is yet more remarkable, That all the while he lay upon his Deathbed, he never spoke to his Brother, to put him in mind of preserving the Laws and Religion of his People; but only recommended to him the Charitable care of his two Concubines, Portsmouth, and poor Nelly.  
Nor was it a small aggravation of the general Suspicion, to find him hurried to his Grave with such an ungrateful secrecy in the dead of the Night, as if they had feared the Arresting of his Corpse for Debt; not so much as the mean Pomp of the Blewcoat Boys to sing him to Heaven: Insomuch, that he was Buried, by his Brother whom he had so highly obliged, with far less decency than was permitted for the Funeral of his Father, by his capital Enemies that had beheaded him. But that perhaps might be so ordered by Providence, to signify that he was not worth the public Lamentation of the People, whose Religion and Liberties he had been always designing to subvert.  
To him succeeded james the II. not more perniciously designing, but more eagerly bend in the Chase of National Ruin and Destruction. He came in to England full freighted with his Mother's Religion, and her Malice to the People of the Nation; but wore at ●●st the same Vizard Mask of Protestantism which his Brother did. But though he were fitter for the business they both designed, yet he understood not how to manage it so well; so that had he been the elder Brother, we may undoubtedly presume to say, he would have been much sooner thrown out of the Saddle, greatly to the saving both the Honour and Treasure of the Nation, and the Life of many a worthy Gentlemen, and true Lover of his Country.  
'Tis well known, and a thing confirmed by two Letters yet to be seen, wherein one of the King's own Chaplains, then upon the spot when it was done, imparts and laments it to a Bishop, That the Duke of York, while he was yet but very young, made a solemn Renunciation of the Protestant Religion, and was reconciled to the Church of Rome while he sojourned with his Mother in France, in hopes by the assistance of the Papists to have defeated his elder Brother of his Right of Inheritance, though he had all the Indulgence imaginable to conceal his Conversion, where it might be for his private Advantage, and the general good of the Cause.  
And so early was this Ambition of his to supplant his Elder Brother, That when the Scots were treating with the Exiled King, to restore him to the Throne of Scotland, That he was at that very time practising with such as remained faithful to the King's Title here, that they would renounce his elder Brother, and choose him for their Sovereign. And for that Reason it was that the Duke forsook him at Brussels, and withdrew into Holland; so that the King was necessitated, not only to command him upon his Allegiance to return, but was constrained to send the Duke of Ormond, and some other Persons of Quality, as well to threaten as persuade him, before he would go back.  
And as he was an early Traitor to his Brother, so did he no less treacherously attempt the disowning of his first Wife. For finding her extraordinary Chastity to be such, that he could not be admitted to her Bed, but upon the lawful score of Matrimony, he was at last Married to her, but so very privately, that only the King was privy to it: After which, perceiving that his Brother's Restoration was fully determined in England, under pretence that it would be more for his own, and the Honour and Interest of his Brother, to Marry with some great Princess that would both enrich and strengthen them by the largeness of her Dowry, and the greatness of her Relations, he would have taken an occasion from the privacy of the Nuptials, to deny her being his Wife, and to disavow all Contracts and Ceremonies of Marriage between them: But the King detesting so much baseness, as being himself a witness of the Marriage, would not suffer the Lady to be so heinously abused; but constrained him, after great reluctancy, to declare it publicly to all the World. A happy Providence for England, which by that Conjunction blest us with two Protestant Princesses, matchless in Virtue and Piety, and all those other Graces that adorn their Sex; to the eldest of which we are beholden for our Deliverance from an Inundation of Slavery and Popery, under the Auspicious Conduct of a Sovereign truly meriting the Noble and Ancient Titles of King of Men, and Shepherd of the People, and the yet more dignified Addition, of Defender of the Faith. And from the youngest of which, we have already the earnest of a hopeful Issue to guard us from the like Invasions. Such is the provision of Providence, that many times it happens, the most venomous Creatures carry about them the particular Antidote against their own Poisons.  
Certain it is, that the D. of York would never have pulled off his Protestant Vizour, nor have declared himself of the Roman Communion so soon, had he not been thereto necessitated by a Stratagem of the King his Brother; for the Papists having a long time waited for the Accomplishment of the King's Oaths and Promises for restoring their Religion; and having annually contributed large Sums of Money towards the effecting of it, at length grew impatiently sullen, and would advance no more, unless the King or the Duke would openly declare themselves for Popery: Which the King thinking no way seasonable for him to do, and not being able by all his Arguments and Importunities to prevail with his Brother to do it, he at length bethought himself of this Project, which was, To get the Queen to write a Letter, intimating her Intention to withdraw into a Monastery; which Letter was to be left upon her Closet Table, that her Priests, as it was concerted beforehand, might there seize it, and seeing the Contents of it, carry it forthwith to the Duke. Upon which the Duke, being jealous lest the King, upon the Queen's relinquishing her Husband, might be induced to marry again, and thereby deprive him of the hopes of succeeding, than which there was nothing which he thirsted after more, upon obtaining a previous Assurance, that in case he declared himself a Papist, she should not withdraw, immediately pulled off his Mask, and renounced Communion with the Church of England.  
Being thus quit of his fears from the King, his next work was to rid himself of all his Jealousies of the D. of Monmouth. To which purpose he lay day and night at the King, to require him to turn Roman Catholic. Which the King out of his Tenderness to the Romish Cause, as well as to gratify his Brother, undertook to do, and accordingly sent him into France, with an express Command to reconcile himself to the Church of Rome: however, the Duke of Monmouth, out of an aversion to the Fopperies of that Religion, failed in his performance. Which so incensed the D. of Y. that from that time forward he studied all the ways imaginable to bring him to Destruction.  
In the mean time, having by his publicly declaring himself a Papist, engaged all those of the same Religion, to his Person and Interest, he resolved to drive on, jehu-like, and to promote the Catholic Cause, with all the vigour and swiftness he was able, and to make the utmost use of his Brothers good Intentions. And such was his Bigotry to the Romish Church, That according to the Principles of that Religion, he stuck at nothing per fas & nefas, to bring about his Popish Designs.  
I shall not here dilate upon his secret Negotiations at Rome, his Correspondencies with Foreign Priests and Jesuits, or his Private Intrigues with the French King, which have been all sufficiently exposed already in Print; as for that whatever has been already said of the King, is also to be said of him in general, while he was Duke, in regard they both drew in the same Yoke, for the Ruin of the Nation. For this is as certain as the rest, that he had a most eager desire to Rule, and Rule Despotically, which was the Reason he was frequently heard to say, He had rather Reign one Month as the King of France, than Twenty Years as his Brother the King of England, did. And besides, it was as plain, That he had a mortal Antipathy against the Protestant Religion, and more particularly against the Professors of it in England; but more especially the Dissenters, upon the score of Revenging his Father's Death. An Imbittered Hatred, which he derived from his Mother, who mortally maliced England upon the same Account, and which he acknowledged in his Bedchamber at St. James', where he openly declared; That he was resolved to be revenged upon the English Nation for his Father's Death. Which if those unthinking People, who are so eager to have him again, would but consider, they would not be so forward for his return. For it is in vain for the Church of England-Men, of what degree soever, to think that their refusing to Swear Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, would excuse them from that universal Revenge which he would take upon the Nation, were it ever again in his Power.  
Only here was the Difference between the two Brothers, That the King thought to Ruin his Enemy by main Force, and the fair hand of Victory; but the Duke hoping to kill two Birds with one Stone, made it his Business at the same time to Ruin the Enemy by Force, and his own Country by Treachery. Thus when he had engaged his Brother in the First Holy Dutch War of the Extirpation of Heretics, he permits the English at first to exercise all the Bravery of their Skill and Courage to a great Probability of Success; but then falls asleep in the height of his Conduct, to the end the Dutch for want of Orders might have an Opportunity to wrest the Victory out of the Hands of the English, on purpose to keep the Balance of Destruction on both sides even. Thus he permitted himself to be surprised at Soulbay, knowing there were enough to Maul the Enemy, but not enough to preserve those that Fought on our side. So that the Dutch may be said to be well Thrashed, and the English to be well Sacrificed. And as a farther Demonstration of his Perfidious Soul, when he found the Contest would be too tedious between two Nations so well matched, it was the Duke's Contrivance to Suborn and Bribe two Indigent and Desperate Villains, to go over and Fire the Dutch Ships as they lay in their Harbours; and when he had done that, it was the same Treachery, that with a shame Story lulled his Brother asleep, and procured the Firing of our Ships at Chatham.  
The Burning of London was such a matchless Piece, as could not have entered into the Breast of any but a Bejesuited Herostratus, in hopes to purchase the infamous immortality of a Popish Saintship, by reducing to Ashes, the greatest Bulwark and Magazine of the Protestant Religion in Europe. Rome was set on Fire by Nero, to have rebuilt it again more Glorious, and that he might have space enough for one of the most sumptuous Palaces so designed, under the Sun; thereby to have made the Mistress of the Earth, the wonder of the World: But London was fired, not only to destroy the Wealth and Habitations of the City, never to have risen more, but with an intention to extirpate the Inhabitants themselves to boot, and to have turned the Venerable and Spacious Pile into a depopulated Wilderness, by a general Massacre of the People, under the Consternation of the spreading Flames. The standing Streets provided and furnished with Incendiaries with fresh Materials to revive and restore the weary Conflagration; and when taken in the Act, rescued out of the Hands of those that seized them, and sent to St. James', to be there secured from the Rage of the Multitude, and then dismissed without Prosecution. An excellent way to have made all sure, by mixing the Blood of the Inhabitants with the Ashes of their Dwellings, the only Cement which the Papists believed would fastest bind the Fabric of the Romish Church. And what greater piece of Perfidy could there be, than while the D. was riding about the Streets under pretence of assisting to quench the Fire, that his Guards were at the same time employed to prevent the People from removing their Goods; and his Palace made the Refuge of such as were taken in the very fact of cherishing and fomenting the Flames! This the Committee of Parliament traced so far, that it cost the Life of the poor Gentleman that gave the Information of these Things to the Chairman of the Committee, to prevent any further Discovery, and secure the D. from the Danger of his Life.  
Coleman's crying out, There was no Faith in Man, was a most undeniable Testimony of the Treachery of his Master, notwithstanding all the faithful Service he had done him; and was it not a Magnanimous and Generous Act of a Prince, to betray, as he did, to the Gallows, not only his most trusty Servant, but his Fellow-Partner in the Conspiracy?  
More inhuman still, was the Barbarous Murder actually contrived and brought to perfection, by the encouraged Instruments of the Duke. For he it was that sent word to Coleman, to bid him take no care, for that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey should be removed out of the way; and at the same time took the like care that his Servant Coleman should follow him. For it was Detection that he feared, and the Duke well knew that the Dead could never tell Tales. The Particulars of the Murder, and how far the Circumstances of it reached the Duke, are too fresh in Memory to be here inserted; and Dispensation for Deeds of the blackest hue were so easily obtained, that it was no wonder the Duke so little boggled at a single Murder, to conceal the designs of general Massacres, wherein he was engaged.  
In pursuance of which, he was no less industrious to bring the Presbyterians and all the Dissenting Protestants, within the Snare of his Sham-plot, in order to the Destruction of thousands of Innocent Persons.  
This Dangerfield discovered to the World, and his Informations taken upon Oath, before Sir William Roberts, and Sir William Poultney, are extant, wherein he gives an Account of his being introduced several times into the Duke of York's Presence. Particularly, that being, once among the rest, admitted to the Duke of York's Closet at White-Hall, he kissed his Hand upon his Knees: And then being taken up by the Duke, he gave him a little Book, containing the whole Scheme of the Presbyterian Plot, for which the Duke thanked him, as also for his diligence in the Catholic Cause, and wishing good Success to his Undertake; Added these words; That the Presbyterian Plot was a thing of most mighty Consequence, and I do not question, but the Effects of it will answer our Expectation; especially, in the Northern Parts, where I am well assured, the major Part of the Gentry are my Friends, and have given sufficient Demonstrations to me, as also of their Intentions to prosecute this Presbyterian Plot, for they are no strangers to the Design.  
At the same time, he ordered Dangerfield to be very careful of what he communicated to the Persons who were to be the Witnesses in that new Plot, lest he should be caught in the Subornation, and so bring a terrible Odium upon the Catholics, and make himself uncapable of any further Service.  
Then for Encouragement in the prosecution of the Sham-Plot, the Duke promised, that he would take care that Money should not be wanting, and ordered him, with all the Expedition the Thing would allow, to make a Discovery of it to the King. At the same time, the Duke also made divers Vows, and bitter Execrations, to stand by him in the Thing, and engaged upon his Honour, to be his Rewarder; and, in Earnest, gave him Twenty Guinies with his own Hand; and telling him withal, what a great Reputation he had gained among the Catholics; and that in a short time he should see the Catholic Religion flourish in these Kingdoms; with a great deal more to the same purpose.  
Of the truth of which, among many others, there could not be a more convincing Proof, than the bitter Enmity which the Duke bore to Dangerfield after his Discovery; and the severe Usage which he received from jefferies', the Duke's Creature, and the Rhadamantine Dispenser of his Revenges.  
In Scotland he Ruled, or rather Reigned, though in his Brother's Life-time, with a more Arbitrary and Lawless Control. And there it was that he breathed forth his Venom against the Protestants, uttered his Tyrannous Maxims with more freedom, and exercised his Tyranny with a more boundless and exorbitant Extravagance. For there it was, that he first undertook to exercise the power of Sovereign Rule, refusing to take the Oath of High Commissioner, which the Law of the Country required, as here he had denied to take the Test; and to show how he intended to govern England, when it came to his turn, there it was, that in the hearing of Persons of great Credit, he had this worthy Apothegm, That though in England the Lawyers ruled the Court, yet in Scotland he would rule the Lawyers. There it was, that he positively denied to give the Parliament any security for the Preservation of their Religion, in case he succeeded to the Crown. And being told of the Terms that the King had offered to the Parliament of England, though much harder and more dishonourable than any which they required, he replied, That the King never intended any such Limitations should pass; nor did he offer them, but when he knew they would not be accepted. And farther, to demonstrate his imbittered hatred of the Protestants, and with what Rage and Fury he intended to prosecute them, he told several Members of the Parliament, when they were endeavouring to get some Bills to pass for the Security of their Religion, in case of a Popish Successor, That whatever they intended or prepared against the Papists, should light upon others. Which though it stopped him from taking the Advantage of any new Bills, yet he was so just to his Word in behalf of the Papists, that he poured all the Rigour of the Penal Laws against the Papists, upon the Protestants in that Kingdom, under the name of Dissenters, whom he persecuted with that infatiable violence, as if according to his own Expression, he had fully concluded, That it would never be well with Scotland, till all the Southside of Ferth were made a Hunting Field. For indeed that was the true in tent and drift of all his envenomed Prosecutions of those People, as well in England as in Scotland, in hopes by so severe an Exasperation, they would have broken out into open Rebellion, and so have given him a fair opportunity to have rooted them from the Earth by the Sword. Which was evident from another Saying of his; for that having one day given his Opinion of sober Dissenters, and setting them forth, as he thought in their Colours; he concluded, That if he might have his Wish, he would have them all turn Rebels, and betake themselves to Arms. Which though it showed his good Will, yet whether it were so prudently spoken by a Person that had so little either of Courage or Conduct as himself, is a question, unless he thought he could subdue them with the Spiritual Weapons of the Pope's Excommunications and Curses: Nor did he at the same time remember, that the heavy oppressions of the Spanish Inquisition tore from the Dominions of the Spaniard all the seven United Provinces, notwithstanding all that D'Alva, Parma, and Spinola could do; though their Military Fame far exceeded his.  
Thus we have seen the extent of his Christianity; which we find cooped up within the narrow bounds of Popery. Now for his Morality, which if it signalise itself in any Virtue that celebrates a Great and Glorious Prince, it must be in those two, of Justice and Mercy, which God appropriates most nearly to himself, as the brightest Ornaments of his Divinity: But whether the Duke were either Just or Merciful to the E. of Argyle will be the Question. This Gentleman was one of the most Ancient, and one of the most eminent Noblemen in Scotland, and a Person of extraordinary endowments, and, as such a one, had ●erv'd the King with his Parts, his Person and Estate, beyond what most Men of any Degree in the Nation, either had done or were able to perform; but because he would not so far comply with, and oblige the Duke, as to fall in with his Counsels, for the Establishment of Popery, and yield himself an Instrument to carry on his Designs of Popery and Arbitrary Power, his Head must bebrought to the Block, the Ancient Honour of his Family must be attainted, and his ample Fortunes be confiscated. To which purpose, a certain Test being framed for all the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland to take, not excepting all others who were capable of any Office or Employment in the Kingdom, easy enough for the Papists to Swallow, as being Calculated for their peculiar Advantage; but difficult for the Protestants, as being that which strangely confused and entangled their Consciences. However the Earl was not so scrupulous neither, to avoid all Occasions possible of incurring his Highness' displeasure, but offered to take it, with this Proviso, That he might declare in what sense he was willing to be sworn. Accordingly he did draw up an Explanation of his own meaning; and though he were allowed to take the Oath according to that Explanation, which was also conformable to an Explanation which themselves were forced to make for the satisfaction of the greatest part of the Kingdom, that was dissatisfied in the Oath as well as the Earl; Nay, though his Lordship did take it according to his own allowed Interpretation, which was so far accepted, that he was admitted to take his place in the Council; yet upon a Capricio of the Duke's Justice, the matter was called in question again; but then such horrid Treasons were picked out of the Earl's Interpretation, that he was Arraigned and Condemned to lose his Head; and Execution had been certainly done, had he not made his escape. Nevertheless his whole Estate was seized, he was divested of all his Titles and Dignities; and contrary to the Custom of the Kingdom, his Coat of Arms was despitefully torn at the Public Market-Cross of Edinburgh, and his Person hunted after in all places, whither they thought he might be withdrawn, even as far as Hamburgh. And yet after all the scrutinies which sober Men have made, the chiefest of the Scots Lawyers, that were of unbiased Principles, could never find any thing in the Earl's Interpretation, but what his indispensible Duty obliged him to, both as a Christian, a Subject of Scotland, and a Privy-councillor to the King. But the D. was resolved to destroy him right or wrong: And therefore being told there was nothing in what the E, of Argyle had said or done, which could be▪ made a Crime by the Law of the Land; His Highness, out of the great Affection which he ●bore to so true a Protestant Peer, was pleased to reply, But may it not be wrested to Treason? Which was such an Encouragement, that when his Mind was once understood, he wanted not Instruments that laboured day and night to make that Question subservient to the D's impatient Thirst of Revenge, and their own Advancement▪ or else it might be to signalise his Resolution to overrule the Lawyers in Scotland, had they denied their Submission to his Good Will and Pleasure.  
By the same Justice it was that Blackwood was Condemned, upon a Pretence of having entertained upon his Ground certain Persons, who were reported, and said to have been at Bothwel-Bridg. And this, although there had been no notice given of their being Criminals, or any ways Offenders; nor any Proclamations were issued out against them, by which Blackwood could be obliged to take Cognizance of the Circumstances they lay under; And that which aggravated the Injustice was this, That the Gentleman suffered after a General Act of Indemnity granted; and that it was after the Council themselves had for four Years passed them by, that either the Persons whom he had relieved came to be accused, or he to be prosecuted upon this account.  
And by the same Justice it was, that Mr. Robert Bailzie of jerismond, was Hanged and Quartered for a Crime of which he had been Impeached and Tried before the Council, and fined six Thousand Pounds Sterling. And all this his Highness did by overruling the Lawyers of Scotland; by which means he had made the Judges and Jury ●as malicious against the Protestants, and as revengeful against the Asserters of the Liberties of Scotland, as himself. Such Exorbitancies of Injustice and Arbitrary Power, that his Brother could never have endured in a Subject, had they not been acted all along with his knowledge, and consent, Otherwise, had not the King been strangely infatuated, to believe that whatever his Brother did, was for the advancement of that Cause to which he was so well affected himself, he could never have been so unapprehensive of the Danger he was in, from a Brother so actually in a Conspiracy against his Life: For which Reason he was, by the E. of Shaftsbury, said, to be a Prince not to be paralleled in History. For certainly, besides the early trial which the King had of his Ambition beyond-sea, he had a fair warning of the hasty Advances which he made to his Throne in a short time after his Marriage to the Queen: For no sooner was it discovered the Queen was unlikely to have any Issue by the King, but he and his Party make Proclamation of it to the World, and that he was the certain Heir.  
He takes his Seat in Parliament as Prince of Wales, with his Guards about him: He assumes the Prince's Lodgings at Whitehall, his Guards upon the same place, without any interposition between him and the King; so that the King was in his Hands and Power every night. All Offices and Preferments are bestowed upon him, and at his disposition; Not a Bishop made without him. After this he changes his Religion to make a Party, and such a Party, that his Brother must be sure to Die, and be made away, to make room for him. And for the undeniable proof of all this, at length the Plot breaks out, headed by the Duke, his Interest and Design.  
Plain it was, that where ever he came, he endeavoured to remove all Obstacles to his intended Designs out of the Way. And therefore some there are who attribute the extremity of the Duke's rigour toward the E. of Argyle, to the great Authority which the Earl had in the Highlands, and the Awe which he had over the Papists, as being Lord Justiciary in those Parts, and his being able upon any Occasion to check and bridle the Marq. of Huntly from attempting the Disturbance of the Public Peace, or the Prejudice of the Protestants. However this is observable, That notwithstanding the height of Severity which was extended to him, there was as much Favour shown the Lord Macdonald; whose invading the Shire of Argyle with an Armed Force, merely because he was required by the said Earl, as being a Papist, to deliver up his Arms, was never so much as questioned, nor so much as a Reprimand given him for what he did; though when the Council sent an Herald to him, to require him to disband his Forces, he caused his Coat to be torn from his Back, and sent him back to Edinburgh with all the Marks both of Contempt of themselves, and Disgrace to the Public Officer. But his Religion was sufficient to atone at that time for his Treason.  
And now the Duke having a standing-Army of Five Thousand Foot, and Five Hundred Horse in Scotland, at his Devotion, as well as in England, and the Parliament, the main Object of his Hatred and his Fear, being dissoved, back he returns into England; where under the Shelter of his Brother's Authority, he began in a short time to exert his tyrannous Disposition, and play the same Unjust and Arbitrary Pranks, as he had done in Scotland; and because it was not seasonable yet to make use of armed Forces, he set his Westminster-Hall Redcoats, like Pioners before a marching Army, to levelly the way for Popery and Arbitrary Control, to march in over the ruin'd Estates, and murdered▪ Bodies of their Opposers. The Judges were his Slaves, the Juries at his Beck; nothing could withstand him; the Law itself grows Lawless, and jefferies-ridden, plays the Debaushee like himself. Justice, or something in her likeness, Swaggers, Hectors, Whips, Imprisons, Fines, Hangs, Draws and Quarters, and Beheads all that come near her, under the Duke's displeasure. Alderman Pilkington, for standing up for the Rights and Liberties of the City, and for refusing to pack a Jury to take away the Earl of Shaftsbury's Life, is prosecuted upon a Scandalum Magnatum, at the Suit of the Duke, Convicted and Condemned in a Verdict of an Hundred Thousand Pounds. And Sir Patience Ward, for offering to confront the suborned Witnesses, is Indicted of Perjury, for which he was forced to fly to avoid the Infamy of the Pillory; though in all his Dealings so well known to be a Person of that Justice and Integrity, that for all the hopes of the Duke, he would not have told an untruth. Sir Samuel Barnardiston, for two or three treacherously intercepted Letters to his Friends in the Country, fined Ten thousand Pounds; which he was not suffered to discharge by Quarterly Payments, but the Estate seized by the Duke's Solicitors, to the End they might have an Opportunity to be more prodigal in the waste of it.  
But his hunting after the Lives, as well as the Estates of other, was more intolerable, and that by the prostituted Testimony of Suborned Irish Rogues and Vagabonds; and when that would not take the desired Effect▪ by the forced Evidence of persons ensnared and shackled under the Terrors of Death, till their drudgery of Swearing was over. Men so fond of Life, that they bought the uncertain Prolongation of a wicked Mortality, at the unhallowed price of certain and Immortal Infamy. And therefore not knowing how to Die, when they knew not how to Live, accounted it a more gainful Happiness to quit the Pardon of Heaven's Tribunal, for the Broad Seal of England.  
By this means fell the Virtuous Lord Russel, a Sacrifice to the Bill of Exclusion, and the Duke's Revenge; and yet of that integrity to his Country, and untainted course of Life, of whom never any spoke evil, but those that knew no Evil in him; only because he was one of those that sought to exclude the Duke from the hopes of Tyranny and Oppression, the Duke was resolved to exclude him from the Earth.  
But than comes the Murder of the Earl of Essex; for that it was a most Barbarous and inhuman Murder, committed by Bravoes and Bloody Ruffians, set on, hired and encouraged by Potent Malice and Cruelty, the pregnant Circumstances no less corroborated by Testimonies, wanting only the confirmation of Legal Judicature, has been already so clearly made out, that there is no place left for a hesitating belief. A Truth so conspicuous, as stands in defiance of the Ridiculing Pen of R. L'Estrange to shame it over with the Buffonery of his Bantring Acquirements. It cannot be imagined, but that so black a Deed of Darkness was carried on by the Contrivers with all the secrecy that could be studied by humane Wit. But never yet was humane Wit so circumspective, but that the most concealed of Villainies have been detected by strange and little Accidents, which all the Foresight of humane Sagacity could never prevent. More especially, after such a curious Inquisition, and so much Labour and Industry, pursuing the Cry of this Innocent Nobleman's Blood. Both the Circumstances and Depositions, besides the Declarations of others ready to depose, are made public at large to the World. And therefore to omit the long-since sifted and winnoed Contradictions of the Witnesses, that were made use of, to prove the Earl a Felo de se; there are three things since discovered, that carry a strong Conviction with them, of another sort of Murder, in the new Deposition of Dorothy Smith, detecting the Motives, the Author and Contriver, the Resolution taken to murder a Noble Protestant Earl, the Manner concluded, and the Joy of those Infatuated Bigots, when the Deed was perpetrated; and all this overheard by the Maid, at a Meeting of one Lover, and several other Persons, privy to the Plot, in the House of one Holmes, whom she then served, a trusty Papist, seated in a by-Corner of the Town, and where they thought themselves, for that Reason, in the greatest Safety in the World.  
This Meeting was nine Days before the Earl's Death, where after they had vomited out their Malice against the Earl, in the opprobrious Terms of Villain and Dog, and laden him with Curses, it was said, That he knew so much of their Designs, and was so very averse to their Interest, that unless he were taken off, they should never carry them on. Inducements, which as they had carried off Sir Edmundbury Godfrey before, might be as easily admitted for the Destruction of a more considerable Obstacle; more especially harboured in the Breasts of Men, that make it peculiar to propagate their Religion by Blood and Massacre.  
Therefore to remove this great Obstruction out of the way, their great Oracle, the Duke of York, was consulted; who, after some Meditation, was for Poisoning the Earl: but his Highness being told, that manner of Death would not look well: there was another, who proposed to his Highness, that he might stabbed; but that not being approved of neither, at length his Highness concluded, and ordered his Throat should be cut, and promised to be there when it was done.  
To all which, there needs no other Comment, but that the Earl's Throat was cut soon after, and that the Duke was in the Tower, separated from the King, and close by the Earl's Lodging, when the Murder was committed.  
After this, the Maid goes on and deposes, That three days after the same Persons met in the same House, and declared, That the Cutting the Earl's Throat was concluded on, but that it was to be given out, that he had done it himself, and that if any should deny it, they would take them up, and punish them for it. All which being spoken as a thing contrived before the Fact was done, and verified in every Particular after it was committed, are Circumstances that would hardly be wrestled with before Impartial Judges, at an Old-Bayly Session; where it would be also considered, that the terrible Prosecution of Braddon, for making Enquiry into the Murder, came all from White-Hall, under the management of Court-Injustice and Corruption.  
But lastly, The Maid swears, That the same day the Earl died, the same Persons met again, at her Master's House, and fell a capering about the Room for joy; at which time, one of them striking her Master upon the back, cried, The feat was done; upon which Holmes demanding, whether the Earls Throat was Cut; the other answered, Yes, and added withal, That he could not but laugh to think how like a Fool the Earl looked, when they came to cut his Throat: whereupon Holmes ask whether his Highness was there? The other replied, Yes. With which agreed the Informations of several Soldiers, that about a quarter of an hour before the Earl's Death was discovered, observed the Duke to separate from the King; at what time be beckoned to two Persons, who coming to him, he sent them to the Earl's Lodging, from whence they returned smiling, in less than a quarter of an hour, and told him the business was done, as one of them more particularly declared; for which particular knowledge of his, he was aterwards sent out of the World.  
Nor was the Information of the Woman less to be heeded, who informs, That as she was walking, a little before the Earl's death, before his Chamber-window, she heard a very great trampling and bustling in the Earl's chamber, saw three or four heads move close to gether, and heard a loud and doleful cry of Murder. And whereas Floyd the Sentinel denied at Braddon's Trial, the letting of any Men into the Earl's Lodgings before his Death, yet afterwards with great remorse of Conscience he confessed that he did let in Two of Three Men by the Special Order of Hawley the Warder.  
It will be an unaccountable thing to Posterity, that the E. of S. should so readily part with his Money of Holland, suspected to be one of the Bloody Ruffians, whenever he went or sent for it, though a Profligate, at the same time convicted in Newgate for Robbery upon the Highway.  
It will also seem as strange, that Webster, an Under-Bailiff of St. Katherine's, and an Indigent Ale-draper, should of a sudden be Master of Five hundred Pounds, at such an unlucky nick of Time, as immediately after the Earl's Murder.  
But I forbear to enlarge any farther upon a Theme already so laboriously discussed, and public to the World. Only this is to be added, That it might seem strange, that after the Murder was done, such care should be taken, and such strict command given for conveying the News to the Old-Baily, till we hear to what End it was done, by the King's Counsel snapping so quickly at it, as if they had had their Lesson before, and Improving it with all their Eloquence, to the Destruction of the Lord Russel. Nor is it unlikely, that jefferies' might be either privy to the Design in some measure at that time, or else be more fully acquainted with it in order to Braddon's Trial. More especially if it be true, which is confidently reported, That his Lordship being at some Public Place, where he took an occasion to speak largely in the Praise of the Deceased King; when he had done, However, said he, whispering a Gentleman on the Ear, Had he lived six Months longer, we had been all hanged notwithstanding my Encomiums.  
The Discovery of which Alteration of the King, by a severe Expression which dropped from his Lips upon reading a Letter from a Lord, who eat his last Meal with the Duke, and wrote the same on his Deathbed, as it seems to be confirmed by this Saying of jefferies', so was it by many concluded to be the occasion of hastening the King's Death. Concerning which, the Opinions of the World are various, and some severe, and bearing hard enough upon his Successor: But in regard it is a Mystery, as yet the Embryo of Conjecture, which is only to be matured in the Womb of Time, and to be midwived into the World by future Discovery, we leave it to a higher Scrutiny. The Justice of Heaven perhaps not minding a present Revenge of his Death, who had not only prevented the Presecution of Noble and Innocent Essex's Blood, but so severely punished the Industrious Enquiry after it. Only this is further to be remarked, that the Irish Papists could for some time before, fix upon the utmost Period of his Reign, and the D. was sent for in haste out of Scotland, without any apparent Reason for it; besides that the King's Permission was obtained with some Difficulty.  
However, by the violent and tremendous Death of his Brother, he at length arrived at the long-long wished for Haven of his Ambitious Desires; and beholds himself mounted upon the Pinnacle of Royalty, only that his Fall might be the more conspicuous.  
He was no sooner Proclaimed, but he declared his Religion openly to his Privy Council; however, he began with a mild and caressing Declaration, which he afterwards broke in every Line of it: A mere Trap baited with Indulgence to Tender Consciences, on purpose to catch the Dissenting Mice, to deliver them, when caught, into the Paws of his ravenous Popish Cats; but no sooner was he Crowned, but as if his Coronation-Oath, and all his Promises so lately made, had been no more than so many Pills of Opium, and believing himself environed with Power sufficient to maintain his Tyranny and Oppression, he invades Property, by Expulsion of the right Owners; tramples upon the Laws by his pretended Prerogative of Suspending Power, and goes about to pull down the Stately Structure of the Protestant Religion, by the Suspension of one, and imprisoning and Arraigning at his Criminal Bar, no less than Seven of the most Eminent Fathers of the English Church. And by a strange Alteration of the Face of Government, Treason overrules the Law, and Traitors impeached, are fetched out of Jail to sit Triumphantly domineering at the Helm of State; and jefferies', the Daniel that in some measure might be said to be taken out of the Lion's Den, for the Cruelty of his Nature, is advanced in open Hostility to Justice, to wage War with the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom: A mean Spirit, insulting over his Inferiors, but a Spaniel to his Superiors; who though he knew himself no more than a Tool in the hand of the Popish Artificers; the Shadow of Grandeur, lofty under Contempt, and domineering only in public; yet having pawned his Soul for the hopes of an Embroidered Purse, rather than recoil to Goodness, careers on in Mischief, and as if his Robes had not been Scarlet enough, dies them more deep in Innocent Blood, and becomes his Master's Vassal, to enslave the Nation. Such Counsellors as these hurried on the New Crowned King with such a Rapidness, to accomplish the great Work of introducing Tyranny and Popery, to which his own Fears of leaving the Papists worse than he found them, as furiously carried him, that he threw his Brother into his Grave as if he had not had leisure to bury him; or as if he had deemed him not worth a Funeral, whom he thought not worth a longer Life: Unless perhaps he thought the Hypocrisy of Pompous Obsequies, would have but the more provoked his Brother's Injured Manes, with which, as common Fame had spread it, he was already too much pestered. I will not here dispute the Truth of Apparitions, nor insist upon the vulgar censures about the Town upon the Priests, for not detaining him in the half-way-Prison, but singing him out of Purgatory to make his Brother melancholy, by facing him several times, and giving him an astonishing stroke upon the back, as he was going down a pair of Stairs in Whitehal; yet this may be asserted, That Gild accompanied with Terror, forms those Apparitions in in the Mind, which work the same Effect, and obtain the same belief, when once divulged among the Credulous, as if they were real: However it were, it showed he thought himself but little beholding to him for living so long, and consequently no way obliged to retaliate a Succession so late in the Year, with so much Loss of Time.  
And now the first influences of his Tyranny and Fury against the Protestants, flew into Scotland, where whatever Indulgence he showed in England, he issued forth a Dreadful Proclamation against the Dissenters, under the Notion of Enemies to the King and Government, and Destroyer's of the British Monarchy; sufficient to have given a more early Alarm to the Dissenters in England, had they not been lulled asleep by the Softness of a present Repose, and the Charms of their Decoy-Duke, Pen; the effect rather of their Simplicity than their Policy.  
But the first Act of his Revenge in England, broke forth upon Dr. Oates▪ He could not forget the Doctor's detection of his Conspiracies against the Kingdom: And because he could not find out a way to hang him; his Chief justice jefferies' found out a Punishment to gratify his Royal Fury, worse than Death itself, and till then unknown among Christians, in Imitation of the Roman Fustuarium, by which the Roman Soldiers were often drubbed to Death, or if they scaped, sent into perpetual Banishment: as the Doctor was first of all Scourged by the Common Executioner beyond all Precedent, and then Condemned to perpetual Imprisonment. A Sentence so void of all Christian Compassion, that only jefferies' could have invented, and such a Beast as Withens could have pronounced. A goodly sight to see Protestant Judges condemning a Protestant, and the Detector of a most Horrid Popish Plot, upon the Evidence of known Papists, and some of them nearly Related to the Executed Traitors, and this for Perjury too, upon the Testimony of Witnesses already falsified. As if Justice were a thing that never had been Naturalised in Heaven, but only depended upon the Will of the Prince, a Kind of Tool to be used by his Beneplacito Slaves, at his or their Discretion, or the grand Poppet of the World, to be showed in various Dre●ses and Disguises, as the force of Judicature required. But as for Dangerfield, he had been once his Darling, frequently admitted to kiss his Hand, while he was in Conspiracy with him to Suck the Blood of the Innocent. But there was no Atonement for his revolting, and revealing the Hidden Mystery of Iniquity. Therefore he must dance the same Dance that Oates had done; only the King did him this small Piece of Justice, to throw away an Inconsiderable Roman Catholic, to Satisfy the general Discontent upon his being Murdered.  
In the next place he calls a Parliament, and renews his Assurances and Promises to preserve the Government both in Church and State, as by Law Established; and Vows to hazard his own Person, as he had formerly done, in defence of the just Liberties and Properties of the Nation. But still the Burden of his song was, More money. Which the Parliament, willing to Engage him, if possible, by all the Testimonies of their Duty and Loyalty, or at least to show that nothing should be wanting on their part, readily granted. And in regard that Argyle was said to be Landed, under the Notion of a Rebel in Scotland, they declared their Resolutions to stand by and assist him, with their Lives and Fortunes, against all his Enemies whatever. No less quick to gratify, than he to make those Promises which he never intended to perform. And indeed, under the Consternation the King was then in, upon the Landing of Argyle in Scotland, and the D. of Monmouth in England, both at the same time, perhaps the Parliament might have bound him up to what Conditions they pleased; had they not slipped their Opportunity. But those two Storms being fortunately blown over, the one by ill Conduct, the other by the Treachery of Pretended Friendship, and both Argyle and the D. of Monmouth safe in their Graves, the King was so puffed up with a Petty Victory overy a few Clubmen, and so wrapped up with a Conceit, That he had now Conquered the whole Nation, that after he had got as much as he thought he could in modesty desire, or they part withal, unless they saw greater Occasions than they did; which nevertheless were no small Sums, in the heat of their obliging Generosity at the Commencement of a Reign, he turned him off, after he had sold them two or three inconsiderable Acts for all their Mony.  
And now being freed from any farther thoughts of Parliaments, believing himself Impregnable; he resolves to be Revenged upon the Western People for siding with his Capital Enemy Monmouth; and to that purpose, sends down his Executioner in Ordinary, jefferies', not to decimate, according to the Heathen way of Mercy, but with the Bosom of his Cruelties, to sweep the Country before him, and to depopulate, instead of Punishment. At what time, Acquaintance, or Relation of any that fell in the Field, with a slender Circumstance tacked to either, was a Crime sufficient for the Extirpation of the Family. And Young and Old were hanged in Clusters, as if the C. Justice had designed to raise the Price of Halters; besides the great Number of those that upon bare Suspicion were transported beyond Sea, and there sold for Slaves, and the Purchase-Mony given away to satisfy the Hunger of needy Papists. After-Ages will read with Astonishment, the barbarous Usage of those poor People, of which among many Instances, this one may seem sufficient whereby to take the Dimensions of all the rest: That when the Sister of the two Hewlands hung upon the Chief justice's Coach, Imploring Mercy on the behalf of her Brothers; the Merciless Judge, to make her let go, caused his Coachman to cut her Hands and Fingers with the lash of his Whip: Nor would he allow the Respite of the Execution but for two days, though the Sister with Tears in her Eyes, offered a Hundred Pound for so small a Favour. And whoever sheltered any of those forlorn Creatures, were hurried to the Slaughter-House with the same inexorable outrage, without any Consideration either of Age or Sex; Witness the Execution of the Lady Lisle at Winchester. As for Argyle and the Duke, though they might die pitied, yet could they not be said to be unjustly put to Death, in regard they had declared Open Hostility, and therefore it was no more than they were to expect, upon ill Success. However, since they were betrayed into the Victor's Hands, before any great harm was done, the Crime was not so great that nothing but a Massacre could atone for it; more especially considering what great Advantages the King made of these Rebellions. For it gave him a fair Opportunity to increase the Number of his Standing-Forces, under pretence, That the Militia was not to be depended upon, and of the Reputation he had lost of being so Miserably unprovided against Monmouths was. For which Reason, he was resolved to be better provided henceforward for the Security of the Nation; and to crowd in his Popish Officers into Commands, under the Notion of Persons of approved Loyalty, and therefore such whose Persons he was neither to expose to disgrace by a Removal, nor himself to suffer the want of: Cautious and wary of Removing his Popish Commanders, but minding not at all to remove the Fears and Jealousies of the Nation.  
However his Plausible Promises, and this Important Necessity of augmenting his Standing Forces, were urged upon the Parliament, as undeniable Reasons for More Money. So great a Confidence the King had either in the Awe which he had upon the Parliament, or that they were so Blind that they could not see through his Cobweb Pretences. But he soon found that he was deceived in his Expectations, and therefore perceiving his Gilded Hooks could not take, they were decently Dismissed, after ten Days Sitting, with a Prorogation from October till the F●bruary ensuing.  
But it seems King james was so confidently assured, That the Bands of Friendship and Alliance between him and the French King were so Indissoluble, That whatever Assistance the Parliament denied him in England, he should not fail of from his Dear Friend and Confederate in France; That the Parliament being called for no other Intent or Purpose than to Betray the Nation, by Furnishing the King to accomplish his Designs of Popery and Arbitrary Government; when they refused to be subservient to those Wicked Designs, and thought it more Honourable to be true to the Nation whom they Represented, than Serviceable to the Encroachment of his Tyranny, he laid them aside, as things no longer useful for him.  
And therefore like a man cha●ed with their just denial of his Demands, he resolves the utter Subversion of English Parliaments, the only Remora's of his ungodly Projects, by completing the Disfranchising of all the, Cities and Corporations throughout the Nation, so fairly begun in his Brother's Reign, to make way for the Introduction of a French Parliament, That should at once have surrendered all the Ancient Liberty of the Kingdom, and the whole Power of the Government into his Hands. And to Terrify men into this slavish Compliance, with his Tyrannical Will and Pleasure, the Names of all such Persons, as out of Honour and Conscience, refused to Cooperate with his Popish Ministers towards the Public Ruin of Liberty and Religion, and prostitute their own and the Freedoms of their Posterity to his Arbitrary subjection, were Threatened to be returned up to the Attorney-General, to the end their Persons and Estates might be undone by Illegal Prosecutions.  
In the next place, to set himself Paramount above all the Control of Law, out of a vain Opinion that Kings are accountable to none but God; A set of Judges are picked out to overturn the very Fundamentals of Humane Society, and Annihilate the very ends of Government. This the King knew must be done by Judges that had abandoned all High Opinion of God and Nature, and had quitted all sense of Conscience and True Honour; and had wholly given up their Judgements to the foolish Enticements of Ambition and Flattery: And when he had found out such, it was easy for him to say, with his Grandfather of the same Name, Let me make what judges I please, and I will easily have what I please to be Law. No wonder than these Judges having Instruments drawn up by Brent, which passed the Great Seal to Indemnify them for whatever they did or said Illegally, affirmed it to the King for Law, That the King was an Independent Prince.  
That the Laws of the Kingdom, were the King's Laws.  
That the Kings of England might Dispense with all Laws, that regarded Penalties and Punishments, as oft as necessity required.  
That they were judges and Arbitrators who have Power to judge of the Necessity which may induce them to make use of these Dispensations.  
And Lastly, That the King of England could not Renounce a Prerogative annexed to the Crown.  
By Virtue of which Concessions and Opinions of the Judges, all the Laws in England made in the Reigns of four several Princes for the security of the Nation against Popery and Arbitrary Government, were rendered of no Effect.  
By Virtue of these Concessions, Arundel of Warder, was made Lord Privy Seal, Alibone a Judge, and Castlemain was sent with great Pomp an Ambassador to Rome, to be there contemned and despised by his Holiness, for the bad name which his Master had among all the Princes of Europe, and the ill Opinion the Pope himself had of him.  
By Virtue of these Concessions it was, that the greatest part of the Kingdom's Military Safety and Defence, was put into the hands of persons incapable to be entrusted with them by the Express Laws of the Kingdom; and that the Execution of the Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm, against divers sorts of Treasons and other heinous Crimes was stopped.  
By Virtue of these Concessions, Sir E. Hales was made Lieutenant of the Tower, to Terrify the City with his Mortar-pieces, and levelly his Great Guns to the Destruction of the Metropolis of the Kingdom, when the Word should be given him.  
By Virtue of these Concessions it was, that Peter was made a Privy Councillor, to outbrave the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London: that he had his four Provincial Bishops, and that the Priests and Jesuits swarmed in all parts of the Kingdom, Built themselves Convents, hired Mass Houses, made open Profession of their Foppish Religion in the Chief City of the Nation, and in several of the Great Cities and Towns of the Kingdom, and publicly Ridiculed the Scripture in their Pulpits. All which Transgressions of all the Laws of the Land both Civil and Ecclesiastic, are so fully Represented in the Memorial of the Protestants, to their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange, That they cannot be more fully, no● more sensibly repeated.  
But the Inundation stopped not here, it was to be a general Deluge, or nothing at all. To which purpose, all Obstructions that opposed the ●orrent, were to be levelled or removed out of the way; for effecting of which, there could be no Engine thought sufficient, but that of the Ecclesiastical Commission, so arbitrary in its Original▪ that it had nothing but the Pillars of the Prerogative to support it; and managed with that Arbitrary Fury by jefferies', That he looked like a Monstrous Titan Warring against the Heaven of Law and Justice. For he had no way to carry Illegality with a high hand, but by arrogant Domineering, and surly Incivility, while he had nothing to offer to any Person, that offered Law to him, but Sic Volo, Sic jubeo. To tell a Peer of England and the Bishop of London, so much his Superior, only that he Sat upon the Throne of his Commission, he that was not to be mentioned with the Bishop in the same day, was such a foul piece of Exeuberance of his Guildhall Eloquence, which only could have dropped from the lips of Insulting Barbarism. All that can be said for him is this, That as many men commit Absurdities when laden with Wine, this was one of his Extravagancies in his Drink of Honour. And indeed, after he had tasted of that potent Charm, the whole Course of his Behaviour seemed to be a mere Intoxication, which made him afterwards make use of the same Receipt to drown both his Life and his Dishonour together.  
However, the Suspending this Noble Peer and Bishop, contrary to all pretence of Law, for refusing to obey the King's unjust and illegal Command, was no such Advantage to the King's Cause, that he had so much reason to thank the Chancellor, or Peter either, for putting him upon committing a greater Act of Injustice, to justify a less. The Bishop was too well, and too generally beloved among all the professors of Protestantism, for the Papists to put such an Affront upon so Eminent a Father of the Protestant Church, for them not to resent it; even, the more prudent Papists thought it a Proceeding too harsh and unreasonable, and the more moderate looked upon it as too base and unworthy; so that the Hotspurs of the King's Council were losers on every side. And besides, it was such a stabbing contradiction to the King's Speech in Council upon his Brother's Death, That since it had pleased God he should succeed so good and gracious a Prince as his dear Brother, he was resolved to follow his Example, more especially in that of Clemency and Tenderness to his People. That the barbarous suspending this Bishop was one of the main things which destroyed the solemn verity of Royal Word. Which though he had falsified already in his severity to Oats and Dangerfield, yet the Person of a Peer and Bishop, and a Star of the first Magnitude in the Church of England rendered much more conspicuous. But the King was under a necessity; he had declared one thing to the Protestants, but he had bound himself to do another for the Papists. If he falsified with the Protestants, the Papists could absolve him; If he proved unfaithful to the Papists, they would never forgive him. And in this Dilemma he resolved to follow the Maxim of his Profession, Not to keep Faith with Heretics. Neither were the steps he made, the steps of State-convenience, now and then upon an exigency; but all in a huddle, out of his Zeal, to make large steps, for fear he should die and leave the Papists worse than he found them.  
These severe Proceedings against the Bishop of London, were the Violation of that part of his Declaration, wherein he promised the Preservation of the Ecclesiastical Government as Established by Law. But the Barbarous usage of the Gentlemen of both Maudlin Colleges, was an unsanctified breach of another part of his Declaration, wherein he no less solemnly engaged to maintain the Protestants in all their Properties and Possessions as well of Church as Abby-Lands, as of all other their Properties whatsoever. Notwithstand all which, how he turned those Gentlemen out of their Legal Freeholds by the Arbitrary Power of his High Commission, how he violated the Constitutions of the deceased Founders, and with what an embittered rage and fury he rated them like Dogs, when they lay prostrate at his feet, more like a Pagan Tyrant, than a Christian King, is notoriously known; and all this to make a Popish Seminary of one of the most noble and best endowed Colleges in the University. And this Peter looked upon as one of his great Masterpieces, as appears by a Letter of his written to the French King's Confessor, Father La Cheese, wherein he had this vaunting expression, I have gained a great point, in persuading the King to place our Fathers in Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford, where they will be able to tutor the young Scholars in the Catholic Religion.  
Nor was it thought sufficient to turn the Proprietors out of their Freeholds, but under pretence of disobedience to the King's Commands, they were also made uncapable of any Ecclesiastical Preferment, or of the Exercise of Holy Orders, and deprived of all those other ways and means of Livelihood, for which their Education had qualified them. Which as it was a piece of Inhumanity without parallel, so it was a plain demonstration of the main drift and design of the King and his Popish Furies, first to draw the Protestant Clergy into the snare of Disobedience, and then under the pretence of Obstinacy and Stubborness, totally to suppress and silence them.  
And yet after all this, for the King so publicly to give himself the Lie, by proclaiming to all the World, as he did, such a notorious untruth, as That he had never invaded the Property of any Man since his coming to the Crown, was such a piece of Dissimulation, that Oliver Cromwell himself, with all the Irreligion laid to his Charge, was never guilty of. Unless his Father Confessor designed it for a Miracle to be Recorded among Popish Wonders, That he who had done nothing else from the beginning of his Reign, but invaded the Liberties and Properties of his Subjects, should be so confident as to deny it. But whatever, through the frailty of his memory, he had till then forgot, he was resolved, it seems, for the future, to make amends for his omission. To which purpose he was now provided with such a Gunpowder-Plot, that had it taken effect, would, ere a few Months had gone about, have blown up all the Properties of the whole Clergy of England, without exception of any person that had either Honour or Conscience; and the greatest part of the Bishoprics and Livings of England would have been pronounced void, to make way for Sandals and shaved Crowns.  
This was that cunning Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, whereby he undertook to dispense with the Laws by the sole virtue of his Prerogative. An attempt wherein his Brother had miscarried, being forced to surrender up, and Cancel the Illegal Contrivance he had prepared for a Trial. But King james puffed up with the great Exploits he had in person performed upon Honslow-Heath, and the Glorious show his Army made there, Rendezvouzed at the same time in the same place, to add terror to his Commands, resolved to make all Opposition bow the Knee to Baal.  
In pursuance of those Resolutions, he Order his Declaration to be printed, requires the Bishops to cause it to be distributed through all their Dioceses, and to take care that it should be read in all the Churches and Chapels throughout the Nation.  
Upon this the Bishops Petition the King, setting forth the Illegality, and the ill Consequences of it to the whole Nation both in Church and State; and beg the King not to insist upon the Reading it. This so incensed Peter and the rest of the furious Hotspurs, and consequently provoked the King to that degree, That the Court-Lawyers are presently consulted, who adjudge the Petition Tumultuary and Libellous; and thereupon the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with the Bishops of Asaph, Ely, Chichester, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, and Bristol, are first sent to the Tower, and then Arraigned and Tried for Mutineers against the King's Popish Government, being Charged with an Information for Publishing a Seditious, Pernicious, and Scandalous Libel. But notwithstanding all that the King's Council, and the C. J. Wright, and Alibone the Papist could do, Judge H●lloway, and Judge Powel, to their Eternal praise, stuck so close to their Protestant Principles, and so strongly opposed the King's Dispensing Power, for which they were turned out the next day, that the Bishops were acquitted, to the general Joy and Satisfaction of the whole Nation; and particularly of the Soldiers upon Honslow-Heath, whose Shouts and Acclamations upon the News of their Acquittal, were so harsh and unpleasant in the King's ear, that from thence forward he began to wish he had more Irish, and fewer English in his Army.  
But notwithstanding this Fatal Blow, the most undaunted High Commissioners drove on furiously, sending forth their Mandates to the Chancellors, Archdeacon's, &c. of the several Dioceses, to send them an exact account of all such Ministers as had refused to Read the Declaration. And there is no question to be made, but that the severity of that Imperious Court would in a short time have swept the Kingdom clear of all the Protestant Clergy, had not indulgent Heaven put a stop to their impetuous Career.  
That which follows, is so Romantic, that it looks more like a Novel, than a Story fit to gain Credit, hardly carrying so much Probability with it, as the Fable of Bacchus, cut out of Jupiter's Thigh; and which looks more Romantic than all the rest; That the King himself should believe, and urge it for an Argument to delude the World, That he who had suffered so much for Conscience sake, could not be capable of so great a Villainy to the prejudice of his Children; and enforcing the same Argument yet further, by saying, That it was his Principle, to do as he would be done by▪ and therefore would rather die a thousand Deaths, than do the least Wrong to his Children. When the World was convinced, that he could not have suffered such an Affront to have been put upon him, but for the very Reason he alleged; and that, as for his doing as he would be done by, it was apparent by all his Actions, that he could not speak those Words from his Heart, without some Mental Expositions reserved to himself.  
Certainly therefore, since it was for the Preservation of the Roman Catholic Religion, that the Contrivance was set on foot, it argues, that his Conscience was under the most dreadful Subjection to his Popish Confessors, or that his Zeal was no less strangely governed by an imperious Woman, that for the sake of Popery, he should consent to a Conspiracy against his own Flesh and Blood. He would not endure to be Excluded from the Succession, but he would Exclude his own Daughters from the Succession, and yet tell us, 'tis his Principle, To do as he would be done by; as if he thought the way to make us credit a Story of his Son, were to tell an untruth of himself.  
The World that grows Wiser every day than other, will never be made believe, that a Person debilitated by the unfortunate Effects of the exasperated Revenge of an injured Bed, and meeting with a Consort no less infirm, by whom he never had before any Child, but what dropped into the Grave, as soon as Born, not having any substantial Rafters for Life to build upon, should so seasonably neck it, to be both the Parents of a sound Offspring for the preservation of Popery.  
She, who ought to have taken all advantages to have had public and undeniable Testimonies of her Glory, to be the Mother of a Prince, so providentially sent from Heaven, to Support and Establish the Roman Catholic Faith, in a Revolted Kingdom, would never have been so reserved, and shy of exposing the Symptoms of her pregnance, but only to a few that were privy to the Imposture.  
Add to this, the Flight of the Midwife, in whom it never could be a Crime to bring a Queen to Bed. But omitting the manifold Circumstances, sufficiently already canvassed, to detect the Pious Fraud; and the Chyrum of Affidavits to cover the Cheat, all brought upon the public Stage, by dire constraint on the one side, and immodest Bigotry on the other; the unhappy occasion of revealing the Arcana of Generation to every Turnspit, and serving only to inflame the desires of wanton Youth; Omitting, I say, these Circumstances, there are others, no less remarkable of another Nature; as the sending Castlemain to Rome, among other things, to impart this Affair to his Holiness, and to know whether the Apostolic See would stand by the pretended Prince, in case the People should dispute his Title. And this seems to be confirmed by the coming over of Count Dada, in the Quality of the Pope's Nuntio, just as the Farce was contriving, and the Pope's being afterwards Godfather to the Child.  
In the next place, about the time that the Conception was pretended, Father Peter was taken into the Privy Council; to give the Report all the Favour imaginable at the Board, to prevent the being of it Contested, or if it were, to satisfy all manner of Doubts, and so incite the Lords to make such Orders, as the Case required; which had no● been so proper for the King, or the rest of the Popish Lords, who knew not so well what to insist upon. Another thing was, that the Child was no sooner Born, but it was translated to Richmond, lest the pretended Mother should have been put to the Trouble of a forced Fondness, which had the Child continued with her, would have proved a part so irksome, and so ●ll for her to act, that notice would have been taken of it.  
Nor was it less observable, that at the same time the Bishops were locked up safe, that they might be out of the way of being called for Witnesses, whose Impartiality otherwise would have been desiring more satisfaction to their Consciences, than the depth of the Mystery required.  
To which may be added, That at first, the King himself, who had most Reason to know, did not seem to give Credit to the thing, or at least, was very doubtful of it; and therefore, when the News was first brought him, as one that rather wished it true, than thought it to be real; he made answer to the Messenger, If it were so, 'twas very odd; till finding that the Lady of Loretto would take Bribes, and had espoused the blessed Design, he was bound to believe, that his Mother-in-Law's Prayers, and the Diamond Bodkin had prevailed; and that his Royal Consort had been impregnated by an Apparition, like the Mother of Damaratus, King of Sparta.  
However, it was looked upon all over Europe, as a very low and mean Condescension of a Sovereign Prince, Hedge-Sparrow like, to hatch the Cuckoos Egg, and own the supposititious Issue of another Man; which they, who pretend to make the best Excuse for, seem willing to believe proceeded more from Fear than Conscience; in regard, that being privy to the many Conspiracies of the Priests and Jesuits against his Brother's Life, it possessed him with such a dread of their Popish Mercy, that he yielded to whatever they desired, for his own Preservation. On the other side, the Priests and Jesuits were so terribly afraid of a Revolution after his Death; that by the Power of his imperious Queen, and their own Importunities, they hurried him on to all those Impolitic Exorbitances, that hastened both their own and his Ruin.  
For now the Nation, no longer able to brook such a deluge of illegal Oppressions, and the whole Body of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom, observing such a general Desolation impending upon their Religion, Lives, and Fortunes, apply themselves to their Highness' the Princess and Prince of Orange, as the only Cherubims on Earth, under whose Wings they could retire for Safety and Protection. Who no sooner, with a Generosity becoming a true Defender of the Protestant Faith, appeared in their Defence, but Consternation seized King james and all his Raving Counsellors.  
Upon the first News of the Heroic Prince's Preparations, he takes off the Bishop of London's Suspension, restores the City-Charter, with all those other Franchises which had been so tempestuously ravished from other Corporations, and returns the Ejected Gentlemen of both Universities to the Freeholds which he had wrested out of their hands. But yet to show how firm he was in his Resolutions to resume the same Despotic Power again, had his Success once answered his Expectations; after he had ordered the Bishop of Winchester to put in the Fellows of Maudlin College, he no sooner heard of the Prince's being put back by storm, with some small Loss, which was heightened out of Policy in Holland, but he recalled his Orders to the Bishop, sent for him to London, and stopped the Readmission of the Fellows, till he heard the Prince was again Embarked and prosperously bending his Course for England.  
So soon as he heard the Prince was Landed, he summons his Affidavit Lords and Ladies about him, in hopes to have sworn his pretended Son into the Succession, in case of any Miscarriage of his own Person, which he never intended to endanger. After that he flew to Salisbury, believing the Terror of his Name would have gained him present Victory. But not meeting the good Fortune he expected, all he did there, was to discourage his Soldiers with his Pusillanimous Fears and Frights upon every little Alarm of a Post-Boy. So that although he had good Counsel given him, To Horse all his Foot, and fall upon the Enemy while they were yet labouring under the inconveniencies of the Sea, and before their Numbers increased, he rejected it▪ unless he might keep his Teagues about him, and expose the English to the usual dangers of Road beaters. Which together with their unwillingness to engage the Deliverers of their Country, so alienated their hearts from him, that they deserted him by Troops and Regiments. Desponding at this and more terrified with a little bleeding at the Nose, than he had been with all the Innocent Blood which he had caused to be spilt, he returns back to London, and having sent his Queen and her Babe before, which was sufficient Warning for Dada, Peter, and the rest to provide for themselves, he withdrew from the City; but being taken, rifled, and seized by the Country People near Feversham before they knew him, he was brought back to Whitehall, where having his Choice given him to stay in England, or go beyond Sea, he rather chose by a voluntary departure, to abdicate the Realm. To which he was advised by his Council, that assured him, The Distractions of the Kingdom would make way for his Return in a little time; Which God forbid!  
And thus, to the surprise of all men, came to pass a Revolution so Sudden, so Great, and Unexpected, that History cannot parallel. It seemed a Labyrinth of Providence, to which the Beloved of Heaven WILLIAM HENRY only had the Clue; while Prudence and Fortitude were the Ariadne's that gave him their Assistance to subdue the Minotaur that devoured our Religion and Liberties. Two conspicuous Examples at once of Heaven's Indignation, and the Almighty's Favour; the one pursuing to his downfall an Apostate from God, and an Oppressor of his People, and exposing him among unbelieving Bog-trotters upon the lingering deathbed of his gasping Glory, the fettered Vassal of his once fawning Confederate. The other prospering with Miracles of Success, the Generous Redeemer of the True Reformed Religion, from the devouring Jaws of that double-headed Monster, Popery and Slavery; By whose Auspicious Conduct two late languishing Kingdoms, groaning under the heavy weight of Misery and Tyranny, enjoy a Jubilee of Peace and Tranquillity, and freed from the daily fears of Massacre and Destruction, in the fair way to recover their Pristin Glory, have now no more to do, but to repay their Praises to Heaven, and their due Acknowledgements to Them that have approved themselves the truly Indulging Father and Mother of their Country: A Prince, the Wonder of His Age; a Princess, the Miracle of Her Sex; in whom all Virtues, as in their proper Centre meet; rendering the Nation happy in Two in One, as the whole World is blest in Three in One; and upon whom, next under Heaven, depend the hopes of all that cordially desire the Welfare and Prosperity of Christendom.  
FINIS.