another. The crimes which had disgraced the stormy tribuneship of
Shaftesbury had been fearfully expiated. The blood of innocent
Papists had been avenged more than tenfold by the blood of
zealous Protestants. Another great reaction had commenced.
Factions were fast taking new forms. Old allies were separating.
Old enemies were uniting. Discontent was spreading fast through
all the ranks of the party lately dominant. A hope, still indeed
faint and indefinite, of victory and revenge, animated the party
which had lately seemed to be extinct. Amidst such circumstances
the eventful and troubled year 1685 terminated, and the year 1686
began.

The prorogation had relieved the King from the gentle
remonstrances of the Houses: but he had still to listen to
remonstrances, similar in effect, though uttered in a tone even
more cautious and subdued. Some men who had hitherto served him
but too strenuously for their own fame and for the public welfare
had begun to feel painful misgivings, and occasionally ventured
to hint a small part of what they felt.

During many years the zeal of the English Tory for hereditary
monarchy and his zeal for the established religion had grown up
together and had strengthened each other. It had never occurred
to him that the two sentiments, which seemed inseparable and even
identical, might one day be found to be not only distinct but
incompatible. From the commencement of the strife between the
Stuarts and the Commons, the cause of the crown and the cause of
the hierarchy had, to all appearance, been one. Charles the First
was regarded by the Church as her martyr. If Charles the Second
had plotted against her, he had plotted in secret. In public he