had ever professed himself her grateful and devoted son, had
knelt at her altars, and, in spite of his loose morals, had
succeeded in persuading the great body of her adherents that he
felt a sincere preference for her. Whatever conflicts, therefore,
the honest Cavalier might have had to maintain against Whigs and
Roundheads he had at least been hitherto undisturbed by conflict
in his own mind. He had seen the path of duty plain before him.
Through good and evil he was to be true to Church and King. But,
if those two august and venerable powers, which had hitherto
seemed to be so closely connected that those who were true to one
could not be false to the other, should be divided by a deadly
enmity, what course was the orthodox Royalist to take? What
situation could be more trying than that in which he would be
placed, distracted between two duties equally sacred, between two
affections equally ardent? How was he to give to Caesar all that
was Caesar's, and yet to withhold from God no part of what was
God's? None who felt thus could have watched, without deep
concern and gloomy forebodings, the dispute between the King and
the Parliament on the subject of the test. If James could even
now be induced to reconsider his course, to let the Houses
reassemble, and to comply with their wishes, all might yet be
well.

Such were the sentiments of the King's two kinsmen, the Earls of
Clarendon and Rochester. The power and favour of these noblemen
seemed to be great indeed. The younger brother was Lord Treasurer
and prime minister; and the elder, after holding the Privy Seal
during some months, had been appointed Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland. The venerable Ormond took the same side. Middleton and
Preston, who, as managers of the House of Commons, had recently