character, and carefully avoided all display. His mission,
therefore, put the government to scarcely any charge, and excited
scarcely any murmurs. His place was now most unwisely supplied by
a costly and ostentatious embassy, offensive in the highest
degree to the people of England, and by no means welcome to the
court of Rome. Castelmaine had it in charge to demand a
Cardinal's hat for his confederate Petre.

About the same time the King began to show, in an unequivocal
manner, the feeling which he really entertained towards the
banished Huguenots. While he had still hoped to cajole his
Parliament into submission and to become the head of an European
coalition against France, he had affected to blame the revocation
of the edict of Nantes, and to pity the unhappy men whom
persecution had driven from their country. He had caused it to be
announced that, at every church in the kingdom, a collection
would be made under his sanction for their benefit. A
proclamation on this subject had been drawn up in terms which
might have wounded the pride of a sovereign less sensitive and
vainglorious than Lewis. But all was now changed. The principles
of the treaty of Dover were again the principles of the foreign
policy of England. Ample apologies were therefore made for the
discourtesy with which the English government had acted towards
France in showing favour to exiled Frenchmen. The proclamation
which had displeased Lewis was recalled.73 The Huguenot ministers
were admonished to speak with reverence of their oppressor in
their public discourses, as they would answer it at their peril.
James not only ceased to express commiseration for the sufferers,
but declared that he believed them to harbour the worst designs,
and owned that he had been guilty of an error in countenancing