airing; and, while all around him uncovered and bowed low, gave
her a rude stare and cocked his hat in her face. The affront was
not only brutal, but cowardly. For the law had provided no
punishment for mere impertinence, however gross; and the King was
the only gentleman and soldier in the kingdom who could not
protect his wife from contumely with his sword. All that the
Queen could do was to order the parkkeepers not to admit Sir John
again within the gates. But, long after her death, a day came
when he had reason to wish that he had restrained his insolence.
He found, by terrible proof, that of all the Jacobites, the most
desperate assassins not excepted, he was the only one for whom
William felt an intense personal aversion.43

A few days after this event the rage of the malecontents began to
flame more fiercely than ever. The detection of the conspiracy of
which Preston was the chief had brought on a crisis in
ecclesiastical affairs. The nonjuring bishops had, during the
year which followed their deprivation, continued to reside in the
official mansions which had once been their own. Burnet had, at
Mary's request, laboured to effect a compromise. His direct
interference would probably have done more harm than good. He
therefore judiciously employed the agency of Rochester, who stood
higher in the estimation of the nonjurors than any statesman who
was not a nonjuror, and of Trevor, who, worthless as he was, had
considerable influence with the High Church party. Sancroft and
his brethren were informed that, if they would consent to perform
their spiritual duty, to ordain, to institute, to confirm, and to
watch over the faith and the morality of the priesthood, a bill
should be brought into Parliament to excuse them from taking the
oaths.44 This offer was imprudently liberal; but those to whom it