should solicit in vain. She naturally felt a strong sympathy for
the unhappy couple, who were parted by the walls of that gloomy
old fortress in which she had herself exchanged the last sad
endearments with one whose image was never absent from her. She
took Lady Clancarty with her to the palace, obtained access to
William, and put a petition into his hand. Clancarty was pardoned
on condition that he should leave the kingdom and never return to
it. A pension was granted to him, small when compared with the
magnificent inheritance which he had forfeited, but quite
sufficient to enable him to live like a gentleman on the
Continent. He retired, accompanied by his Elizabeth, to Altona.

All this time the ways and means for the year were under
consideration. The Parliament was able to grant some relief to
the country. The land tax was reduced from four shillings in the
pound to three. But nine expensive campaigns had left a heavy
arrear behind them; and it was plain that the public burdens
must, even in the time of peace, be such as, before the
Revolution, would have been thought more than sufficient to
support a vigorous war. A country gentleman was in no very good
humour, when he compared the sums which were now exacted from him
with those which he had been in the habit of paying under the
last two kings; his discontent became stronger when he compared
his own situation with that of courtiers, and above all of Dutch
courtiers, who had been enriched by grants of Crown property; and
both interest and envy made him willing to listen to politicians
who assured him that, if those grants were resumed, he might be
relieved from another shilling.

The arguments against such a resumption were not likely to be