Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/467

] of his friends to see the regalia. The moment that they reached the regalia room, a cloak was thrown over the keeper's head, a gag was forced into his mouth, and he was then assured that no harm should happen to him if he only remained quiet. But the trusty keeper resisted with all his might, and the ruffians then knocked him down, and wounded him in the belly. The clerical-looking person then put the crown under his cossack, another concealed the globe in his breeches, and the third filed the sceptre in two and put it in a bag. But the keeper's son happening to come in at the moment, rushed away and raised an alarm. The ruffians ran for it; one then fired at the first sentinel, who, though untouched, believed himself shot and fell. They had nearly reached their horses at St. Catherine's Gate before they were seized. The ruffians refused to give any account of themselves, but Charles's curiosity being raised to see such extraordinary caitiffs, the chief of them freely avowed to him that he was a colonel Blood, and the same man who had attempted to hang, and, failing in that, to shoot the duke of Ormond. That he was of Sarney, in the county of Sleath, in Ireland, the author of a libel Called "Mene Tekel," and that his determination to kill Ormond arose from his having executed his companions for an attempt to surprise Dublin Castle, in 1663.

The king was struck with the wonderful audacity of the Villain, who not only confessed these things, but gloried in them and the artful villain told the king a story which was calculated to deter him from taking his life. He said that he was one of a band of three hundred, who had sworn to revenge each other's deaths. That on one occasion he had engaged to shoot his majesty as he went to swim in the Thames above Battersea, but that when he was about to take aim, the awe of majesty had paralysed his hand, and that he not only gave up his design, but bound his confederates to do the same. Their cause of offence was the persecution of the godly. That the king now could do as he pleased—he could execute him if he preferred it, but that he would then expose his life to the revenge of three hundred daring men, who were bound by the most solemn obligation to destroy the men, whoever they were, who put him to death. On the other hand, if he pardoned him, he would secure the gratitude and the lasting services of three hundred undaunted and faithful adherents.

The deeplaid artifice of this daring miscreant succeeded to a miracle. Charles was, on the one hand, so exquisitely flattered by "the awe of majesty," and on the other so terrified by the idea of three hundred desperadoes on the perpetual watch for his life, that he not only pardoned Blood, but, to bind him more firmly to his interests, he granted him an estate in Ireland of five hundred pounds a year, and admitted him to the court on the footing of a gentleman and a favourite. The duke of Ormond was persuaded to pardon him, and the fellow was at once familiar with all the great people about the court. Evelyn describes his seeing him there, dining at the treasurer's table with the due de Grammont and several French noblemen. Yet the marks of the scoundrel were unmistakably upon him. "The man," says Evelyn, "had not only a daring, but a villainous, unmerciful look; a false countenance, but very well spoken, and dangerously insinuating."

He was suspected of being a double spy, and was fully capable of it, both by his audacity and cunning, for the republicans and nonconformists on the one hand, and for the king on the other. Ormond, who was detested by Buckingham and his party, believed that nobleman to be at the bottom of Blood's attack on himself; and lord Ossory, Ormond's son, told him in the presence of the king, that if his father came to any untimely end in any manner, he should know on whom to take vengeance, and would do it, even though he stood behind his majesty's chair. Blood maintained his ground at court for nearly thirteen years, but at length he was thrown into prison for subpoenaing witnesses to swear a vile crime against Buckingham, and ended his days in the King's Bench. The present year, 1671, was chiefly employed in preparing for the war with Holland. Though Charles was under-condition to become an avowed catholic, he published a proclamation, declaring that as he had always adhered to the true religion as established, he would still maintain it by all the means in his power. De Witt, who was aware of what was going on, hastened to make a treaty with Spain, and Louis demanded a free passage through the Netherlands to attack Holland, or declared that he would force one at the head of sixty thousand men. Whilst war was thus impending, the duchess of York, Hyde's daughter, died. She had been for some time a professed catholic. Henrietta Maria, the mother of Charles, had died in August, 1669, at the castle of Colombe, near Paris.

Charles and his ministers of the cabal, bribed by Louis, and even the mistress of Buckingham, lady Shrewsbury, pensioned with ten thousand livres a year, prepared to rush into the war against Holland, in the hope of retrieving past disgraces, and securing some valuable prizes. At the close of the last session, on pretence of maintaining the triple alliance, the very thing they were intending to betray, and of keeping Louis of France in check, whom they were, in fact, going to assist in his aggressions, they procured eight hundred thousand pounds from the commons, and then immediately prorogued the parliament. But this most unprincipled trick was nothing to what they were preparing to perpetrate.

During the recess of parliament, it was suddenly announced by proclamation on the 2nd of January, 1672, that the exchequer was shut. To understand what was meant by this most flagitious act, we must recollect that Charles was in the habit of anticipating the supplies granted, by borrowing of the London bankers and goldsmiths, and granting them some branch of revenue, to refund themselves with interest. He had at this time obtained one million three hundred thousand pounds in this manner, but calculating that the Dutch war could not be carried on without further means than the recent parliamentary grant, it was therefore announced that government was not prepared to pay the principal borrowed, or in other terms, could grant the annual security of the incoming taxes, but the lenders must be content with the interest. This would enable the government to receive the revenue themselves, instead of paying their just debts with it. The consternation was terrible. The exchequer had hitherto kept its engagements honourably, and had thus obtained this liberal credit. The