Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/475

] the money now received from France. The bulk of it went to purchase votes in the house of commons.

Unfortunately, this parliament was little more honest than the king himself; it was receiving bribes on all sides. Darlymple shows that Spanish, Dutch, German, and French money was freely distributed amongst the members. In 1673 three leaders of the opposition in the commons were bribed with six thousand pounds, to induce them freely to vote unusually large supplies, and they did it. They were now in the pay of all the chief contending countries in Europe. When they raised the cry of war on this occasion, the king expressed his readiness, but demanded six hundred thousand pounds at the least for the necessary expenditure. Thereupon Spain bribed the patriots to vote for it with twenty thousand pounds, and the king of France bribed them with a still larger sum. The proposal for the war was thrown out, Louis having feed not only the parliament, but the ministers and the king. On receiving about two hundred thousand pounds from Louis, Charles adjourned parliament on the 16th of April, and did not call it together again till the next January. Never, surely, had everything like principle or patriotism so thoroughly abandoned the nation. Soon after the adjournment Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton, made their submission to the king, and were released; Shaftesbury held out seven months longer, and their followed their example.

During the recess the prince of Orange came to England. He had reflected on his former refusal to marry Mary, the daughter of the duke of York. Though William could place very little dependence on the alliance of his uncle Charles, yet he could not be insensible that a marriage with Mary opened up a prospect towards the throne of England, and that an alliance betwixt the two protestant nations must mutually strengthen their position in Europe. He therefore began to cultivate the friendship of Danby, the prime minister, and then solicited the union which he had before declined. The overture was received with a coldness that the more sensibly impressed the prince with the political blunder which he had committed. He therefore humbled himself, and requested permission to make a visit to London and apologise for his past conduct and explain his future views. Charles not only resented William's refusal of his former offer, but he was jealous of his intrigues with the popular leaders; and though he did not forbid his coming, he stipulated that he should return before the meeting of parliament. On the 9th of October he joined his uncle at Newmarket, and, having the services of Danby and Temple, Charles was soon persuaded to his marriage with the princess. James appeared at first averse to the connection, but he soon acquiesced; and whilst Charles boasted of having made this alliance to secure the religion of the nation, James took credit to himself from his consent, of proving how false were the suspicions which had been expressed of his intention to make changes in both the religion and the state. The marriage gave universal satisfaction, and during the festivities with which it was celebrated at court, William sought to engage the king in the project of a general peace. The following were the proposals ultimately arrived at by them, to be submitted to the different powers: That Holland and France should mutually restore the conquests that they had made; that the duchy of Lorraine should be restored to the duke, its rightful sovereign; and that France should keep possession of the places won from Spam, except Ath, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Tournai, Conde, and Valenciennes, which should be restored and form a chain of fortresses betwixt the new frontier of France and the old ones of Holland. Charles despatched lord Feversham to lay the proposals before Louis; but the French king would not listen to them, and tidings reached William which caused him immediately to hasten home.

In spite of the season, the end of November, Louis had taken the field, according to his novel plan of winter campaign, and invested Giuslaiu, which was expected to fall in a few days.

This decisive conduct on the part of Louis roused the wrath of Charles; he had adjourned parliament from the 4th of April to the 15th of January. He expressed his surprise to Louis at the unreasonableness of his conduct, and despatched directions to Hyde, the ambassador at the Hague, to enter into a separate treaty with the States, on the model of the triple alliance, engaging not only to defend each other against all aggressor, but to continue to force the other parties to come to fair terms. Such a treaty was signed at the Hague on the 31st of December. Louis, on hearing of it, stopped the payment of Charles's pension, but at the same time he proposed, through Montague, the English ambassador, a truce of twelve months, during which all might be arranged, and then he threw out a bait which he knew would be extremely tempting to Charles. That if he could persuade his nephew to consent to the cession of Condé, Valenciennes, and Tournai, their full value should be paid to the king in bare of gold, concealed in bales of silk, and any sum that the lord treasurer might name in reward of his services, should be remitted in diamonds and pearls. But both Danby and the duke of York set their faces against any such disgraceful compromise; Danby remaining steady to his views of the danger of the French ascendancy, and the duke being zealous for the interests of his new son-in-law, and in the hope of receiving the command of any auxiliary force sent from England to co-operate with Holland. At the duke's suggestion the English forces were recalled from the army of France, a strong squadron was sent to the Mediterranean to reinforce the fleet under Sir John Narborough, and the port of Osteud was demanded from Spain as a depot for the English army in Flanders.

This unusual vigour induced Louis to set in motion the forces of the opposition both in England and Holland. To Barillon, his ambassador at London, he sent over the younger Ruvigny, who was related to lady Vaughan, and intimate with the Russell family. The ambassadors first tried to bring over again Charles by the most liberal offers of money; they warned him to beware of the pernicious counsels of Danby, who was seeking popularity; and to Danby himself they paid the highest compliments, and begged him to use his influence with the king. Charles, who never long resisted the temptations of money, was not, however, yet to be moved, and the ambassadors then tried their influence with the opposition. They found Hollis and lord William Russell extremely hostile to the court, but suspicious of a secret engagement betwixt Charles