Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/554

540 the earl of Bedford he had still more immediately driven from him by his execution of his son, lord Russell. Compton, the bishop of London; Herbert, lately rear-admiral of England; Clarendon, Rochester, Lumley, Shrewsbury, had all, by a most insensate folly, been alienated by dismission and private injuries. There was not a man of any talent or influence that this insane tyrant had not driven from him in insobstinate resolve to set Romanism and despotism along with him on the throne, except lord Churchill, upon whom he continued to heap favours, but who was too worldly-wise not to see that his benefactor was running headlong to ruin, and to make up his mind not to share his ruin, out of gratitude. Dykvelt executed his mission so well, that in four months he returned to the Hague with a packet of letters in his possession from all those noblemen, bishops, and others, including admiral Russell, the cousin of the decapitated lord Russell, promising William their most enthusiastic support. From the princess Anne, who was bound up heart and soul with Churchill and his clever wife—afterwards the celebrated Sarah, duchess of Marlborough—her sister Mary also received the most cordial assurances that nothing should induce her to abandon her religion, or her attachment to her sister's rights.

Dykvelt returned from England on the 9th of June; and, to continue the effect produced in that country, on the 8th of August another agent in the person of general Zulestein was dispatched thither. His ostensible mission was to offer an address of condolence on the death of the queen's mother, the duchess of Modena; but his real one was to strengthen the connection with the malcontents, which he could the more unsuspectedly do from his military character, and from his having taken no particular part in diplomacy. Zulestein was completely successful; but all these proceedings could not entirely escape James or his envoy at the Hague, the catholic marquis of Abbeville, who succeeded in getting Burnet, the active adviser of William, removed from open intercourse with the court. But Burnet was still not far off, and through his chief counsellors, Bentinck and Halweyn, William still consulted with him on every step of the plans regarding England. James also sought to reach William through Stewart, a Scottish lawyer, who had fled from his persecutions of the covenanters to the Hague, but who, on the appearance of the declaration of indulgence, most suddenly went to the king's side, in hopes of promotion. Stewart wrote a letter to Fagel, the grand pensionary, who had great influence with William, which he confessed was at the suggestion of the king, strongly urging him to use his power with William to persuade him to support James's act; but Fagel, with a dexterous policy, replied in another letter, stating that the prince and princess were advocates for the most ample toleration, but not for the abolition of the test, or of any other act having the inviolability of the Anglican church for its object. This was calculated to satisfy the catholics of every privilege which they could reasonably expect from the laws and the public opinion of England, whilst it fully assured the church of its safety under William and Mary.

Every fresh movement thus contributed to strengthen the position of William, and to show to James, had he had sufficient mind to comprehend it, how completely his conduct had deprived him of the confidence of his subjects. Even the pope took no pains to conceal how suicidal he deemed his policy. He would have sufficiently rejoiced in any rational prospect of the return of England to the church of Rome, but he was not dull enough to imagine the sentiment of the king the sentiment of the nation; on the contrary, he was persuaded that the rash cabals of the Jesuits were inevitably hastening a crisis which must the more deeply root the Anglican antipathy to popery. James had dispatched Castlemaine as ambassador to Rome, with a splendid retinue. It was not enough that this open affront was done to his country by sending a catholic ambassador to the pope, and in the person, too, of a man who had no distinction except the disgraceful one of having purchased his title by the prostitution of his wife; but Castlemaine was deputed to solicit a dispensation from Innocent for father Petre to receive the episcopal dignity, which was forbidden to a Jesuit. James contemplated nothing less than making Petre archbishop of York, which see he kept vacant for the purpose; but the pope was too much at enmity with the Jesuits, as well as with James for his impolitic conduct, and his alliance with the great French aggressor, to concede any such favour. Castlemaine, who was living in great pomp at Rome, threatened to take his departure if this request was not granted, and Innocent only sarcastically replied by bidding him start in the cool of the morning, and take care of his health on the journey.

This discourtesy shown him by the head of that religion for which he was putting everything to the hazard, had, however, only the effect of further raising the pugnacity of James. He determined only the more to honour and exalt popery in England. The nuncio, Adda, had been made archbishop of Amasia—a mere title of honour, in consequence of James's desire that he should be publicly acknowledged at his court. Hitherto both he and the vicar-apostolic, Leyburn, had been instructed by the papal court to keep a careful incognito; but James would no longer consent to this; and, accordingly, on the 1st of May, 1686, Adda had been publicly consecrated at Whitehall, by the titular archbishop of Ireland, assisted by Leyburn, the vicar-apostolic. In the evening of that day the nuncio was received into the royal circle, in the queen's apartments; and James shocked and disgusted his courtiers by falling on his knees before him and imploring his blessing. It was the first time that an English court had seen their monarch, for a very long period, doing homage at the feet of a papal nuncio, and the effect was humiliating. On the 3rd of July the nuncio was favoured with a public reception at Windsor. He went thither attended by a numerous procession of the ministers and of officials of the court, and was conveyed in a royal coach, wearing a purple robe, and a brilliant cross upon his breast. In his train was seen with surprise and contempt the equipages of Crewe, bishop of Durham, and Cartwright, bishop of Chester. The duke of Somerset, as first lord of the bed-chamber, was expected to introduce him; but he declined, representing the penalties to which the act would expose him. This refusal was the less expected, because he had not objected to carry the sword of state before his majesty when the king had gone to the royal papal chapel. James was indignant. "I thought," he said, "that I was doing you a great honour by appointing you to escort the