Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/58

xlvi Upon the advance of the Prince of Orange to Windsor; the flight of the King and the breaking out of the people into riots, destroying the Roman Catholic Chapels, and attacking the houses of Papists, Lord Sunderland fled, disguised, it is said, in woman's clothes to Holland, where he appears to have lived some time in great discomfort. This, however, did not last very long, for, though he was expressly excepted from the Bill of Indemnity, we find him not only returned to England in 1691 but, soon afterwards, though not the declared yet the actual Prime Minister of William. "The person," says Burnet, "that had the King's confidence to the highest degree was the Earl of Sunderland, who, by his long experience and his knowledge of men and things, had gained an ascendant over him, and had more credit with him than any Englishman ever had." He gave him a pension of £2,000 a year. He visited him at Althorpe in his way to the north, "which was the first public mark of the high favour he was in," and soon afterwards gave him the Lord Chamberlain's staff. This, however, was the signal for a general attack upon him.