of France, knowing his merry pensioner well,
intrigued with the King's opponents in
Parliament, as well as with the King and his
friends.

The fears that the country had of the
Catholic religion being restored, if the Duke
of York should come to the throne, and the
low cunning of the King in pretending to
share their alarms, led to some very terrible
results. A certain Dr. TONGE, a dull clergyman
in the city, fell into the hands of a certain
TITUS OATES, a most infamous character, who
pretended to have acquired among the Jesuits
abroad, a knowledge of a great plot for the
murder of the King, and the re-establishment
of the Catholic religion. Titus Oates being
produced by this unlucky Dr. Tonge and
solemnly examined before the council,
contradicted himself in a thousand ways, told the
most ridiculous and improbable stories, and
implicated COLEMAN, the Secretary of the
Duchess of York. Now, although what he
charged against Coleman was not true, and
although you and I know very well that the
real dangerous Catholic plot was that one
with the King of France of which the Merry
Monarch was himself the head, there
happened to be found among Coleman's
papers, some letters, in which he did praise
the days of Bloody Queen Mary, and abuse
the Protestant religion. This was great good
fortune for Titus, as it seemed to confirm him;
but better still was in store. Sir EDMUNDSBURY
GODFREY, the magistrate who had first
examined him, being unexpectedly found dead
near Primrose Hill, was confidently believed
to have been killed by the Catholics. I think
there is no doubt that he had been melancholy
mad, and that he killed himself; but
he had a great Protestant funeral, and Titus
was called the Saver of the Nation, and
received a pension of twelve hundred pounds
a year.

As soon as Oates's wickedness had met with
this success, up started another villain, named
WILLIAM BEDLOE, who, attracted by a reward
of five hundred pounds offered for the
apprehension of the murderers of Godfrey, came
forward and charged two Jesuits and some
other persons with having committed it at the
Queen's desire. Oates, going into partnership
with this new informer, had the audacity
to accuse the poor Queen herself of high
treason. Then appeared a third informer, as
bad as either of the two, and accused a
Catholic banker named STAYLEY of having
said that the King was the greatest rogue in
the world (which would not have been far
from the truth), and that he would kill him
with his own hand. This banker, being at
once tried and executed, Coleman and two
others were tried and executed. Then, a
miserable wretch named PRANCE, a Catholic
silversmith, being accused by Bedloe, was
tortured into confessing that he had taken
part in Godfrey's murder, and into accusing
three other men of having committed it
Then, five Jesuits were accused by Oates,
Bedloe, and Prance together, and were all
found guilty, and executed on the same kind
of contradictory and absurd evidence. The
Queen's physician and three monks were
next put on their trial; but Oates and Bedloe
had for the time gone far enough, and these
four were acquitted. The public mind,
however, was so full of a Catholic plot, and so
strong against the Duke of York, that James
consented to obey a written order from his
brother, and to go with his family to Brussels,
provided that his rights should never be
sacrificed in his absence to the Duke of
Monmouth. The House of Commons, not
satisfied with this, as the King hoped, passed
a bill to exclude the Duke from ever
succeeding to the throne. In return, the King
dissolved the Parliament. He had deserted his
old favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, who
was now in the opposition.

To give any sufficient idea of the miseries
of Scotland in this merry reign would
occupy a hundred pages. Because the people
would not have bishops, and were resolved
to stand by their solemn League and Covenant,
such cruelties were inflicted upon them as
make the blood run cold. Ferocious dragoons
galloped through the country to punish the
peasants for deserting the churches; sons
were hanged up at their fathers' doors for
refusing to disclose where their fathers were
concealed; wives were tortured to death for
not betraying their husbands; people were
taken out of their fields and gardens and
shot on the public roads without trial; lighted
matches were tied to the fingers of prisoners,
and a most horrible torment called the Boot
was invented, and constantly applied, which
ground and mashed the victims' legs with
iron wedges. Witnesses were tortured as
well as prisoners. All the prisons were full;
all the gibbets were heavy with bodies;
murder and plunder devastated the whole
country. In spite of all, the Covenanters
were by no means to be dragged into the
churches, and persisted in worshipping God
as they thought right. A body of ferocious
Highlanders, turned upon them from the
mountains of their own country, had no
greater effect than the English dragoons
under GRAHAME OF CLAVERHOUSE, the most
cruel and rapacious of all their enemies, whose
name will ever be cursed through the length
and breadth of Scotland. Archbishop Sharp
had ever aided and abetted all these outrages.
But he fell at last; for, when the injuries
of the Scottish people were at their height,
he was seen, in his coach-and-six, coming
across a moor, by a body of men, headed
by one JOHN BALFOUR, who were waiting
for another of their oppressors. Upon this
they cried out that Heaven had delivered
him into their hands, and killed him with
many wounds. If ever a man deserved
such a death, I think Archbishop Sharp
did.