As his one merry head might have been far from safe,if these things had been known,they were kept very quiet,and war was declared by France and England against the Dutch.But,a very uncommon man,afterwards most important to English history and to the religion and liberty of this land,arose among them,and for many long years defeated the whole projects of France.This was WILLIAM OF NASSAU,PRINCE OF ORANGE,son of the last Prince of Orange of the same name,who married the daughter of Charles the First of England.He was a young man at this time,only just of age;but he was brave,cool,intrepid,and wise.His father had been so detested that,upon his death,the Dutch had abolished the authority to which this son would have otherwise succeeded (Stadtholder it was called),and placed the chief power in the hands of JOHN DE WITT,who educated this young prince.Now,the Prince became very popular,and John de Witt's brother CORNELIUS was sentenced to banishment on a false accusation of conspiring to kill him.John went to the prison where he was,to take him away to exile,in his coach;and a great mob who collected on the occasion,then and there cruelly murdered both the brothers.This left the government in the hands of the Prince,who was really the choice of the nation;and from this time he exercised it with the greatest vigour,against the whole power of France,under its famous generals CONDE and TURENNE,and in support of the Protestant religion.It was full seven years before this war ended in a treaty of peace made at Nimeguen,and its details would occupy a very considerable space.It is enough to say that William of Orange established a famous character with the whole world;and that the Merry Monarch,adding to and improving on his former baseness,bound himself to do everything the King of France liked,and nothing the King of France did not like,for a pension of one hundred thousand pounds a year,which was afterwards doubled.
Besides this,the King of France,by means of his corrupt ambassador-who wrote accounts of his proceedings in England,which are not always to be believed,I think-bought our English members of Parliament,as he wanted them.So,in point of fact,during a considerable portion of this merry reign,the King of France was the real King of this country.
But there was a better time to come,and it was to come (though his royal uncle little thought so)through that very William,Prince of Orange.He came over to England,saw Mary,the elder daughter of the Duke of York,and married her.We shall see by-and-by what came of that marriage,and why it is never to be forgotten.
This daughter was a Protestant,but her mother died a Catholic.
She and her sister ANNE,also a Protestant,were the only survivors of eight children.Anne afterwards married GEORGE,PRINCE OF DENMARK,brother to the King of that country.
Lest you should do the Merry Monarch the injustice of supposing that he was even good humoured (except when he had everything his own way),or that he was high spirited and honourable,I will mention here what was done to a member of the House of Commons,SIR JOHN COVENTRY.He made a remark in a debate about taxing the theatres,which gave the King offence.The King agreed with his illegitimate son,who had been born abroad,and whom he had made DUKE OF MONMOUTH,to take the following merry vengeance.To waylay him at night,fifteen armed men to one,and to slit his nose with a penknife.Like master,like man.The King's favourite,the Duke of Buckingham,was strongly suspected of setting on an assassin to murder the DUKE OF ORMOND as he was returning home from a dinner;
And that Duke's spirited son,LORD OSSORY,was so persuaded of his guilt,that he said to him at Court,even as he stood beside the King,'My lord,I know very well that you are at the bottom of this late attempt upon my father.But I give you warning,if he ever come to a violent end,his blood shall be upon you,and wherever I meet you I will pistol you!I will do so,though I find you standing behind the King's chair;and I tell you this in his Majesty's presence,that you may be quite sure of my doing what I threaten.'Those were merry times indeed.
There was a fellow named BLOOD,who was seized for making,with two companions,an audacious attempt to steal the crown,the globe,and sceptre,from the place where the jewels were kept in the Tower.
This robber,who was a swaggering ruffian,being taken,declared that he was the man who had endeavoured to kill the Duke of Ormond,and that he had meant to kill the King too,but was overawed by the majesty of his appearance,when he might otherwise have done it,as he was bathing at Battersea.The King being but an ill-looking fellow,I don't believe a word of this.Whether he was flattered,or whether he knew that Buckingham had really set Blood on to murder the Duke,is uncertain.But it is quite certain that he pardoned this thief,gave him an estate of five hundred a year in Ireland (which had had the honour of giving him birth),and presented him at Court to the debauched lords and the shameless ladies,who made a great deal of him-as I have no doubt they would have made of the Devil himself,if the King had introduced him.
Infamously pensioned as he was,the King still wanted money,and consequently was obliged to call Parliaments.In these,the great object of the Protestants was to thwart the Catholic Duke of York,who married a second time;his new wife being a young lady only fifteen years old,the Catholic sister of the DUKE OF MODENA.In this they were seconded by the Protestant Dissenters,though to their own disadvantage:since,to exclude Catholics from power,they were even willing to exclude themselves.The King's object was to pretend to be a Protestant,while he was really a Catholic;