KING JAMES THE SECOND was a man so very disagreeable,that even the best of historians has favoured his brother Charles,as becoming,by comparison,quite a pleasant character.The one object of his short reign was to re-establish the Catholic religion in England;
And this he doggedly pursued with such a stupid obstinacy,that his career very soon came to a close.
The first thing he did,was,to assure his council that he would make it his endeavour to preserve the Government,both in Church and State,as it was by law established;and that he would always take care to defend and support the Church.Great public acclamations were raised over this fair speech,and a great deal was said,from the pulpits and elsewhere,about the word of a King which was never broken,by credulous people who little supposed that he had formed a secret council for Catholic affairs,of which a mischievous Jesuit,called FATHER PETRE,was one of the chief members.With tears of joy in his eyes,he received,as the beginning of HIS pension from the King of France,five hundred thousand livres;yet,with a mixture of meanness and arrogance that belonged to his contemptible character,he was always jealous of making some show of being independent of the King of France,while he pocketed his money.As-notwithstanding his publishing two papers in favour of Popery (and not likely to do it much service,I should think)written by the King,his brother,and found in his strong-box;and his open display of himself attending mass-the Parliament was very obsequious,and granted him a large sum of money,he began his reign with a belief that he could do what he pleased,and with a determination to do it.
Before we proceed to its principal events,let us dispose of Titus Oates.He was tried for perjury,a fortnight after the coronation,and besides being very heavily fined,was sentenced to stand twice in the pillory,to be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate one day,and from Newgate to Tyburn two days afterwards,and to stand in the pillory five times a year as long as he lived.This fearful sentence was actually inflicted on the rascal.Being unable to stand after his first flogging,he was dragged on a sledge from Newgate to Tyburn,and flogged as he was drawn along.He was so strong a villain that he did not die under the torture,but lived to be afterwards pardoned and rewarded,though not to be ever believed in any more.Dangerfield,the only other one of that crew left alive,was not so fortunate.He was almost killed by a whipping from Newgate to Tyburn,and,as if that were not punishment enough,a ferocious barrister of Gray's Inn gave him a poke in the eye with his cane,which caused his death;for which the ferocious barrister was deservedly tried and executed.
As soon as James was on the throne,Argyle and Monmouth went from Brussels to Rotterdam,and attended a meeting of Scottish exiles held there,to concert measures for a rising in England.It was agreed that Argyle should effect a landing in Scotland,and Monmouth in England;and that two Englishmen should be sent with Argyle to be in his confidence,and two Scotchmen with the Duke of Monmouth.
Argyle was the first to act upon this contract.But,two of his men being taken prisoners at the Orkney Islands,the Government became aware of his intention,and was able to act against him with such vigour as to prevent his raising more than two or three thousand Highlanders,although he sent a fiery cross,by trusty messengers,from clan to clan and from glen to glen,as the custom then was when those wild people were to be excited by their chiefs.
As he was moving towards Glasgow with his small force,he was betrayed by some of his followers,taken,and carried,with his hands tied behind his back,to his old prison in Edinburgh Castle.
James ordered him to be executed,on his old shamefully unjust sentence,within three days;and he appears to have been anxious that his legs should have been pounded with his old favourite the boot.However,the boot was not applied;he was simply beheaded,and his head was set upon the top of Edinburgh Jail.One of those Englishmen who had been assigned to him was that old soldier Rumbold,the master of the Rye House.He was sorely wounded,and within a week after Argyle had suffered with great courage,was brought up for trial,lest he should die and disappoint the King.
He,too,was executed,after defending himself with great spirit,and saying that he did not believe that God had made the greater part of mankind to carry saddles on their backs and bridles in their mouths,and to be ridden by a few,booted and spurred for the purpose-in which I thoroughly agree with Rumbold.
The Duke of Monmouth,partly through being detained and partly through idling his time away,was five or six weeks behind his friend when he landed at Lyme,in Dorset:having at his right hand an unlucky nobleman called LORD GREY OF WERK,who of himself would have ruined a far more promising expedition.He immediately set up his standard in the market-place,and proclaimed the King a tyrant,and a Popish usurper,and I know not what else;charging him,not only with what he had done,which was bad enough,but with what neither he nor anybody else had done,such as setting fire to London,and poisoning the late King.Raising some four thousand men by these means,he marched on to Taunton,where there were many Protestant dissenters who were strongly opposed to the Catholics.
Here,both the rich and poor turned out to receive him,ladies waved a welcome to him from all the windows as he passed along the streets,flowers were strewn in his way,and every compliment and honour that could be devised was showered upon him.Among the rest,twenty young ladies came forward,in their best clothes,and in their brightest beauty,and gave him a Bible ornamented with their own fair hands,together with other presents.