Pope himself which once was printed in Whitlocks Memoirs but upon the considerations of the danger that might ensue upon divulging it at that time to the World torn out before the publishing of the Book However to supply that defect we shall here insert the Propositions that were sent by him to Rome while he was in Scotland professing the Presbyterian Religion and carried thither and press'd forward by one Dalie an Irish Priest and Confessor to the then Queen of Portugal under the Title of Propositions and Motives for and on the behalf of the most Invincible King of Great Britain France and Ireland to Pope Innocent X. in the Year of Iubilee 1650. Which Dalie taking France in his way spake with the Queen-Mother and receiv'd her Directions for the better management of the Affair Most Blessed Father Our Agent at present residing at Rome with all humility shews to your Holiness That the principal cause and occasion of that Regicide tyrannically perpetrated upon the Person of Charles the First Father of that foresaid Charles the Second by his Rebels and cruel Subjects the like whereof was never heard of from the beginning of the world not only not among civil Nations but even among the most barbarous themselves have been the graces favors and concessions so often and so many ways extended to the Catholick Religion and the Assertors and Professors thereof in the Kingdoms both of England and Ireland The truth of which appears in that the foresaid Charles the First gave Authority to the Marquiss of Ormond by several Commissions for the establishing and perfecting all Conditions with the Confederate Catholicks of the Kingdom of Ireland of sufficient security for the Catholick Faith Furthermore the said Charles the First tearing lest the said Ormond being an Heretick should not satisfie the said Confederates in all things He sent thither the Marquiss of Worcester a Man truly and wholly Catholick with a more ample Commission in which Commission the said Marquiss of Worcester had full Authority of concluding a Peace with the said Confederate Catholicks and of giving them Conditions altogether satisfactory as well concerning Liberty of Religion as also as to other Injuries that had been done unto them which the said Marquiss of Worcester making with them an absolute Peace did abundantly fulfil Further this appeareth in that the said Charles the First even in England it self did by Commissions set the Catholicks namely the said Marquiss of Worcester Sir Arthur Ashton and many others over his Armies and made them Governours of Cities Castles and strong Holds notwithstanding the clamour of the People against it and which was not a slight Motive of the Regicide committed upon him whereby it appears that although the said King Charles the First died not a Catholick yet he died for them Again most blessed Father the same Agent most humbly represents That the present King Charles the Second the true and undoubted Heir of the foresaid Charles the First and of all his Kingdoms to whom the said Kingdoms belong of right according to that of Christ Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's while his Father yet lived was known to have good and true Natural inclinations to the Catholick Faith following which and going on in his Fathers steps he did not only recommend it to the Marquiss of Ormond but gave it him in express Command to satisfie in all things the Confederate Catholicks in Ireland namely That he should grant them the free exercise of their Religion That he should abrogate the Penal Laws made against them and that he should restore to the said Catholicks whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks their Lands Estates Possessions or what other Rights did at any time belong unto them and by the said Laws had been unjustly taken away in obedience to which Commands the said Marquiss in the Name and by the Authority of the said two Kings namely Charles the First and the II. made and concluded a firm Peace with the said Confederate Catholicks by the conclusion of which Peace the said present King and all his Dominions hath involved himself with the Catholicks in an irreconcileable War against the Parliamentarian Regicides of England whose Blood therefore the said cruel Tyrants insatiably thirst after as they did after his Fathers The said Agent further offers to your Holiness That the inhumane Regicides do wickedly usurp to themselves in the Dominions aforementioned all the Authority of the King do most cruelly persecute all the Catholicks both in England and in Ireland partly by condemning them to Banishment partly by thrusting them into Prisons and otherwise corporally punishing them and lastly by putting them to death a Witness of the truth hereof is that great slaughter made by Cromwel in the taking of the two Cities of Drogheda and Wexford and other places where all the Catholicks without distinction of either Sex or Age were slaughtered witness hereof also the raging persecution and death of Catholicks in England by all which and by their Parliamentarian Decrees themselves and their Covenant with God as they call it it is evident even beyond the clearness of the light of the shining Sun That these Tyrannical Regicides do ultimately intend and put forth all their Power for the utter destruction of all Catholicks and to extirpate by the Roots and wholly to extinguish the Catholick Faith throughout the World openly asserting and boasting with great glory that these things being once finished in those Dominions they will then invade France and after that run through Germany Italy and all Europe throwing down Kings and Monarchs whose very Titles are most odious and abhorrent unto them Briefly they have no other thing in their Aim than these two namely The extirpation of the Catholick Religion and the destruction of Monarchy To which wicked Machinations of theirs forasmuch as they could never have any the least hopes that either the King or his Father should at any time in the least assent they have put the one to death and the other to exile And these Rebels now with a nefarious boldness have lately called themselves a Common-wealth To meet with and prevent the infernal endeavours of such Rebels our Agent most humbly offers to your Holiness the following Propositions 1. That your Holiness would make an annual supply out of your own Treasury unto the said Charles the Second of considerable sums of Money sutable to the maintaining the War against those Rebels against God the Church and Monarchy 2. That you would cause and compel the whole beneficed Clergy in the world of whatsoever Dignity Degree State or Condition soever to contribute the third or the fourth part of all their Fruits Rents Revenues or Emoluments to the said War as being Universal and Catholick And that the said Contribution may be paid every Three Months or otherwise as shall seem most expedient to your Holiness 3. That by your Apostolick Nuncio's your Holiness would most instantly endeavour with all Princes Common-wealths and Catholick States
Nation that had so little respect for Kings and that the occasion was never more favourable seeing many of the Princes of Germany were already entered into the League and that the King of France was powerful enough to be able to promise to his Allies in the Issue of that War satisfaction both as to their Honour and Interests whereby he prevailed with that Prince to enter into secret Alliance with France And for his greater Assurance and the more to confirm him Henrietta Dutchess of Orleans went for England and proposed to her Brother in the Name of the Most Christian King that he would assure him an Absolute Authority over his Parliament and full Power to establish the Catholick Religion in his Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland But withal she told him that to compass this before all things else it would be necessary to abate the Pride and Power of the Dutch and to reduce them to the sole Province of Holland and that by this means the King of England should have Zealand for a Retreat in case of necessity and that the rest of the Low-Countries should remain to the King of France if he could render himself Master of it This is the Sum of that famous League concluded at Dover fram'd and enter'd into on purpose for the Subjugation of these three Nations to Popery and Slavery However as at first this Treaty was kept so close that it was no way to be discover'd so before the Effects appear'd it was necessary that the Parliament after the old wont should be gull'd to the giving of Money for the carrying on this grand and deep Conspiracy The Parliament met Octob. 24. 1670. where the Lord Keeper Bridgeman guided more by his Instructions than by any knowledge he had of the devilish Design omitted nothing to make Both Houses sensible of the great Service done to England and in a manner to all Mankind by chaining up the devouring Lyon that was never satiated with Prey and the more to incite their Liberality he told them of several other Leagues which the King for the good of his People and the Advancement of the Trade of the Nation had made with other Princes as the D. of Savoy the King of Denmark and the King of Spain by which as his Lordship was pleased to say it was evident that all the Princes of Europe sought his Majesties Friendship as acknowledging they could not secure much less improve their present Condition without it concluding that for the Support of these Alliances the annual Charge of His Majesties Navy came to no less than Five hundred thousand Pounds nor could be maintain'd with less Upon the telling of which Story notwithstanding the immense Sums lavish'd to no purpose or rather to our Loss in the former War with Holland notwithstanding they had given the Additional Duty upon Wines for Eight years amounting to Five hundred and sixty thousand Pounds and confirmed the Sale of the Fee farm Rents no less their Gift being a part of the Publick Revenue to the value of one Million and Eight hundred thousand Pounds they could not hold but gave with both hands again a Subsidy of Twelve Pence in the Pound to the real value of all Lands and other Estates proportionably with several more beneficial Clauses in the Bargain to which they joyned the Additional Excise upon Beer Ale c. And lastly the Law Bill which being summ'd up together could not be estimated at less than two Millions and half So that for the Tripple League here was a Tripple Supply and the Subject had now all the reason to believe that this Alliance which had been fix'd at first by the Publick Interest Safety and Honour was by these three Grants as with three Golden Nails sufficiently clinched and rivetted But now therefore was the most proper Time and Occasion for the King and his chosen Ministers to give Demonstrations of their Fidelity to the French Monarch and for his Sacred Majesty by the Forfeiture of all these Obligations to his Subjects and the Princes abroad and at the Expence of all this Treasure given for quite contrary Uses to recommend himself the more meritoriously to his Patronage The Parliament therefore after they had given all this Money were presently Prorogued and sat no more till the latter end of February 1672. that there might be a competent time allowed for so great a work as was designed and that the Architects of our Ruine might be so long free from the busie and odious Inspection of the Parliament till the work were finish'd And now all Applications made by his Majesty of Great Britain to induce Foreign Princes into the Garranty of the Peace of Aix la Chapelle ceased while on the other side those who desired to be admitted into it were here rejected The Duke of Lorrain who had always been a true Friend to the King and for his Affection to the Tripple League had incurred the French King's Displeasure with the loss of his Country Seizd upon in the year 1669. against all the Laws not only of Peace but Hostility yet by vertue of the Dover Treaty was refused the favour to which others had been so earnestly invited and though his Envoy was sent back with Complements and many Expressions of Kindness yet he was told withal that the French Invasion was a torrent not to be stopp'd at that time which was as much as to say the Case was alter'd and the Tripple League must signifie nothing At the same time also the Emperour by a Letter invited himself into the same Garranty in conformity to one of the Articles of the said Treaty of Aix Upon receipt of which Letter the King assured the Spanish Embassador that he was glad his Imperial Majesty was so ready to come into the League and told him he would cause an Instrument to be prepared in order to his Admission But when the Resolution was taken and orders given for preparing the said Instrument it was moved that Mr. Secretary Trevor who was not initiated in their holy Mysteries might not have the drawing of it though it was his proper Province By which means the Popish Cabal having made themselves sole Masters of the thing at first a reasonable honest Draught was brought in but before it was perfected Monsieur Colbert being consulted the King was possessed with an opinion that the admitting the Emperor would be attended with dangerous Consequences and that in case he came into the League his Majesty would be engaged in all his Quarrels and bound to make his Forces March into the farthest parts of Germany as often as it should happen to be Invaded by the Great Turk which Secretary Trevor oppos'd as much as he was able and endeavoured to satisfie the King that the Garranty of the Tripple League as well as of the Treaty of Aix related only to Hostilities either from France or Spain yet the wary Men of the Cabal being on the King's side carry'd it and so the
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF K. CHARLES II. AND K. IAMES II. Printed in the Year 1690. PREFACE IT is one of the Encomiums given to Suetonius That he made Publick to the World the Vices and Miscarriages of the Twelve Caesars with the same freedom with which they were by them Committed And there is no question but one of his chiefest reasons for so doing was this Because he would not deceive Posterity and all agree that he was Contemporary with the Three last So that the Enormities of Domitian could not but be fresh in his Memory when he wrote his Life and there might be several Persons Living as might have the same Partial Affections for Domitian as there are now Adorers of C. II. and J. II. For which reason there is a wary Caution among some People That Truth is not always to be spoken Which perhaps may be sometimes True but as the Case stands with these Sheets not at all to be taken notice of The pains of this short History being as well to Vindicate as to Inform and written in Opposition to one of the French King 's most Scandalous Libels and bitter Invectives against our Present Sovereign Intitled The True Portraicture of William Henry of Nassau c. Now to have made a Particular Answer to all the Extravagancies and Impertinent Flams of a Malicious Libeller would have been a Fending and Proving altogether fruitless It was therefore thought the more concise way to bring the Two Last Reigns upon the Stage and then let all the World judg of the Furberies and Tyranny of those Times and the Integrity Sincerity and Sweetness of Their Present Majesties Reign As for the Truth of what is here contain'd I will not Apologize for it for as to the more secret Transactions the Consequences and Events are my Testimonies and for what was more publickly carried there are the loud and general Complaints of the Kingdom to confirm it So that I shall say no more THE SECRET HISTORY c. WHEN Charles the Second was restored to the Thrones of England Scotland and Ireland never any Monarch in the World came to the Possession of so large a Dominion with more Advantages to have done good for himself to his Subjects at home and to his Allies abroad The People all experienc'd in Martial Discipline as having but newly sheath'd the Sword of Civil War and Foreign Conquest so that their Valour was dreaded abroad where-ever he should have menac'd an Enlargement of his Territories Besides all this he had the Love of his Subjects equal if not superior to any Prince that ever reign'd before him and he had the Affection of â—is Parliament to the highest degree But after all this he was no sooner setâ—ed in his Throne but through the Influâ—nce of Evil Consellors upon a dispositiâ—n naturally vicions and easily corrupted with Effeminate Pleasures he abandon'd himself to all manner of Softness and Voluptuous Enjoyments and harbouring in his Bosom the worst of Vices base Ingratitude betray'd himself that he might betray his People For where the Constitution of a Nation is such that the Laws of the Land are the Measures both of the Sovereigns Commands and the Obedience of the Subjects whereby it is provided that as the one are not to invade what by Concessions and Stipulations is granted to the Ruler so the other is not to deprive them of their lawful and determin'd Rights and Liberties there the Prince who strives to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Society is the Traytor and the Rebel and not the People who endeavour to preserve and defend their own Nor must we ascribe the Miscarriages of his Reign altogether to the remissness of his Nature but to a Principle of Revenge which his Mother had infus'd into him not so much for the loss of her Husband but out of her inbred Malice to the Protestant Religion which no where flourish'd in that Splendour as in England foster'd anâ— cherished by the vow'd Enemy of this Nation his Brother the D. of York who haâ— been openly heard to declare in his Bed chamber at St. Iames's That he was resolv'd to be reveng'd upon the English Nation for the Death of his Father And what an Ascendant this Brother had over him the whole Kingdom has felt by sad and woful experience For indeed the King had all along an Affection for him so entire and baneful to the Nation that he could only be said to Reign while his Brother Rul'd With all these Royal Vertues and imbred and fomented Animosities to render him at his return a Gracious Sovereign to this Kingdom let us trace him from his Cradle to find out those Princely Endowments which invisibly encreasing with him as he grew in Years dazled in such a manner the Eyes of the doating Politicians of that Age to recal him against that known and vulgar Maxim of Common Prudence Regnabit sanguine multo Ad Regnum quisquis venit ab exilio When he was but very young he had a very strange an unaccountable Fondness to a wooden Billet without which in his Arms he would never go abroad nor lie down in his Bed From which the more observing sort of People gathered that when he came to Years of Maturity either Oppressors and Blockheads would be his greatest Favourites or else that when he came to reign he would either be like Iupiter's Log for every Body to deride and contemn or that he would rather chuse to command his People with a Club than rule them with a Scepter And indeed they that made the first and last Conjectures found in due time they were not altogether in the wrong For the Throne was no sooner empty by the death of his Father before he could be permitted to seat himself in it but he gave us a plain discovery what sort of People they were who when he came to Reign were most likely to have the Principal Room in his Favour and Trust and by whose assistance he was in hopes to tyrannize over his English and Scottish Subjects For when the Parliament of Scotland sent to him as he was then cruizing about Guernsey to treat with him about receiving him to be their King he would not so much as transact with them till he had first sent to Ireland to assure himself whether those Rebels who had murder'd no less than two hundred thousand Protestants were in a condition or no for him to cast himself upon their Assistance But those hopes failing in regard they were in a fair way to be subdu'd themselves he was at length inclin'd to entertain the Overture made him by the Scots And yet even then was his mind so full fraught with the thoughts of Despotical Dominion and purposes of introducing Popery into his Territories that had it not been for the P. of Orange he would never have comply'd with the Terms which the Scots had order to propose tho' no other than what were necessary for the security of the
hands to prevent the Consequences of French and Popish Dictates they were mistaken in the Man and gave their wholsom Advice to him that was bound not to take it and was himself the Primum Mobile of all the Disorders which they besought of him to remedy During this Sessions of Parliament many foul things came to light For while the King had raised an Army and pressed the Parliament for Money to maintain them under pretence of making a War with France which was the earnest desire of all the Protestant part of the Kingdom the Parliament were fully informed that while the King boasted of the Alliances which he had made for the preservation of Flanders and the Protestant Religion both at home and abroad he was secretly entred into Treaties and Alliances at the same time with the French King and Mr. Garraway of the House of Commons had gotten a Copy of the Private Treaty between the King of England and the French King at the same instant that the Secretary and all the Court Pentioners cried out a War insomuch that such of the Conspirators as were in the House began to blush when they saw the Cheat so palpably discerned It was farther discovered that a great Favourite of the Duke 's had been sent over into France under a pretence of Expostulating and requiring satisfaction for the Injuries which the English had received from the French but in reality to carry the Project of Articles for the Peace and to settle and confirm all things fast about the Money that was to come from France and to agree the Methods for shamming the Confederates about their Expected Alliances They found themselves cheated of all the Pole Bill Money which they had given so little a while before upon the assurance of a War intended against France the greatest part of which they perceived was imediately though appropriated to the French Wur only converted to other uses as the paying of old Debts so that very little was left to pay for any Necessaries bought or to be bought toward the pretended War with France Nor were they ignorant of the real Design for which the King had raised his Army and what care the King and his Brother took that there should be no other Officers in that Army than what were fit for the Work in hand which was to introduce Popery and French Government by main force Four parts of Five being downright Papists or else such as resolved so to be upon the least intimation The Duke recommending all such as he knew fit for the Turn and no less than a Hundred Commissions being sign'd by Secretary W. to â—ish Papists to raise Forces notwithstanding the late Act by which means both the Land and Naval Forces were in safe hands And to compleat the Work hardly a Judge Justice of the Peace or any Officer in England but what was of the Duke's Promotion Nor were they ignorant of the private Negotiations carried on by the Duke with the Kings Connivance with the Pope and Cardinal Norfolk who had undertaken to raise Money from the Church sufficient to supply the King's Wants till the Work were done in case the Parliament should smoak their Design and refuse to give any more Nor was the Parliament ignorant what great Rejoycing there was in Rome it self to hear in what a posture his Majesty was and how well provided of an Army and Money to begin the Business The Parliament also understood while they were labouring the War with France and to resist the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Power that the King underhand assisted the French with Men and Ammunition of all sorts and soon after that a Cessation was concluded both at Nimeghen and Paris and that the King had got some money from France for that Jobb by which means the French King was now sure to hold all his Conquests abroad which had England been real to the Confederates might have been easily wrested again out of his Hands But it seems it was not so much Money as the King expected which made him angry so that he began to threaten that if the French King did not perform his Promise of 300000 l. Annuity for three Years he would undo all he had done against the next Parliament But the French King derided those vain Threats menacing in his turn that if the King of England would not be content with his Terms and do and say to the Parliament according to his directions he would discover both him and his Correspondents in betraying the Nation and discover all his secret Contrivances against the Kingdom as afterwards he Published the Dover Treaty at Paris which was the reason that after that His Majesty of England never durst disoblige the French Monsieur but became a perfect Slave to his Interest a Bondage he never needed to have undergone had he been but half as sincere to his English Parliament But to them he was never true with them he always broke his Faith and Royal Word insomuch that after they had given him Money to Disband his Army he employed the Money to another use and kept up his standing Forces to the great Terror of the People in all parts of the Kingdom So that now all things running on the Papistical side to their Hearts desire what with Popish Souldiers Popish Officers Popish Counsels Popish Priests and Jesuits swarming about the Town and Country and France at leisure to help them who had help'd him to be more a Conqueror by the Peace than he could have expected by a War the Duke of York was for the Kings pulling off his Vizard and for setting up Alamode of France according to what had been so often debated at White hall and St. Iames's But while the King and his Brother were thus riding Post to ruin the Laws and Religion of the Kingdom the Discovery of the Popish Plot by Dr. Oats broke all their Measures for a time by laying open the Secret Contrivances of our English Castor and Pollux for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Government This Plot was no sooner made known to the King but he imparts it to the Duke not the knowledge of the Plot for that they both knew before but the News of the Plots being discovered Upon which they set themselves with all the care they could to stop the farther Progress of the Discovery To which purpose the Duke gives notice of it to his Man Coleman and the Priests and Jesuits in the Savoy by which means what Papers and Persons were to be conceal'd and conveyed away was carefully looked after All this while by this â—easonable detection of the King and his Brother to the Priests Jesuits Oats himself narrowly escaped Massacred Oats finding himself thus betray'd and abandoned by the King applies himself to Sir Edmund Bury Godfry with a Scheme of the Plot fairly drawn up by that means to be introduced before the Council to have the Business there unfolded which with much ado was done and Oats
yet there was another quickly hatch'd of the same stamp and nature though carried on by other Instruments Nell Wall an Irish Papist and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall but afterwards for her Religion advanced to be one of the French Dutchesses Women and so to the King's Favour by which she became a great States-Woman as well as a common Whore To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Dutchess and then to the King where he was told That the Plot would undo them unless a way could be found to make a Counter-plot therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it for that no Cost should be spared but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service Draw Painter here England's pious Protestant Monarch Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine and her Close-stool Wench against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both The business of this Irish Tool was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets and carry them to White-Hall where he had Audience and private Conferences with Nell Wall the Dutchess and the King himself and where he had sometimes given for secret service a Hundred and Two Hundred Pound at a time and was no less slabber'd by his Gracious Soveraign than Dangerfield had been before So zealous were We for the Popish Cause that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery that We would have declar'd our selves even to have kiss'd the Tail as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion That when one Sergeant a Priest made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland which he caus'd to be transmitted to the Court with an intention to have discovered several others he was first brib'd off by Pillory-Carr then sent for into England slightly and slily examined had his Pardon given him and sent back with Five Pound a week to say no more And in this game that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done Sir L. Ienkins shewed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity being just enter'd Secretary in the room of another who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool as well as Knave did Among whose good Services to his Master we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power to conceal the Murther of the Priest at Abbeville in France upon intimation that he was coming into England to make a farther discovery of the Plot Which together with his fasting and other infallible tokens shewed him to be plainly what was well enough known before Father Goff's Creature as well as the King 's and Duke's Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time no less than seven times before permitted to sit on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again and retrieve their Losses in England and in this Interval it was that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome and others their Associates for Money to strike while the Iron was hot in regard that Scotland by this time was secur'd and all things in such a forwardness that now or never was the time but the Pope had such an ill opinion of our Soveraign's Fidelity that he slipt his neck out of the Collar and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty Thus missing money from Rome and the rest of their Popish Associates and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash there was no way but one at a forc'd-put which was to let the Parliament sit and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation the King in a framed Speech told them of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes and particularly with Hâ—lland and how necessary it was to preservâ— Tangier which had already run him in Debt Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusâ—ncy before they could make their presentments the prosecution of the Popish-Plot and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham all which they lookt upon to be of greater moment than the King's Arguments for his wants For it was well known that by His perâ—idious Dealings abroad he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes to whom he sent that they slighted his Applications as one upon whose Word they could never Rely And as for the preservation of Tangier there was nothing less in his Thoughts A fine Credit for a Prince and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom nor no other way to work them to â—hose ends unless by forging untruths to make them accessary to the betraying of the â—eople that had entrusted them The Parliament therefore bent all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery â—oncluding that the Dukes Apostâ—tizing from â—is Religion was the sole Evil under which â—he Nâ—â—â—ons in a more particular manner â—roaned and consequently that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismoâ—â—ted But the King being reâ—â—lved not to forsake his Brother whatever â—â—came of the Kingdom out of a proâ—ense â—alice to the Nation and â—oresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money upon the Dukes undertaking to furnish him he Dissolved this Parliament too with promise of another at Oxford to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow In the mean time all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection preparative to which Judges were selected with Dispositions Thoughts and Minds as Scarlet as their Gowns And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery beyond the parallel of History A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly oâ— it designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood under the colour and forms of Justice and yet
to a higher Scrutiny The Justice of Heaven perhaps not minding a present Revenge of his Death who had not only prevented the Presecution of Noble and Innocent Essex's Blood but so severely punish'd the Industrious Enquiry after it Only this is further to be remark'd that the Irish Papists could for some time before fix upon the utmost Period of his Reign and the D. was sent for in haste out of Scotland without any apparent Reason for it besides that the King's Permission was obtain'd with some Difficulty However by the violent and tremendous Death of his Brother he at length arrived at the long-long wish'd for Haven of his Ambitious Desires and beholds himself mounted upon the Pinacle of Royalty only that his Fall might be the more conspicuous He was no sooner Proclaimed but he declared his Religion openly to his Privy Council however he began with a mild and caressing Declaration which he afterwards broke in every Line of it A meer Trap baited with Indulgence to Tender Consciences on purpose to catch the Dissenting Mice to deliver them when caught into the Paws of his ravenous Popish Cats but no sooner was he Crowned but as if his Coronation-Oath and all his Promises so lately made had been no more than so many Pills of Opium and believing himself environed with Power sufficient to maintain his Tyranny and Oppression he invades Property by Expulsion of the right Owners tramples upon the Laws by his pretended Prerogative of Suspending Power and goes about to pull down the Stately Structure of the Protestant Religion by the Suspension of one and imprisoning and Arraigning at his Criminal Bar no less than Seven of the most Eminent Fathers of the English Church And by a strange Alteration of the Face of Government Treason over-rules the Law and Traitors impeached are fetched out of Jail to sit Triumphantly dominering at the Helm of State and Iefferies the Daniel that in some measure might be said to be taken out of the Lions Den for the Cruelty of his Nature is advanced in open Hostility to Justice to wage War with the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom A mean Spirit insulting over his Inferiors but a Spaniel to his Superiors who tho he knew himself no more than a Tool in the hand of the Popish Artificers the Shadow of Grandeur lofty under Contempt and domineering only in publick yet having pawn'd his Soul for the hopes of an Embroidered Purse rather than recoil to Goodness carreers on in Mischief and as if his Robes had not been Scarlet enough dies them more deep in Innocent Blood and becomes his Master's Vassal to enslave the Nation Such Counsellors as these hurried on the New Crown'd King with such a Rapidness to accomplish the great Work of introducing Tyranny and Popery to which his own Fears of leaving the Papists worse than he found them as furiously carried him that he threw his Brother into his Grave as if he had not had leisure to bury him or as if he had deem'd him not worth a Funeral whom he thought not worth a longer Life Unless perhaps he thought the Hypocrisie of Pompous Obsequies would have but the more provok'd his Brother 's Injur'd Manes with which as common Fame had spread it he was already too much pestred I will not here dispute the Truth of Apparitions nor insist upon the vulgar censures about the Town upon the Priests for not detaining him in the half-way-Prison but singing him out of Purgatory to make his Brother melancholy by facing him several times and giving him an astonishing stroke upon the back as he was going down a pair of Stairs in Whitehal yet this may be asserted That Guilt accompanied with Terror forms those Apparitions in in the Mind which work the same Effect and obtain the same belief when once divulg'd among the Credulous as if they were real However it were it shew'd he thought himself but little beholding to him for living so long and consequently no way oblig'd to retaliate a Succession so late in the Year with so much Loss of Time And now the first influences of his Tyranny and Fury against the Protestants flew into Scotland where whatever Indulgence he shewed in England he issued forth a Dreadful Proclamation against the Dissenters under the Notion of Enemies to the King and Government and Destroyers of the British Monarchy sufficient to have given a more early Alarm to the Dissenters in England had they not been lull'd asleep by the Softness of a present Repose and the Charms of their Decoy-Duke Penn the effect rather of their Simplicity than their Policy But the first Act of his Revenge in England brake forth upon Dr. Oates He could not forget the Doctor 's detection of his Conspiracies against the Kingdom And because he could not find out a way to hang him his Chief Iustice Iefferies found out a Punishment to gratify his Royal Fury worse than Death it self and till then unknown among Christians in Imitation of the Roman Fustuarium by which the Roman Souldiers were often drub'd to Death or if they scap'd sent into perpetual Banishment as the Doctor was first of all Scourg'd by the Common Executioner beyond all Precedent and then Condemn'd to perpetual Imprisonment A Sentence so void of all Christian Compassion that only Iefferies could have invented and such a Beast as Withens could have pronounced A goodly sight to see Protestant Judges condemning a Protestant and the Detector of a most Horrid Popish Plot upon the Evidence of known Papists and some of them nearly Related to the Executed Traytors and this for Perjury too upon the Testimony of Witnesses already falsifi'd As if Justice were a thing that never had been Naturaliz'd in Heaven but only depended upon the Will of the Prince a Kind of Tool to be us'd by his Bene-placito Slaves at his or their Discretion or the grand Poppet of the World to be shew'd in various Dreâ—ses and Disguises as the force of Judicature requir'd But as for Dangerfield he had been once his Darling frequently admitted to kiss his Hand while he was in Conspiracy with him to Suck the Blood of the Innocent But there was no Atonement for his revolting and revealing the Hidden Mystery of Iniquity Therefore he must dance the same Dance that Oates had done only the King did him this small Piece of Justice to throw away an Inconsiderable Roman Catholick to Satisfy the general Discontent upon his being Murder'd In the next place he calls a Parliament and renews his Assurances and Promises to preserve the Government both in Church and State as by Law Establish'd and Vows to hazard his own Person as he had formerly done in defence of the just Liberties and Properties of the Nation But still the Burden of his song was More mony Which the Parliament willing to Engage him if possible by all the Testimonies of their Duty and Loyalty or at least to shew that nothing should be wanting on their part readily granted
a Person debilitated by the unfortunate Effects of the exasperated Revenge of an injured Bed and meeting with a Consort no less infirm by whom he never had before any Child but what dropt into the Grave as soon as Born not having any substantial Rafters for Life to build upon should so seasonably nick it to be both the Parents of a sound Off-spring for the preservation of Popery She who ought to have taken all advantages to have had publick and undeniable Testimonies of her Glory to be the Mother of a Prince so providentially sent from Heaven to Support and Establish the Roman Catholick Faith in a Revolted Kingdom would never have been so reserv'd and shy of exposing the Symptomes of her pregnance but only to a few that were privy to the Imposture Add to this the Flight of the Midwife in whom it never could be a Crime to bring a Queen to Bed But omitting the manifold Circumstances sufficiently already canvassed to detect the Pious Fraud and the Chyrum of Affidavits to cover the Cheat all brought upon the publick Stage by dire constraint on the one side and immodest Bigottry on the other the unhappy occasion of revealing the Arcana of Generation to every Turnspit and serving only to inflame the desires of wanton Youth Omitting I say these Circumstances there are others no less remarkable of another Nature as the sending Castlemain to Rome among other things to impart this Affair to his Holiness and to know whether the Apostolick See would stand by the pretended Prince in case the People should dispute his Title And this seems to be confirmed by the coming over of Count Dada in the Quality of the Pope's Nuntio just as the Farce was contriving and the Popes being afterwards Godfather to the Child In the next place about the time that the Conception was pretended Father Peters was taken into the Privy Council to give the Report all the Favour imaginable at the Board to prevent the being of it Contested or if it were to satisfie all manner of Doubts and so incite the Lords to make such Orders as the Case required which had noâ— been so proper for the King or the rest of the Popish Lords who knew not so well what to insist upon Another thing was that the Child was no sooner Born but it was translated to Richmond lest the pretended Mother should have been put to the Trouble of a forced Fondness which had the Child continued with her would have prov'd a part so irksome and so â—ll for her to act that notice would have been taken of it Nor was it less observable that at the same time the Bishops were lock'd up safe that they might be out of the way of being called for Witnesses whose Impartiality otherwise would have been desiring more satisfaction to their Consciences than the depth of the Mystery requir'd To which may be added That at first the King himself who had most Reason to know did not seem to give Credit to the thing or at least was very doubtful of it and therefore when the News was first brought him as one that rather wish'd it true than thought it to be real he made answer to the Messenger If it were so 't was very odd till finding that the Lady of Loretto would take Bribes and had espoused the blessed Design he was bound to believe that his Mother-in-Law's Prayers and the Diamond Bodkin had prevail'd and that his Royal Consort had been impregnated by an Apparition like the Mother of Damaratus King of Sparta However it was look'd upon all over Europe as a very low and mean Condescention of a Soveraign Prince Hedge-Sparrow like to hatch the Cuckoo's Egg and own the supposititious Issue of another Man which they who pretend to make the best Excuse for seem willing to believe proceeded more from Fear than Conscience in regard that being privy to the many Conspiracies of the Priests and Jesuits against his Brother's Life it possessed him with such a dread of their Popish Mercy that he yielded to whatever they desir'd for his own Preservation On the other side the Priests and Jesuits were so terribly afraid of a Revolution after his Death that by the Power of his imperious Queen and their own Importunities they hurried him on to all those Impolitick Exorbitances that hastened both their own and his Ruin For now the Nation no longer able to brook such a deluge of illegal Oppressions and the whole Body of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom observing such a general Desolation impending upon their Religion Lives and Fortunes apply themselves to their Hignesses the Princess and Prince of Orange as the only Cherubims on Earth under whose Wings they could retire for Safety and Protection Who no sooner with a Generosity becoming a true Defender of the Protestant Faith appear'd in their Defence but Consternation seized King Iames and all his Raving Counsellors Upon the first News of the Heroic Prince's Preparations he takes off the Bishop of London's Suspension restores the City-Charter with all those other Franchises which had been so tempestuously ravish'd from other Corporations and returns the Ejected Gentlemen of both Universities to the Freeholds which he had wrested out of their hands But yet to shew how firm he was in his Resolutions to resume the same Despotic Power again had his Success once answer'd his Expectations after he had order'd the Bishop of Winchester to put in the Fellows of Maudlin College he no sooner heard of the Prince's being put back by storm with some small Loss which was heightned out of Policy in Holland but he recall'd his Orders to the Bishop sent for him to London and stopt the Re-admission of the Fellows till he heard the Prince was again Embark'd and prosperously bending his Course for England So soon as he heard the Prince was Landed he summons his Affidavit Lords and Ladies about him in hopes to have sworn his pretended Son into the Succession in case of any Miscarriage of his own Person which he never intended to indanger After that he flew to Salisbury believing the Terror of his Name would have gain'd him present Victory But not meeting the good Fortune he expected all he did there was to discourage his Soldiers with his Pusillanimous Fears and Frights upon every little Allarm of a Post-Boy So that altho he had good Counsel given him To Horse all his Foot and fall upon the Enemy while they were yet labouring under the inconveniencies of the Sea and before their Numbers increased he rejected it unless he might keep his Teagues about him and expose the English to the usual dangers of Road beaters Which together with their unwillingness to engage the Deliverers of their Country so alienated their hearts from him that they deserted him by Troops and Regiments Desponding at this and more terrified with a little bleeding at the Nose than he had been with all the Innocent Blood which he had caus'd to be spilt he returns back to London and having sent his Queen and her Babe before which was sufficient Warning for Dada Peters and the rest to provide for themselves he withdrew from the City but being taken rifled and seiz'd by the Country People near Feversham before they knew him he was brought back to Whitehall where having his Choice given him to stay in England or go beyond Sea he rather chose by a voluntary departure to abdicate the Realm To which he was advis'd by his Council that assur'd him The Distractions of the Kingdom would make way for his Return in a little time Which God forbid And thus to the surprize of all men came to pass a Revolution so Sudden so Great and Unexpected that History cannot parallel It seem'd a Labyrinth of Providence to which the Belov'd of Heaven WILLIAM HENRY only had the Clue while Prudence and Fortitude were the Ariadnes that gave him their Assistance to subdue the Minotaur that devoured our Religion and Liberties Two conspicuous Examples at once of Heaven's Indignation and the Almighty's Favour the one pursuing to his downfal an Apostate from God and an Oppressor of his People and exposing him among unbelieving Bog-trotters upon the lingring death-bed of his gasping Glory the fetter'd Vassal of his once fawning Confederate The other prospering with Miracles of Success the Generous Redeemer of the True Reformed Religion from the devouring Jaws of that double-headed Monster Popery and Slavery By whose Auspicious Conduct two late languishing Kingdoms groaning under the heavy weight of Misery and Tyranny enjoy a Jubilee of Peace and Tranquility and freed from the daily fears of Massacre and Destruction in the fair way to recover their Pristin Glory have now no more to do but to repay their Praises to Heaven and their due Acknowledgments to Them that have approv'd themselves the truly Indulging Father and Mother of their Country A Prince the Wonder of His Age a Princess the Miracle of Her Sex in whom all Virtues as in their proper Center meet rendring the Nation happy in Two in One as the whole World is blest in Three in One and upon whom next under Heaven depend the hopes of all that cordially desire the Welfare and Prosperity of Christendom FINIS