to
close quarters with axe and scythe. The king took advantage of what
had happened, and he had the means of paying a force which amounted to
14,000 men.

Charles had been in perpetual want of money through the expensive
scandals of his court. There were half a dozen ducal titles needing
to be provided with ducal incomes, and obliging the king to become a
dependent pensionary of the liberal paymaster in France. At his death
all this was changed, and Catharine Sedley disappeared from Whitehall.
It is true that her absence was not prolonged, and that she had
obscurer rivals. But a decorous economy was observed in a branch of
expenditure which had been profuse. Nevertheless Lewis XIV hastened
to make offers of pecuniary aid to the frugal James as to the
extravagant Charles. He sent over a sum of L60,000 or L70,000,
consisting partly of arrears already due. This was to be paid only if
James found himself in difficulties after having proclaimed liberty of
conscience. If there was no disturbance, there was to be no payment.
And when the session ended without any measure of the kind, Lewis gave
orders that the money should be returned to him. In the autumn of
1685 James proceeded to adopt his advice. He had been victorious.
His birthday, in October, was celebrated more heartily than his
brother's had ever been, and the atrocities of the Western Assize did
not affect opinion to his disadvantage.

He made known his plans. Besides the standing army and the recall of
the Habeas Corpus, he demanded the dispensing power. Nobody supposed
that the head of the executive was to persecute his own religion. To
admit his right of succession was to admit that the Elizabethan Code
was to be practically dormant. The Catholic desired no more. It was
enough that they ceased to suffer oppression. Halifax, the ablest
though not the strongest of James's ministers, agreed to that, and did
not object to a moderate number of Catholic officers. The Prince of
Orange was of the same opinion. Toleration was therefore assured, and
the era of persecution had passed away. That was of no use to Lewis
XIV, who in that month of October suppressed the Protestant religion
in France. And it was of little use to James himself, as it added
nothing to his power. He insisted on introducing toleration by
dispensing with the laws, by right of his prerogative, and on
abolishing the Test Act. But the Test Act was a security against
arbitrary powe