become a member of the Catholic Church;
but if they insisted on seeing her she was satisfied to admit them,
providing they would not distress her by arguments or controversy.

Soon after she had expressed these desires, Bishop Blandford arrived,
and begged permission to see her, hearing which the duke went into the
drawing-room, where his lordship waited, and delivered the message with
which the duchess had charged him. Thereon the bishop said, "he made no
doubt but that she would do well since she was fully convinced, and had
not changed out of any worldly end." He then went into the room, and
having made "a short Christian exhortation suitable to the condition
she was in," took his departure. Presently the queen came and sat by the
dying woman, with whom she had borne many wrongs in common; and later
on, the Franciscan friar being admitted, the duchess "received all the
last sacraments of the Catholick Church, and dyed with great devotion
and resignation."

Though no mystery was now made concerning the faith in which she died,
the duke, from motives of prudence, continued to preserve the secret
of his having embraced the same religion. He still publicly attended
service on Sundays with the king, but continued to absent himself from
communion. At last, the Christmastide of the year 1672 being at hand,
his majesty besought Lord Arundel and Sir Thomas (now Lord) Clifford to
persuade the duke to take the sacrament with him, "and make him sensible
of the prejudice it would do to both of them should he forbear so to do,
by giving the world so much reason to believe he was a catholick." To
this request these honest gentlemen replied it would be difficult to
move the duke to his majesty's desires; but even if they succeeded, it
would fail to convince the world his royal highness was not a catholic.
With these answers Charles seemed satisfied; but again on Christmas Eve
he urged Lord Clifford to advise the duke to publicly communicate on
the morrow. His royal highness, not being so unscrupulous as the king,
refused compliance with his wishes.

The following Easter he likewise refrained from communicating. Evelyn
tells us that "a most crowded auditorie" had assembled in the Chapel
Royal on this Sunday; possibly it had been drawn there to hear the
eloquence of Dr. Sparrow, Bishop of Exeter--probably to observe the
movements of the king's brother. "I staied to see," writes Evelyn,
"whether, according to costome, the Duke of Yor