fierce was the feeling that nothing could be done. My Lord
Shaftesbury's creatures were still strong enough to hold their own; and
at last His Majesty did the bravest thing he had ever done. He caused a
sedan-chair to be brought privately to his lodgings, and his crown and
robes to be put in there. Then he went in himself, and away to where the
House of Lords was sitting, and before anyone could utter a word, he
dissolved the Parliament once more, and altogether, and never again
summoned another.

But that was not all.

First, it appeared as if even His Majesty himself was frightened at what
he had done, for he allowed my Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Oliver
Plunket, to be convicted and executed in London, clean contrary to all
evidence or right or justice--just because he was a Papist, and the
popular cry had been raised against him that he was conspiring to bring
the French over to Ireland, whereas he was a good and kindly old man,
who lived in the greatest simplicity and neither did nor designed harm
to any living creature. (I do not know whether it was the name _France_
that frightened the King; but certainly at that time I was engaged on
his behalf in some transactions with that country which would have
ruined him had they ever been known.) But then he recovered himself,
after the sacrifice of one more Catholic, and did what he should have
done a great while ago, and caused my Lord Shaftesbury to be arrested
and sent to the Tower on a charge of fomenting insurrection, which was
precisely what my Lord had been doing for the last two years at least.

But His Majesty's scheme fell through; for the sheriffs, who were Whigs,
and on my Lord's side, therefore, packed the grand jury of the City and
acquitted him.

Then there was another affair of which I, in my business in France, saw
something of the other side. My negotiations were coming to a successful
end, when news came over to Paris that the Prince William of Orange was
in England, and made much of by His Majesty. This last was a lie; but I
wrote across to His Majesty of what a bad impression such a rumour made;
and urged him to make amends--which he did very handsomely. The Duke of
Monmouth too was back again in London, and so was the Duke of York; so
the chess-pieces were all again for the present on the squares on which
the game had begun. It was also a little satisfaction to me to hear that
Her Grace of Portsmouth had urged the Duke of York's return; for I