state of the city was frightful. All Wapping was filled with the voices of angry women crying, "This comes of not paying our husbands." In broad noonday a mob attacked the grand mansion of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, cut down his trees, broke his windows, and painted a gibbet on his gate.

The gold which Pepys sent into the country was buried in his father's garden at Huntingdon; and most amusing is the account of its up-digging. At first the spot could not be found, and Pepys was disgusted with the hider's silliness when he discovered it only half a foot deep. What a washing they had, after finding the rotted bags and scraping the scattered pieces out of the wet clay by the light of a dark lantern! And what vexation to miss a hundred coins! Pepys grew mad; what with his anger, his fear, and his roaring at his deaf father, he presents a very comic figure to the reader of his diary. By midnight he had raked out of the dirt forty-five pieces more; and by nine next morning, by dint of working with pail and sieve in one of the summer-houses, he made the forty-five up to seventy-nine. His journey home, with the basket of gold below his seat, its position under his bed at the inn, his fears lest its weight may break the bottom of the coach, are amongst the finishing touches of one of the most amusing episodes in the Diary.

In

The Diary of Pepys should be read in conjunction with a contemporary work, similar but purer, written by his friend and correspondent, John Evelyn, the author of a work on foresttrees called Sylva, and another on agriculture called Terra. these two diaries the student of the Restoration era will find mirrored, as no formal history can ever mirror them, the manners of an age the follies and disasters of which make it, when rightly read, fruitful in warning and instruction.

Fifth Period.-Limited Monarchy.

From the Revolution to the Present Time. 1688-1887.

CHAPTER I.

ENGLAND AND EUROPEAN POLITICS.

Sketch of William-French war-La Hogue-Glencoe-Steinkirk-Landen -Death of Mary-Political changes-The two banks-Siege of Namur -Treaty of Ryswick-The Darien failure-Act of Settlement-Impeachment of Somers-Tricks of Louis-War again-Death of William.

A

MEAGRE bright-eyed Dutchman-shaken with an asthmatic cough, unlearned in literature yet practically able to employ seven tongues, unskilled in science yet able to apply mathematics to the art of war, careless of milder pastimes, and finding a fierce pleasure in the more dangerous field-sportsnow swayed the destinies of Britain. His courage was something wonderful; his stoicism great. At the age of twentyfour, he had faced the illustrious Condé at Seneffe, and had drawn from the veteran a rebuke more flattering than a thousand compliments.* Though fatherless and motherless, he had steered his way through many shoals and perils, reserving for a very few the genial side of his nature, and presenting to the world the armour of an icy reserve. One friend he did grapple to his soul—the noble Bentinck (whom he by-and-by made Earl * Condé said that Orange had borne himself in all things like an old general, except in exposing himself like a young soldier,

and Mary.

of Portland), who had nursed him through malignant small-pox, and had then lain down to suffer the malady caught by his devotion.

The narrative of William's reign, after the close of the Revolution in Scotland and in Ireland, deals principally with his wars with France and his relations to the Parliament at home. England declared war against France in 1689. William desired this, in pursuance of his anti-French policy on the Continent; but the war was in fact forced on him by the action of Louis in supporting James in Ireland. Next year the united fleets of England and Holland were beaten by Tourville off Beachy Head; and Namur was taken by the armies of Louis. But a decisive action off La Hogue turned the scale, and almost destroyed the naval power of France. Louis had formed a great scheme for the invasion of England. For that purpose a large army had been gathered at La Hogue, and there James was waiting with it for Tourville's fleet to transport them across the Channel. Admiral Russell started from the Downs on a cruise after the French fleet, and, when he had effected a junction with Carter, Delaval, and the Dutch squadron, found ninety-nine men-of-war under his flag. On the 19th of May he sighted the fleet of Tourville off Barfleur, and at long range by the incautious Frenchman. there was a chase, Tourville having taken to flight. A stiff breeze on the morning of the 21st set both fleets in motion. Some of the French ships escaped through the dangerous Race

was soon engaged Next day (20th)

of Alderney. Delaval found six vessels-among them. May

1692

Tourville's flag-ship, Soleil Royal-crippled or stranded near Cherbourg, and burned them all. It was reserved for Rooke to eclipse all by the brilliance of his achievement. On the 24th he cut out sixteen large ships and transports lying off La Hogue* and protected by great platforms lined with

*La Hogue, a small sea-port on the east coast of the Cotentin; often confounded with Cape La Hague, on the north-west of the same peninsula.

cannon.

The boats dashed in upon the protected ships in the face of a tremendous fire, and destroyed them under the eyes of James Stuart and the grand army. No such danger had threatened England since the days of the Spanish Armada : what Howard had done in 1588, Russell and Rooke achieved a century later. Well might Britain feel pride and trust in her wooden walls.

The bloody business of Glencoe stained the laurels won at the Boyne and the Hogue. The late rising in the Highlands of Scotland had excited a feeling in the minds of William's ministers that a terrible lesson must be given in order to overawe the wild tribes. The Earl of Breadalbane got a large sum of money to distribute among the chiefs; but it did not suit the private grudges and ambitions of that nobleman, or of Argyle, to buy over the allegiance of every chief. A day was fixed-the 31st of December 1691-on or before which all the leading Highlanders were reCruquired to swear allegiance to Glenorchy King William, under pain of fire and sword. One chieftain, MacIan of Glencoe, head of the Macdonalds who dwelt there,

delayed the taking of the oath until the last day, on which he presented himself at Fort-WillBrenock iam with the principal men of his

clan. Colonel Hill, the governor, not being a civil magistrate, would not administer the oath. There was nothing left for MacIan but to cross the wilds of the Argyleshire hills and see the sheriff at Inveraray. It took six days to struggle through the snow-drifts and ford the roaring floods. But on the 6th

of January the oath was taken, and MacIan went home. Sir John Dalrymple caught gladly at the chance of the stern lesson which he feared was slipping from his power. His letters to various men about the matter may be well described as written in blood. William signed the order for the massacre of the whole clan-one of the most revolting crimes that stain our history. The excuse made for him is that he had not read what he signed; but that only shifts the crime. One hundred and twenty soldiers, under Captain Campbell of Glenlyon and Lieutenant Lindsay, entered the valley early in February, and asked for permission to stay a few days in a friendly way. They played cards; they caroused; they enjoyed what sport the season and the place afforded. They repaid this hospitality by entering the cottage of the chief at five one morningFebruary 13th-and shooting him through the head. While tearing off his wife's rings, they wounded her so that she died next day. When the muskets began to ring in the dark,

most of the clan rushed to the shelter of the hills.

Feb. 13,

1692

Thirty-eight were slain on the spot; how many perished among the mountain snow we cannot tell. Gloomy before, the glen has grown gloomier still under the haunting associations of that dreadful scene. A parliamentary inquiry brought out all the circumstances of the atrocity; yet the perpetrators were allowed to go unpunished.

The French war, which had opened in 1689, lasted until the treaty of Ryswick brought it to a close in 1697. William, after the suppression of the Irish Jacobites, threw his whole. soul into its operations. After the loss of Namur he tried to make sure of Mons; but his great adversary, Luxembourg, like himself a diseased shadow in bodily presence, moved to the rescue, and lodged himself near Steinkirk,* in a wooded country, cut by hedges. A battle took place between the armies of the allies and the French on the 24th of July 1692. * Steinkirk, a Belgian village, between Brussels and Mons.