disorders; one of which by the artifice of the Duke of Buckingham was discovered by the King in person, the party concerned leaping out of the window." The party concerned who showed such remarkable nimbleness was Ensign Churchill, who was soon after sent on active service to Tangier, then a dependency of the British Crown. Before leaving England he received a present from Lady Castlemaine of five thousand pounds; with which the polite and cynical Lord Chesterfield says "he immediately bought an annuity of five hundred pounds a year of my grandfather Halifax, which was the foundation of his subsequent fortune." The original agreement of this purchase, dated 1764, is preserved amongst the Blenheim papers.

Meantime dark and disturbing rumours spread through the kingdom that not only had James Duke of York joined the Catholic Church, but that the King's inclinations lay in the same direction, and that it was his intention to establish that faith in England. And from that time began that wrangling over rites and dogmas, in which the essential teachings from which they sprang were lost sight of; and hatred, passion, and cruelty were indulged in as proof of loyalty to the Preacher of peace and goodwill.

One of the first results of this fear which ran like fire through the land, was the introduction into Parliament of the Test Act in 1673, which made it necessary that all that all persons holding office or place of trust or profit, should take the oaths of supremacy

and allegiance in a public court, and receive the sacrament according to the Church of England in some parish church on the Lord's Day. When the Bill had passed both Houses and received a reluctant consent from the King, the Duke of York resigned his post as Lord High Admiral of England much to the triumph and satisfaction of his enemies.

The greatest consternation followed at this plain proof of James's change of religion. Not only was Parliament divided into factions, but the whole nation surged with suspicion and distrust. The House of Commons prayed the King to appoint a day for fasting and humiliation that heaven might defend the country from the horrors of Popery, against which the bishops charged their clergy to preach, greatly to the alarm of the Court.

Popular feeling was stirred to greater fury when it was announced that the heir to the throne was about to marry Mary Beatrice Eleanora d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Modena, and a Catholic princess. The object of the royal choice was then in her fifteenth year. Her figure was tall for her age and exceeding graceful; her face with its dazzlingly fair complexion, dark hair, and brilliant eyes, was strikingly handsome, whilst her manner though invariably dignified was as vivacious as a happy child's. She had been educated in a convent, and her ignorance of the world was so great, that until her marriage was proposed she had never heard of England, much less of the Duke of York.

Appeal to the Pope

15

From the first she shrank from the proposed union with this man of forty, as if intuitively warned of the strange unhappy fate in which it would entangle her; and declaring she wished to be a nun, begged her mother to refuse the offer. But the Duchess of Modena, who was Regent since her husband's death and during her son's minority, was anxious for an alliance which promised so much greatness; and as she could not gain her daughter's consent to the marriage, appealed to the Pope asking his interference. It was only when he wrote that obedience to her mother's command "would most conduce to the service of God and the public good" that she agreed to become Duchess of York. The eccentric Earl of Peterborough whom Charles had sent to Modena as ambassador, then wedded her by proxy on behalf of James, and together with her mother set out with her for England.

Meanwhile the House of Commons was disturbed by angry debates on the Duke's marriage; for, it was argued, if this union resulted in the birth of a son, he would no doubt be reared in the religion of his parents, and England would in time be ruled by a Catholic King. The Commons therefore presented an address to His Majesty begging that he would abandon this proposed marriage and stop the Princess of Modena, who had by this time reached Paris. Incensed at being asked to involve his honour by such an action, Charles immediately prorogued Parliament and so prevented further unwelcome importunities.