the fake of friendship (a relation which the did not difdain to have with me) fhe was fond even of that equality which she thought belonged to it. She grew uneafy to be treated by me with the form and ceremony due to her rank; nor could fhe bear from me the found of words which implied in them distance and fuperiority. It was this turn of mind, which made her one day propofe to me, that whenever I fhould happen to be absent from her, we might in all our letters write ourselves by feigned names, fuch as would import nothing of diftinction of rank between us. MORLEY and FREEMAN were the names her fancy hit upon; and the left me to chufe by which of them I would be called. My frank, open temper naturally led me to pitch upon FREEMAN, and fo the PRINCESS took the other; and from this time Mrs. MORLEY and Mrs. FREEMAN began to converfe as equals, made fo by affection and friendship.

:

Soon after the decease of king CHARLES the fecond,lord CLARENDON was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to which country

his lady was to go with him. The PRINCESS received a fenfible joy from this event; not only as it released her from a person very disagreeable to her, but as it gave her an opportunity of promoting me to be first lady of her bed-chamber; which she immediately did, with a fatisfaction to herself that was not to be concealed.

During her father's whole reign she kept her court as private as fhe could, confiftent with her ftation. What were the defigns of that unhappy PRINCE every body knows. They came foon to fhew themselves undif guifed, and attempts were made to draw his daughter into them. The KING indeed ufed no harshness with her; he only dif covered his wishes, by putting into her hands fome books and papers, which he hoped might induce her to a change of religion; and had she had any inclination that way, the chaplains about her were fuch divines as could have faid but little in defence of their own religion, or to fecure her against the pretences of popery, recommended to her by a father and a king.

Lord

Lord TYRCONNEL alfo,who had married my fifter, took some pains with me, to engage me, if poffible, to make ufe, for the fame end, of that great favour which he knew I enjoyed with the PRINCESS: but all his endeavours proved vain; and it was not long before all the danger blew over, the projects of that reign being effectually disappointed, almost as foon as they were openly avowed.

Upon the landing of the PRINCE, of Orange in 1688, the KING went down to Salisbury to his army, and the PRINCE of Denmark with him; but the news quickly came from thence, that the PRINCE of Denmark had left the KING, and was gone over to the PRINCE of Orange, and that the KING was coming back to London,

!W

This put the PRINCESS into a great fright. She fent for me, told me her diftrefs, and me.

declared, That rather than fee her father The would jump out at window.

her very expreffion.

This was

A little before, a note had been left with me, to inform me where I might find the bishop of London, (who in that critical time abfconded)

abfconded) if her ROYAL HIGHNESS should have occafion for a friend. The PRINCESS, on this alarm, immediately fent me to the bishop. I acquainted him with her refolution to leave the court, and to put herfelf under his care. It was hereupon agreed, that, when he had advised with his friends in the city, he should come about midnight in a hackney coach to the neighbourhood of the Cockpit, in order to convey the PRINCESS to fome place where the might be private and safe.

The PRINCESS went to bed at the ufual time to prevent fufpicion. I came to her foon after; and by the back-ftairs which went down from her closet, her ROYAL HIGHNESS, my lady FITZHARDING, and I, with one fervant, walked to the coach, where we found the bishop and the earl of DORSET, They conducted us that night to the bishop's houfe in the city, and the next day to my lord DORSET's at Copt-hall. From thence we went to the earl of NORTHAMPTON'S, and from thence to Nottingham, where the country gathered about the PRINCESS; nor

did she think herself safe, till she saw that fhe was furrounded by the PRINCE of Orange's friends.

The most remarkable thing that happened to the PRINCESS during her stay at this place, was a letter fhe received from lord CLARENDON. It was full of compliments, and at the fame time full of complaints, that fhe had not told him of a thing he liked fo well, that he might have had a fhare in it. How well these complaints and the earnest nefs he fhewed (in a consultation held at Windfor, before the PRINCE of Orange came to London) to have King JAMES fent to the Tower, agreed with his conduct afterwards, I fhall leave to the world to judge.

As this flight of the PRINCESS to Nottingham has by fome been ignorantly, not to fay, maliciously, imputed to my policy and premeditated contrivance, I thought it neceffary to give this short, but exact relation of it. It was a thing fudden and unconcerted; nor had I any fhare in it, farther than obeying my miftrefs's orders in the particulars I have mentioned; though inL.S

deed