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CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.

CAMEO CCXLVII.

1667-1670.

THE CABAL.

THE self-worship of such a man as Louis XIV. could not but include love of glory, as he and his people termed lust of conquest. His mediation between England and Holland had been for no humane end, but in order to obtain allies for purposes of his own.

France had always cast a covetous eye upon the corner of land between the Alps and the sea, which formed her only exposed side, and most of which had belonged to the great Valois Dukes of Burgundy, and from them had passed to the sovereign of Spain. The northern portion had revolted, and established itself as the Seven United Provinces; but the southern had either been faithful to Spain, or had been reconquered, and was as zealously Roman Catholic as the provinces were Calvinistic. It was on this region that Louis fixed his attention. His father-in-law, Philip IV. of Spain, had died on the 17th of September, 1665, leaving, besides his two daughters by his first marriage-the Queen of France and Empress of Austria-one son by his second wife, Mariana of Austria. The poor child, Carlos, was only four years old, had a soft skull, had not cut his teeth, and could neither speak nor walk. His mother was a woman of little capacity, and the power of Spain had been ebbing ever since the death of Philip II., while France had advanced in strength, and Louis was resolved on a further enterprise.

An old edict in Brabant, made to discourage second marriages, gave the inheritance to the daughter of the first wife in preference to the son of the second; and although at her marriage, Marie Therèse had solemnly renounced all claim to her father's succession, Louis was determined to claim the coveted Flemish and Brabantine territory in her right.

He had sounded De Witt, and finding him alarmed at the notion of having France so near a neighbour, deceived him by talking of a free Catholic Confederacy of the ten Belgian provinces. To arrange matters with England, Louis sent his aunt, Queen Henrietta, on a visit to her son, and the two kings corresponded under cover to her, finally agreeing that in consideration of a subsidy from France, enabling him to be independent of his Parliament, Charles should abstain for one year from assisting Spain, when Louis should put his designs into execution. This was kept secret when the Treaty of

Breda was signed, and all that was there openly done was the surrender of conquests on each side in America.

The Spanish Government knew nothing of all this; and the Viceroy of the Netherlands, the Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, had only 7000 or 8000 men under his command, when in May, 1667, with an army directed by Turenne, Louis inade his attack, taking fortress after fortress. All his Court went with him in State carriages, Queen, Mademoiselle de la Vallière, the Duchess of Orleans, and all, as far as Compiègne, and Louis rode about in splendid uniform, with a glittering staff of nobles, the admired of all beholders. Douai, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Lille, had to surrender one after the other before the approach of winter sent home the gay Court party, leaving Turenne to hold the territory so easily gained.

There was much alarm at the rapid conquest throughout Europe, and in England a great deal of discontent and displeasure. The vicious indulgences of the King justly shocked the right minded, the severity against the Nonconformists alienated all who pitied them, and distress caused by the national misfortunes, could not but aggravate all feelings of opposition, and, above all, the insult to the navy was bitterly felt and charged upon the Government.

It was on the Lord Chancellor Clarendon that the general hatred directed itself. He and the King seem to have intended to play the parts of Sully and Henri IV.; they were on excellent terms; and there is a series of notes preserved in the Bodleian Library which passed between them when Clarendon was sitting in the House of Lords, and sent up questions to which the King scrawled an answer. Sometimes a rejoinder follows. Clarendon's in the old English hand, Charles's in the flowing Italian. It is like hearing them converse, more especially as we can trace when the King was perplexed, by the great spider he has drawn in a blot of ink at the bottom of his paper!

Clarendon was grave, solemn, and pompous in manner, a very strong Royalist, and extremely saving, not to say grasping, both for the State and himself, and thus he made many enemies. The courtiers laughed at him, and derided his serious, haughty tone, an the King made merry with them, but still trusted the old statesmai more than any of them. Especially hostile to him were Lady Castlemaine, who knew what he thought of her, and the Duke of Buckingham.

This nobleman had much of the beauty and personal fascination of his father, the favourite of the two last Kings, and was more dissipated. He had been the companion of Charles in his wanderings, and on the Restoration, had married the only daughter and heiress of Lord Fairfax, the Puritan General. He would not insult this lady by making her visit Lady Castlemaine, and that violent woman had therefore a furious quarrel with him. He began intriguing with some of the disaffected, but was betrayed, and had to escape from

London to avoid being sent to the Tower. Probably it was while in exile in Yorkshire, and finding it very dull, that he uttered his famous malediction on a troublesome dog, Cur that you are, I wish you was married and lived in the country!'

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However, his accuser died, he made his peace with Lady Castlemaine, and was welcomed back by the King. At once he and his friends, Shaftesbury, Arlington, Albemarle, and all who hated the Chancellor, began to beset the King with accusations. They pointed to the grand house he had completed to prove that he had been bribed, and had helped himself to the money for the sale of Dunkirk; they declared that he wanted to ruin the Constitution; Tangier had been given up as too expensive-this was also said to be an account of bribery; and that in order that his own grandchildren might inherit the throne, he had induced the King to marry a sickly girl unlikely to have children.

The mob broke his windows, and painted a gibbet on the gate with this rhyme

Three sights to be seen,

Dunkirk, Tangier and a barren Queen.'

Even Andrew Marvel wrote the scurrilous epigram on his having purchased some of the materials of old St. Paul's

'Here lie the sacred bones

Of Paul beguiled of his stones.

Here lie golden briberies,

The price of ruined families.
The Cavaliers' debenture well,

Fixed on an eccentric basis.

Here's Dunkirk town and Tangier Hall,
The Queen's marriage and all,

The Dutchman's templum pacis.

Charles stood out for a good while, though Clarendon had often rebuked him for his evil courses, so that the ladies used to exclaim, when they saw the Chancellor approach, 'Here comes your schoolmaster.'

A mocking procession was got up, in which Buckingham represented the stately Chancellor marching to the Court of Chancery, Colonel Titus strutting before him with the fire-shovel over his shoulder as the mace, and another of these buffoons carrying the bellows by way of purse.

Charles laughed heartily, but the discontent of the country was all turning against the Chancellor. The Dissenters hated him for his severities, the narrower Churchmen for not being more severe, and the Romanists for preventing the King's indulgence to them; and Charles at last was turned against him by finding that he had given fatherly counsel to the beautiful, thoughtless Frances Theresa, la belle Stuart. Charles was enough in love with her to have actually consulted Archbishop Sheldon on the possibility of divorcing poor

Catharine, and the Archbishop warned the Chancellor. Frances, already frightened at her position, had declared that she would marry any honourable gentleman who had £1500 a year, and Clarendon encouraged the young Duke of Richmond to wed her privately and carry her off from Court, where she left a letter for the Queen, imploring her pardon for any vexations she might have caused, and for the King all the few jewels she had accepted from him.

As a Christian and a statesman, Clarendon had acted wisely; but the depraved minds of his enemies believed it had been with a view to his own grandchildren, among whom there was now another boy. In the midst of these anxieties, Lady Clarendon died at Tonbridge, and a few days later, Charles sent for the Chancellor and requested him to resign the Great Seal, as if voluntarily, to content the Parlia

ment.

Clarendon said that of course he would humbly give it up; but that he could not resign it merely at the bidding of the Parliament. The King said he could not dispute with the Parliament, and was himself at their mercy; on which the Chancellor gave him a lecture on his letting himself be bullied by his Parliament, to which Charles listened favourably; but when Clarendon came to complain of his listening to the lady,' the King showed himself less pleased.

The Duke of York was doing all he could for his father-in-law; but the nobles set upon Charles, and told him he had gone too far to recede, and was as much in awe of the Chancellor as a child of his tutor. Lady Castlemaine 'hectored the King nearly out of his wits,' and actually made him ask forgiveness on his knees, and send off the Secretary of State to demand the Great Seal. Clarendon was actually sealing the Treaty of Breda with it when he thus delivered it up, and on its being brought in, one of the courtiers, named May, embraced Charles's knees, exclaiming, 'Sir, you are now a king.'

Many right-minded and honourable men among them, such as Evelyn and Ashburnham, continued to manifest their esteem for Clarendon; but the cry was strong against him, especially because he had favoured the importation of Irish cattle, which the country squires fancied an injury to their interests. When Parliament met, it was with a determination to prosecute him, and an indictment was made out, chiefly respecting the supposed misdirection of public money. The Lords, however, would not agree to the indictment, at which the Commons were greatly angered, and in the midst of the dispute, the proposal was made that Clarendon should leave the country. He asked for a pass from the King, lest he should be arrested on the way. Charles was afraid to give it, but passed his word that all should be safe on the way, and even went to the Duke of York, who had only just recovered from the small-pox, to beg him to persuade his father-in-law to be gone, for, if the Commons insisted, it might be made impossible to save him.

Accordingly Clarendon departed on the 29th of November, 1667,

embarking at Erith for France. He was very ill at Calais, and at Evreux was nearly killed by a party of English seamen, employed in the French service, who fancied him accountable for their arrears of pay. They actually stunned him, and were going to have hanged him, when he was rescued by the French authorities. He took up his abode at Montpellier, where he worked at his admirable history of the Rebellion, which he had already begun, and which he followed up with the history of his own time. After seven years he removed to Rouen, and petitioned the King for permission to die at home; but he received no answer. His eldest son came to be with him, and he died at Rouen, on the 4th of January, 1675. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in Henry VII.'s chapel, probably on account of his connection with the Royal family.

The wits called the ministry that rose upon his ruins the King's Cabal, from their initials. They were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. Clifford was of no great note; Lord Arlington was Secretary of State; Buckingham, Master of Horse; Anthony Ashley Cooper, ultimately Earl of Shaftesbury, was already Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lauderdale was the same, who, as John Maitland, had been a vehement Covenanter, but had become a boon companion of the King, and a supporter of all that was arbitrary. The new Lord Keeper was Sir Orlando Bridgeman, who was so aged that he could not hold office long, and was only put in as a steppingstone for Shaftesbury.

The first proceeding of the Cabal as statesmen was wise. They were alarmed at the French conquest of Franche Comté, and knew that Holland had even more reason for alarm, and they therefore despatched Sir William Temple to the Hague with proposals of an alliance to check the ambition of France; and after some demurs this was agreed to, and a Triple Alliance was formed between England, Sweden, and Holland, to support Spain against the aggressions of France.

Louis XIV. thought it best to appear to give way, and a treaty was made, by which he retained the towns in Flanders that he had conquered, but restored Franche Comté to Spain. England had appeared to great advantage in this transaction, and it was a pity that there was neither honour nor stability in the men who guided her affairs to maintain the part she had taken.

The Court was madly gay. The Queen herself took part in strange diversions, going about masked in a sedan chair, and entering unknown into rooms where dancing was going on. Such frolics were customary at both the French and English Courts. Even Anne of Austria and Louis had indulged in them as a reaction from the excessive formality of their State life; but for Catharine of Braganza, nothing could have been more imprudent, since Buckingham was seeking for a pretext on which she could be divorced, and her childlessness, as well as her Roman Catholic faith, rendered her very

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