news, I suppose, of the action of the
parliament last month?"

"No, sir, we have heard nothing for some weeks of what is doing in
England."

"They have been making an Act of Settlement of the succession. Anne
is to succeed William, and, as she has no children by George of
Denmark, the succession is to pass from her to the Elector of
Hanover, in right of his wife Sophia, as the rest of the children
of the Elector of the Palatinate have abjured Protestantism, and
are therefore excluded. How will that meet the views of the English
and Scotch Jacobites?"

"It is some distance to look forward to, sire. If Anne comes to the
throne at William's death, it will, I think, postpone our hopes,
for Anne is a Stuart, and is a favourite with the nation, in spite
of her undutiful conduct to her father. Still, it will be felt that
for Stuart to fight against Stuart, brother against sister, would
be contrary to nature. Foreigners are always unpopular, and, as
against William, every Jacobite is ready to take up arms. But I
think that nothing will be done during Anne's reign. The Elector of
Hanover would be as unpopular, among Englishmen in general, as is
William of Orange, and, should he come to the throne, there will
assuredly ere long be a rising to bring back the Stuarts."

Charles shook his head.

"I don't want to ruffle your spirit of loyalty to the Stuarts,
Captain Jervoise, but they have showed themselves weak monarchs for
a great country. They want fibre. William of Orange may be, as you
call him, a foreigner and a usurper, but England has greater weight
in the councils of Europe, in his hands, than it has had since the
death of Elizabeth."

This was rather a sore point with Captain Jervoise, who, thorough
Jacobite as he was, had smarted under the subservience of England
to France during the reigns of the two previous monarchs.

"You Englishmen and Scotchmen are fighting people," the king went
on, "and should have a military monarch. I do not mean a king like
myself, who likes to fight in the front ranks of his soldiers; but
one like William, who has certainly lofty aims, and is a statesman,
and can join in European combinations."

"William thinks and plans more for Holland than for England, sire.
He would join a league against France and Spain, not so much for
the benefit of England, which has not much to fear from these
powers, but of Holland, whose existence now, as of old is
threatened by them."

"England's inter