brick and stone. One irreparable loss was the old Gothic
church of St. Paul. Wren erected the present cathedral on the
foundations of the ancient structure. On a tablet near the tomb of
the great master builder one reads the inscription in Latin, "Reader,
if you seek his monument, look around."[1]

[1] "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice."

475. Invasion by the Dutch (1667).

The new city had not risen from the ruins of the old, when a third
calamity overtook it. Charles was at war with France and Holland.
The contest with the latter nation grew out of the rivalry of the
English and the Dutch to get the exclusive possession of foreign trade
(S459). Parliament granted the King large sums of money to build and
equip a navy, but the pleasure-loving monarch wasted it in
dissipation. The few ships he had were rotten old hulks, but half
provisioned, with crews ready to mutiny because they could not get
their pay.

A Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames. It was manned in part by English
sailors who had deserted in disgust because when they asked for cash
to support their families they got only worthless government tickets.
There was no force to oppose them. They burned some half-built
men-of-war, blockaded London for several weeks, and then made their
own terms of peace.

476. The "Cabal" (1667-1673); Treaty of Dover, 1670; the King robs the
Exchequer (1672).

Shortly after this humiliating event the enemies of Clarendon drove
him from office (S471). The fallen minister was accused of high
treason. He had been guilty of certain arbitrary acts, and, rather
than stand trial, he fled to France, and was banished for life. He
sent a humble petition to the Lords, but they promptly ordered the
hangman to burn it. Six years later the old man begged piteously that
he might "come back and die in his own coutnry and among his own
children." Charles refused to let him return, for Clarendon had
committed the unpardonable offense of daring to look "sourly" at the
vices of the King and his shameless companions flushed "with insolence
and wine." Charles now formed a new ministry or "Cabal,"[1]
consisting of five of his most intimate friends. Several of its
members were notorious for their depravity, and Macaulay calls it the
"most profligate administration ever known."[2] The chief object of
its leaders was to serve their own private interests by making the
King's power supreme. The "Cabal's" true spirit was not