gaged
in a like design to the noble earl, who, if not less scrupulous, was
more daring.

This was one Ross, a Scotsman, who had been made governor of the young
duke on his first coming into England, and who had since acted as his
friend and confidant. Now Ross, who had not failed to whisper ambitious
thoughts into his pupil's head, at this time sought Dr. Cosin, Bishop
of Durham, and according to the "Stuart Papers," told him "he might do
a great piece of service to the Church of England in keeping out popery,
if he would but sign a certificate of the king's marriage to the Duke of
Monmouth's mother, with whom that bishop was acquainted in Paris. Ross
also told the bishop, to make the thing more easy to him, that during
his life the certificate should not be produced or made use of." The
same papers state that, as a bishop's certificate is a legal proof of
marriage, Dr. Cosin's compliance would have been invaluable to the duke
and his friends. His lordship, however, rejected the proposition, and
laid the matter before the king, who expelled Ross from court.

Horror of popery and fear of a papist sovereign increased with time,
care having been taken by my Lord Shaftesbury and his party that the
public mind, once inflamed, should be kept ignited. For this purpose he
spread reports abroad that the Irish were about to rise in rebellion,
backed by the French; and that the papists in London had entered into a
vile conspiracy to put their fellow citizens to the sword on the first
favourable opportunity. To give this latter statement a flavour of
reality he, assuming an air of fright, betook himself one night to the
city, and sought refuge in the house of a fanatic, in order, he said,
that he might escape the catholics, who had planned to cut his throat.

A tempest, dark and dangerous, was gathering fast, which the court felt
powerless to subdue. The king's assurance to parliament that "he would
endeavour to satisfy the world of his steadfastness for the security of
the protestant religion," had little avail in soothing the people. Many
of them suspected him to be a catholic at heart; others knew he had
accepted the bounty of a country feared and detested by the nation.
Deeds, not words, could alone dispel the clouds of prejudice which
came between him and his subjects; and accordingly he set about the
performance of such acts as might bring reconciliation in their train.

The first of these was the confirmation, according t