, impetuous, stubborn, and despotic
in heart, but even his enemies did not accuse him of being false. Above
all, incredible as such a belief may seem now, he was believed to be
keenly alive to the honour of his country and resolute to free it from
foreign dependence.

[Sidenote: James and Parliament.]

From the first indeed there were indications that James understood his
declaration in a different sense from the nation. He was resolved to
make no disguise of his own religion; the chapel in which he had
hitherto worshipped with closed doors was now thrown open and the king
seen at Mass. He regarded attacks on his faith as attacks on himself,
and at once called on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of
London to hinder all preaching against Catholicism as a part of their
"duty" to their king. He made no secret of his resolve to procure
freedom of worship for his co-religionists while still refusing it to
the rest of the Nonconformists, whom he hated as republicans and
Exclusionists. All was passed over however in the general confidence. It
was necessary to summon a Parliament, for the royal revenue ceased with
the death of Charles; but the elections, swayed at once by the tide of
loyalty and by the command of the boroughs which the surrender of their
charters had given to the Crown, sent up in May a House of Commons in
which James found few members who were not to his mind. His appointment
indeed of Catholic officers in the army was already exciting murmurs;
but these were hushed as James repeated his pledge of maintaining the
established order both in Church and State. The question of religious
security was waived at a hint of the royal displeasure, and a revenue of
nearly two millions was granted to the king for life.

[Sidenote: Argyle's Rising.]

All that was wanted to rouse the loyalty of the country into fanaticism
was supplied by a rebellion in the North, and by another under Monmouth
in the West. The hopes of Scotch freedom had clung ever since the
Restoration to the house of Argyle. The great Marquis indeed had been
brought to the block at the king's return. His son, the Earl of Argyle,
had been unable to save himself even by a life of singular caution and
obedience from the ill-will of the vile politicians who governed
Scotland. He was at last convicted of treason in 1682 on grounds at
which every English statesman stood aghast. "We should not hang a dog
here," Halifax protested, "on the grounds on