en thousand men;
James raised it at one swoop to twenty thousand. The employment of this
force was to be at home, not abroad, for the hope of an English policy
in foreign affairs had already faded away. In the designs which James
had at heart he could look for no consent from Parliament; and however
his pride revolted against a dependence on France, it was only by
French gold and French soldiers that he could hope to hold the
Parliament permanently at bay. A week therefore after his accession he
assured Lewis that his gratitude and devotion to him equalled that of
Charles himself. "Tell your master," he said to the French ambassador,
"that without his protection I can do nothing. He has a right to be
consulted, and it is my wish to consult him, about everything." The
pledge of subservience was rewarded with the promise of a subsidy, and
the promise was received with the strongest expressions of delight and
servility. The hopes which the Prince of Orange had conceived from his
father-in-law's more warlike temper were nipped by a refusal to allow
him to visit England. All the caution and reserve of Charles the Second
in his dealings with France was set aside. Sunderland, the favourite
Minister of the new king as he had been of the old, not only promised
during the session to avoid the connection with Spain and Holland which
the Parliament was known to desire, but "to throw aside the mask and
openly break with them as soon as the royal revenue is secured." The
support indeed which James needed was a far closer and firmer support
than his brother had sought for. Lewis on the other hand trusted him as
he could never trust Charles. His own bigotry understood the bigotry of
the new sovereign. "The confirmation of the King's authority and the
establishment of religion," he wrote, "are our common interest"; and he
promised that James should "find in his friendship all the resources
which he can expect."

[Sidenote: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.]

Never had the secret league with France seemed so full of danger to
English religion. Europe had long been trembling at the ambition of
Lewis; it was trembling now at his bigotry. He had proclaimed warfare
against civil liberty in his attack upon Holland; he declared war at
this moment upon religious freedom by revoking the Edict of Nantes, the
measure by which Henry the Fourth after his abandonment of Protestantism
secured toleration and the free exercise of their worship for his