gathered round the bed,
and Charles commended them to his brother's protection by name. The
scene which followed is described by a chaplain to one of the prelates
who stood round the dying king. Charles "blessed all his children one by
one, pulling them on to his bed; and then the bishops moved him, as he
was the Lord's anointed and the father of his country, to bless them
also and all that were there present, and in them the general body of
his subjects. Whereupon, the room being full, all fell down upon their
knees, and he raised himself in his bed and very solemnly blessed them
all." The strange comedy was at last over. Charles died as he had lived:
brave, witty, cynical, even in the presence of death. Tortured as he was
with pain, he begged the bystanders to forgive him for being so
unconscionable a time in dying. One mistress, the Duchess of Portsmouth,
hung weeping over his bed. His last thought was of another mistress,
Nell Gwynn. "Do not," he whispered to his successor ere he sank into a
fatal stupor, "do not let poor Nelly starve!"

[Sidenote: James the Second.]

The death of Charles in February 1685 placed his brother James, the Duke
of York, upon the throne. His character and policy were already well
known. Of all the Stuart rulers James is the only one whose intellect
was below mediocrity. His mind was dull and narrow though orderly and
methodical; his temper dogged and arbitrary but sincere. His religious
and political tendencies had always been the same. He had always
cherished an entire belief in the royal authority and a hatred of
Parliaments. His main desire was for the establishment of Catholicism as
the only means of ensuring the obedience of his people; and his old love
of France was quickened by the firm reliance which he placed on the aid
of Lewis in bringing about that establishment. But the secrecy in which
his political action had as yet been shrouded and his long absence from
England had hindered any general knowledge of his designs. His first
words on his accession, his promise to "preserve this Government both in
Church and State as it is now by law established," were welcomed by the
whole country with enthusiasm. All the suspicions of a Catholic
sovereign seemed to have disappeared. "We have the word of a King!" ran
the general cry, "and of a King who was never worse than his word." The
conviction of his brother's faithlessness in fact stood James in good
stead. He was looked upon as narrow