ination of Henry Bennet, now become Earl of Arlington, as
Secretary of State. Bennet was a man of sense and experience, but he was
flexible and unprincipled, he was in heart a Catholic, and ready to
serve as a creature of the royal will. Sir Thomas Clifford, the new
head of the Treasury, was a Catholic by conviction, and ready to
sacrifice English freedom if the sacrifice would bring back England to
his faith.

[Sidenote: The Cabal.]

Such was the ministry which from the accidental coincidence of the
initial letters of the names of five of its members with those which
make up the word was known as the Cabal. But the word Cabala, or Cabal,
had as yet none of the odious meaning which after events attached to it;
it meant indeed simply what we mean by "cabinet." Nor was there anything
in the temper or conduct of the new ministers which foreboded ill. To
all but the king and themselves the Catholic sympathies of Clifford and
Arlington were unknown. The ministry seemed to represent the
Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians as a party were true to the cause
of freedom for which they had fought. Nor did the earlier acts of the
"Cabal" belie its origin. Few ministries in fact have shown at their
outset greater vigour or wisdom. Its first work was the Triple Alliance.
The warlike outburst of feeling in the Parliament at the prospect of a
struggle with France had warned the French and English kings that a
strife which both desired rather to limit than to widen must be brought
to an end. The dexterous delays of Charles were seconded by the
eagerness with which Lewis pressed on the Peace of Breda between England
and the Dutch. To Lewis indeed it seemed as if the hour he had so long
waited for was come. He had secured the neutrality of the Emperor by a
secret treaty which provided for a division of the Spanish dominions
between the two monarchs in case the king of Spain died without an heir.
England, as he believed, was held in check by Charles, and like Holland
was too exhausted by the late war to meddle with a new one. On the very
day therefore on which the Treaty of Breda was signed he sent in his
formal claims on the Low Countries, and his army at once took the field.
Flanders was occupied and six great fortresses secured in two months.
Franche Comte was overrun in seventeen days.

[Sidenote: English Diplomacy.]

But the suddenness and completeness of the French success woke a general
terror before which the king's skilful di