in
forcing despotism and Catholicism on England, and from this moment
Charles surrendered himself utterly to France. He declared to Lewis his
purpose of entering into an alliance with him, offensive and defensive.
He owned to being the only man in his kingdom who desired such a league,
but he was determined, he said, to realize his desire, whatever might be
the sentiments of his ministers.

[Sidenote: Treaty of Dover.]

His ministers indeed he meant either to bring over to his schemes or to
outwit. Two of them, Arlington and Clifford, were Catholics in heart
like the king; and in January 1669 they were summoned with the Duke of
York and two Catholic nobles, Lords Bellasys and Arundell, to a
conference in which Charles, after pledging them to secrecy, declared
himself a Catholic and asked their counsel as to the means of
establishing the Catholic religion in his realm. It was resolved to
apply to Lewis for aid in this purpose; and Charles proceeded to seek
from the king a "protection," to use the words of the French ambassador,
"of which he always hoped to feel the powerful effects in the execution
of his design of changing the present state of religion in England for a
better, and of establishing his authority so as to be able to retain his
subjects in the obedience they owe him." He was fully aware of the price
he must pay for such a protection. Lewis was bent on the ruin of
Holland and the annexation of Flanders. With the ink of the Triple
Alliance hardly dry Charles promised help in both these designs. The
Netherlands indeed could not be saved if Holland fell, and the fall of
Holland was as needful for the success of the plans of Charles as of
Lewis. It was impossible for Holland to look with indifference on the
conversion of England into a Catholic power, and in the struggle to make
it one the aid of the Dutch would be secured for the king's opponents.
Charles offered therefore to declare his religion and to join France in
an attack on Holland if Lewis would grant him a subsidy equal to a
million a year. In the event of the king of Spain's death without a son
Charles pledged himself to support France in her claims upon Flanders,
while Lewis, made wiser by the results of his previous refusal, promised
in such a case to assent to the designs of England on the Spanish
dominions in America. On this basis, after a year's negotiations, a
secret treaty was concluded in May 1670 at Dover in an interview between
Charles an