derland again pressed the king to give way. But deserted as
he was by his ministers and even by his mistress, for the Duchess of
Portsmouth had been cowed into supporting the Exclusion by the threats
of Shaftesbury, Charles was determined to resist. On the coupling of a
grant of supplies with demands for a voice in the appointment of
officers of the royal garrisons he prorogued the Parliament.

[Sidenote: Charles turns again to France.]

William's policy had failed to bring the Commons round to the king's
plans and Charles sullenly turned again to France. All dreams of heading
Europe in her strife against Lewis were set aside. Charles became deaf
to the projects of the Prince of Orange, and listened to the
remonstrances which James addressed to him through his favourite
Churchill in favour of an alliance with the Catholic king. With
characteristic subtlety, however, he dissolved the existing Parliament
and called a new one to meet in March 1681. The act was a mere blind.
The king's aim was to frighten the country into reaction by the dread of
civil strife; and his summons of the Parliament to Oxford was an appeal
to the country against the disloyalty of the capital, and an adroit
means of reviving the memories of the Civil War. With the same end he
ordered his guards to accompany him on the pretext of anticipated
disorder; and Shaftesbury, himself terrified at the projects of the
Court, aided the king's designs by appearing with his followers in arms
on the plea of self-protection. The violence of the Earl's party only
strengthened the resolution of the king. Monmouth renewed his progresses
through the country, and was met by deputations and addresses in every
town he visited. London was so restless that riots broke out in its
streets. Revolt seemed at hand, and Charles hastened to conclude his
secret negotiations with France. Lewis was as ready for an agreement as
Charles. The one king verbally pledged himself to a policy of peace, in
other words to withdrawal from any share in the Grand Alliance which
William was building up. The other promised a small subsidy which with
the natural growth of the Royal revenue sufficed to render Charles, if
he remained at peace, independent of Parliamentary aids.

[Sidenote: The Parliament at Oxford.]

It was with this arrangement already concluded that Charles met his
Parliament at Oxford. The members of the House of Commons were the same
as those who had been returned to the Parl