haracter which had been stirred by the Civil
War, and which was deepening with the growing indifference to larger
thoughts of nature and the growing concentration of man's thoughts on
man. They led the way to that delight in the analysis of character in
its lowest as in its highest forms which produced the essayists and the
novel. Above all the "Absalom" was the first work in which literature
became a great political power. In it Dryden showed himself the
precursor of Swift and of Bolingbroke, of Burke and of Cobbett. The
poem was bought eagerly, and it undoubtedly helped to bring about that
triumph of the king with the prophecy of which it closed. But prisoner
as Shaftesbury was, the struggle with him was not yet over. London was
still true to him; only a few days after the appearance of the "Absalom
and Achitophel" the Middlesex Grand Jury ignored the bill of his
indictment, and his discharge from the Tower was welcomed in every
street with bonfires and ringing of bells. But a fresh impulse was given
to the loyal enthusiasm of the country at large by the publication of a
plan said to have been found among his papers, the plan of a secret
association for the furtherance of the Exclusion whose members bound
themselves to obey the orders of Parliament even after its prorogation
or dissolution by the Crown. So general was the reaction that Halifax,
who had now become the most conspicuous member of the royal Council,
though scared by the Whig threats of impeachment, advised the calling of
a new Parliament in the belief that it would be a loyal one. William of
Orange too visited England to take advantage of the turn of affairs to
pin Charles to the policy of the Alliance.

[Sidenote: Shaftesbury's Death.]

The king met both counsels with evasion. He kept his own secret. Hyde
was the only one of his ministers whom he had trusted with the knowledge
of his French negotiations, and they remained as unknown to William as
to Halifax. But their effect was seen in the new vigour which Lewis
gave to his policy at home and abroad. He was resolved to bring about
national unity by crushing the French Protestants, to gain a strong
frontier to the East, and to be ready to seize the Spanish heritage on
the death of Charles the Fourth. The agreement was no sooner made with
Charles than persecution fell heavy on the Huguenots; and the seizure of
Strassburg and Casale, the keys of Germany and Italy, with that of
Luxemburg, the key of the Un