able vice which it is for
his interest to hide.

Talbot, raised by James to the earldom of Tyrconnel, had commanded the
troops in Ireland during the nine months which elapsed between the death
of Charles and the commencement of the viceroyalty of Clarendon. When
the new Lord Lieutenant was about to leave London for Dublin, the
General was summoned from Dublin to London. Dick Talbot had long been
well known on the road which he had now to travel. Between Chester
and the capital there was not an inn where he had not been in a brawl.
Wherever he came he pressed horses in defiance of law, swore at
the cooks and postilions, and almost raised mobs by his insolent
rodomontades. The Reformation, he told the people, had ruined
everything. But fine times were coming. The Catholics would soon be
uppermost. The heretics should pay for all. Raving and blaspheming
incessantly, like a demoniac, he came to the court. [52] As soon as
he was there, he allied himself closely with Castelmaine, Dover, and
Albeville. These men called with one voice for war on the constitution
of the Church and the State. They told their master that he owed it to
his religion and to the dignity of his crown to stand firm against the
outcry of heretical demagogues, and to let the Parliament see from the
first that he would be master in spite of opposition, and that the only
effect of opposition would be to make him a hard master.

Each of the two parties into which the court was divided had zealous
foreign allies. The ministers of Spain, of the Empire, and of the States
General were now as anxious to support Rochester as they had formerly
been to support Halifax. All the influence of Barillon was employed
on the other side; and Barillon was assisted by another French agent,
inferior to him in station, but far superior in abilities, Bonrepaux.
Barillon was not without parts, and possessed in large measure the
graces and accomplishments which then distinguished the French gentry.
But his capacity was scarcely equal to what his great place required. He
had become sluggish and self indulgent, liked the pleasures of society
and of the table better than business, and on great emergencies
generally waited for admonitions and even for reprimands from Versailles
before he showed much activity. [53] Bonrepaux had raised himself from
obscurity by the intelligence and industry which he had exhibited as a
clerk in the department of the marine, and was esteemed an adept in