royal mind. He determined to plead the
cause of his caste in person; and accordingly he set out, at the end of
August, for England.

His presence and his absence were equally dreaded by the Lord
Lieutenant. It was, indeed, painful to be daily browbeaten by an enemy:
but it was not less painful to know that an enemy was daily breathing
calumny and evil counsel in the royal ear. Clarendon was overwhelmed by
manifold vexations. He made a progress through the country, and found
that he was everywhere treated by the Irish population with contempt.
The Roman Catholic priests exhorted their congregations to withhold from
him all marks of honour. The native gentry, instead of coming to pay
their respects to him, remained at their houses. The native peasantry
everywhere sang Erse songs in praise of Tyrconnel, who would, they
doubted not, soon reappear to complete the humiliation of their
oppressors. [186] The viceroy had scarcely returned to Dublin, from his
unsatisfactory tour, when he received letters which informed him that
he had incurred the King's serious displeasure. His Majesty--so these
letters ran--expected his servants not only to do what he commanded,
but to do it from the heart, and with a cheerful countenance. The Lord
Lieutenant had not, indeed, refused to cooperate in the reform of the
army and of the civil administration; but his cooperation had been
reluctant and perfunctory: his looks had betrayed his feelings; and
everybody saw that he disapproved of the policy which he was employed
to carry into effect. [187] In great anguish of mind he wrote to defend
himself; but he was sternly told that his defence was not satisfactory.
He then, in the most abject terms, declared that he would not attempt to
justify himself, that he acquiesced in the royal judgment, be it what it
might, that he prostrated himself in the dust, that he implored pardon,
that of all penitents he was the most sincere, that he should think it
glorious to die in his Sovereign's cause, but found it impossible to
live under his Sovereign's displeasure. Nor was this mere interested
hypocrisy, but, at least in part, unaffected slavishness and poverty
of spirit; for in confidential letters, not meant for the royal eye, he
bemoaned himself to his family in the same strain. He was miserable;
he was crushed; the wrath of the King was insupportable; if that wrath
could not be mitigated, life would not be worth having. [188] The poor
man's terror increase