]

The furious Tyrconnel had crossed the sea from Dublin to give an account
of his administration. All the most respectable English Catholics
looked coldly on him as on an enemy of their race and a scandal to their
religion. But he was cordially welcomed by his master, and dismissed
with assurances of undiminished confidence and steady support. James
expressed his delight at learning that in a short time the whole
government of Ireland would be in Roman Catholic hands. The English
colonists had already been stripped of all political power. Nothing
remained but to strip them of their property; and this last outrage was
deferred only till the cooperation of an Irish Parliament should have
been secured. [296]

From Cheshire the King turned southward, and, in the full belief that
the Fellows of Magdalene College, however mutinous they might be, would
not dare to disobey a command uttered by his own lips, directed his
course towards Oxford. By the way he made some little excursions to
places which peculiarly interested him, as a King, a brother, and a son.
He visited the hospitable roof of Boscobel and the remains of the oak
so conspicuous in the history of his house. He rode over the field of
Edgehill, where the Cavaliers first crossed swords with the soldiers of
the Parliament. On the third of September he dined in great state at
the palace of Woodstock, an ancient and renowned mansion, of which not
a stone is now to be seen, but of which the site is still marked on
the turf of Blenheim Park by two sycamores which grow near the stately
bridge. In the evening he reached Oxford. He was received there with
the wonted honours. The students in their academical garb were ranged to
welcome him on the right hand and on the left, from the entrance of
the city to the great gate of Christ Church. He lodged at the deanery,
where, among other accommodations, he found a chapel fitted up for the
celebration of the Mass. [297] On the day after his arrival, the Fellows
of Magdalene College were ordered to attend him. When they appeared
before him he treated them with an insolence such as had never been
shown to their predecessors by the Puritan visitors. "You have not dealt
with me like gentlemen," he exclaimed. "You have been unmannerly as
well as undutiful." They fell on their knees and tendered a petition. He
would not look at it. "Is this your Church of England loyalty? I could
not have believed that so many clergymen of the Church of