be fenced by new guarantees; and those
wicked ministers who had injured and insulted her in the day of her
adversity would be signally punished.

The event to which the Church of England looked forward as to an
honourable and peaceful termination of her troubles was one of which
even the most reckless members of the Jesuitical cabal could not think
without painful apprehensions. If their master should die, leaving them
no better security against the penal laws than a Declaration which the
general voice of the nation pronounced to be a nullity, if a Parliament,
animated by the same spirit which had prevailed in the Parliament of
Charles the Second, should assemble round the throne of a Protestant
sovereign, was it not probable that a terrible retribution would be
exacted, that the old laws against Popery would be rigidly enforced, and
that new laws still more severe would be added to the statute book? The
evil counsellors had long been tormented by these gloomy apprehensions,
and some of them had contemplated strange and desperate remedies. James
had scarcely mounted the throne when it began to be whispered about
Whitehall that, if the Lady Anne would turn Roman Catholic, it might not
be impossible, with the help of Lewis, to transfer to her the birthright
of her elder sister. At the French embassy this scheme was warmly
approved; and Bonrepaux gave it as his opinion that the assent of James
would be easily obtained. [299] Soon, however, it became manifest that
Anne was unalterably attached to the Established Church. All thought of
making her Queen was therefore relinquished. Nevertheless, a small knot
of fanatics still continued to cherish a wild hope that they might be
able to change the order of succession. The plan formed by these men
was set forth in a minute of which a rude French translation has been
preserved. It was to be hoped, they said, that the King might be able to
establish the true faith without resorting to extremities; but, in the
worst event, he might leave his crown at the disposal of Lewis. It was
better for Englishmen to be the vassals of France than the slaves of the
Devil. [300] This extraordinary document was handed about from Jesuit
to Jesuit, and from courtier to courtier, till some eminent Roman
Catholics, in whom bigotry had not extinguished patriotism, furnished
the Dutch Ambassador with a copy. He put the paper into the hands of
James. James, greatly agitated, pronounced it a vile forgery c