mp began to torment him cruelly as soon as he
was there. His mind misgave him that he had committed a crime. At all
events he had exposed himself to reproach, by acting in diametrical
opposition to the professions of his whole life. He felt insurmountable
disgust for his new allies. They were people whom, ever since he
could remember, he had been reviling and persecuting, Presbyterians,
Independents, Anabaptists, old soldiers of Cromwell, brisk boys of
Shaftesbury, accomplices in the Rye House Plot, captains of the Western
Insurrection. He naturally wished to find out some salvo which might
sooth his conscience, which might vindicate his consistency, and which
might put a distinction between him and the crew of schismatical rebels
whom he had always despised and abhorred, but with whom he was now in
danger of being confounded. He therefore disclaimed with vehemence all
thought of taking the crown from that anointed head which the ordinance
of heaven and the fundamental laws of the realm had made sacred. His
dearest wish was to see a reconciliation effected on terms which would
not lower the royal dignity. He was no traitor. He was not, in truth,
resisting the kingly authority. He was in arms only because he was
convinced that the best service which could be rendered to the throne
was to rescue His Majesty, by a little gentle coercion, from the hands
of wicked counsellors.

The evils which the mutual animosity of these factions tended to produce
were, to a great extent, averted by the ascendency and by the wisdom of
the Prince. Surrounded by eager disputants, officious advisers, abject
flatterers, vigilant spies, malicious talebearers, he remained serene
and inscrutable. He preserved silence while silence was possible. When
he was forced to speak, the earnest and peremptory tone in which he
uttered his well weighed opinions soon silenced everybody else. Whatever
some of his too zealous adherents might say, he uttered not a word
indicating any design on the English crown. He was doubtless well aware
that between him and that crown were still interposed obstacles which no
prudence might be able to surmount, and which a single false step would
make insurmountable. His only chance of obtaining the splendid prize
was not to seize it rudely, but to wait till, without any appearance
of exertion or stratagem on his part, his secret wish should be
accomplished by the force of circumstances, by the blunders of his
opponents, and b