prevailed on the king to disgrace Monmouth, whose
projects were now known and avowed; to deprive him of his command in the
army; and to send him beyond sea. He himself returned to Brussels;
but made a short stay in that place. He obtained leave to retire to
Scotland, under pretence still of quieting the apprehensions of the
English nation; but in reality with a view of securing that kingdom in
his interests.

Though Essex and Halifax had concurred in the resolution of inviting
over the duke, they soon found that they had not obtained his
confidence, and that even the king, while he made use of their service,
had no sincere regard for their persons. Essex in disgust resigned the
treasury: Halifax retired to his country seat: Temple, despairing of any
accommodation among such enraged parties, withdrew almost entirely to
his books and his gardens. The king, who changed ministers as well
as measures with great indifference, bestowed at this time his chief
confidence on Hyde, Sunderland, and Godolphin. Hyde succeeded Essex in
the treasury.

All the king's ministers, as well as himself, were extremely averse
to the meeting of the new parliament, which they expected to find as
refractory as any of the preceding. The elections had gone mostly in
favor of the country party. The terrors of the plot had still a mighty
influence over the populace; and the apprehensions of the duke's
bigoted principles and arbitrary character weighed with men of sense and
reflection. The king therefore resolved to prorogue the parliament,
that he might try whether time would allay those humors, which, by every
other, expedient, he had in vain attempted to mollify. In this measure
he did not expect the concurrence of his council. He knew that those,
popular leaders, whom he had admitted, would zealously oppose a
resolution which disconcerted all their schemes; and that the royalists
would not dare, by supporting it, to expose themselves to the vengeance
of the parliament, when it should be assembled. These reasons obliged
him to take this step entirely of himself; and he only declared his
resolution in council. It is remarkable that, though the king had made
profession never to embrace any measure without the advice of these
counsellors, he had often broken that resolution, and had been
necessitated, in affairs of the greatest consequence, to control their
opinion. Many of them in disgust threw up about this time; particularly
Lord Russel, the mos