French translation of Maucroix, the commonly accepted
account of the English reformation. Burnet's contradictions of Sanders must
not, however, be accepted without independent investigation. At the time of
the Popish Plot in 1678 he displayed some moderation, refusing to believe
the charges made against the duke of York, though he chose this time to
publish some anti-Roman pamphlets. He tried, at some risk to himself, to
save the life of one of the victims, William Staly, and visited William
Howard, Viscount Stafford, in the Tower. To the Exclusion Bill he opposed a
suggestion of compromise, and it is said that Charles offered him the
bishopric of Chichester, "if he would come entirely into his interests."
Burnet's reconciliation with the court was short-lived. In January 1680 he
addressed to the king a long letter on the subject of his sins; he was
known to have received the dangerous confidence of Wilmot, earl of
Rochester, in his last illness; and he was even suspected, unjustly, in
1683, of having composed the paper drawn up on the eve of death by William
Russell, Lord Russell, whom he attended to the scaffold. On the 5th of
November 1684 he preached, at the express wish of his patron Grimston, and
against his own desire, the usual anti-Catholic sermon. He was consequently
deprived of his appointments by order of the court, and on the accession of
James II. retired to Paris. He had already begun the writing of his
memoirs, which were to develop into the _History of His Own Time_.

Burnet now travelled in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, finally settling in
Holland at the Hague, where he won from the princess of Orange a confidence
which proved enduring. He rendered a signal service to William by inducing
the princess to offer to leave the whole political power in her husband's
hands in the event of their succession to the English crown. A prosecution
against him for high treason was now set on foot both in England and in
Scotland, and he took the precaution of naturalizing himself as a Dutch
subject. Lady Margaret Burnet was dying when he left England, and n Holland
he married a Dutch heiress of Scottish descent, Mary Scott. He returned to
England with William and Mary, and drew up the English text of their
declaration. His earlier views on the doctrine of non-resistance had been
sensibly modified by what he saw in France after the revocation of the
edict of Nantes and by the course of affairs at home, and in 1688 he