DUKE OF ST. ALBANS was this orange girl's child.
In like manner the son of a merry waiting-lady, whom the King created
DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH, became the DUKE OF RICHMOND. Upon the whole it is
not so bad a thing to be a commoner.

The Merry Monarch was so exceedingly merry among these merry ladies, and
some equally merry (and equally infamous) lords and gentlemen, that he
soon got through his hundred thousand pounds, and then, by way of raising
a little pocket-money, made a merry bargain. He sold Dunkirk to the
French King for five millions of livres. When I think of the dignity to
which Oliver Cromwell raised England in the eyes of foreign powers, and
when I think of the manner in which he gained for England this very
Dunkirk, I am much inclined to consider that if the Merry Monarch had
been made to follow his father for this action, he would have received
his just deserts.

Though he was like his father in none of that father's greater qualities,
he was like him in being worthy of no trust. When he sent that letter to
the Parliament, from Breda, he did expressly promise that all sincere
religious opinions should be respected. Yet he was no sooner firm in his
power than he consented to one of the worst Acts of Parliament ever
passed. Under this law, every minister who should not give his solemn
assent to the Prayer-Book by a certain day, was declared to be a minister
no longer, and to be deprived of his church. The consequence of this was
that some two thousand honest men were taken from their congregations,
and reduced to dire poverty and distress. It was followed by another
outrageous law, called the Conventicle Act, by which any person above the
age of sixteen who was present at any religious service not according to
the Prayer-Book, was to be imprisoned three months for the first offence,
six for the second, and to be transported for the third. This Act alone
filled the prisons, which were then most dreadful dungeons, to
overflowing.

The Covenanters in Scotland had already fared no better. A base
Parliament, usually known as the Drunken Parliament, in consequence of
its principal members being seldom sober, had been got together to make
laws against the Covenanters, and to force all men to be of one mind in
religious matters. The MARQUIS OF ARGYLE, relying on the King's honour,
had given himself up to him; but, he was wealthy, and his enemies wanted
his wealth. He was tried for treason, on the eviden