ce of some private
letters in which he had expressed opinions--as well he might--more
favourable to the government of the late Lord Protector than of the
present merry and religious King. He was executed, as were two men of
mark among the Covenanters; and SHARP, a traitor who had once been the
friend of the Presbyterians and betrayed them, was made Archbishop of St.
Andrew's, to teach the Scotch how to like bishops.

Things being in this merry state at home, the Merry Monarch undertook a
war with the Dutch; principally because they interfered with an African
company, established with the two objects of buying gold-dust and slaves,
of which the Duke of York was a leading member. After some preliminary
hostilities, the said Duke sailed to the coast of Holland with a fleet of
ninety-eight vessels of war, and four fire-ships. This engaged with the
Dutch fleet, of no fewer than one hundred and thirteen ships. In the
great battle between the two forces, the Dutch lost eighteen ships, four
admirals, and seven thousand men. But, the English on shore were in no
mood of exultation when they heard the news.

For, this was the year and the time of the Great Plague in London. During
the winter of one thousand six hundred and sixty-four it had been
whispered about, that some few people had died here and there of the
disease called the Plague, in some of the unwholesome suburbs around
London. News was not published at that time as it is now, and some
people believed these rumours, and some disbelieved them, and they were
soon forgotten. But, in the month of May, one thousand six hundred and
sixty-five, it began to be said all over the town that the disease had
burst out with great violence in St. Giles's, and that the people were
dying in great numbers. This soon turned out to be awfully true. The
roads out of London were choked up by people endeavouring to escape from
the infected city, and large sums were paid for any kind of conveyance.
The disease soon spread so fast, that it was necessary to shut up the
houses in which sick people were, and to cut them off from communication
with the living. Every one of these houses was marked on the outside of
the door with a red cross, and the words, Lord, have mercy upon us! The
streets were all deserted, grass grew in the public ways, and there was a
dreadful silence in the air. When night came on, dismal rumblings used
to be heard, and these were the wheels of the death-carts,