the spirit of bigotry now rose too high to permit any
longer such indulgences.[**]

Hayward, a justice of peace, having been wounded, when employed in the
exercise of his office, by one James, a Catholic madman, this enormity
was ascribed to the Popery, not to the frenzy of the assassin; and great
alarms seized the nation and parliament.[***] A universal conspiracy
of the Papists was supposed to have taken place; and every man for some
days imagined that he had a sword at his throat. Though some persons of
family and distinction were still attached to the Catholic superstition,
it is certain that the numbers of that sect did not amount to the
fortieth part of the nation: and the frequent panics to which men,
during this period, were so subject on account of the Catholics, were
less the effects of fear, than of extreme rage and aversion entertained
against them.

* It is now known from the Clarendon papers, that the king
had also an authorized agent who resided at Rome. His name
was Bret, and his chief business was to negotiate with the
pope concerning indulgences to the Catholics, and to engage
the Catholics, in return, to be good and loyal subjects. But
this whole matter, though very innocent, was most carefully
kept secret. The king says, that he believed Bret to be as
much his as any Papist could be. See p. 348, 354.

** Bush. vol. v. p. 301.

*** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 249 Rush. vol. v. p. 57.

The queen mother of France, having been forced into banishment by some
court intrigues, had retired into England; and expected shelter, amidst
her present distresses, in the dominions of her daughter and son-in-law,
But though she behaved in the most inoffensive manner, she was insulted
by the populace on account of her religion, and was even threatened
with worse treatment. The earl of Holland, lieutenant of Middlesex, had
ordered a hundred musketeers to guard her; but finding that they had
imbibed the same prejudices with the rest of their countrymen, and were
unwillingly employed in such a service, he laid the case before the
house of peers, for the king's authority was now entirely annihilated.
He represented the indignity of the action, that so great a princess,
mother to the king of France and to the queens of Spain and England,
should be affronted by the multitude. He observed the indelible reproach
which would fall upon the nation, if that unfortunate queen should