42

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXV.

noo.

his friends some disrespectful expressions which had beenused by one of his colleagues about the King. What hehad mentioned in private was, not perhaps very discreetly,repeated by Montague in the House. The predominantparty eagerly seized the opportunity of worrying bothMontague and Levinz. A resolution implying a severecensure on Montague was carried. Levinz was brought tothe bar and examined. The four were also in attendance.They protested that he had misrepresented them. Trench-ard declared that he had always spoken of his Majesty asa subject ought to speak of an excellent sovereign, who hadbeen deceived by evil counsellors, and who would be grate-ful to those who should bring the truth to his knowledge.He vehemently denied that he had called the grant toLady Orkney villainous. It was a word that he neverused, a word that never came out of the mouth of a gentle-man. These assertions will be estimated at the propervalue by those who are acquainted with Trenchard’s pam-phlets, pamphlets in which the shocking word villainous willwithout difficulty be found, and which are full of malignantreflections on William.* But the House was determinednot to believe Levinz. He was voted a calumniator, andsent to the Tower, as an example to all who should be

* I give an example of Trenchard’s mode of showing his profoundrespect for an excellent Sovereign. He speaks thus of the commence-ment of the reign of Henry the Third. ‘‘The kingdom was recentlydelivered from a bitter tyrant, King John, and had likewise got rid oftheir perfidious deliverer, the Dauphin of France, who after the Englishliad accepted him for their King, had secretly vowed their extirpation."