HlSTOItY OF ENGLAND.

chap, bable that there would instantly be general anarchy. The Par-■ — liament and the Privy Council would cease to exist. The

authority of ministers and judges would expire with him fromwhom it was derived. It might seem not improbable that atsuch a moment a restoration might be effected without a blow.

Scarcely therefore had Mary been laid in the grave whenrestless and unprincipled men began to plot in earnest againstChamock. the life of "William. Foremost among these men in parts, incourage and in energy was Robert Chamock. He had beenliberally educated, and had, in the late reign, been a fellowof Magdalene College, Oxford. Alone in that great society hehad betrayed the common cause, had consented to be the toolof the High Commission, had publicly apostatized from theChurch of England, and, w'hile his college was a Popishseminary, had held the office of Vice President. The Revolu-tion came, and altered at once the whole course of his life.Driven from the quiet cloister and the old grove of oaks on thebank of the Cherwell, he sought haunts of a very differentkind. During several years he led the perilous and agitated lifeof a conspirator, passed and repassed on secret errands betweenEngland and France, changed his lodgings in London often,and was known at different coffeehouses by different names.His services had been requited with a captain’s commissionsigned by the banished King.

With Chamock was closely connected George Porter, anadventurer who called himself aRoman Catholic and a Royalist,but who was in truth destitute of all religious and of all politicalPorter, principle. Porter’s friends could not deny that he was a rakeand a coxcomb, that he drank, that he swore, that he toldextravagant lies about his amours, and that he had been con-victed of manslaughter for a stab given in a brawl at the play-house. His enemies affirmed that he was addicted to nauseousand horrible kinds of debauchery, and that he procured the