JAMES THE SECOND.

145

Dorset was Lord Lieutenant of Sussex: and to Sussex theboard of regulators looked with great anxiety: for in no othercounty, Cornwall and Wiltshire excepted, were there so manysmall boroughs. He was ordered to repair to his post. Noperson who knew him expected that he would obey. He gavesuch an answer as became him, and was informed that hisservices were no longer needed. The interest which hismany noble and amiable qualities inspired was heightenedwhen it was known that he had received by the post an ano-nymous billet telling him that, if he did not promptly complywith the King’s wishes, all his wit and popularity should notsave him from assassination. A similar warning was sent toShrewsbury. Threatening letters were then much more rarethan they afterwards became. It is therefore not strangethat the people, excited as they were, should have beendisposed to believe that the best and noblest Englishmenwere really marked out for Popish daggers.* * Just whenthese letters were the talk of all London, the mutilatedcorpse of a noted Puritan was found in the streets. It wassoon discovered that the murderer had acted from no reli-gious or political motive. But the first suspicions of thepopulace fell on the Papists. The mangled remains werecarried in procession to the house of the Jesuits in the Savoy;and during a few hours the fear and rage of the populacewere scarcely less violent than on the day when Godfrey wasborne to his grave.**

Dorset; Johnson’s Life of Dorset; Dryden’s Essay on Satire, and De-dication of the Essay on Dramatic Poesy. The affection of Dorset forhis wife and his strict fidelity to her are mentioned with great contemptby that profligate coxcomb Sir George Elherege in his letters fromRatisbon, Dec. A* 168L and Jan. 1G8S; Shadwell’s Dedication of theSquire of Alsatia; Burnet, i. 264.; Mackay’s Characters. Some parts ofDorset’s character are well touched in his epitaph, written by Pope:

“Yet soft his nature, though severe his lay;”

and again:

“Blest courtier, who could king and country please,

Yet sacred keep his friendships and his ease.”

* Barillon, Jan. f s . 1688; Citters,

’ Feb. II).

** Adda, Feb. -ft. I®. 1688.

Macaulay, History. III. JO

CHAP.

VIII.

1687 .