228

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

IX.

J688.

Conductof Jamesafter thetrial ofthe

Bishops.

land, as he had ever been, stupid and perverse: but eventhe counsel of the politic King of France was turned intofoolishness. Whatever wisdom and energy could do Williamdid. Those obstacles which no wisdom or energy couldhave overcome his enemies themselves studiously removed.

On the great day on which the Bishops were acquitted,and on which the invitation was despatched to the Hague,James returned from Hounslow to Westminster in a gloomyand agitated mood. He made an elFort that afternoon toappear cheerful:* but the bonfires, the rockets, and aboveall the waxen Popes who were blazing in every quarter ofLondon, were not likely to sooth him. Those who saw himon the morrow could easily read in his face and demeanourthe violent emotions which agitated his mind.** During somadays he appeared so unwilling to talk about the trial that evenBarillon could not venture to introduce the subject.***

Soon it began to be clear that defeat and mortification hadonly hardened the King’s heart. The first words which heuttered when he learned that the objects of his revenge hadescaped him were, “ So much the worse for them.” In a fewdays these words, which he, according to his fashion, re-peated many times, were fully explained. He blamed him-self, not for having prosecuted the Bishops, but for havingprosecuted them before a tribunal where questions of factwere decided by juries, and where established principlesof law could not be utterly disregarded even by the mostservile Judges. This error he determined to repair. Notonly the seven prelates who had signed the petition, but thewhole Anglican clergy, should have reason to curse the dayon which they had triumphed over their Sovereign. Withina fortnight after the trial an order was made, enjoining allChancellors of dioceses and all Archdeacons to make a strictinquisition throughout their respective jurisdictions, and toreport to the High Commission, within five weeks, the namesof all such rectors, vicars, and curates as had omitted to

* Adda, July 1688 . ** Reresby’s Memoirs.

*** Barillon, July 1688.