JAMES THE SECOND.

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placed under the care of the foreign Ambassadors. To the chap.savage and ignorant populace the law of nations and the risk 168S 7 _of bringing on their country the just vengeance of all Europewere as nothing. The houses of the Ambassadors werebesieged. A great crowd assembled before Barillon’s doorin St. James’s Square. He, however, fared better than mighthave been expected. For, though the government which herepresented was held in abhorrence, his liberal house-keeping and exact payments had made him personally po-pular. Moreover he had taken the precaution of asking fora guard of soldiers; and, as several men of rank, who livednear him, had done the same, a considerable force was col-lected in the Square. The rioters, therefore, when theywere assured that no arms or priests were concealed underhis roof, left him unmolested. The Venetian Envoy wasprotected by a detachment of troops: but the mansions oc-cupied by the ministers of the Elector Palatine and of theGrand Duke of Tuscany were destroyed. One precious boxthe Tuscan minister was able to save from the marauders.

It contained nine volumes of memoirs, written in the handof James himself. These volumes reached France in safety,and, after the lapse of more than a century, perished therein the havoc of a revolution far more terrible than that fromwhich they had escaped. But some fragments still remain,and, though grievously mutilated, and imbedded in greatmasses of childish fiction, well deserve to be attentivelystudied.

The rich plate of the Chapel Royal had been deposited at TheWildllouse, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the residence of thef^” 1 '^Spanish ambassador Ronquillo. Ronquillo, conscious that <i°r’she and his court had not deserved ill of the English nation, had sacked,thought it unnecessary to ask for soldiers: but the mob wasnot in a mood to make nice distinctions. The name of Spainhadlong been associated in the public mind with the Inquisitionand the Armada, with the cruelties of Mary and the plotsagainst Elizabeth. Ronquillo had also made himself manyenemies among the common people by availing himself of hisprivilege to avoid the necessity of paying his debts. His houseMacaulay, History. 111. 23