54

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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cn.\p. answers, and employed all the influence which she derived— from her many pleasing qualities to gain the hearts of thepeople for him.*

If she had long continued to assemble round her the bestsociety of London, it is probable that her kindness and courtesywould have done much to efface the unfavourable impressionThcCourt made by his stern and frigid demeanour. Unhappily hisremoved physical infirmities made it impossible for him to reside attoHamp- Whitehall. The air of Westminster,' mingled with the fog ofton curt, the river which in spring tides overflowed the courts of hispalace, with the smoke of seacoal from two hundred thousandchimneys, and with the fumes of all the filth which was thensuffered to accumulate in the streets, was insupportable tohim; for his lungs were weak, and his sense of smell exqui-sitely keen. His constitutional asthma made rapid progress.His physicians pronounced it impossible that he could live tothe end of the year. His face was so ghastly that he couldhardly be recognised. Those who had to transact businesswith him were shocked to hear him gasping for breath, and

* Compare the account of Mary by the Whig Burnet with the mentionof her by the Tory Evelyn in his Diary, March 8. 169£, and with what issaid of Jicr by the Nonjuror who wrote the Letter to Archbishop Tennisonon her death in 1695. The impression which the bluntness and reserve ofWilliam and the grace and gentleness of Mary had made on the populacemay be traced in the remains of the street poetry of that time. The fol-lowing conjugal dialogue may still be seen on the original broadside.

“Then bespoke Mary, our most royal Queen,

‘My gracious King William, where are you going? 1He answered her quickly, ‘I count him no manThat telleth his secret unto a woman.’

The Queen with a modest behaviour replied,

* I wish that kind Providence may be thy guide,

To keep thee from danger, my sovereign Lord,

The which will the greatest of comfort afford.’ ”

These lines are in an excellent collection formed by Mr. Richard ITeber,and now the property of Mr. Broderip, by whom it was kindly lent to me.In one of the most savage Jacobite pasquinades of 1689, William is de-scribed as

A churle to his wife, which she makes but a jest. 1