CHAPTEK V.

CHAP.

V.

1635 .

Whig re-fugees onthe Con-tinent.

Towakds the close of the reign of Charles the Second,some Whigs who had been deeply implicated in the plot sofatal to their party, and who knew themselves to be markedout for destruction, had sought an asylum in the LowCountries.

These refugees were in general men of fiery temper andweak judgment. They were also under' the influence of thatpeculiar illusion which seems to belong to their situation.A politician driven into banishment by a hostile factiongenerally sees the society which he has quitted through a falsemedium. Every object is distorted and discoloured by hisregrets, his longings, and his resentments. Every littlediscontent appears to him to portend a revolution. Everyriot is a rebellion. He cannot be convinced that his countrydoes not pine for him as much as he pines for his country.He imagines that all his old associates, who still dwell at theirhomes and enjoy their estates, are tormented by the samefeelings which make life a burden to himself. The longer hisexpatriation, the greater does this hallucination become.The lapse of time, which cools the ardour of the friends whomhe has left behind, inflames his. Every month his impatienceto revisit his native land increases; and every month hisnative land remembers and misses him less. This delusionbecomes almost a madness when many exiles who suffer inthe same cause herd together on a foreign shore. Theirchief employment is to talk of what they once were, and ofwhat they may yet be, to goad each other into animosityagainst the common enemy, to feed each other with extra-vagant hopes of victory and revenge. Thus they becomeripe for enterprises which would at once be pronounced