Royalty Restored | Page 6

the kingdom--The Duke of York is touched in his conscience.--His interview with Father Simons.--The king declares his mind.--The Duchess of York becomes a catholic.--The circumstances of her death.--The Test Act introduced.--Agitation of the nation.--The Duke of York marries again.--Lord Shaftesbury's schemes.--The Duke of Monmouth.--William of Orange and the Princess Mary.--Their marriage and departure from England.
CHAPTER XVII.
The threatened storm bursts.--History of Titus Oates and Dr. Tonge.--A dark scheme concocted.--The king is warned of danger. --The narrative of a horrid plot laid before the treasurer.-- Forged letters.--Titus Oates before the council.--His blunders. --A mysterious murder.--Terror of the citizens.--Lord Shaftesbury's schemes.--Papists are banished from the capital.-- Catholic peers committed to the Tower.--Oates is encouraged.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Reward for the discovery of murderers.--Bedlow's character and evidence.--His strange story.--Development of the "horrid plot." --William Staley is made a victim.--Three Jesuits hung.--Titus Oates pronounced the saviour of his country.--Striving to ruin the queen.--Monstrous story of Bedlow and Oates.--The king protects her majesty.--Five Jesuits executed.--Fresh rumours concerning the papists.--Bill to exclude the Duke of York.--Lord Stafford is tried.--Scene at Tower Hill.--Fate of the conspirators.
CHAPTER XIX.
London under Charles II.--Condition and appearance of the thoroughfares.--Coffee is first drunk in the capital.--Taverns and their frequenters.--The city by night.--Wicked people do creep about.--Companies of young gentlemen.--The Duke of Monmouth kills a beadle.--Sir Charles Sedley's frolic.--Stately houses of the nobility.--St. James's Park.--Amusement of the town.--At Bartholomew Fair.--Bull, bear, and dog fights.--Some quaint sports.
CHAPTER XX.
Court customs in the days of the merry monarch.--Dining in public.--The Duke of Tuscany's supper to the king.-- Entertainment of guests by mountebanks.--Gaming at court.--Lady Castlemaine's losses.--A fatal duel.--Dress of the period.-- Riding-habits first seen.--His majesty invents a national costume.--Introduction of the penny post.--Divorce suits are known.--Society of Antiquaries.--Lord Worcester's inventions.-- The Duchess of Newcastle.
CHAPTER XXI.
A period rich in literature.--John Milton's early life.--Writing "Paradise Lost."--Its publication and success.--His later works and death.--John Dryden gossips with wits and players.--Lord Rochester's revenge.--Elkanah Settle.--John Crowne.--Thomas Otway rich in miseries.--Dryden assailed by villains.--The ingenious Abraham Cowley.--The author of "Hudibras."--Young Will Wycherley and Lady Castlemaine. The story of his marriage.--Andrew Marvell, poet and politician.--John Bunyan.
CHAPTER XXII.
Time's flight leaves the king unchanged.--The Rye House conspiracy.--Profligacy of the court.--The three duchesses.--The king is taken ill.--The capital in consternation.--Dr. Ken questions his majesty.--A Benedictine monk is sent for.--Charles professes catholicity and receives the Sacraments.--Farewell to all.--His last night on earth.--Daybreak and death.--He rests in peace.
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ROYALTY RESTORED
OR,
LONDON UNDER CHARLES II.
CHAPTER I.
Cromwell is sick unto death.--Fears and suspicions.--Killing no Murder.--A memorable storm.--The end of all.--Richard Cromwell made Protector.--He refuses to shed blood.--Disturbance and dissatisfaction.--Downfall of Richard.--Charles Stuart proclaimed king.--Rejoicement of the nation.--The king comes into his own. --Entry into London.--Public joy and satisfaction.
On the 30th of January, 1649, Charles I. was beheaded. In the last days of August in the year of grace 1658, Oliver Cromwell lay sick unto death at the Palace of Whitehall. On the 27th day of June in the previous year, he had, in the Presence of the Judges of the land, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City, and Members of Parliament assembled at Westminster Hall, seated himself on the coronation chair of the Stuarts, assumed the title of Lord Protector, donned a robe of violet velvet, girt his loins with a sword of state, and grasped the sceptre, symbolic of kingly power. From that hour distrust beset his days, his nights were fraught with fear. All his keen and subtle foresight, his strong and restless energies, had since then been exerted in suppressing plots against his power, and detecting schemes against his life, concocted by the Republicans whose liberty he had betrayed, and by the Royalists whose king he had beheaded.
Soon after he had assumed the title of Lord High Protector, a most daring pamphlet, openly advocating his assassination, was circulated in vast numbers throughout the kingdom. It was entitled "Killing no Murder," and was dedicated in language outrageously bold to His Highness Oliver Cromwell. "To your Highness justly belongs the honour of dying for the people," it stated, "and it cannot but be an unspeakable consolation to you, in the last moments of your life, to consider with how much benefit to the world you are likely to leave it. It is then only, my lord, the titles you now usurp will be truly yours; you will then be, indeed, the deliverer of your country, and free it from a bondage little inferior to that from which Moses delivered his, you will then be that true reformer which you would now be thought; religion shall then be restored, liberty asserted, and Parliaments have those privileges they have sought for. All this we hope from your Highness's happy expiration. To hasten this great good is the chief end of my writing this paper; and if it have the effects I hope it will, your Highness will quickly be out of the reach of men's