[651] Parl. Hist. 422.
[652] France retained Lille, Tournay, Douay, Charleroi, and other places by the treaty. The allies were surprised, and not pleased at the choice Spain made of yielding these towns in order to save Franche Comté. Temple's Letters, 97. In fact, they were not on good terms with that power; she had even a project, out of spite to Holland, of giving up the Netherlands entirely to France, in exchange for Rousillon, but thought better of it on cooler reflection.
[653] Dalrymple, ii. 5 et post. Temple was not treated very favourably by most of the ministers on his return from concluding the triple alliance: Clifford said to a friend, "Well, for all this noise, we must yet have another war with the Dutch before it be long." Temple's Letters, 123.
[654] Dalrymple, ii. 12.
[655] Burnet.
[656] Life of Clarendon, 357.
[657] Life of Clarendon, 355.
[658] State Trials, vi. 807. One of the oddest things connected with this fire was, that some persons of the fanatic party had been hanged, in April, for a conspiracy to surprise the Tower, murder the Duke of Albemarle and others, and then declare for an equal division of lands, etc. In order to effect this, the city was to be fired, and the guards secured in their quarters and for this the 3rd of September following was fixed upon as a lucky day. This is undoubtedly to be read in the London Gazette for April 30, 1666; and it is equally certain that the city was in flames on the 3rd of September. But, though the coincidence is curious, it would be very weak to think it more than a coincidence, for the same reason as applies to the suspicion which the catholics incurred; that the mere destruction of the city could not have been the object of any party, and that nothing was attempted to manifest any further design.
[659] Macpherson's Extracts, 38, 49; Life of James, 426.
[660] He tells us himself that it began by his reading a book written by a learned bishop of the church of England to clear her from schism in leaving the Roman communion, which had a contrary effect on him; especially when, at the said bishop's desire, he read an answer to it. This made him inquisitive about the grounds and manner of the reformation. After his return, Heylin's History of the Reformation, and the preface to Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, thoroughly convinced him that neither the church of England, nor Calvin, nor any of the reformers, had power to do what they did; and he was confident, he said, that whosoever reads those two books with attention and without prejudice, would be of the same opinion. Life of James, i. 629. The Duchess of York embraced the same creed as her husband, and, as he tells us, without knowledge of his sentiments, but one year before her death in 1670. She left a paper at her death containing the reasons for her change. See it in Kennet, 320. It is plain that she, as well as the duke, had been influenced by the Romanising tendency of some Anglican divines.