made lord-lieutenant, himself had no belief in it, so loud and violent was the popular clamour that extraordinary measures of severity were adopted. All Roman Catholics were ordered to surrender their arms within twenty days. All Romish ecclesiastics were ordered to quit the kingdom by the expiration of two months' time. Rewards were offered for priests and Jesuits who remained after that date. All Romish convents, schools, and seminaries were dissolved. The markets were ordered to be held outside the principal towns; and Roman Catholics were prohibited from attending a public meeting, or residing within a garrison town. All garrisons were confined to barracks. Rewards were given for the discovery of any soldier who attended mass; and the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Galway, Limerick, Clonmell, Kilkenny, and Drogheda were ordered to withdraw without the walls.

Archbishop Talbot, who was actually on his deathbed, was accused of being concerned in the plot, and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he lingered on till his decease. Old Lord Mountgarret, bedridden and over eighty, was dragged from his bed, and thrown into gaol. London was crowded with Irish informers, men of the worst possible character, cattle-lifters, gaol-birds, and apostate friars. Dr. Plunket, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, a man held in the greatest respect by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, was dragged over to London, and charged by two priests, whose profligacy he had censured, with having obtained the Primacy from the Pope on condition that he would

raise 70,000 Roman Catholic soldiers in Ireland, and with having organized the descent of 40,000 French troops in Carlingford Bay. The absurd charge was credited, a conviction was obtained, and the innocent old man was hanged and quartered at Tyburn. All reason was at an end; victims were demanded, and when no evidence could be obtained of a Popish plot at all, perjury supplied the deficiency.

Fanaticism at length had had its fling. Charles, foreseeing the reaction which would set in, and not venturing to oppose the popular madness, allowed the fit of fury to spend its force; and when the storm had subsided, Shaftesbury fell, Monmouth was banished, and Charles and the Duke of York calmly reverted to their old policy.

The Duke of York had all along looked to Ireland and his co-religionists there, both as a fulcrum for the arbitrary projects of his brother and himself, and also as a refuge in case of failure. Charles and he had formed the design of remodelling the army to the exclusion of Protestants, but before the plan could be developed Charles died, and James found himself in a position to carry out a new policy of "Thorough." Ormonde was recalled, and the government was entrusted to two lords justices, Archbishop Boyle, a High Churchman, who favoured the recusants, and Sir Arthur Forbes, Lord Granard, a Presbyterian : the latter appointment being made to soothe the apprehensions of the Protestants till matters were in train.

When the new king had established himself firmly

on the throne, and suppressed the rebellions of Argyle and Monmouth, Ireland was taken in hand. The lords justices gave way to James's brother-in-law Lord Clarendon, who was to be used as a dummy, while the real power was put into the hands of Richard Talbot, the fanatical Roman Catholic who was the chief leader of the Irish party, and now sent over to command the army with the title of Earl of Tyrconnel.

Nothing could exceed the bitterness and suspicion which divided the Protestants from the Roman Catholics. The former were extremely uneasy at the turn events were taking, and were overwhelmed with a dread that their ascendency would no longer be upheld by the Government. The latter were exultant at the prospect of getting the upper hand, and with the hope of at last breaking off their necks the galling yoke they had borne so long, and of recovering the estates which had been taken from them. James's schemes were rapidly advancing. Regiment after regiment was disbanded, and reconstructed of Roman Catholic recruits; Protestant officers were cashiered and replaced with Roman Catholics. The militia was dissolved on the pretence that they had sympathized with Monmouth, and their arms were transported to Chester. Roman Catholic sheriffs and justices of the peace were appointed. Even the judges of the superior courts were changed; and men were shamefully raised to the bench and sworn in as privy councillors, whose only qualification was an unscrupulous devotion to the Roman Catholic cause. An agitation was then set on foot to repeal the Act

of Settlement. A petition to that effect was forwarded to the king. It was hinted that the Cromwellians had best surrender another third of their estates. Suits of ejectment were brought by the old proprietors in the court of the new chief baron, who had boasted "that he would drive a coach and horses through the Act of Settlement." The English settlers' case was accordingly refused a hearing; and decrees of restoration were made with startling rapidity. Deliberate attacks were made by the Government upon the charters of every city and borough in the island. Judgment was given against the city of Dublin on a writ of quo warranto, and every other corporation shortly suffered the same fate. These bodies were then reconstructed by the wholesale introduction of Roman Catholics. Only in some of the greater cities, where the English interest was dominant, was it provided that one third of the members should consist of Protestants.

Everything was now ripe for the appointment of a Roman Catholic viceroy. Accordingly Clarendon was removed and Tyrconnel put in his place, with the title of Lord-deputy.

CHAPTER III.

THE SECESSION. A.D. 1687-1689.

THE appointment to the post of viceroy of a man so violent and so bigoted as Tyrconnel, produced a sudden panic amongst the Protestants. A hurried exodus at once took place. Fifteen hundred persons left Dublin on the departure of Clarendon; and Protestants from all parts of Ireland flocked to the sea-ports, and fled across the channel to England and the Isle of Man, even in open boats. A rumour ran through the island that, on December 9th, there was to be an universal massacre of Protestants; and those who did not emigrate drew together into the country houses, and remained upon their guard with loopholed walls and barricaded windows. An attempt was made by the Government to throw Roman Catholic garrisons into Derry and Enniskillen, with the result that the Protestant inhabitants treated their reconstructed town-councils with contempt, closed the gates of those cities, and prepared to stand a siege.

At a crisis such as this the Prince of Orange landed in England, and James precipitately absconded into