gested the propriety of the Prince of Wales retiring, at which his Majesty appeared troubled, and said eagerly--" Do not take my son away from me till I have given him my blessing at least."

The Princess Louisa, bathed in tears, was now conducted to the bedside of her dying father by the Queen, and, after tenderly embracing her, the King said

"Adieu, my dear child, adieu; serve your Creator in the days of your youth. Consider virtue as the greatest ornament of your sex. Follow close the steps of that great pattern of it, your mother, who has been, no less than myself, overclouded with calumnies; but Time, the Mother of Truth, will, I hope, at last make her virtues shine as bright as the sun."

The King was much affected by the grief of his daughter, and found great difficulty in parting with her. Before doing so, however, he again embraced her, and gave her his blessing. After having devoutly received the last sacraments of the Church from the Curé of St. Germainen-Laye, he told him that he wished to be privately interred in the parish chapel, and to have no monument or inscription placed over him, except the four following words-Here lies King James.' His Majesty next declared himself at peace with the whole world, and forgave all his enemies, more particularly the Emperor of Germany, the Prince of Orange, and the Princess Anne of Denmark.

The King passed rather a tranquil night, and the next day Louis XIV. came to visit him. The King of France would not suffer his coach to be driven into the courtyard, for fear it might disturb the repose of his dying kinsman, and, regardless of the strict etiquette of the French Court, alighted at the gates and walked to the palace. King James received him as tranquilly as if he was not so near his death, and returned him many thanks for all the kindness he had received at his hands since he was dethroned.

On this occasion King Louis held a long and private interview with Queen Mary Beatrice, in whose misfortunes he sincerely sympathised. On Monday, the 12th, as was usual at the palace, Mass was celebrated at eight o'clock, in the King's apartment. His Majesty's fever increased with such great violence, and his countenance became so changed, that his attendants believed he was about to expire. The disconsolate Queen, who remained always by his bedside, burst into tears, which greatly affected the King, and he said, in an affectionate manner, to her

"Do not afflict yourself, Madam. I am going, I hope, to be happy." "Sir," said the Queen, kissing his hand, "it is not you I bewail, but

myself, for you will soon be happy;" after which she was about to swoon, when the King begged of her to be composed and retire, and commanded those nearest him to conduct her Majesty to her chamber. When the Queen left the apartment the King engaged in prayer, and requested to have the prayers for a departing soul read for him, in which he joined with the utmost devotion. On Tuesday, the 13th, his Majesty expressed a desire to receive the Holy Communion, which he did with great fervour, notwithstanding the lethargic state he was in.

King Louis, who, since the commencement of his cousin's illness, regularly inquired after his health, visited him for the third time on this day. He first proceeded to the apartment of Queen Mary Beatrice. After having alluded to the approaching death of the King in the most delicate way possible, he informed her that, after due reflection and deliberation, he was resolved, as soon as it pleased God to remove the King, her husband, to acknowledge her son, the Prince of Wales, as King of Great Britain and Ireland. The Queen, having thanked him, immediately sent for the Prince, who was thus addressed by King Louis

"Sir, you are going to lose the King, your father, but you shall always find another in me, and I shall always look upon you as my own child."

The Prince of Wales then embraced his knees, and assured him he would always entertain the same feelings of respect for him that he did for the King, his father, that he could never forget how indebted he was to his Most Christian Majesty, and that during life he would always feel most grateful to him for his many kindnesses.

King Louis having told the Queen that she was at liberty to inform her husband of his resolution whenever she thought fit, she implored his Majesty to be the bearer of the pleasing intelligence himself to the dying monarch. They then proceeded to the King's chamber, but his end was drawing so nigh that he was not aware of their presence, and when Louis inquired how he was, he did not answer, as he neither saw nor heard his noble benefactor. One of the household now roused his Majesty, and said that the King of France had come to pay him a visit. He unclosed his eyes with a very painful effort, and said

"Where is he ?"

"Sir," replied Louis, "I am here, and am come to see how you do." "I am going," said James calmly, " to pay that debt which must be paid by all kings as well as by their meanest subjects. I give your Majesty my dying thanks for all your kindnesses to me and my afflicted family, and do not doubt of their continuance, having always found you good and generous."

His Majesty next gave expression to his sense of the kind attentions he was paid during his illness, and again thanked the King of France. Louis replied that that was a small matter indeed, but that he had something to acquaint him with which was of much more importance. On hearing this the courtiers who were present commenced to retire, that the two monarchs might speak in private.

"Let nobody withdraw," exclaimed Louis warmly; "I would be glad, indeed, that all the world could now hear what I have to say." Turning to King James he continued—

"I am come, Sir, to acquaint you that whenever it shall please Almighty God to call your Majesty out of this world, I will take your family under my protection, and will recognize your son, the Prince of Wales, as the heir of your three realms."

At these words, all in the chamber, Irish, English, and French, forgetting the solemnity of the occasion, threw themselves at the feet of the King of France, and filled the chamber of the dying with their applause. Some, indeed, were so overpowered that they could not refrain from shedding tears of joy, which so affected King Louis that he also wept. King James stretched forth his arms to embrace his Royal friend, but from the effect of the excitement which was taking place in the apartment, only his concluding words could be heard, which were "I thank God I die with a perfect resignation, and forgive all the world, particularly the Emperor and the Prince of Orange." Having, as a last favour, requested that no funeral pomp of any kind should take place at his obsequies, King Louis replied that this was the only favour which he could not grant his Majesty. But King James still persevered, and earnestly begged that any money which Louis intended expending on his funeral might be employed in relieving the wants of his destitute but faithful followers, who had adhered to him in his adversity. After having earnestly pleaded for them, he said "I beg of your Most Christian Majesty not to remain any longer in so melancholy a place as this." In consequence of this scene having considerably affected James, the King of France, Queen Mary Beatrice, and the Prince of Wales withdrew. King Louis, in taking his last farewell of his cousin, embraced him with tears in his eyes, saying-" Adieu, my dear brother! the best of Christians, and the most abused of monarchs." On reaching the Queen's chamber, King Louis embraced the young Prince of Wales, and having spent some time in giving him advice, again expressed his deep sympathy with the Queen in her overwhelming affliction, after which his Majesty departed from St. Germain-en-Laye.

Among the most distinguished personages who visited the exiled

King during his last illness was the Pope's Nuncio, Anthony, Archbishop of Athens. He was received with every indication of pleasure by King James, who said he was rejoiced at having this opportunity of making an open profession of the Catholic Faith in the presence of the representative of his Holiness Clement XI. Then, raising his voice, his Majesty said, in a firm and determined tone, which astonished those who heard him "I die a child of the Catholic Church, and if it please God to restore me to my health, I will spend it better than I have hitherto done in the service of God and his Church."

On Friday, the 16th, Mass was celebrated in his chamber at eight o'clock in the morning, after which the prayers for a happy death were again recited at his own request. About ten o'clock he became very faint and weak, and nearly lost his speech. The emblem of our redemption, the Crucifix, was tendered to his Majesty on several occasions, which he kissed with the most edifying fervour, and whenever it was taken from him his eyes followed it with an eager gaze that plainly showed the reverence in which he held it. His Majesty, who retained his mental faculties to the last moment, about two o'clock in the afternoon was seized with the agony of death, and exactly at three o'clock in the afternoon of Good Friday, the 16th of September, 1701, King James II. calmly expired, with a smile on his countenance. A short time before his death he requested to have the guards removed from before his chamber door, and that all who wished might be allowed into the room to view his body.

After his death several of his adherents, Irish, English, Scotch, and French, crowded the Royal apartments. During the night, priests and monks prayed in the chamber of death, and temporary altars were erected in it, on which Masses were celebrated the following day until

noon.

The late King, on his death-bed, directed that he should be privately interred in the chapel of St. Germain-en-Laye, but when his will was opened it was discovered that his Majesty therein directed to have himself buried with his ancestors, in King Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, in which grand old Gothic pile rest so many of England's Kings, heroes, and brightest geniuses. Queen Mary Beatrice, therefore, resolved that only the King's obsequies should be celebrated in France, and that his body should remain unburied (156), until the restoration of his son, who was recognised by King Louis XIV. as Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland. About seven o'clock, on Saturday evening, the corpse of King James was conveyed in a hearse from the Palace of St. Germain-en-Laye to Paris. The hearse was followed by two mourning

coaches, containing the officers of the Royal Household, the late King's Chaplain, and the Prior and Curate of St. Germain-en-Laye. The Royal Guard carried torches of white wax. On reaching the church of the Benedictines in the Faubourg de St. Jacques, in Paris, the funeral service was performed; after which the King's remains were left under the hearse, covered with a rich pall, to await the expected Restoration to his throne of his Royal Highness James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales, who now assumed the style and title of James III., King of Great Britain and Ireland.

THE report of the King's death soon spread over Europe, and his Holiness Pope Clement XI. (157), having assembled the Sacred College, thus addressed the Cardinals, touching that melancholy subject:—

"Venerable Brethren, we cannot, without sighs and tears, declare to you the most afflicting death of James the Second, King of Great Britain and Ireland, which we could not hear of except with extreme sorrow. We do not doubt but you are as sensibly touched as we are with the great loss that the Christian world sustains of a Prince so truly Catholic, of a worthy son of the Church, and of a true Defender of the Faith (158), whom we cannot sufficiently regret. But since we ought not, according to the Apostle's advice, to afflict ourselves for the death of the faithful, as those that have no hope, and are not enlightened with the light of faith; the great piety of the deceased King, the memory whereof can never be effaced by the most remote ages to come; the heroical contempt he showed of the grandeurs of the world; the sacrifice he made to religion of his country, riches, crowns, and even life itself; and finally his most pious death, in which he manifested so much fortitude and holy confidence, gives us good cause to hope that this most religious Prince, after having been tried in his lifetime like gold in the furnace, is now, since his death, received into Heaven as a most pure and most acceptable burnt-offering. Nevertheless, charity, as well as the gratitude we owe to a King who has so gloriously signalised himself for the interests of the Holy See, obliges us to assist him with our suffrages, which we ourselves have already performed in