“It’s to be hoped that the next time you lave this world, Master Cornbury, it will be in a purliter sort of manner.  A civil question demands a civil answer anyhow,” said Fitzpatrick, coolly rejoining the other men.

Chapter XVIII

The whole of which has been fudged out of the History of England, and will therefore be quite new to the majority of our readers.

Were we in want of materials for this eventful history, we have now a good opportunity for spinning out our volumes; but, so far from this being the case, we hardly know how to find space for what it is now absolutely necessary that the reader should be acquainted with.  Our friends may probably recollect, when we remind them of the fact, that there was a certain king, James II., who sat upon our throne, and who was a very good Catholic—­that he married his daughter, Mary, to one William of Orange, who, in return for James’s kindness in giving him his daughter, took away from him his kingdom, on the plea, that if he was a bad son-in-law, at all events, he was a sound Protestant.  They may also recollect, that the exiled king was received most hospitably by the grand monarque, Louis XIV., who gave him palaces, money, and all that he required, and, moreover, gave him a fine army and fleet to go to Ireland and recover his kingdom, bidding him farewell with this equivocal sentence, “That the best thing he, Louis, could wish to him was, never to see his face again.”  They may further recollect, that King James and King William met at the battle of the Boyne, in which the former was defeated, and then went back to St Germains and spent the rest of his life in acts of devotion and plotting against the life of King William.  Now, among other plots real and pretended, there was one laid in 1695, to assassinate King William on his way to Richmond; this plot was revealed, many of the conspirators were tried and executed, but the person who was at the head of it, a Scotchman, of the name of Sir George Barclay, escaped.  In the year 1696, a bill was passed, by which Sir George Barclay and nine others who had escaped from justice, were attainted of high treason, if they did not choose to surrender themselves on or before the 25th day of March ensuing.  Strange to say, these parties did not think it advisable to surrender themselves; perhaps it was because they knew that they were certain to be hung; but it is impossible to account for the actions of men:  we can only lay the facts before our readers.

Sir George Barclay was by birth a Scotchman, of high family, and well connected.  He had been an officer in the army of King James, to whom he was strongly attached.  Moreover, he was a very bigoted Catholic.  Whether he ever received a commission from King James, authorising him to assassinate King William, has never been proved; but, as King James is well known to have been admitted into the order of the Jesuits, it is