times before, but it had never been so bad as it now was. The streets of London and of all other towns were narrow and dirty, and the upper storeys of the houses were made larger than the lower ones, so that those on one side of the street almost met those on the other, and left little room for fresh air to circulate. This was quite enough to make people ill. There was more sickness and there were more early deaths at that time than now. When any man caught the plague the doctors did not know how to do anything for him. A red cross was painted on the door of his house, and the words, 'The Lord have mercy upon us!' were written above it. Then the house was shut up, and nobody was allowed to go in or to come out. Every one who could afford to leave London hurried into the country, leaving the poor to suffer. The dread of catching the plague spread far and wide. How fearful,' wrote one who lived at the time, 'people were, thirty, or forty, if not a hundred miles from London, of anything that they brought from any mercer's or draper's shop; or of any goods that were brought to them, or of any persons that came to their houses. How they would shut their doors against their friends; and if a man passed over the fields, how one would avoid another.' The deaths became so numerous that it was impossible to bury the dead in the usual way. Carts went about the streets at night, preceded by a man ringing a bell, and calling out, 'Bring out your dead.' The corpses were thrown into a huge pit, because it was impossible to provide coffins for so many. Fires were lit in the streets, under the

belief that the heat would keep off the infection. At last winter came, and the plague came to an end with cooler weather. The next year another disaster

befell the great city. A fire broke out when a strong wind was blowing, and quickly spread. It burnt for three days. All the City from the Tower to the Temple and from the Thames to Smithfield was absolutely destroyed. The old St. Paul's, the largest cathedral in England, perished in the flames. Great as the suffering caused by the fire was, it did good in the end, for it destroyed the old houses which kept the air out of the streets, so that the plague never came to London again.

9. The Dutch in the Medway.-The Dutch war went on all the while, with plenty of hard fighting at sea, and no very great success on either side. Parliament voted money to keep the fleets ready for fighting. After a little time, even the Royalists in the House of Commons began to suspect that the King spent some of this money on his own pleasures. Both in Parliament and out of it they began to grumble, and to say to one another that if Cromwell had been alive things would have been different. At last a misfortune came which increased their discontent. Negotiations were opened at Breda, in Holland, and the terms of peace were almost settled. Before they were quite settled, Charles took it for granted that there would be no more war, and dismissed most of the sailors, in order to get for himself the money which would have paid them. The Dutch at once sent their fleet up the Thames, where there was no English fleet to meet them. The

Dutch ships sailed up the Medway, burnt three men of-war, and carried off a fourth. For some time they blockaded the Thames, so that the Londoners could get no coals. Charles was obliged to give way to the Dutch, and peace was made at Breda, as they wished to have it.

10. The Cabal Ministry.-In 1667, a few weeks.

after peace was made, Clarendon fell from power. The five ministers who had influence after him were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. The first letters of their names spelled the word Cabal, a word which was at that time applied to any body of men specially consulted by the King on state affairs. They are therefore known in history as the Cabal Ministry. Lauderdale was a

Scotchman, and was chiefly employed about Scotch business. The others wanted to tolerate other religions than the Church of England, allowing congregations to worship separately in churches of their own. The House of Commons did not want to have toleration at all, and it was much less likely to allow it to the Catholics than to the Dissenters. The Catholics were more disliked and more feared. There was now a very powerful king in France, Lewis XIV., who had very large armies and skilful generals, as well as plenty of money, and people in England thought that he was likely to send his soldiers to England to help the Catholics against the Protestants. Charles himself was first cousin to Lewis, as his mother, Henrietta Maria, had been the sister of Lewis's father, and he had lived a long time in France during his exile. He therefore did not feel at all ashamed to ask Lewis to help him to carry out his plans when his own people were against them, or even to take money from Lewis, to enable him to do as he liked, without having to ask his Parliament for more taxes.

11. The Triple Alliance and the Treaty of Dover.— What Charles now wanted was to be independent of Parliament, and to get as much money as he could. A little time before he had made a treaty with the Dutch and the Swedes, known as the Triple Alliance, by which the three nations bound themselves to join together to stop Lewis from making any more conquests. Not long afterwards Lewis persuaded Charles to break off from his new friends, and to sign the Treaty of Dover, which bound Charles to join

Lewis in making war against the Dutch. Charles was also to declare himself a Catholic, and to receive money from Lewis. Lewis even promised to send French soldiers into England, if Charles thought that he wanted them to put down any resistance from his own subjects. The treaty was, to be a profound secret. It was impossible to speak of it openly without producing a general rebellion. Charles did not even tell all of his own ministers. Two of them, Clifford and Arlington, who were Catholics, knew all about it. The others, who were Protestants, only knew that be a war with the Dutch, and that the King was about to give permission to his subjects to worship as they pleased.

there was going to

12. The Declaration of Indulgence and the Second Dutch War.-Charles did not after all venture to announce that he was a Catholic, but in 1672 he declared war against the Dutch, and he issued a Declaration of Indulgence, giving orders that the laws against the Catholics and the Dissenters should no longer be put in execution. Parliament was furious. The Commons were much less disposed to respect the King than they had been at the time of the Restoration, twelve years before, but they were quite as much disposed to refuse permission to anybody who was not a member of the Church of England to worship as he thought right. They declared that Charles had no right to refuse to execute the law, and the great body of the people thought so too. Charles did not persist in his own way. did not want to have another rebellion, to be driven

He