ture, the morning-prayer chapel at the north-west portion of St. Paul's Cathedral was opened for daily service with appropriate ceremony*, and on the 27th of the same month a fire broke out at the west end of the north aisle of the choir, in a small room, now the Prebendaries' Vestry, which was used as a working place for the organ builders, which for some time threatened destruction to the edifice, but the workmen broke away the communication between the flaming room and the organ gallery, which, with other means, stopped the progress of the flamest. The new buildings at Greenwich, for the purpose of converting the intended palace of Charles II., were began this year, the former being occupied in altering the original part to its new purpose.

IN 1700 Wren was elected Member of Parliament for the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe-Regis in Dorsetshire, and sat in that Parliament which commenced its session at Westminster on the 10th of February, in the twelfth year of William III. Wren had now attained the sixty-ninth year of his age, yet notwithstanding his parliamentary and professional employments, to which he paid undeviating attention, he found time to present the Royal Society with a Dissertation on the Rising of the Sap in Trees, and a Paper on the Superficies of the Terraqueous Globe.

IN the autumn of 1701, James II. who had been

* ELLIS'S Dugdale, p. 172.

+ STYRPE'S continuation of Stowe's London, p. 172.

A. D. 1701]

LAST ILLNESS OF JAMES II.

351

residing with the remnant of a court at St. Germainen-Laye, became so debilitated in health, that he was sent by M. Fagon, first physician to Louis XIV. to drink the waters at Bourbon, and was shortly after his return, taken so seriously ill as to excite great alarm among his friends. On the 8th of September he was siezed with paralysis, and other symptoms that left no hopes of his recovery. When the French monarch heard of this hopeless state of the royal exile, he took a step, which M. de St. Simon* considers more worthy the chivalrous generosity of Louis XI., and of Francis I., than of the political wisdom of Louis XIV., that of visiting his unfortunate guest. He left Marly, where he was then residing, and reached St. Germains on the 13th of September.

JAMES was then so bad, that when the arrival of the King was announced to him, he opened his eyes, but for a moment, on the entrance of his august visiter. The French monarch told him, that he was come to assure him he might die in peace as regarded his son, whom he designated the Prince of Wales, and he would acknowledge him King of England, Scotland and Ireland. The few English persons who were present, threw themselves at Louis's feet; but the King of England, says M. de St. Simon, gave no signs of recognition. Whether this breach of the treaty of Ryswick, which Louis had just signed with King William III., recognizing him and his successors in the protestant line as Kings of Great Britain, etc. or the word of pro

* Supplément aux Mémoires, Tom. III. p. 248.

mise, made in the dying sufferer's ear, to be broken when convenient, be the chivalrous generosity of M. le Duc de St. Simon, must be left for French casuists to determine.

THE royal promise about the Prince of Wales, fell dead upon the ears of the dying prince, who knew by experience, the inability of the generous promiser, who had forgotten the good maxim to be just before he was generous, of restoring him to his throne, in more prosperous times, and gave no solid hopes to the young Prince, but was more probably the cause of his eventual misfortunes. During the few and brief intervals of reason, which recurred to the unhappy sufferer, he appeared sensible of the proffered services of the chivalrous Louis XIV., and made him promise, that after his death, he should be buried without pomp, and with the least possible ceremony. This event occurred on the 16th of September 1701, at three o'clock in the afternoon. On the following day, Saturday, the remains of the deceased prince, humbly accompanied and followed by some carriages containing the principal Englishmen of his establishment, were conveyed to the English Benedictine convent in St. James's Street, Paris, where they were deposited in a chapel, like those of a private gentleman, till the time might arrive, which has not yet come, when they could be carried over to England to be buried with his forefathers. His heart was entrusted to the holy keeping of the "Filles de Sainte Marie de Chaillott." This obstinate and misguided Prince had many opportunities in his

A. D. 1701]

DEATH AND BURIAL OF JAMES II.

353

exile to reflect on the saying of Charles II. to him, when pushing his violent councils, "Brother, I am too old to go again on my travels; you may if you please."

On this faithless recognition of James's son as Prince of Wales, and rightful heir to the Crown of England, the Earl of Manchester, the English ambassador to the Court of France, presented himself no more at Versailles, and left the country without taking leave, a few days after the arrival of the King at Fontainebleau. King William received the news of James's death, and the recognition of his son, as his successor to the well-occupied throne of England, at his favourite country residence called the Loo, near the pretty village of Appeldoorn in Holland. He was at table with some German princes, and other noblemen; and made no answer to the information; but coloured, beat down his hat upon his forehead, and could not contain the emotions of his countenance. He sent orders to London for M. Poussin, the chargé d'affaires and proxy for the French ambassador, to be sent away forthwith, and he was soon on his voyage to announce his dismissal to his master. This decisive conduct of William was shortly followed up by the signature of the Grand alliance, defensive and offensive, against France and Spain, between the Emperor, the house of Austria, England and Holland; which confederation was joined by other powers.

THE conduct of Louis XIV. to the exiled prince, was always conciliatory and respectful, in confident

A A

expectancy of replacing him and the Papal ascendancy again in England. Louvois, the crafty and designing minister of the Jesuit king, and his profligate court of cardinals, mistresses and devotees, kept in his pay a corps of French*, dancing, riding and fencing masters, which he distributed as roving spies in all the courts of Europe. One of these patriots, who passed for a French refugee in Holland, corresponded with the widowed Duchess of Orleans in the time of the war with the Prince of Orange, the substance of whicht, she says, she communicated to the King, to give him pleasure. The King, she says, received her information agreeably enough at the beginning; but one day said to her, laughingly, "my ministers maintain that you are ill informed, and that your correspondent has not written a word of truth;" to which the royal Duchess replied, "time will show which are the best informed, Your Majesty's ministers, or my correspondent; for myself, Sir, my intentions were good."

WHEN it became known that King William had returned to England, M. de Torcy went to the Duchess, and begged of her to acquaint him with what she knew of the matter. "I have nothing to communicate," replied Her Royal Highness, you have told the King, that my information was false, so I have told my correspondent to write no more." He began to laugh, according to his custom in such circumstances,

* Fragmens de Lettres originales de Madame Charlotte-Elizabeth, veuve de Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans.

+ Ibid.