136.] During Godolphin's Ministry, Defoe's cue had been to reason with the nation against too impatient a longing for peace.

Let us have peace by all means, had been his text, but not till honourable terms have been secured, and mean-time the war is going on as prosperously as any but madmen can desire.

He repeatedly challenged adversaries who compared what he wrote then with what he wrote under the new Ministry, to prove him guilty of inconsistency.

He stood on safe ground when he made this challenge, for circumstances had changed sufficiently to justify any change of opinion.

The plans of the Confederates were disarranged by the death of the Emperor, and the accession of his brother, the Archduke Charles, to the vacant crown.