In truth, that court had acted as if it had meant to embarrass and annoy him.

He was about to ask from a Protestant legislature a full toleration for Roman Catholics.

Nothing, therefore, could be more unwelcome to him than the intelligence that, in a neighbouring country, toleration had just been withdrawn by a Roman Catholic government from Protestants.

His vexation was increased by a speech which the Bishop of Valence, in the name of the Gallican clergy, addressed at this time to Lewis, the Fourteenth.

The pious Sovereign of England, the orator said, looked to the most Christian King for support against a heretical nation.