He put the paper into the hands of James.

James, greatly agitated, pronounced it a vile forgery contrived by some pamphleteer in Holland.

The Dutch minister resolutely answered that he could prove the contrary by the testimony of several distinguished members of His Majesty's own Church, nay, that there would be no difficulty in pointing out the writer, who, after all, had written only what many priests and many busy politicians said every day in the galleries of the palace.

The King did not think it expedient to ask who the writer was, but, abandoning the charge of forgery, protested, with great vehemence and solemnity, that no thought of disinheriting his eldest daughter had ever crossed his mind.

"Nobody," he said, "ever dared to hint such a thing to me.