James had, four years before, refused to make the smallest concession to the most obsequious parliament that has ever sat in England; and it might have been expected that the obstinacy, which he had never wanted when it was a vice, would not have failed him now when it would have been a virtue.

During a short time he seemed determined to act justly.

He even talked of dissolving the parliament.

The chiefs of the old Celtic families, on the other hand, said publicly that, if he did not give them back their inheritance, they would not fight for his.

His very soldiers railed on him in the streets of Dublin.