Though she did not belong to the High Church party, she loved that ritual to which she had been accustomed from infancy, and complied willingly and reverently with some ceremonies which he considered, not indeed as sinful, but as childish, and in which he could hardly bring himself to take part.

While the war lasted, it would be necessary that he should pass nearly half the year out of England.

Hitherto she had, when he was absent, supplied his place, and had supplied it well.
Who was to supply it now?
In what vicegerent could he place equal confidence?
To what vicegerent would the nation look up with equal respect?
All the statesmen of Europe therefore agreed in thinking that his position, difficult and dangerous at best, had been made far more difficult and more dangerous by the death of the Queen.

But all the statesmen of Europe were deceived; and, strange to say, his reign was decidedly more prosperous and more tranquil after the decease of Mary than during her life.
A few hours after he had lost the most tender and beloved of all his friends, he was delivered from the most formidable of all his enemies.
Death had been busy at Paris as well as in London.

While Tenison was praying by the bed of Mary, Bourdaloue was administering the last unction to Luxemburg.