A priest being sent one day to instruct him, began with the doctrine of Transubstantiation, of which he said he was sure that he should speedily convince him. "You believe," he commenced, "in the Trinity- "Stop!" cried Middleton; "who told you so? I expect you to convince me of your belief, not to question me on my own "-which exclamation so disordered the priest that he could proceed no further.1

This reply is supposed by Oldmixon to be a proof of Middleton's loose principles of religion. He never says, however, that he does not believe in the Trinity, but insinuates that the priest had no right to take for granted that he did so. Scornful jesting on sacred subjects was, however, a national sin of the times. "Discourse of this kind," Bonrepaux, the French minister, had remarked some years before, "is held in execration in France, but here it is usual amongst certain people of the country."

ན་

In July, 1686, Margaret Gordon, wife of Dr. Alexander Middleton, died. The register of her burial at Aberdeen is as follows:-" Margaret Gordon, the wife of Dr. Alexander Middleton, late Principal of King's College, was buried in the church, under the Shoemaker's Seat, on 26th July, 1686."

Her husband only survived her until the December

1 Oldmixon.

following. On the 7th of that month he was buried in the church, at the east side of the pulpit.1

In 1688 the French king sent repeatedly to warn James of William of Orange's machinations, offering him at the same time both naval and military assistance to repel an invasion. James, however, suffered Sunderland to persuade him that Louis only affected to believe the rumours he heard for his own purposes, and rejected the promised aid. Still, unwilling to abandon an ally whose interests he considered identical with his own, Louis gave orders to his ambassador, D'Avaux (with the knowledge and concurrence of Skelton, the English minister at Paris), to remonstrate with the States of Holland, informing them that he should regard any attempt against the King of England in the same light as one against himself. James resented much this interference, which he considered highly officious, when it came to his knowledge. was no petty prince, he exclaimed, to be upheld by a powerful patron. He solemnly disavowed any knowledge of D'Avaux's proceedings, and directed Middleton to assure all the foreign ministers that no secret alliance whatever existed between himself and France.2

He

On June 8th, the Earl of Middleton was one of

1 Search in the Records.

2 D'Avaux; Barillon; Sunderland's Apology.

the peers who signed a warrant committing the Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops to the Tower, for presenting a petition to the king. Although not a peer of England, he was present at a Council held October 17th, when the king restored the charter of London, and other charters were considered.1

After the discovery of Sunderland's treachery in this same month, the king ordered Middleton to demand from him the Seals. He found Sunderland in the queen's apartment, whose protection he hoped for on account of his recent conversion to the Roman Church.2

James was now to find that, although Middleton. had openly testified his disapproval of his measures in prosperity, he would prove a faithful servant in adversity. He remained steadfast to his sovereign at the time when many of his other subjects were forsaking him daily. "Villainy upon villainy," he writes to Preston, November 24th, on the occasion of the report that Kirke, commander of one of the Tangiers regiments at Warminster, had gone over with his troops to the enemy, after refusing to obey orders, "the last still greater than the former.” 4

On November 26th, the day after the disappear

1 Oldmixon.

2 Barillon; Adda. 3 His contemporary, Grainger.

* Quoted by Lord Macaulay.

ance of the Princess Anne, James resolved to summon a council of all the lords, spiritual and temporal, who were at the time in London. Middleton, by his direction, wrote as follows from Whitehall:

:

Lord Middleton to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Summons to attend the king.

"MY LORD,

"The king commands me to acquaint your Grace that he desires to speak with you at ten tomorrow morning, and that your Grace will bring with you such others of my lords the bishops as are in town.

"I am, my lord,

"Your Grace's most humble servant,

"MIDDLETON." 1

"1

At this Council Middleton and Preston were both in attendance. "The king himself presided. Traces of severe mental and bodily anxiety were visible on his countenance." He solemnly asked the advice of those present, and promised so far to accept it as to summon a Parliament. On the following day he agreed likewise to grant a free pardon to all who were in rebellion against him, and even to declare them eligible as members in the approaching Parlia

ment. These concessions were, however, soon shown to be intended merely as blinds to his real designs. Not daring to trust any, and having the remembrance of his father's fate ever before his mind, James had now resolved to seek for personal safety in flight, and delayed only until he could first provide for the escape of his queen and infant son.1

Having received assurances of the safety of these latter, the king made his first attempt at flight, December 11th. Rising at three o'clock in the morning, he took the Great Seal in his hand, and ordering the Duke of Northumberland, who that night slept in his room, not to open the door until the usual hour, disappeared through a secret passage.3

Great was the consternation when it was learned that the king had gone without making any provision for the Government. The loss of the Great Seal added considerably to the universal dismay—there was no recognized authority in the kingdom. Lord Feversham, the Commander-in-Chief, so soon as he heard of the king's flight, disbanded the troops, thus letting them loose to prey upon the country. The London

1 Burnet; Barillon; Luttrell's Diary; Clarendon,

2 Son of Charles II. and the Duchess of Cleveland.

3 History of the Desertion; Clarke's Life of James; Mulgrave's Account of the Revolution; Burnet.

* Lewis Duras, Earl of Feversham, a Frenchman of noble birth, nephew to the great Turenne. (Lord Macaulay.)