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his subjects Would deem requisite for the securityof their liberties and their religion. But it mustbe considered, that his subjects had first desertedhim, and entirely lost his confidence; that hemight reasonably be supposed to entertain fearsfor his liberty, if not for his life ; and that theconditions would not probably be moderate,which the nation , sensible of his inflexible temper,enraged with the violation of their laws and thedanger of their religion, and foreseeing his re-sentment on account of their past resistance,would, in his present circumstances, exact fromhim.
By this temporary dissolution of government,the populace were masters; and there was nodisorder, which, during their present ferment,might not be dreaded from them. They rose ina tumult and destroyed all the. masshouses. Theyeven attacked and rifled the houses of the Floren-tine envoy and Spanish ambassador, where manyof the catholics had lodged their most valuableeffects. Jefferies, the chancellor, who had dis-guised himself , in order to fly the kingdom, wasdiscovered by them , and so abused, that he dieda little after. Even the army, which shouldhave suppressed those tumults, would, it wasapprehended , serve rather to increase the generaldisorder. Feversham had no sooner heard of theking’s flight, than he disbanded the troops in theneighbourhood, and without either disarming ofpaying them , let them loose, to prey upon thecountry.
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