cover at each side torn away, seemingly for receiving some name or a coat of arms; it being dangerous to possess at that period of the French Revolution books with royal arms on them. The several books were sent to St. Omer's; the larger ones were burned, and some small ones were saved; but all trace of them was lost. The Abbé Waters-a collateral descendant of Lucy Waters, the Duke of Monmouth's mother was the person with whom George IV. negotiated for the Stuart Papers, and from whom the volumes which have since appeared as Clarke's Life of James the Second were obtained; and it is from the Abbé Waters we have the account of the destruction of King James's autograph papers.

The book just named has on the inner cover the words 'Baron Watiers,' or 'Watrers,' and is believed to be that referred to in the following note, by Lord Dartmouth, to the modern editions of Burnet's Own Time: 'My uncle, Colonel William Legge, who went in the coach with him [Monmouth] to London as a guard, with orders to stab him when he was taken, and his table-book, which was full of astrological figures that nobody could understand; but he told my uncle that they had been given to him some years before in Scotland, and he now found they were but foolish conceits.' The most curious passages in this book are the Duke's memorandums of his journeys on two visits to the Prince of Orange in the year previous to his last rash adventure. There is an entry naming Toddington, a place remarkable in the history of the Duke. Near it was the residence of Lady Henrietta Maria

Wentworth, Baroness (in her own right) of Nettlestead. Five years before the execution, her mother observed that, despite the Duke being a married man, her daughter had, while at court, attracted his admiration, and she was hurried away to Toddington. In 1683, after the failure of the Rye House Plot, Monmouth was banished from the royal presence; and it was to Toddington that he retired. When, on retracting the confession which he had made on the occasion, he was banished the kingdom, the companion of his exile was Lady Henrietta Wentworth.

In Macaulay's History we find that the latest act of the Duke on the scaffold, before submitting to the stroke of the executioner, was to call his servant, and put into the man's hand a toothpick-case, the last token of illstarred love. 'Give it,' he said, 'to that person!' After the description of Monmouth's burial occurs this affecting passage: 'Yet a few months, and the quiet village of Toddington, in Bedfordshire, witnessed a yet sadder funeral. Near that village stood an ancient and stately hall, the seat of the Wentworths. The transept of the parish church had long been their burial-place. To that burial-place, in the spring which followed the death of Monmouth, was borne the coffin of the young Baroness Wentworth, of Nettlestead. Her family reared a sumptuous mausoleum over her remains; but a less costly memorial of her was long contemplated with far deeper interest: her name, carved by the hand of him she loved too well, was, a few years ago, still discernible on a tree in the adjoining park.'

The charms and recipes, conjurations and incantations in the pocket-book, are very curious; extracts from old recipebooks are mixed in the oddest way with abridgments of English history, and memorandums, chiefly of a private and personal kind. 'Altogether, this commonplace work is highly indicative of the weakness, vanity, and superstition which stood forward so prominently in the character of the rash but unfortunate Duke of Monmouth.' Sir Frederick Madden has ascertained, by a careful comparison of the above manuscript and pocket-book with several undoubted letters of the Duke of Monmouth,' that the whole of the volume (or nearly so) is certainly in the Duke's handwriting. Some lines written on the fly-leaf of the volume confirm the fact beyond all cavil. They are the autograph of King James himself, and are as follows: This book was found in the Duke of Monmouth's pocket when he was taken, and is most of his owne handwriting.' Among the verses are the following, conjectured to be composed by Monmouth :

'O how blest and how innocent

And happy is a country life!
Free from tumult and discontent;
Heer is no flattery, nor strife,

For 'twas the first and happiest life,
When first man did injoie him selfe.
This is a better fate than king's.
Hence jentle peace and love doth flow,
For fancy is the rate of things.
I am pleased because I think it so;
For a hart that is nobly true,

All the world's arts can ne'er subdue.'

The prayers breathe a spirit of the most humble and ardent piety, and if composed by the Duke himself, exhibit the weakness of his character in a more favourable light than the remainder of the volume. One paragraph is striking: 'Mercy, mercy, good Lord! I aske not of Thee any longer the things of this world; neither power, nor honour, nor riches, nor pleasures. No, my God, dispose of them to whom Thou pleasest, so that Thou givest me mercy.'

Of greater historical value is the Diary of the Duke, mentioned by Wellwood in the sixth edition of his Memoirs, printed in 1718, and of which he says: A great many dark passages there are in it, and some clear enough, that shall be eternally buried for me; and perhaps it had been for King James's honour to have committed them to the flames.'

It is curious to remark the complete subjugation in which Charles at this period stood towards his brother; occasioned, perhaps, by the foreign supplies which he scrupled not to receive, being dependent on his adhesion to the policy of which the Duke of York was the avowed representative. Shortly before his death, Charles appears to have meditated emancipation from this state of thraldom; and Hume says: "He was determined, it is thought, to send the Duke to Scotland, to recall Monmouth, to summon a Parliament, to dismiss all his unpopular ministers, and to throw himself entirely upon the goodwill and affections of his subjects." This passage accords with the entries in Monmouth's pocket-book, dated Jan. 5, and Feb. 3.'

There has also been preserved a curious and richly orna

mented sword, left, as it is believed, by the Duke of Monmouth among the villagers of Dorsetshire on his flight from the field of Sedgemoor. It was found in 1844 in the hands of a knot of rustic mummers at Woodyates Inn, and was purchased from them for the sum of eighteenpence. The guard and pommel of the sword are chased with royal emblems, portraits, and military subjects, and the whole has been richly plated. Among these ornaments we have the Rose and Crown, the Prince of Wales's Feathers, and Charles I. and his queen. In this view it is clear that the sword could not have been made for Monmouth. He never claimed to be Prince of Wales. Mr. Hewitt is inclined to believe that the sword belonged originally to Monmouth's father, Charles II., when Prince of Wales; this would be during his residence at the Hague; and the weapon is thought to be Dutch.

[Among our national documents are preserved the following: -'An order under the royal sign manual, signed with a trembling hand, for the commitment of the Duke of Monmouth's children, July 9, 1685; warrant for the delivery of the body of James Duke of Monmouth to the Sheriff of London on the 15th of July, between the hours of 9 and 11 in the forenoon, for execution on Tower Hill, July 13, 1685; the king's order to allow the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Grey to have each a servant; that the Bishop of Ely is to acquaint the Duke of Monmouth "that he is to dy to-morrow," and that he may see his children, 14th July 1685; the king's order for the Duchess of Monmouth to have access to the Duke, either this day, "or to-morrow morning," 14th July 1685; the king's order to permit the Duchess of Monmouth "to dispose of the body of her daughter, that is now dead in the Tower, as shee shall think fitt," 12th of August 1685.']