Just after this came a stroke of
apoplexy, and, while he lay dying on his bed, he sent for a Roman
Catholic priest, and was received into the Church of Rome, in which
he had really believed most of his life--though he had never dared to
own it, for fear of losing his crown. So, as he was living a lie, of
course the fruits showed themselves in his selfish, wasted life.
It was in this reign that two grand books were written. John Milton,
a blind scholar and poet, who, before he lost his sight, had been
Oliver Cromwell's secretary, wrote his Paradise Lost, or rather
dictated it to his daughters; and John Bunyan, a tinker, who had
been a Puritan preacher, wrote the Pilgrim's Progress.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
JAMES II. A.D. 1685--1688.
James II. had, at least, been honest in openly joining the Church in
which he believed; but the people disliked and distrusted him, and he
had not the graces of his brother to gain their hearts with, but was
grave, sad, and stern.
The Duke of Monmouth came across from Holland, and was proclaimed king
in his uncle's stead at Exeter. Many people in the West of England
joined him, and at Taunton, in Somersetshire, he was received by rows
of little girls standing by the gate in white frocks, strewing flowers
before him. But at Sedgemoor he was met by the army, and his friends
were routed; he himself fled away, and at last was caught hiding in a
ditch, dressed in a laborer's smock frock, and with his pockets full
of peas from the fields.
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