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with the Chancellorship and the state, and in matters termed
parliamentary. The jussu regis and the signature Jeffreys were
authenticated. To those who have studied pathologically the cases of
caprice called "our good will and pleasure," this jussu regis is very
simple. Why should James II., whose credit required the concealment of
such acts, have allowed that to be written which endangered their
success? The answer is, cynicism--haughty indifference. Oh! you believe
that effrontery is confined to abandoned women? The raison d'état is
equally abandoned. Et se cupit ante videri. To commit a crime and
emblazon it, there is the sum total of history. The king tattooes
himself like the convict. Often when it would be to a man's greatest
advantage to escape from the hands of the police or the records of
history, he would seem to regret the escape so great is the love of
notoriety. Look at my arm! Observe the design! I am Lacenaire! See, a
temple of love and a burning heart pierced through with an arrow! Jussu
regis. It is I, James the Second. A man commits a bad action, and
places his mark upon it. To fill up the measure of crime by effrontery,
to denounce himself, to cling to his misdeeds, is the insolent bravado
of the criminal. Christina seized Monaldeschi, had him confessed and
assassinated, and said,--
"
I am the Queen of Sweden, in the palace of the King of France."
There is the tyrant who conceals himself, like Tiberius; and the tyrant
who displays himself, like Philip II. One has the attributes of the
scorpion, the other those rather of the leopard. James II. was of this
latter variety. He had, we know, a gay and open countenance, differing
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