Excerpt from A History of the English People, Vol. 4

But great as the danger really was it lay not so much in isolated acts of tyranny as in the character and purpose of Charles himself, and his death at the very moment of his triumph saved English freedom. He had regained his old popularity, and at the news of his sickness in the spring of 1685 crowds thronged the churches, praylng that God would raise him up again to be a father to his people. But while his subjects were praying the one anxiety of the King was to die reconciled to the Catholic Church. His chamber was cleafed, and a priest named Huddleston, who had saved his life after the battle of Worcester, received his confession and administered the last sacraments. Not a word of this ceremony was whispered when the nobles and bishops were recalled into the royal presence, and Charles though steadily refusing the communion which Bishop Ken offered him accepted the bishop's absolution. All the children of his mistresses save Monmouth were gathered round the bed, and Charles commended them to his brother's protection by name. The scene which fol lowed is described by a chaplain to one of the prelates who stood round the dying King. Charles blessed all his children one by one, pulling them on to his bed, and then the bishops moved him, as he was the Lord's anointed and the father of his country, to bless them also and all that were there present, and in them the general body of his subjects. Whereupon, the room being full, all fell down upon their knees, and he raised himself in his bed and.

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