An extempore council of war, p. 342.-A royal sacrifice to feeling, p. 343. -The Gallic Mars overcome by Venus, p. 344.-State of France after the treaty of Ryswick, p. 345.-Freemasonry in England, p. 347 A fire in St. Paul's Cathedral, p. 349.-The last illness of James II. p. 351.—The last interview between Louis XIV. and James II. p. 352.— Death and burial of James II. p. 353.-Results of James's death, p. 354. -Ministers and spies, Ibid.-A minister repaid, p. 355.-A minister poisoned, p. 356.-Royal compliments, p. 357.-Intrigues for the crown of Spain, p. 358.-The grand alliance against France, Ibid.-French and English physicians, p. 359.-Death of King William III. p. 361.- Closing scenes of life, p. 363.-Accession of Queen Anne, p. 369.- Deaths of Robert Hooke and John Evelyn, p. 370.-Act for building fifty new churches, p. 371.—Wren on the new churches, p. 372.-Wren on interment, p. 373.—Wren on building cements, p. 374.-Wren on church building, p. 375.-Wren on preaching, p. 376.-Wren against pews in church, p. 377.—Wren on the value of house-property, p. 378.— Malignant attacks on Wren, p. 379.-St. Paul's declared finished, p. 381.-Martinus Scriblerus's shield, p. 382.-Death and character of Queen Anne, p. 383.-Accession of King George, Ibid.-Expulsion of the Jacobites from France, p. 385.-Bribery and corruption in England, p. 392.-Wren superseded in his office of Surveyor-General, p. 393.— Benson and the Dunciad, p. 395.-Pope, Horace, Walpole and Bishop Sprat, Ibid. and p. 396.-Minor persecutions, p. 397.—Balustrades and lace-edgings, p. 399.-Benson's architectural skill, p. 400.—Benson's rewards and punishments, p. 401.-Wren's latter days, p. 402.-Death of Flamsteed, p. 403.-Sir Richard Steele's character of Wren, Ibid.- Lyons and London, p. 406.-More attacks on Wren, p. 407.-Death Chronology of Wren's life, p. 414.-Wren's birth and schooling, SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, AND HIS TIMES. CHAPTER I. FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. TO THE END OF THE COMMONWEALTH. A. D. 1625 TO 1660. "THEY are the best laws, by which the King hath the greatest prerogative, and the people the best liberty."-LORD BACON. THE middle of the seventeenth century, was a period of great importance in British history. Europe beheld with awe and amazement, the unparalleled sight of one of its greatest Monarchs, descended from a long race of mighty Kings, allied by marriage to the most flattered Prince of the day, Louis XIV., the wearer of the united diadems of the Tudors and the Stuarts, led from the throne to the scaffold, by the stern retribution of an injured people; and witnessed the immediate establishment of an aristocratic commonwealth, with mailed iron on its sides, zeal in its heart, and wisdom in its head, which raised the nation to a B lofty rank among the kingdoms of the earth, and caused its power to be respected, and its interference, as arbiter in the disputes between France and Spain, sought by those great powers. STIRRING events pervaded Europe when Charles I. ascended the throne of his peaceable father; who, if he was the best his tutor Buchanan could make him, "a pedant," was something less mischievous to the world, than Richelieu's royal pupil, Louis XIII., a lawless murderer. At the very beginning of the young King's reign, Rochelle, the strong-hold of the Huguenots, was besieged by Richelieu, the soldierpriest and Cardinal-minister of Charles's brother-inlaw Louis XIII., whose juvenile education was principally the art of building little fortresses in the gardens of the Tuilleries, and of beating a drum by way of making a noise in the world of Paris. Three attempts were made by Charles to relieve the besieged Protestants and to raise the siege of Rochelle, one by a fleet under the command of the Duke of Buckingham in 1627, another by the Earl of Denbigh in 1628, and the third by the Earl of Lindsey in the autumn of the same year. They all proved ineffectual, and on the last day of October 1628, the brave but unfortunate Rochellers, after enduring those horrible privations, which are so well known to the readers of French history, surrendered to the dire power of famine; and the French King entered his own conquered city the next day. With what mantle this degenerate son of the great Henry IV. covered his weaknesses and his cruelties, history relates not; but his bolder minister, the cuirassed Cardinal, covered his, as he was wont to boast, with his soutane rouge, his Cardinal's scarlet cassock, a fitting colour and a suitable cloak for such eminent sons of the Popish Church. BUCKINGHAM was assassinated at Portsmouth, as he was about to embark on another expedition for the relief of Rochelle, and his royal master found anything but peace at home or honour abroad. In 1630 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, in alliance with France and with the friendship of England invaded Germany, with an army of sixty thousand men and a fleet of seventy sail, conquering all before him with a rapidity and skill, that induced Voiture, to say that he was a conqueror whose least quality was that of being a King; and that he had all the virtues of Alexander, without any of his vices, except ambition. He gained the great battle of Leipsig the following year over the Imperialists under Count Tilly, but fell himself, in the moment of victory, on the 16th November 1632, in the battle of Lutzen, opposed by the Imperialists under Albert Count Wallenstein, whom Schiller has immortalized in his three transcendant dramas on his career and death. Voiture has eulogized the Swedish hero in a true French sonnet, full of bombast and false taste, making the northern hero his own trumpeter, proclaiming himself a modern Mars, as having eclipsed the glory of Cæsar, making the whole universe stand astounded at the magnitude of |