When the Dutch, sailing up the Thames, had burnt the ships of war
at Chatham, and Londoners heard the thunder of enemy guns, Hyde
was openly denounced as a traitor by a people stricken with
terror and seeking a victim in the blind, unreasoning way of
public feeling. They broke his windows, ravaged his garden, and
erected a gibbet before the gates of his superb mansion on the
north side of Piccadilly.
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and Lord Chancellor of England,
commanded the love of his intimates, but did not possess those
qualities of cheap glitter that make for popularity with the
masses. Nor did he court popularity elsewhere. Because he was
austere in his morals, grave and sober in his conduct, he was
hated by those who made up the debauched court of his prince.
Because he was deeply religious in his principles, the Puritans
mistrusted him for a bigot. Because he was autocratic in his
policy he was detested by the Commons, the day of autocracy being
done.
Yet might he have weathered the general hostility had Charles
been half as loyal to him as he had ever been loyal to Charles.
For a time, it is true, the King stood his friend, and might so
have continued to the end had not the women become mixed up in
the business.
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