290 



Lord Clarendon and his Trowbridge Ancestry. 



of York, was a source of danger no less than of aggrandisement to 

 himself. Raised on high, he became the mark at which were hurled 

 a thousand envenomed shafts. You cannot read his life without at 

 once seeing how persevering and busy were malice and envy in dis- 

 torting his words and actions, and assigning to them some unworthy 

 or interested motive. And when, yielding to the storm of popular 

 discontent, King Charles II. withdrew his protecting shield from 

 the Chancellor, then was lost for ever that power which his 

 very relationship to the Court prevented him from grasping 

 so firmly or independently as others. Then his great honours 

 became only as heavy chains or gilded fetters, rendering him 

 powerless to contend against the machinations of his many and 

 malicious enemies. 



" What murdered Wentworth, and what exiled Hyde, 

 By Kings protected and to Kings allied ; 

 What but their wish indulged in courts to shine, 

 And power too great to keep or to resign P " 



