duties of his other offices. He speedily received every possible consolation from the public. He was chosen chancellor of Oxford on 4 Aug., while in January 1669-70 the city of Dublin, ignoring the lord-lieutenant, conferred the freedom of the city upon Ossory, his eldest son, with an address composed chiefly of compliments to himself. This followed immediately upon the publication of various libellous pamphlets and of a series of charges, similar to those brought by Buckingham the year before. In 1670 Peter Talbot, the titular archbishop of Dublin, having come over to oppose the remonstrants, or loyal catholic gentry and clergy, who were being persecuted by the ultramontane party, Ormonde was active in their favour, though to little avail in the face of the opposition of Buckingham and Berkeley, who had succeeded Robarts in the lord-lieutenancy.
In the same year occurred the remarkable attempt upon his life by the notorious ruffian Blood [see Blood, Thomas]. On the night of 6 Dec. Blood with five accomplices stopped Ormonde's coach in St. James's Street, dragged the duke from it, placed him on horseback behind one of his companions, and rode off. By whom Blood was instigated is not known, though Ossory publicly before the king laid the blame on Buckingham, and there declared aloud that should his father come to his end by violence or poison he would pistol Buckingham though he stood behind the king's chair. Nothing appears to have saved Ormonde's life but the whim of Blood to hang him at Tyburn. The delay thus caused and Ormonde's vigorous resistance gave time to rescue him (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 4866). What was the mysterious connection between Blood and the court has never been known; but it is certain that when Blood was captured Charles himself asked Ormonde to pardon him.
In January 1670-1 Richard Talbot was sent by the discontented Irish gentry to obtain if possible the repeal of the Act of Settlement. Ormonde was at first placed on a committee for investigating the petition which Talbot brought; but his opposition to the petitioners led to a second committee being formed in February for a full revision of the settlement, from which he was excluded. This was, of course, at the time when Charles, by the Declaration of Indulgence, was endeavouring to dispense with the penal laws, and it is noticed that whereas Ormonde would never permit a papist to be a justice of the peace, such an appointment was now allowed. The committee was superseded in July 1673, and the attempt to upset the settlement fell to the ground.
During the seven years which elapsed between his dismissal from office and his second appointment—seven years of coldness on the king's part and enmity from the courtiers—Ormonde bore himself without reproach. At the end of June, however, tired of his disagreeable position, he returned for a while to Ireland, and on 14 July waited upon Essex, the lord-lieutenant, at Dublin, where he was received with enthusiasm. In April 1675 he returned to London at the special request of Charles, who wished to consult him about the course to be pursued in parliament. During the next two years he was occupied almost exclusively with refuting the charges brought against his government by Ranelagh, the mischiefs of whose 'undertaking' he had strongly represented to the king. For nearly a year Charles had not spoken to Ormonde, when suddenly he received a message that his majesty would sup with him that night. Charles then declared his intention of again appointing him to Ireland, saying next day: 'Yonder comes Ormonde; I have done all I can to disoblige that man, and to make him as discontented as others; but he will not be out of humour with me; he will be loyal in spite of my teeth; I must even take him in again, and he is the fittest person to govern Ireland.' How far this restoration was due to the desire of James to keep Monmouth from obtaining the post is uncertain.
In the beginning of August 1677 Ormonde set out for Ireland, passing through Oxford, where he held a convocation with great ceremony, and entering Dublin with royal display. His first and most important work was to get the revenue into some sort of order. On the subject of limiting the royal grants he seems to have made his own terms with Charles (Carte, iv. 532, Clar. Press), and he took a bold step in insisting that when the revenue ran short it should be the pensions and not the civil or military lists that suffered. He was enabled, moreover, shortly to increase the army, build a military hospital at Kilmainham and a fort at Kinsale, and put many others in repair. It was now too that he formed the magnificent collection of manuscripts at his house of Kilkenny (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. passim). Upon the breaking out of the popish terror in England Ormonde took energetic measures. On 7 Oct. he was informed that the plot had extended to Ireland. On the 14th the council met. A proclamation was issued banishing all ecclesiastics whose authority was derived from Rome, dissolving all popish societies, convents, and schools, requiring catholics to bring in their arms within twenty
