Upon receipt of this Mr. Thewles and Mr. Hall consulted the Vice-Chancellor and delivered the Keyes. _April 15, 1690._--Received from Mr. George Thewles and Mr. John Hall, by his Majesties order in Council, ten Keyes belonging to the trunks and presses in the repository of ye College of Dublin by me. FYTTON, _C._ _June 14, 1690._--King William landed at Carrick Fergus, and the same day Mr. Thewles died of a fever. _July 1, 1690._--The armies of the English and Irish engaged at the Boyne, and the Irish being routed, King James returned that night to Dublin, and commanded his army not to plunder or do any harm to the city, which order was observed by ye Irish. _July 15, 1690._--Mr. Scroggs landed, and immediately after Dr. Browne, and then Mr. Downes, Mr. Reader, the Provost, &c.[59] The Fellows and Scholars that returned were allowed their Commons, but their salary was reduced by agreement to the old Statute allowance, both for Fellowships and places, till the College revenues shall increase. Before King William left Ireland he gave order to ye College to seize upon all books that belonged to forfeiting Papists; but the order not being known till about half a-year after, the greatest part of the books were lost, but those which were recovered, and worth anything, were placed in the Countess of Bath’s library.[60] The interesting features in this crisis were, first, the steadfast and courageous behaviour of Dr. Acton and his three colleagues, two of whom sacrificed their lives for the good of the College; secondly, the excellent conduct of the two Roman Catholic priests, Moore and Macarthy, who not only exerted themselves with great humanity to save the Fellows and scholars and their property from outrage, but showed a real love and respect for learning, and a desire to maintain the College for the real objects of its foundation.[61] Thus, if it had not been for the narrowness of controversialists and the violence of soldiers, the assaults of Rome and Geneva were by no means so disastrous as might have been expected. Nevertheless, the College came out of the crisis of James II. with great loss of books, furniture, plate, rents--in fact, for the moment in great distress--but still the buildings were safe;[62] the character of the College must have been greatly raised by the conduct of its Fellows; there had been no time to occupy the estates with new adventurers; and the policy of the new King, in spite of his well-known Liberal instincts, must necessarily be strongly Protestant after the recent outburst of the opposite party under his opponent, and therefore made him a firm friend of the persecuted College. [Illustration: CHAPEL PLATE. (DATED 1632 AND 1638).]