A month after that there'd been no Parliament and no more Bolstroods in Britain. James had come home from exile, Monmouth had been removed from the King's service, and England had become, effectively, a department of France, with King Charles openly accepting a hundred thousand pounds a year, and most of the politicians in London – Whigs and Tories alike – receiving bribes from the Sun King as well. Quite a few Catholics who'd been tossed into the Tower for supposed involvement in the Popish Plot had been released, making room for as many Protestants who had supposedly been involved in a Rye House Plot to put Monmouth on the throne. Just like many Popish Plotters before them, these had promptly begun to 'commit suicide' in the Tower. One had even managed the heroic feat of cutting his own throat all the way to the vertebrae!