A.D. 1686-1688. IMPRISONMENT OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 531

•ARCHIEPISC-CA

primate, and drew up a respectful petition to the king, in which they represented that the Declaration of Indulgence being founded on a prerogative formerly declared illegal by Parliament, they could not, in prudence, honor, or conscience, make themselves parties to the distribution of it, and besought the king that he would not insist upon their reading it. The king immediately embraced a resolution of punishing the bishops for a petition so popular in its matter, and so prudent and cautious in the expression. He summoned them before the council; and when they avowed the petition, an order was immediately drawn for their commitment to the Tower; and the crown lawyers received directions to prosecute them for the seditious libel which, it was pretended, they had composed and uttered. When the people beheld these fathers of the Church brought from court under the custody of a guard, when they saw them embark in vessels on the river and conveyed toward the Tower, all their affection for liberty, all their zeal for religion, blazed up at once, and they flew to behold this affecting spectacle. The whole shore was covered with crowds of prostrate spectators, who at once implored the bless

of Archbishop Sancroft and the seven bishops.

GVIL. SANCROFT. ARCHIEPISC. CANTUAR. Bust to right. Rev.: Busts of the seven bishops in circles, with their names.

Obv.

1688.

ing of those holy pastors, Medal and addressed their petitions toward heaven for protection during this extreme danger to which their country and their religion stood exposed. Even the soldiers, seized with the contagion of the same spirit, flung themselves on their knees before the distressed prel

ates, and craved the benediction of those criminals whom they were appointed to guard. Their passage, when conducted to their trial, was, if possible, attended by greater crowds of anxious spectators. Twenty-nine temporal peers (for the other prelates kept aloof) attended the seven prisoners to Westminster Hall; and such crowds of gentry followed the procession that scarcely was any room left for the populace to enter. No cause, even during the prosecution of the Popish Plot, was ever heard with so much zeal and attention. The arguments of counsel in favor of the bishops were convincing in themselves, and were heard with a favorable disposition by the audience. The jury, however, from what cause is unknown, took several hours to deliberate, and kept, during so long a time, the people in the most anxious expectation. But when the wished-for verdict, not guilty, was at last pronounced, the intelligence was echoed through the hall, was conveyed to the crowds without, was carried into the city, and was propagated with infinite joy throughout the kingdom (June 30). The king had formed a standing army of about 16,000 men, which encamped in summer on Hounslow Heath. It happened that the very day on which the trial of the bishops was finished, James had reviewed the troops, and had retired into the tent of Lord Feversham, the general, when he was surprised to hear a great uproar in the camp, attended with the most extravagant symptoms of tumultuary joy. He suddenly inquired the cause, and was told by Feversham, "It was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the acquittal of the bishops." "Do you call that nothing?" replied he. "But so much the worse for them."

§ 7. A few days before the acquittal of the bishops the queen was delivered of a son (June 10, 1688), who was baptized by the name of James. This blessing was impatiently longed for, not only by the king and queen, but by all the zealous Catholics both abroad and at home. Vows had been offered at every shrine for a male successor, and pilgrimages undertaken, particularly one to Loretto, by the Duchess of Modena; and success was chiefly attributed to that pious journey. But the Protestant party went so far as to ascribe to the king the design of imposing on the world a supposititious child, who might be educated in his principles, and after his death support the Catholic religion in his dominions.

Although the king's conduct had entirely alienated the hearts of his subjects, yet such is the influence of established government, and so averse are men from beginning hazardous enterprises, that, had not an attack been made from abroad, affairs might long have remained in their present delicate situation. The Prince of Orange, ever since his marriage with the Lady Mary, had main

A.D. 1688.

CONDUCT OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.

533

tained a very prudent conduct, agreeable to that sound understanding with which he was so eminently endowed. But when the arbitrary conduct of James had disgusted all his subjects, William sent over Dykvelt as envoy to England, and gave him instructions to apply in his name, after a proper manner, to every sect and denomination. To the Church party he sent assurances of favor and regard; while the Nonconformists were exhorted not to be deceived by the fallacious caresses of a popish court, but to wait patiently till laws, enacted by Protestants, should give them that toleration which, with so much reason, they had long demanded. Dykvelt executed his commission with such dexterity that all orders of men cast their eyes toward Holland, and many of the most considerable persons, both in Church and state, made secret applications through him to the Prince of Orange. At last, when a son was born to the king, and the succession of William thus cut off, both the prince and the English nation were reduced to despair, and saw no resource but in a confederacy for their mutual interest. And thus the event which James had so long made the object of his most ardent prayers, and from which he expected the firm establishment of his throne, proved the immediate cause of his ruin and downfall.

Zuylestein, who had been sent over to congratulate the king on the birth of his son, brought back to the prince invitations from most of the great men in England, to assist them, by his arms, in the recovery of their laws and liberties. Whigs, Tories, and Nonconformists, forgetting their animosity, secretly concurred in a design of resisting their unhappy and misguided sovereign. Even Sunderland, the king's favorite minister, entered into correspondence with the prince; and, at the expense of his own honor and his master's interests, secretly favored a cause which, he foresaw, was likely soon to predominate.

§ 8. The prince was easily engaged to yield to the applications of the English, and to embrace the defense of a nation which, during its present fears and distresses, regarded him as its sole protector. The time when he entered on his enterprise was well chosen, as the people were then in the highest ferment on account of the insult which the imprisonment and trial of the bishops had put upon the Church, and, indeed, upon all the Protestants of the nation. He had beforehand increased the Dutch navy, levied additional troops, and made such arrangements with his neighbors and allies as should prevent any danger to Holland from his expedition. So secret were the prince's counsels, and so fortunate was the situation of affairs, that he could still cover his preparations under other pretenses. Yet all his artifices could not entirely conceal his real intentions from the sagacity of the French

court.

Louis conveyed the intelligence to James, and offered to join a squadron of French ships to the English fleet, and to send over any number of troops which James should judge requisite for his security. But all the French king's proposals were imprudently rejected. James was not, as yet, entirely convinced that his sonin-law intended an invasion upon England. Fully persuaded, himself, of the sacredness of his own authority, he fancied that a like belief had made deep impression on his subjects; and, notwithstanding the strong symptoms of discontent which broke out every where, such a universal combination in rebellion appeared to him nowise credible.

James at last received a letter from his minister at the Hague which informed him with certainty that he was soon to look for a powerful invasion from Holland. Though he could reasonably expect no other intelligence, he was astonished at the news: he grew pale, and the letter dropped from his hand; his eyes were now opened, and he found himself on the brink of a frightful precipice, which his delusions had hitherto concealed from him. His ministers and counselors, equally astonished, saw no resource but in a sudden and precipitate retraction of all those fatal measures by which he had created to himself so many enemies, foreign and domestic. He paid court to the Dutch, and offered to enter into any alliance with them for common security; he replaced in all the counties the deputy lieutenants and justices, who had been deprived of their commissions for their adherence to the Test and the penal laws; he restored the charters of London and of all the corporations; he annulled the court of ecclesiastical commission; he took off the Bishop of London's suspension; he reinstated the expelled president and fellows of Magdalen College; and he was even reduced to caress those bishops whom he had so lately persecuted and insulted. But all these measures were regarded as symptoms of fear, not of repentance.

§ 9. Meanwhile the Prince of Orange published a declaration, which was dispersed over the kingdom, and met with universal approbation. In this document he enumerated all the grievances of the nation, and declared his intention of coming to England with an armed force, in order to protect the liberties of the people, to assemble a legal and a free Parliament, and to examine the proofs of the legitimacy of the Prince of Wales. He set sail from Helvoetsluys on Oct. 19, with a fleet of nearly 500 vessels, and an army of above 14,000 men, and landed safely in Torbay on the 5th of November, the anniversary of the gunpowder treason. The Dutch army marched first to Exeter, and the prince's declaration was there published. That whole county was so terrified with the executions which had ensued on Monmouth's rebellion

A.D. 1688.

THE KING DESERTED.

535

that no one for several days joined the prince. But Sir Edward Seymour made proposals for an association, and by degrees the Earl of Abingdon, Mr. Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, and others, came to Exeter. All England was in commotion, and the nobility and gentry in various counties embraced the same

cause.

But the most dangerous symptom was the disaffection which had crept into the army. The officers seemed all disposed to adhere to the interests of their country and of their religion, and several of high distinction openly deserted. Among those was Lord Churchill (afterward the celebrated Duke of Marlborough), who had been raised from the rank of a page, had been invested with a high command in the army, had been created a peer, and had owed his whole fortune to the king's favor. He carried with him the Duke of Grafton, natural son of the late king, Colonel Berkeley, and some troops of dragoons. The king had arrived at Salisbury, the head-quarters of his army, when he received this fatal intelligence; and in the perplexity which it occasioned, he embraced a sudden resolution of drawing off his army and retiring toward London—a measure which could only serve to betray his fears and provoke farther treachery.

But Churchill had prepared a still more mortal blow for his distressed benefactor. His lady and he had an entire ascendant over the family of Prince George of Denmark, and the time now appeared seasonable for overwhelming the unhappy king, who was already staggering with the violent shocks which he had received. Andover was the first stage of James's retreat toward London, and there Prince George, together with the young Duke of Ormond, and some other persons of distinction, deserted him in the nighttime, and retired to the prince's camp. No sooner had this news reached London, than the Princess Anne, pretending fear of the king's displeasure, withdrew herself in company with the Bishop of London and Lady Churchill. She fled to Nottingham, where the Earl of Dorset received her with great respect, and the gentry of the county quickly formed a troop for her protection. The king burst into tears when the first intelligence of this astonishing event was conveyed to him. "God help me," cried he, in the extremity of his agony, "my own children have forsaken me!" Unable to resist the torrent, he preserved not presence of mind in yielding to it, but seemed in this emergency as much depressed with adversity as he had before been vainly elated by prosperity. He called a council of the peers and prelates who were in London, and followed their advice in issuing writs for a new Parliament, and in sending Halifax, Nottingham, and Godolphin as commissioners to treat with the Prince of Orange.