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An extraordinary mis

rose from all the Dutch factions. sion was, with great speed, dispatched to congratulate him. Dykvelt, whose adroitness and intimate knowledge of English politics made his assistance, at such a conjuncture, peculiarly valuable, was one of the embassadors; and with him was joined Nicholas Witsen, a burgomaster of Amsterdam, who seems to have been selected for the purpose of proving to all Europe that the long feud between the house of Orange and the chief city of Holland was at an end. On the eighth of January Dykvelt and Witsen made their appearance at Westminster. William talked to them with a frankness and an effusion of heart which seldom appeared in his conversations with Englishmen. His first words were, "Well, and what do our friends at home say now?" In truth, the only applause by which his stoical nature seems to have been strongly moved was the applause of his dear native country. Of his immense popularity in England he spoke with cold disdain, and predicted, too truly, the reaction which followed. "Here," said he, "the cry is all Hosannah to-day, and will, perhaps, be Crucify him to-morrow."*

On the following day the first members of the Convention were chosen. The city of London led the way, and elected, without any contest, four great merchants who were zealous Whigs. The king and his adherents had hoped that many returning officers would treat the prince's letter as a nullity; but the hope was disappointed. elections went on rapidly and smoothly. There were scarcely any contests; for the nation had, during more than a year, been kept in constant expectation of a Par

The

* «'Tis hier nu Hosanna: maar 't zal, veelligt, haast Kruist hem, kruist hem, zyn." Witsen, MS. in Wagenaar, book lxi. It is an odd coincidence that, a very few years before, Richard Duke, a Tory poet, once well known, but now scarcely remembered, except by Johnson's biographical sketch, had used exactly the same illustration about James:

"Was not of old the Jewish rabble's cry,

Hosanna first, and after crucify?"-The Review.

Dispatch of the Dutch embassadors extraordinary, Jan., 1689; Citters, same date.

liament. Writs, indeed, had been twice issued and twice recalled. Some constituent bodies had, under those writs, actually proceeded to the choice of representatives. There was scarcely a county in which the gentry and yeomanry had not, many months before, fixed upon candidates, good Protestants, whom no exertion must be spared to carry, in defiance of the king and of the lord lieutenant; and these candidates were now generally returned without opposition.

The prince gave strict orders that no person in the public service should, on this occasion, practice those arts which had brought so much obloquy on the late government. He especially directed that no soldiers should be suffered to appear in any town where an election was going on.* His admirers were able to boast, and his enemies seem not to have been able to deny, that the sense of the constituent bodies was fairly taken. It is true that he risked little. The party which was attached to him was triumphant, enthusiastic, full of life and energy. The party from which alone he could expect serious opposition was disunited and disheartened, out of humor with itself, and still more out of humor with its natural chief. A great majority, therefore, of the shires and boroughs returned Whig members.

It was not over England alone that his guardianship now extended. Scotland had risen on her tyrants. All the regular soldiers by whom she had long been held down had been summoned by James to his help against the Dutch invaders, with the exception of a very small force, which, under the command of the Duke of Gordon, a great Roman Catholic lord, garrisoned the Castle of Edinburgh. Every mail which had gone northward during the eventful month of November had carried news which stirred the passions of the oppressed Scots. While the event of the military operations was still doubtful, there were at Edinburgh riots and clamors which became more menacing after James had retreated from Salisbury. Great crowds assembled at first by night, and then by broad daylight. * London Gazette, Jan. 7, 1688.

Popes were publicly burned; loud shouts were raised for a free Parliament; placards were stuck up setting prices on the heads of the ministers of the crown. Among those ministers, Perth, as filling the great place of chancellor, as standing high in the royal favor, as an apostate from the Reformed faith, and as the man who had first introduced the thumb-screw into the jurisprudence of his country, was the most detested. His nerves were weak, his spirit abject; and the only courage which he possessed was that evil courage which braves infamy, and which looks steadily on the torments of others. His post, at such a time, was at the head of the council board; but his heart failed him; and he determined to take refuge at his country seat from the danger which, as he judged by the looks and cries of the fierce and resolute populace of Edinburgh, was not remote. A strong guard escorted him safe to Castle Drummond; but scarcely had he departed when the city rose up. A few troops tried to suppress the insurrection, but were overpowered. The palace of Holyrood, which had been turned into a Roman Catholic seminary and printing-house, was stormed and sacked. Huge heaps of popish books, beads, crucifixes, and pictures were burned in the High Street. In the midst of the agitation came down the tidings of the king's flight. The members of the government gave up all thought of contending with the popular fury, and changed sides with a promptitude then common among Scottish politicians. The Privy Council by one proclamation ordered that all papists should be disarmed, and by another invited Protestants to muster for the defense of pure religion. The nation had not waited for the call. Town and country were already up in arms for the Prince of Orange. Nithsdale and Clydesdale were the only regions in which there was the least chance that the Roman Catholics would make head; and both Nithsdale and Clydesdale were soon occupied by bands of armed Presbyterians. Among the insurgents were some fierce and moody men who had formerly disowned Argyle, and who were now equally eager

to disown William. His highness, they said, was plainly a malignant. There was not a word about the Covenant in his declaration. The Dutch were a people with whom no true servant of the Lord would unite. They consorted with Lutherans; and a Lutheran was as much a child of perdition as a Jesuit. The general voice of the kingdom, however, effectually drowned the growl of this hateful faction.*

The commotion soon reached the neighborhood of Castle Drummond. Perth found that he was no longer safe among his own servants and tenants. He gave himself up to an agony as bitter as that into which his merciless tyranny had often thrown better men. He wildly tried to find consolation in the rites of his new church. He importuned his priests for comfort, prayed, confessed, and communicated; but his faith was weak; and he owned that, in spite of all his devotions, the strong terrors of death were upon him. At this time he learned that he had a chance of escaping on board of a ship which lay off Brentisland. He disguised himself as well as he could, and, after a long and difficult journey by unfrequented paths over the Ochill Mountains, which were then deep in snow, he succeeded in embarking; but, in spite of all his precautions, he had been recognized, and the alarm had been given. As soon as it was known that the cruel renegade was on the waters, and that he had gold with him, pursuers, inflamed at once by hatred and by avarice, were on his track. A skiff, commanded by an old buccaneer, overtook the flying vessel and boarded her. Perth was dragged out of the hold on deck in woman's clothes, stripped, hustled, and plundered. Bayonets were held to his breast. Begging for life with unmanly cries, he was hurried to the shore, and flung into the common jail at Kirkaldy. Thence, by order of the council over which he had lately presided, and which was filled with men who had been partakers in his guilt, he was removed to Stirling

The Sixth Collection of Papers, 1689; Wodrow, III., xii., 4, App. 150, 151; Faithful Contendings Displayed; Burnet, i., 804.

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Castle. It was on a Sunday, during the time of public worship, that he was conveyed under a guard to his place of confinement; but even rigid Puritans forgot the sanctity of the day and of the work. The churches poured forth their congregations as the torturer passed by, and the noise of threats, execrations, and screams of hatred accompanied him to the gate of his prison.*

Several eminent Scotsmen were in London when the prince arrived there, and many others now hastened thither to pay their court to him. On the seventh of January he requested them to attend him at Whitehall. The assemblage was large and respectable. The Duke of Hamilton and his eldest son, the Earl of Arran, the chiefs of a house of almost regal dignity, appeared at the head of the procession. They were accompanied by thirty lords and about eighty gentlemen of note. William desired them to consult together, and to let him know in what way he could best promote the welfare of their country. He then withdrew, and left them to deliberate unrestrained by his presence. They repaired to the council chamber, and put Hamilton into the chair. Though there seems to have been little difference of opinion, their debates lasted three days, a fact which is sufficiently explained by the circumstance that Sir Patrick Hume was one of the debaters. Arran ventured to recommend a negotiation with the king. But this motion was ill received by the mover's father and by the whole assembly, and did not even find a seconder. At length resolutions were carried closely resembling the resolutions which the English lords and commoners had presented to the prince a few days before. He was requested to call together a convention of the estates of Scotland, to fix the fourteenth of March for the day of meeting, and, till that day, to take on himself the civil and military administration. To this request he acceded; and thenceforth the government of the whole isl and was in his hands.†

* Perth to Lady Errol, Dec. 29, 1688; to Melfort, Dec. 21, 1688; Sixth Collection of Papers, 1689. + Burnet, i., 805; Sixth Collection of Papers, 1689.

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