CHAP.
IX.

which were with difficulty tugged along by sixteen cart horses to each. Much curiosity was excited by a strange structure mounted on wheels. It proved to be a movable smithy, furnished with all tools and materials necessary for repairing arms and carriages. But nothing caused so much astonishment as the bridge of boats, which was laid with great speed on the Exe for the conveyance of waggons, and afterwards as speedily taken to pieces and carried away. It was made, if report said true, after a pattern contrived by the Christians who were warring against the Great Turk on the Danube. The foreigners inspired as much good will as admiration. Their politic leader took care to distribute the quarters in such a manner as to cause the smallest possible inconvenience to the inhabitants of Exeter and of the neighbouring villages. The most rigid discipline was maintained. Not only were pillage and outrage effectually prevented, but the troops were required to demean themselves with civility towards all classes. Those who had formed their notions of an army from the conduct of Kirke and his Lambs were amazed to see soldiers who never swore at a landlady or took an egg without paying for it. In return for this moderation the people furnished the troops with provisions in great abundance and at reasonable prices.*

Much depended on the course which, at this great crisis, the clergy of the Church of England might take; and the members of the Chapter of Exeter were the first who were called upon to declare their sentiments. Burnet informed the Canons, now left without a head by the flight of the Dean, that they could not be permitted to use the prayer for the Prince of Wales, and that a solemn service must be performed in honour of the safe arrival of the Prince. The

* See Whittle's Diary, the Expedition of His Highness, and the Letter from Exon published at the time. I have myself seen two manuscript newsletters describing the pomp of the Prince's entrance into Exeter. A few months later a bad poet wrote a play, entitled "The late Revolution." One scene is laid at Exeter. "Enter battalions of the Prince's army, on their march into the city, with colours flying, drums beating, and the citizens shouting." A nobleman named Misopapas says,

"Can you guess, my lord, How dreadful guilt and fear has represented

Your army to the court? Your number and your stature

Are both advanced; all six foot high at least,

In bearskins clad, Swiss, Swedes, and Brandenburghers."

In a song which appeared just after the entrance into Exeter, the Irish are described as mere dwarfs in comparison of the giants whom William commanded: "Poor Berwick, how will thy dear joys Oppose this famed viaggio? Thy tallest sparks will be mere toys To Brandenburgh and Swedish boys, Coraggio! Coraggio!"

Addison alludes, in the Freeholder, to the extraordinary effect which these romantic stories produced.

IX.

Canons did not choose to appear in their stalls; but some of СНАР. the choristers and prebendaries attended. William repaired in military state to the Cathedral. As he passed under the gorgeous screen, that renowned organ, scarcely surpassed by any of those which are the boast of his native Holland, gave out a peal of triumph. He mounted the Bishop's seat, a stately throne rich with the carving of the fifteenth century. Burnet stood below; and a crowd of warriors and nobles appeared on the right hand and on the left. The singers, robed in white, sang the Te Deum. When the chaunt was over, Burnet read the Prince's Declaration: but, as soon as the first words were uttered, prebendaries and singers crowded in all haste out of the choir. At the close Burnet cried in a loud voice, "God save the Prince of Orange!" and many fervent voices answered, "Amen.”*

On Sunday, the eleventh of November, Burnet preached before the Prince in the Cathedral, and dilated on the signal mercy vouchsafed by God to the English Church and nation. At the same time a singular event happened in a humbler place of worship. Ferguson resolved to preach at the Presbyterian meeting house. The minister and elders would not consent: but the turbulent and halfwitted knave, fancying that the times of Fleetwood and Harrison were come again, forced the door, went through the congregation sword in hand, mounted the pulpit, and there poured forth a fiery invective against the King. The time for such follies had gone by: and this exhibition excited nothing but derision and disgust.†

While these things were passing in Devonshire the ferment Conversation of was great in London. The Prince's Declaration, in spite of all the King precautions, was now in every man's hands. On the sixth of with the November James, still uncertain on what part of the coast Bishops. the invaders had landed, summoned the Primate and three other Bishops, Compton of London, White of Peterborough, and Sprat of Rochester, to a conference in the closet. The King listened graciously while the prelates made warm professions of loyalty, and assured them that he did not suspect them. "But where," said he, "is the paper that you were to bring me?" "Sir," answered Sancroft, "we have brought no paper. We are not solicitous to clear our fame to the

Expedition of the Prince of Orange; Oldmixon, 755.; Whittle's Diary; Eachard, iii. 911.; London Gazette, Nov. 15.

1688.
London Gazette, Nov. 15. 1686;
Expedition of the Prince of Orange.

CHAP.
IX.

us;

world. It is no new thing to us to be reviled and falsely
accused. Our consciences acquit us: Your Majesty acquits
and we are satisfied." "Yes," said the King; "but a
declaration from you is necessary to my service." He then
produced a copy of the Prince's manifesto. See," he said,
"how you are mentioned here." "Sir," answered one of the
Bishops, "not one person in five hundred believes this mani-
festo to be genuine." "No!" cried the King fiercely: "then
those five hundred would bring the Prince of Orange to cut
my throat." " God forbid," exclaimed the prelates in concert.
But the King's understanding, never very clear, was now
quite bewildered. One of his peculiarities was that, when-
ever his opinion was not adopted, he fancied that his veracity
was questioned. "This paper not genuine!" he exclaimed,
turning over the leaves with his hands.
"Am I not worthy
to be believed? Is my word not to be taken?" "At all
events, sir," said one of the Bishops, "this is not an ecclesi-
astical matter. It lies within the sphere of the civil power.
God has entrusted Your Majesty with the sword and it is
not for us to invade your functions." Then the Archbishop,
with that gentle and temperate malice which inflicts the
deepest wounds, declared that he must be excused from
setting bis hand to any political document.
"I and my
brethren, sir," he said, "have already smarted severely for
meddling with affairs of state; and we shall be very cautious
how we do so again. We once subscribed a petition of the
most harmless kind: we presented it in the most respectful
manner; and we found that we had committed a high offence.
We were saved from ruin only by the merciful protection of
God. And, sir, the ground then taken by Your Majesty's
Attorney and Solicitor was that, out of Parliament, we were
private men, and that it was criminal presumption in private
men to meddle with politics. They attacked us so fiercely.
that for my part I gave myself over for lost." "I thank you
for that, my Lord of Canterbury," said the King: "I should
have hoped that you would not have thought yourself lost by
falling into my hands." Such a speech might have become
the mouth of a merciful sovereign, but it came with a bad
grace from a prince who had burned a woman alive for har-
bouring one of his flying enemies, from a prince round whose
knees his own nephew had clung in vain agonies of suppli-
cation. The Archbishop was not to be so silenced. He
resumed his story, and recounted the insults which the

IX.

creatures of the Court had offered to the Church of England, CHAP. among which some ridicule thrown on his own style occupied a conspicuous place. The King had nothing to say but that there was no use in repeating old grievances, and that he had hoped that these things had been quite forgotten. He, who never forgot the smallest injury that he had suffered, could not understand how others should remember for a few weeks the most deadly injuries that he had inflicted.

At length the conversation came back to the point from which it had wandered. The King insisted on having from the Bishops a paper declaring their abhorrence of the Prince's enterprise. They, with many professions of the most submissive loyalty, pertinaciously refused. The Prince, they said, asserted that he had been invited by temporal as well as by spiritual peers. The imputation was common. Why should not the purgation be common also? "I see how it is," said the King. "Some of the temporal peers have been with you, and have persuaded you to cross me in this matter." The Bishops solemnly averred that it was not so. But it would, they said, seem strange that, on a question involving grave political and military considerations, the temporal peers should be entirely passed over, and the prelates alone should be required to take a prominent part. "But this," said James, "is my method. I am your King. It is for me to judge what is best. I will go my own way; and I call on you to assist me." The Bishops assured him that they would assist him in their proper department, as Christian ministers with their prayers, and as peers of the realm with their advice in his Parliament. James, who wanted neither the prayers of heretics nor the advice of Parliaments, was bitterly disappointed. After a long altercation, "I have done,” he said; "I will urge you no further. Since you will not help me, I must trust to myself and to my own arms.

ances in

London.

The Bishops had hardly left the royal presence, when a Disturbcourier arrived with the news that on the preceding day the Prince of Orange had landed in Devonshire. During the following week London was violently agitated. On Sunday, the eleventh of November, a rumour was circulated that knives, gridirons, and caldrons, intended for the torturing of heretics, were concealed in the monastery which had been established under the King's protection at Clerkenwell. Great multi

* Life of James, ii. 210. Orig. Mem.; Sprat's Narrative; Van Citters, Nov.

1688.

CHAP.
IX.

Men of rank begin to repair to

tudes assembled round the building, and were about to demolish it, when a military force arrived. The crowd was dispersed, and several of the rioters were slain. An inquest sate on the bodies, and came to a decision which strongly indicated the temper of the public mind. The jury found that certain loyal and well disposed persons, who had gone to put down the meetings of traitors and public enemies at a mass house, had been wilfully murdered by the soldiers; and this strange verdict was signed by all the jurors. The ecclesiastics at Clerkenwell, naturally alarmed by these symptoms of popular feeling, were desirous to place their property in safety. They succeeded in removing most of their furniture before any report of their intentions got abroad. But at length the suspicions of the rabble were excited. The last two carts were stopped in Holborn, and all that they contained was publicly burned in the middle of the street. So great was the alarm among the Catholics that all their places of worship were closed, except those which belonged to the royal family and to foreign Ambassadors.*

On the whole, however, things as yet looked not unfavourably for James. The invaders had been more than a week on English ground. Yet no man of note had joined them. No rebellion had broken out in the north or the east. No servant of the crown appeared to have betrayed his trust. The royal army was assembling fast at Salisbury, and, though inferior in discipline to that of William, was superior in numbers.

The Prince was undoubtedly surprised and mortified by the slackness of those who had invited him to England. By the common people of Devonshire, indeed, he had been rethe Prince. ceived with every sign of good will: but no nobleman, no

gentleman of high consideration, had yet repaired to his quarters. The explanation of this singular fact is probably to be found in the circumstance that he had landed in a part of the island where he had not been expected. His friends in the north had made their arrangements for a rising, on the supposition that he would be among them with an army. His friends in the west had made no arrangements at all, and were naturally disconcerted at finding themselves suddenly called upon take the lead in a movement so important and perilous. They had also fresh in their recollection, and

* Luttrell's Diary; Newsletter in the Mackintosh Collection; Adda, Nov. 1.