 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of England from the Excession of James II by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Chapter 10 Part 1. Northumberland strictly obeyed the injunction which had been laid on him and did not open the door of the royal apartment till it was broad day. The anti-chamber was filled with courtiers who came to make their morning bow and with lords who had been summoned to council. The news of James's flight passed in an instant from the galleries to the streets and the whole capital was in commotion. It was a terrible moment. The king was gone, the prince had not arrived. No regency had been appointed. The great seal, essential to the Administration of Ordinary Justice, had disappeared. It was soon known that Feversham had, on the receipt of the royal order, instantly disbanded his forces. What respectful law or property was likely to be found among soldiers, armed and congregated, emancipated from the restraints of discipline and destitute of the necessary of life. On the other hand, the populace of London had, during some weeks, shown a strong disposition to turbulence and rapime. The urgency of the crisis united for a short time all who had any interest in the peace of society. Rochester had, till that day, adhered firmly to the royal cause. He now saw that there was only one way of averting general confusion. Call your trip with the guards together, he said, to Northumberland and declare for the Prince of Orange. The advice was promptly followed. The principal officers of the army, who were then in London, held a meeting at Whitehall and resolved that they would submit to William's authority and would, till his pleasure should be known, keep their men together and assist the civil powers to preserve order. The peers repaired to Guildhall and were received there with all honour by the Magistery of the City. In strictness of the law, they were no better entitled than any other set of persons to assume the Executive Administration. But it was necessary to the public safety that there should be a provisional government and the eyes of men naturally turned to the hereditary magnets of the realm. The extremity of the danger drew Sancroff forth from his palace. He took the chair, and under his presidency the New Archbishop of York, five bishops and twenty-two temporal lords determined to draw up, subscribe and publish a declaration. By this instrument they declared that they were firmly attached to the religion and constitution of their country, and that they had cherished the hope of seeing grievances redressed and tranquility restored by the Parliament which the King had lately summoned, but that this hope had been extinguished by his flight. They had therefore determined to join with the Prince of Orange in order that the freedom of the nation might be vindicated, that the rights of the church might be secured, that a just liberty of conscience might be given to dissenters and that the Protestant interests throughout the world might be strengthened. Till his Highness should arrive, they were prepared to take on themselves the responsibility of giving such directions as might be necessary for the preservation of order. A deputation was instantly sent to lay this declaration before the Prince and to inform him that he was impatiently expected in London. The lords then proceeded to deliberate on the course which it was necessary to take for the prevention of tumult. They sent for the two secretaries of state. Middleton refused to submit to what he regarded as usurped authority but Preston astounded by his master's flight and not knowing what to expect or whether to turn obeyed the summons. A message was sent to Skelton who was the Lieutenant of the Tower requesting his attendance at Guild Hall. He came and was told that his services were no longer wanted and that he must instantly deliver up his keys. He was succeeded by Lord Lucas. At the same time the Peers ordered a letter to be written to Dartmouth and joining him to refrain from all hostile operations against the Dutch fleet and to displace all the Popesh officers who held commands under him. The part taken in these proceedings by Sandcroft and by some other persons who had up to that day been strictly faithful to the principle of passive obedience and deserve special notice. To usurp the command of the military and naval forces of the state to remove the officers whom the king had set over his castles and his ships and to prohibit his admiral from giving battle to his enemies was surely nothing less than rebellion. Yet several honest and able Tories of the School of Fulmer persuaded themselves that they could do all of these things in the guilt of resisting their sovereign. The distinction which they took was at least ingenious. Government they said is the ordinance of God. Hereditary Monarchal Government is eminently the ordinance of God. While the king commands what is lawful, we must obey him actively. When he commands what is unlawful, we must obey him passively. In no extremity are we justified inwithstanding him by force. But if he chooses to resign his office, his rights over us are at an end. While he governs us, though he may govern us ill, we are bound to submit. But if he refuses to govern us at all, we are not bound to remain forever without a government. Anarchy is not the ordinance of God. Nor will he impute it to us as a sin, that when a prince whom, in the spite of the extreme provocations, we have never ceased to honour and obey, has departed we know not whether. Leaving no vice-regent, we take the only course which can prevent the entire dissolution of society. Had our sovereign remained amongst us, we were ready, little as he deserved our love to die at his feet. Had he, when he quitted us, appointed a regency to govern us with vicarious authority during his absence, to that regency alone should we have looked for direction. But he has disappeared, having made no provision for the preservation of order or the administration of justice. With him and with his great seal has vanished the whole machinery by which a murderer can be a punished, by which the right to an estate can be decided, by which the effects of a bankrupt can be distributed. His last act has been to free thousands of armed men from the restraints of military discipline and to place them in such a situation that they must plunder or starve. Yet a few hours and every man's hand will be against his neighbour. Life, property, female honour will be at the mercy of every lawless spirit. We are at this moment actually in a state of nature about which theorists have written so much and in that state we have been placed, not by our fault but by the voluntary defection of him who ought to have been our protector. His defection may be justly called voluntary for neither his life nor his liberty was in danger. His enemies had just consented to treat with him on a basis proposed by himself and had offered immediately to spend all hostile operations on conditions which he could not deny to be liberal. In such circumstances it is that he has abandoned his trust. We retract nothing. We are in nothing inconsistent. We still assert our old doctrines without qualification. We still hold that it is in all cases sinful to resist the magistrate but we say that there is no longer any magistrate to resist. He who was the magistrate after long abusing his powers has at last abdicated them. The abuse did not give us the right to depose him but the abdication gives us a right to consider how we may best supply his place. It was on these grounds that the Princess Party was now swollen by many adherents who had previously stood aloof from it. Never within the memory of man had there been so near an approach to entire concord among all intelligent Englishmen as at this conjecture. And never had concord been more needed. Legitimate authority there was none. All those evil passions which it is the office of government to restrain and which the best governments restrain but imperfectly were on sudden man's passion from control. Avers, lauchentiousness, revenge, the hatred of sect to sect, the hatred of nation to nation. On such occasions it will ever be found that the human vermin which neglected by ministers of state and ministers of religion, barbarous in the midst of civilization, heathen in the midst of Christianity, burrows among all physical and all moral pollution, and the sellers and the garrets of the great cities will at once rise into terrible importance. So it was now in London when the night, the longest night as a chance of the year, approached forth came from every den of vice, from the bare garden at Hockley and from the labyrinth of the tippling houses and brothels and the friars, thousands of housebreakers and highwaymen, cut-purses and ring-droppers. With these were mingled thousands of idle apprentices who wished merely for the excitement of a riot. Even men of peaceable and honest habits were impelled by religious animosity to join the lawless part of the population. For the cry of no popery, a cry which had more than once endangered the existence of London, was the signal for outrage and rapine. First the rabble fell on the Roman Catholic places of worship. The buildings were demolished. Benches, pulpits, confessionals, breweries were heaped up and set on fire. A great mountain of books and furniture blazed on the site of the convent at Clirkenwell. Another pile was kindled before the ruins of the Franciscan house in Lincoln's infield. The chapel in Lyme Street, the chapel in Bucklesbury, were pulled down. The pictures, images and proofs of fixes were carried along the streets in triumph amidst lighted tapers torn from the altars. The procession bristled thick with swords and staves and on the point of every sword and of every staff was an orange. The King's printing house, whence had issued during the preceding three years innumerable tracts in defence of papal supremacy, image worship and monastic vows was to use a coarse metaphor which then for the first time came into use completely gutted. The vast stock of paper, much of which was still unpolluted by types, furnished an immense bonfire. From the monasteries, temples and public offices, the fury of the multitude turned to private dwellings. Several houses were pillaged and destroyed, but the smallness of the booty disappointed the plunderers and soon a rumour was spread that the most valuable effects of the papists had been placed under the care of the foreign ambassadors. To the savage and ignorant populace, the law of nations and the risk of bringing on their own country the just vengeance of all Europe were as nothing. The houses of the ambassadors were besieged. A great crowd assembled before a beryllian door in St. James Square. He, however, feared better than might have been expected, for though the government which he represented was held in abhorrence, his liberal housekeeping and exact payments had made him personally popular. Moreover, he had taken the precaution of asking for a guard of soldiers and, as several men of rank who hewed near him had done the same, a considerable force was collected in the square. The rioters, therefore, when they were assured that no arms or priests were concealed under his roof, left him unmolested. The Venetian envoy was protected by a detachment of troops, but the mansions occupied by the ministers of the Elector Palatine and of the Grand Duke of Tuscany were destroyed. One precious box the Tuscan minister was able to save from the marauders. It contained nine volumes of memoirs, written in the hand of James himself. These volumes reached France in safety, and, after the lapse of more than a century, perished there in the havoc of a revolution far more terrible than that from which they had escaped. But some fragments still remain, and though grievously mutilated and embedded in great masses of childish fiction, well deserved to be attentively studied. The rich plate of the Royal Chapel had been deposited at Wild House near Lincoln's infield and the residence of the Spanish ambassador Ronquillo. Ronquillo was conscious that he and his court had not deserved ill of the English nation and had thought it unnecessary to ask for soldiers, but the mob was not in a mood to make nice distinctions. The name of Spain had long been associated in the public mind with the Inquisition and the Amada, with the cruelties of Mary and the plots against Elizabeth. Ronquillo had also made himself many enemies among the common people by availing himself of his privilege to avoid the necessity of paying his debts. His house was therefore sacked without mercy and a noble library which he had collected perished in the flames. His only comfort was that the host in his chapel was rescued from the same fate. End of Part 1. The recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Libetbox.org. Easter Eve, England, from the session of James II by Thomas Beventon Macaulay, Chapter 10, Part 2. The morning of the 12th of December rose on a ghastly sight. The capital in many places presents the aspect of a city taken by storm. The lords met at Wild Hall and exerts themselves to restore tranquility. The three bands were ordered under arms. A body of cavalry was kept in readiness to disperse small-tooth assemblages. Such atonement, as was at that moment possible, was made for gross insults which had been offered to foreign governments. A reward was promised for the discovery at the property taken from Wild House. And Bronquillol, who had not a bed or an ounce of plate left, was penally lodged in the deserted palace of the kings of England. A sumptuous table was kept for him, and the A.O. men of the cart were ordered to wait in his enter chamber with same observance which they were in the habit of paying to the sovereign. These marks of respect suited even the punctilious pride of the Spanish court and the worth of all danger of a rupture. In spite, however, of the well-meant efforts of the provisional government, the agitation grew hardly more formidable. It was heightened by an event which, even at this distance of time, can hardly be related without a feeling of indicative pleasure. A scrivener, who lived at Wapping, and whose trade was to furnish the seafaring men therewith money at high interest, added some time before lent a sum on bottom ring. The debtor applied to equity for leave against his own bond, and the case came before Jeffries. The council for the borrower, having little else to say, said that Lander was a trimmer. The chancellor instantly fired. A trimmer? Where is he? Let me see him. I have heard of that kind of monster. What is it made like? The unfortunate creditor was forced to stand forth. The chancellor glared fiercely on him, stormed at him, and sent him away half dead with fright. While I live, the poor man said, as he thought her out of the court, I shall never forget that terrible countenance. And now the day of retribution had arrived. The trimmer was walking through Wapping, when he saw a well-known face looking out of the window of an alley house. He could not be deceived. The eyebrows, indeed, had been shaved away. The dress was that of a common sailor from Newcastle, and was black with cold dust. But there is no mistaking the savage iron mouth of Jeffries. The alarm was given. In a moment the house was surrounded by hundreds of people shaking bludgeons and blowing curses. In a fugitive's life was saved by a company of trainsmen, and he was carried before the Lord Mayor. The Mayor was a simple man who had passed his whole life in obscurity and was bewildered by finding himself an important actor in a mighty revolution. The events of the last 24 hours, and the perilous state of the city which was under his charge, had disordered his mind on this body. When the great man, at whose frown a few days before, the old kingdom had trembled, was dragged into justice's room, begrimmed with ashes half dead with fright, and fouled by raging multitude, the agitation of the unfortunate Mayor rose to the height. He fell into feats and was carried to his bed, whence he never rose. Meanwhile, the throng without was constantly becoming more numerous and more savage. Geoffrey's back to be sent to prison. An order to that effect was procured from the Lord, who was sitting at Wild Hall, and he was convened in a carriage to the tower. Two regiments of militia were drawn out to escort him and found the duty a difficult one. It was repeatedly necessary for them to form, as if to the purpose of repelling a charge of cavalry and to present the forested bikes to the mob. The thousands who were disappointed at their revenge pursued the coach with howls of rage to the gate of the tower, brandishing cudgels and holding up altars full in the prisoner's view. The wretched man, meantime, was in convulsions of terror. He wrung his hands. He looked wildly out, sometimes at one window, sometimes at the other, and those who were even above the tumult crying. Keep them off, gentlemen! For God's sake, keep them off! At length, having suffered far more than the bitterness of death, he was safely lodged in the fortress where some of his most illustrious victims had passed their last days, and where his own life was destined to close in inspeakable ignominy and horror. All this time an active search was making after Roman Catholic priests. Many were arrested. Two bishops, Alice and Leiborne, were sent to Newgate. Denocio, with little reason to expect that either his spiritual or his political character would be respected by the multitude, made his escape disguise as a lackey in the train of the minister of the Duke of Savoy. Another day of agitation and terror closed, and was followed by a night the strangest and most terrible that England had ever seen. Early in the evening, an attack was made by the rebel on a stately house which had been built a few months before for Lord Powers, which in the reign of George II was the residence of the Duke of Newcastle, and which is still conspicuous at the northwestern angle of Lincoln's infields. Some troops were sent here. The mob was dispersed, tranquility seemed to be restored, and the citizens were retiring quietly to their beds. Just at this time, there was a whisper which swelled fast into a fearful clamor, best in an hour from Piccadilly to Whitechapel and spread into every street and alley of the capital. It was said that Irish, whom feverish men had let loose, were marching on London and massacring every man, woman and child on the road. At one in the morning, the drums of the militia beat to arms. Everywhere, terrified women were weeping and wringing their hands, while their fathers and husbands were equipping themselves for fight. Before, too, the capital were a face of stern preparedness which might well have daunted the real enemy if such an enemy had been approaching. Candles were blessing at all the windows. The public places were as bright as at Noonday. All the great avenues were barricaded. More than 20,000 pikes and muskets lined the streets. The late day break of the winter solstice found a whole city still in arms. During many years, the Londoners retained a vivid recollection of what they called the Irish night. When it was known that there had been no cause of alarm, attempts were made to discover the origin of the rumor which had produced so much agitation. It appeared that some persons who had look and dress of clowns just arrived from the country at first spread report in suburbs a little before midnight. But when this man came, and by whom they were employed, remained a mystery. As soon news arrived from many quarters which bewildered the public mind still more, the panic had not been confined to London. The cry that disbanded Irish shoulders were coming to murder the protestants at, with malignant ingenuity, been raised at once in many places widely distanced from each other. Great numbers of letters skilfully framed for the purpose of frightening ignorant people had been sent by stagecoaches, by wagons and by the post to various parts of England. All these letters came to hand almost at same time. In a hundred thousand at once the populace has possessed with the belief that all barbarians were at hand, bent or perpetrating crimes as foul as those which had disgraced the rebellion of Ulster. No protestant would find mercy. Children would be compelled by torture to murder their parents. They would be stuck on bikes or flung into the blazing ruins of what had lately been happy dwellings. Great multitudes assembled with weapons. The people in some places began to pull down bridges and throw up barricades. But soon the excitement went down. In many districts those who had been so fouled and imposed upon learned with light alloyed by shame that there was not a single poppish soldier within a week's march. There were places indeed where some struggling bands of Irish made their appearance and demanded food. But it can scarcely be inputted to them as a crime that they did not choose to die of hunger. And there is no evidence that they committed any wanton outrage. In truth there were much less numerous than was commonly supposed and their spirit was cowed by finding themselves left on a sudden without leaders or provisions in the midst of a mighty population which fell towards them as men fell towards a drove of wolves. Of all the subjects of James none and more reason to execrate him than these unfortunate members of his church and defenders of his throne. It is honourable to the English character that notwithstanding the conversion with which the Roman Catholic religion and Irish race were then regarded notwithstanding the anarchy which was defect at the flight of James notwithstanding the artful machinations which were employed to scare the multitude into cruelty no atrocious crime was perpetrated at this conjecture. Much property, indeed, was destroyed and carried away. The houses of many Roman Catholic gentlemen were attacked, parks were ravaged, deer were slain and stolen. Some venerable specimens of domestic architecture of middle ages bear to this day the marks of popular violence. The roads were in many places made impossible by a self-appointed police which stopped every traveller till he proved that he was not a papist. The tames was infested by a set of pirates who, under protest of searching for arms or delinquents, rummaged every boat at best. Obnoxious persons were insulted and hustled. Many persons who were not obnoxious were glad to ransom their persons in defects by bestowing some guineas on zealous Protestants who had, without an illegal authority, assumed the office of inquisitors. But in all this confusion which lasted several days and extended over many counties, not a single Roman Catholic lost his life, the mob showed no inclination to blood except in the case of Jeffries and the hatred which had that bad man inspired and more affinity with humanity than with cruelty. Many years later you speak affirm that Irish Knight was his work that he had promised rustics who raised London and that he was the author of letters which had spread dismay through the country. Its assertion is not intrinsically improbable but it rests on no evidence except his own work. He was a man quite capable of committing such a villainy and quite capable also of falsely boasting that he had committed it. At London William was impatiently expected for it was not doubted that his vigour and ability would speedily restore order and security. There was however some delay for which the Prince cannot justly be blamed. His original intention had him to proceed from Angerford to Oxford where he was assured of an honourable and affectionate perception. But the arrival of the deputation from Guildhall induced him to change his intention and to hasten directly towards the capital. On the way he learned that fever shame in pursuance of the King's orders had dismissed the royal army and that thousands of soldiers freed from the strength and destitute necessaries were scattered over the counties through which to rule to London Lane. It was therefore impossible for William to proceed standardly attended without the great danger not only to his own person about which he was not much in the habit of being solicitous but also to the great interests which were under his care. It was necessary that he should regulate his own movements by the movements of his troops and troops could then move but slowly over the highways of England in midwinter. He was, on this occasion, a little moved from his ordinary composure. I am not with us dealt with. He exclaimed with bitterness. And that, my Lord fever shame shall find. Front and judicious measures were taken to remedy the evils which James had caused. Churchill and Grafton were entrusted with the task of reassembling this first army and bringing it into order. The English soldiers were invited to resume their military character. The harvest recommended to deliver up their arms on pain of being treated as vanity but to assure that, if they would submit quietly, they should be supplied with necessaries. End of Part 2 CHAPTER XIII The Prince's orders were carried into effect with scarcely any opposition except from the Irish soldiers who had been in garrison at Tilbury. One of these men snapped a pistol at Grafton. It missed fire and the assassin was instantly shot dead by an Englishman. About two hundred of the unfortunate strangers made a gallant attempt to return to their own country. They seized a richly laden East India man which had just arrived in the Thames and tried to procure pilots by force at Graves End. No pilot, however, was to be found and they were under the necessity of trusting to their own skill and navigation. They soon ran their ship aground and after some bloodshed they were able to lay down their arms. William had now been five weeks on English ground and during the whole of that time his good fortune had been uninterrupted. His own prudence and firmness had been conspicuously displayed and yet had done less for him than the folly and pucillanimity of others. And now, at the moment when it seemed that his plans were about to be crowned with entire success, they were disconcerted by one of those strange incidents which so often caused the most exquisite devices of human policy. On the morning of the thirteenth of December the people of London, not yet fully recovered from the agitation of the Irish night, were surprised by a rumor that the king had been detained and was still in the island. The report gathered strength during the day and was fully confirmed before the evening. James had traveled with relays of coach horses along the southern shore of the Thames and on the morning of the twelfth had reached Emily Ferry near the island of Sheppey. There lay the hoy in which he was to sail. He went on board, but the wind blew fresh and the master would not venture to put to sea without more ballast. A tide was thus lost. Midnight was approaching before the vessel began to float. By that time the news that the king had disappeared, that the country was without a government and that London was in confusion had traveled fast down the Thames and wherever it spread had produced outrage and misrule. The rude fisherman of the Kentish coast eyed the hoy with suspicion and with cupidity. It was whispered that some persons in the garb of gentlemen had gone on board of her in great haste. Perhaps they were Jesuits, perhaps they were rich. Fifty or sixty boatmen, animated at once by hatred of papery and by love of plunder, boarded the hoy just as she was about to make sail. The passengers were told that they must go on shore and be examined by a magistrate. The king's appearance excited suspicion. It is Father Petrie, cried one ruffian. I know him by his lean jaws. Searched the hatchet-faced old Jesuit, became the general cry. He was rudely pulled and pushed about. His money and watch were taken from him. He had about him his coronation ring and some other trinkets of great value, but these escaped the search of the robbers who, indeed, were so ignorant of jewelry that they took his diamond buckles for bits of glass. At length the prisoners were put on shore and carried to an inn. A crowd had assembled there to see them, and James, though disguised by a wig of different shape and color from that which he usually wore, was at once recognized. For a moment the rabble seemed to be over-odd, but the exhortations of their chiefs revived their courage and the sight of hails, whom they well knew and bitterly hated, inflamed their fury. His park was in the neighborhood and, at that very moment, a band of rioters was employed in pillaging his house and shooting his deer. The multitude assured the king that they would not hurt him, but they refused to let him depart. It chanced that the Earl of Winchelsea, a Protestant but a zealous royalist, head of the Finch family and a near kinsman of Nottingham, was then at Canterbury. As soon as he learned what had happened he hastened to the coast, accompanied by some kentish gentlemen. By their intervention the king was removed to a more convenient lodging, but he was still a prisoner. The mob kept constant watch round the house to which he had been carried and some of the ring-leaders lay at the door of his bedroom. His demeanor, meantime, was that of a man, all the nerves of whose mind had been broken by the load of misfortunes. Sometimes he spoke so hotly that the rustics who had charge of him were provoked into making insolent replies. Then he betook himself to supplication. Let me go, he cried. Get me a boat. The Prince of Orange is hunting for my life. If you do not let me fly now it will be too late. My blood will be on your heads. He that is not with me is against me. On this last text he preached a sermon half an hour long. He harangued on a strange variety of subjects, on the disobedience of the fellows of Magdalen College, on the miracles wrought by Alfred's well, on the disloyalty of the black coats, and on the virtues of a piece of the true cross which he had unfortunately lost. What have I done? he demanded of the Kentish squires who attended him. Tell me the truth. What error have I committed? Those to whom he put these questions were too humane to return the answer which must have risen to their lips and listened to his wild talk in pitying silence. When the news that he had been stopped and roughly handled and plundered and that he was still a prisoner in the hands of rude churls reached the capital many passions were roused. Rigid churchmen who had a few hours before began to think that they were freed from their allegiance to him now felt misgivings. He had not quitted his kingdom. He had not consummated his abdication. If he should resume his royal office could they on their principles refuse to pay him obedience? Enlightened statesmen were all with concern that all the disputes which his flight had for a moment set at rest would be revived and exasperated by his return. Some of the common people, though still smarting from recent wrongs, were touched with compassion for a great prince outraged by Ruffians and were willing to entertain a hope more honorable to their good nature than to their discernment that he might even now repent of the errors which had brought on him so terrible a punishment. From the moment when it was known that the king was still in England, Sancroft, who had hitherto acted as chief of the provisional government, absented himself from the sittings of the peers. Halifax, who had just returned from the Dutch headquarters, was placed in the chair. His sentiments had undergone a great change in a few hours. Both public and private feelings now impelled him to join the Whigs. Those who candidly examine the evidence which has come down to us have no doubt that he accepted the office of royal commissioner in the sincere hope of affecting an accommodation between the king and the prince on fair terms. The negotiation had commenced prosperously. The prince had offered terms which the king could not but acknowledge to be fair. The eloquent and ingenious trimmer might flatter himself that he should be able to mediate between infuriated factions to dictate a compromise between extreme and unseemly. The king had been able to secure the liberties and religion of his country without exposing her to the risks inseparable from a change of dynasty and a disputed secession. While he was pleasing himself with thought so agreeable to his temper he learned that he had been deceived and had been used as an instrument for deceiving the nation. His mission to Hungerford had been a fool's errand. The king had never meant to abide by the terms which he had instructed he had charged them to declare that he was willing to submit all the questions in dispute to the parliament which he had summoned. And while they were delivering his message he had burned the writs made away with the seal let loose the army suspended the administration of justice dissolved the government and fled from the capital. Halifax saw that an amicable agreement was no longer possible. He also felt it may be suspected the vexation natural to a man widely renowned for wisdom who finds that he has been duped by an understanding immeasurably inferior to his own and the vexation natural to a great master of ridicule who finds himself placed in a ridiculous situation. His judgment and his resentment alike induced him to relinquish the schemes of reconciliation on which he had hitherto been intent and to place himself at the head of those who were bent on raising William to the throne. End of Part 3 No precaution which seemed necessary for the prevention of outrage and robbery was omitted. The peers took on themselves the responsibility of giving order as that if the rabble rose again the soldiers should fire with bullets. Jeffries was brought to Whitehall and interrogated as to what had become of the great seal and the writs. At his own earnest request he was remanded to the tower as the only place where his life could be safe and he had no choice and he retired thanking and blessing those who had given him the protection of a prison. A weak nobleman moved that oats should be set at liberty but this motion was overruled. The business of the day was nearly over and Halifax was about to rise when he was informed that a messenger from Sheerness was in attendance. No occurrence could be more perplexing or annoying. To do anything, to do nothing was to incur a grave responsibility. Halifax, wishing probably to obtain time for communication with the Prince would have adjourned the meeting but Mulgrave begged the lords to keep their seats and introduced the messenger. The man told his story with many tears and produced a letter written in the king's hand and addressed to no particular person but imploring the aid of all good Englishmen. Such an appeal it was hardly possible to disregard. The lords ordered Feversham to hasten with the troop of the lifeguards to the place where the king was detained and to set his majesty at liberty. Already Middleton and a few other adherents of the royal cause had set out to assist and comfort their unhappy master. They found him strictly confined and were not suffered to enter his presence till they had delivered up their swords. The concourse of people about him was by this time immense. Some weak gentlemen of the neighbourhood had brought a large body of militia to guard him. They had imagined, most erroneously, that by detaining him they were ingratiating themselves with his enemies and were greatly disturbed when they learned that the treatment which the king had undergone was disapproved by the provisional government in London and that a body of cavalry was on the road to release him. Feversham soon arrived. He had left his troop at Sittingbourne but there was no occasion to use force. The king was suffered to depart without opposition and was removed by his friends to Rochester where he took some rest, which he greatly needed. He was in a pitiable state. Not only was his understanding which had never been very clear altogether bewildered but the personal courage which, when a young man he had shown in several battles, both by sea and by land, had forsaken him. The rough corporal usage which he had now for the first time undone seems to have discomposed him more than any other event of his checkered life. The desertion of his army, of his favourites, of his family affected him less than the indignities which he suffered when his high was boarded. The remembrance of those indignities continued long to rankle in his heart and on one occasion showed itself in a way which moved all Europe to contemptuous mirth. In the fourth year of his exile he attempted to lure back his subjects by offering them an amnesty. The amnesty was accompanied by a long list of exceptions and in this list the poor fisherman who had searched his pockets rudely appeared side by side with Churchill and Danly. In this circumstance we may judge how keenly he must have felt the outrage while it was still recent. Yet had he possessed an ordinary measure of good sense he would have seen that those who had detained him had unintentionally done him a great service. The events which had taken place during his absence from his capital ought to have convinced him that if he had succeeded in escaping he would never have returned. In his own despite he had been saved from ruin he had another chance a last chance great as his offenses had been to dethrone him while he remained in his kingdom and offered to assent to such conditions as a free parliament might impose would have been almost impossible. During a short time he seemed disposed to remain he sent Feversham from Rochester with a letter to William. The evidence of the letter was that his majesty was on his way back to Whitehall that he wished to have a personal conference with the Prince and that St. James' palace should be fitted up for his highness. William was now at Windsor he had learned with deep mortification the events which had taken place on the coast of Kent. Just before the news arrived those who approached him observed that his spirits were unusually high he had indeed reason to rejoice a vacant throne was before him all parties it seemed would with one voice invite him to mount it on a sudden his prospects were overcast the abdication it appeared had not been completed a large proportion of his own followers would have scruples about deposing a king who remained among them who invited them to represent their grievances in a parliamentary way and who promised full redress it was necessary that the Prince should examine his new position and determine on a new line of action no course was open to him which was altogether free from objections no course which would place him in a situation so advantageous as that which he had occupied a few hours before yet something might be done the king's first attempt to escape had failed what was now most to be desired was that he should make a second attempt with better success he must be at once frightened and enticed the liberality with which he had been treated in the negotiation at hungerford and which he had requited by a breach of faith would now be out of season no terms of accommodation must be proposed to him if he should propose terms he must be coldly answered no violence must be used towards him or even threatened yet it might not be impossible without either using or threatening violence to make so weak a man uneasy about his personal safety he would soon be eager to fly all facilities for flight must then be placed within his reach and care must be taken that he should not again be stopped by any officious blunderer such was Williams' plan and the ability and determination with which he carried it into effect present a strange contrast to the folly and cowardice with which he had to deal he soon had an excellent opportunity of commencing his system of intimidation Feversham arrived at Windsor with James' letter the messenger had not been very judiciously selected it was he who had disbanded the royal army to him primarily were to be imputed the confusion and terror of the Irish night his conduct was loudly blamed by the public William had been provoked into muttering a few words of menace and a few words of menace from Williams lips generally meant something Feversham was asked for his safe conduct he had none by coming without one into the midst of a hostile camp he had, according to the laws of war made himself liable to be treated with the utmost severity William refused to see him and ordered him to be put under arrest Zulstein was instantly dispatched to inform James that the prince declined the proposed conference and desired that his majesty would remain at Rochester but it was too late James was already in London he had hesitated about the journey and had at one time determined to make another attempt to reach the continent but at length he yielded to the urgency of friends who were wiser than himself and set out for Whitehall he arrived there on the afternoon of Sunday the 16th of December he had been apprehensive that the common people who during his absence had given so many proofs of their aversion to papery would offer him some affront but the very violence of the recent outbreak had produced a remission the storm had spent itself good humour and pity had succeeded to fury in no quarter was any disposition shown to insult the king some cheers were raised as his coach passed through the city the bells of some churches were rung and a few bonfires were lighted in honour of his return his feeble mind which had just before been sunk in despondency was extravagantly elated by these unexpected signs of popular goodwill and compassion he entered his dwelling in high spirits and speedily resumed its old aspect Roman Catholic priests who had during the preceding week being glad to hide themselves from the rage of the multitude in vaults and cocklofts now came forth from their lurking places and demanded possession of their old apartments in the palace Grace was said at the royal table by a Jesuit the Irish Brogue then the most hateful of all sounds to the English ears was heard everywhere in the courts and galleries the king himself had resumed all his old haughtiness he held a council his last council and even in that extremity summoned to the board persons not legally qualified to sit there he expressed high displeasure at the conduct of those lords who during his absence had dared to take the administration on themselves it was their duty he conceived to let society be dissolved to let the houses of ambassadors be pulled down to let London be set on fire rather than to assume the functions which he had thought fit to abandon among those whom he thus censured were some nobles and prelates who in spite of all his errors had been constantly true to him and who even after this provocation never could be induced by hope or fear to transfer their allegiance from him to any other sovereign but his courage was soon cast down scarcely had he entered his palace when Zulstein was announced William's cold and stern message was delivered the king still pressed for a personal confidence with his nephew I would not have left Rochester he said if I had known that he wished me not to do so but since I am here I hope that he will come to St. James' I must plainly tell your Majesty said Zulstein His Highness will not come to London while there are any troops here which are not under his orders the king, confounded by this answer remained silent Zulstein retired and soon a gentleman entered the bed-chamber with the news that Feversham had been put under arrest James was greatly disturbed yet the recollection of the applause with which he had been greeted still buoyed up his spirits a wild hope rose in his mind he said that London so long the stronghold of Protestantism and Whiggism was ready to take arms in his defence he sent to ask the Common Council whether if he took up his residence in the city they would engage to defend him against the prince but the Common Council had not forgotten the seizure of the Charter and the judicial murder of Cornish and refused to give the pledge which was demanded then the king's heart again where he asked was he to look for protection he might as well have Dutch troops about him as his own life-guards as to the citizens he now understood what their hussars and bonfires were worth nothing remained but flight and yet he said he knew that there was nothing which his enemies so much desired as that he would fly while he was in this state of trepidation his fate was the subject of a grave deliberation at Windsor the court of William was now crowded to overflowing with eminent men of all parties most of the chiefs of the northern insurrection had joined him several of the lords who had during the anarchy of the preceding week taken upon themselves to act as a provisional government had as soon as the king returned quitted London for the Dutch headquarters one of these was Halifax William had welcomed him with great satisfaction but had not been able to suppress a sarcastic smile at seeing the ingenious and accomplished politician who had aspired to be the umpire in that great contention forced to abandon the middle course and to take a side among those who at this conjuncture repaired to Windsor were some men who had purchased the favour of James by ignominious services and who were now impatient to atone by betraying their master for the crime of having betrayed their country such a man was Titus who had sat at the council board in defiance of law and who had laboured to unite the Puritans with the Jesuits in a league against the constitution such a man was Williams who had been converted by interest from a demagogue into a champion of prerogative and who was now ready for a second apostasy these men, the prince with just contempt suffered to wait at the door of his apartment in vain expectation of an audience End of Part 4 History of England, Chapter 10, Part 5 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of England from the Accession of James II by Thomas Babington Macaulay Part 5 On Monday the 17th of December all the peers who were at Windsor were summoned to a solemn consultation at the castle The subject proposed for deliberation was what should be done with the king William did not think it advisable to be present during the discussion he retired and Halifax was called to the chair On one point the lords were agreed the king could not be suffered to remain where he was that one prince should fortify himself in Whitehall and the other in St. James's that there should be two hostile garrisons within an area of 100 acres was universally felt to be inexpedient such an arrangement could scarcely fail to produce suspicions, insults and bickering which might end in blood The assembled lords therefore thought it advisable that James should be sent out of London Ham, which had been built and decorated by Lauderdale on the banks of the Thames out of the plunder of Scotland and the bribes of France and the luxurious of villas was proposed as a convenient retreat When the lords had come to this conclusion they requested the prince to join them their opinion was then communicated to him by Halifax William listened and approved a short message to the king was drawn up Whom said William shall we send with it Audit not said Halifax to be conveyed by one of your highness's officers Name I Lord answered the prince, by your favour the advice of your lordships and some of you ought to carry it Then without pausing to give time for remonstrance he appointed Halifax, Shrewsbury and Delamere to be the messengers The resolution of the lords appeared to be unanimous but there were in the assembly those who by no means approved of the decision in which they affected to concur and who wished to see the king treated with a severity which they did not venture openly to recommend It is a remarkable fact that the chief of this party was a peer who had been a vehement Tory and who afterwards died a non-jurer, Clarendon The rapidity with which at this crisis he went backward and forward from extreme to extreme might seem incredible to people living in quiet times but will not surprise those who have had an opportunity of watching the course of revolutions He knew that the asperity with which he had in the royal presence censured the whole system of government had given mortal offence to his old master On one hand he might as the uncle of the princesses hoped to be great and rich in the new world which was about to commence The English colony in Ireland regarded him as a friend and patron and he felt that on the confidence and attachment of that great interest much of his importance depended To such considerations as these the principles which he had during his whole life ostentatiously professed now gave way He repaired to the princess closet and represented the danger of leaving the king The protestants of Ireland were in extreme peril There was only one way to secure their estates and their lives and that was to keep his majesty close prisoner It might not be prudent to shut him up in an English castle But he might be sent across the sea and confined in the fortress of Breda till the affairs of the British islands were settled If the prince were in possession of such a hostage Tirkanel would probably lay down the sword of state and the English ascendancy would be restored to Ireland without a blow If on the other hand James should escape to France and make his appearance at Dublin accompanied by a foreign army the consequences must be disastrous William owned that there was great weight in these reasons but it could not be He knew his wife's temper and he knew that she would never consent to such a step Indeed it would not be for his own honour to treat his vanquished kinsmen so ungraciously nor was it quite clear that generosity might not be the best policy Who could say what effect such severity as Clarendon recommended might produce on the public mind of England Was it impossible that the loyal enthusiasm which the king's misconduct had extinguished might revive as soon as it was known that he was within the walls of a foreign fortress On these grounds William determined not to subject his father in law to personal restraint and there can be little doubt that the determination was wise James, while his fate was under discussion remained at Whitehall fascinated as it seemed by the greatness and nearness of the danger and unequal to the exertion of either struggling or flying In the evening news came that the Dutch had occupied Chelsea and Kensington The king however prepared to go to rest as usual The cold stream guards were on duty at the palace They were commanded by William Earl of Craven, an aged man who more than fifty years before had been distinguished in war and love who had led the forlorn hope at Creutznak with such courage that he had been on the shoulder by the great Gustavas and who was believed to have won from a thousand rivals the heart of the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia Craven was now in his eightieth year but time had not tamed his spirit It was past ten o'clock when he was informed that three battalions of the prince's foot mingled with some troops of horse were pouring down the long avenue of St. James's Park with matches lighted and in full readiness for action Count Solms, who commanded the foreigners, said that his orders were to take military possession of the posts round Whitehall and exhorted Craven to retire peaceably Craven swore that he would rather be cut in pieces but when the king who was undressing himself learned what was passing he forbade the stout old soldier to attempt a resistance which must have been ineffectual By eleven the cold stream guards had withdrawn and Dutch sentinels were pacing the rounds on every side of the palace Some of the king's attendants asked whether he would venture to lie down surrounded by enemies He answered that they could hardly use him worse than his own subjects had done and with the apathy of a man stupefied by disasters went to bed and to sleep Scarcely was the palace again quiet when it was again roused A little after midnight the three lords arrived from Windsor Middleton was called up to receive them They informed him that they were charged with an errand which did not admit of delay The king was awakened from his first slumber and they were ushered into his bed-chamber They delivered into his hand the letter with which they had been entrusted and informed him that the prince would be at Westminster in a few hours and that his majesty would do well to set out for Ham before ten in the morning James made some difficulties He did not like Ham It was a pleasant place in the summer but cold and comfortless at Christmas and was moreover unfurnished Halifax answered that furniture should be instantly sent in The passengers retired but were speedily followed by Middleton who told them that the king would greatly prefer Rochester to Ham They answered that they had not authority to exceed to his majesty's wish but that they would instantly send off an express to the prince who was to lodge that night at Scion House A courier started immediately and returned before daybreak with William's consent That consent indeed was most gladly given for there could be no doubt that there were facilities for flight and that James might fly was the first wish of his nephew On the morning of the 18th of December a rainy and stormy morning the royal barge was early at Whitehall Stairs and round it were eight or ten boats filled with Dutch soldiers Several noblemen and gentlemen attended the king to the waterside It is said and may well be believed that many tears were shed For even the most zealous friend of liberty could scarcely have seen unmoved in the miniest clothes of a dynasty which might have been so great Shrewsbury did all in his power to soothe the fallen sovereign Even the bitter and vehement delamere was softened But it was observed that Halifax who was generally distinguished by his tenderness to the vanquished was on this occasion less compassionate than his two colleagues The mock embassy to Hungerford was doubtless still rankling in his mind While the king's barge was slowly working its way down the river brigade after brigade of the princes troops came pouring into London from the west It had been wisely determined that the duty of the capital should be chiefly done by the British soldiers in the service of the states general The three English regiments were quartered in and round the tower the three scotch regiments in south work In defiance of the weather a great multitude assembled between Albemarle house and St. James palace to greet the prince Every hat, every cane was adorned with an orange ribbon The bells were ringing all over London Candles for an illumination were disposed in the windows Faggots for bonfires were heaped up in the streets William, however, who had no taste for crowds and shouting took the road through the park Before nightfall he arrived at St. James' in the light carriage, accompanied by Schaumburg In a short time all the rooms and staircases in the palace were thronged by those who came to pay their court Such was the press that the highest rank were unable to elbow their way into the presence chamber While Westminster was in this state of excitement the common council was preparing at Guildhall in a dress of thanks and congratulation The Lord Major was unable to preside He had never held up his head since the Chancellor had been dragged into the justice room in the garb of a Collier But the aldermen and the other officers of the corporation were in their places On the following day the magistrates of the city went in state to pay their duty to their deliverer Their gratitude was eloquently expressed by their recorder, Sir George Treby Some princes of the House of Nassau had been the chief officers of a great republic Others had worn the imperial crown But the peculiar title of that illustrious line to the public veneration was this that God had set it apart and consecrated it to the high office of defending truth and freedom against tyrants from generation to generation On the same day all the prelates who were in town Sankraft accepted waited on the prince in a body Then came the clergy of London the foremost men of their profession in knowledge, eloquence, and influence with their bishop at their head With them were mingled some eminent dissenting ministers whom Compton, much to his honour, treated with marked courtesy A few months earlier, or a few months later such courtesy would have been considered by many churchmen as treason to the church Even then it was but too plain to a discerning eye that the armistice to which the Protestant sects had been forced would not long outlast the danger from which it had sprung About a hundred nonconformist divines resident in the capital presented a separate address They were introduced by Devonshire and were received with every mark of respect and kindness The lawyers paid their homage headed by Maynard who at ninety years of age was as alert and clear-headed as when he stood up in Westminster Hall to accuse Straford Mr. Sargent, said the Prince You must have survived all the lawyers of your standing Yes, sir, said the old man, and but for your highness I should have survived the laws, too But, though the addresses were numerous and full of eulogy though the acclamations were loud though the illuminations were splendid though St. James's palace was too small for the crowd of courtiers though the theatres were every night from the pit to the ceiling one blaze of orange ribbons, William felt that his enterprise were but beginning He had pulled a government down The far harder task of reconstruction was now to be performed From the moment of his landing till he reached London he had exercised the authority which, by the laws of war acknowledged throughout the civilized world belongs to the commander of an army in the field It was now necessary that he should exchange the character of a general for that of a magistrate and this was no easy task A single false step might be fatal and it was impossible to take any step without offending prejudices and rousing angry passions Some of the prince's advisors pressed him to assume the crown at once as his own by right of conquest and then as king to send out under his great seal Ritz calling a parliament This course was strongly recommended by some eminent lawyers It was, they said, the shortest way to what could otherwise be attained only through innumerable difficulties and disputes Conformity with the auspicious precedent set after the Battle of Bosworth by Henry VII It would also quiet the scruples which many respectable people felt as to the lawfulness of transferring allegiance from one ruler to another Neither the law of England nor the church of England recognized any right in subjects to depose a sovereign but no jurist, no divine had ever denied that a nation overcome in war might without sin submit to the decision of the god of battles Thus, after the Chaldean conquest the most pious and patriotic Jews did not think that they violated their duty to their native king by serving with loyalty the new master whom providence had set over them The three confessors who had been marvelously preserved in the furnace held high office in the province of Babylon Daniel was minister successively of the Assyrian who subjugated Judah and of the Persian who subjugated Assyria Nay, Jesus himself who was, according to the flesh a prince of the house of David had by commanding his countrymen to pay tribute to Caesar pronounced that foreign conquest annulles hereditary right and is a legitimate title to dominion It was therefore probable that great numbers of Tories, though they could not with a clear conscience choose a king for themselves would accept without hesitation a king given to them by the event of war On the other side, however there were reasons which greatly preponderated The prince could not claim the crown as won by his sword without a gross violation of faith In his declaration he had protested that he had no design of conquering England that those who imputed to him such a design foully culminated, not only himself but the patriotic noblemen and gentlemen who had invited him over that the force which he brought with him was evidently inadequate to an enterprise so arduous and that it was his full resolution to refer all the public grievances and all his own pretensions to a free parliament For no earthly object could it be right or wise that he should forfeit his words so solemnly pledged in the face of all Europe nor was it certain that by calling himself a conqueror he would have removed the scruples which made rigid churchmen unwilling to acknowledge him as king For call himself what he might all the world knew that he was not really a conqueror, it was notoriously a mere fiction to say that this great kingdom with a mighty fleet on the sea with a regular army of 40,000 men and with a militia of 130,000 men had been without one siege of battle reduced to the state of a province by 15,000 invaders such a fiction was not likely to quiet consciences really sensitive but it could scarcely fail to gall the national pride already sore and irritable The English soldiers were in a temper which required the most delicate management they were conscious that in the late campaign their part had not been brilliant captains and privates were alike impatient to prove that they had not given way before an inferior force from want of courage Some Dutch officers had been indiscreet enough to boast at a tavern over their wine that they had driven the king's army before them. This insult had raised among the English troops a ferment which but for the prince's prompt interference would probably have ended in a terrible slaughter What in such circumstances was likely to be the effect of a proclamation announcing that the commander of the country considered the whole island as lawful prize of war It was also to be remembered that by putting forth such a proclamation the prince would at once abrogate all the rights of which he had declared himself the champion for the authority of a foreign conqueror is not circumscribed by the customs and statutes of the conquered nation but is by its own nature despotic. Either therefore it was not competent to William to declare himself king or it was competent to him to declare the order and the petition of right nullifies to abolish trial by jury and to raise taxes without the consent of parliament. He might indeed re-establish the ancient constitution of the realm but if he did so he did so in the exercise of an arbitrary discretion. English liberty would thenceforth be held by a base tenure. It would be not as heretofore an immemorial inheritance but a recent gift which the generous master who had bestowed it might if such had been his pleasure to have withheld. William therefore righteously and prudently determined to observe the promises contained in his declaration and to leave to the legislature the office of settling the government. So carefully did he avoid whatever looked like usurpation that he would not without some semblance of parliamentary authority take upon himself even to convoke the estates of the realm or to direct the executive administration during the elections. Authority strictly parliamentary there was none but it was possible to bring together in a few hours an assembly which would be regarded by the nation with a large portion of the respect due to a parliament. One chamber might be formed of the numerous lords spiritual and temporal who were then in London and another of old members of the House of Commons and of the magistrates of the city. The scheme was ingenious and was promptly executed. The peers were summoned to St. James on the 21st of December about 70 attended. The Prince requested them to consider the state of the country and to lay before him the result of their deliberations. Shortly after appeared a notice inviting all gentlemen who had sat in the House of Commons during the reign of Charles II to attend his Highness on the morning of the 26th. The aldermen of London were also summoned and the common council was requested to send a deputation. Chapter 10 Part 6 The answer is obvious. One of the chief grievances of which the nation complained was the manner in which that parliament had been elected. The majority of the Burgesses had been returned by constituent bodies remodeled in a manner which was generally regarded as illegal and which the Prince had and which was generally regarded as illegal. The answer is obvious. The answer is obvious. And which the Prince had in his declaration condemned. James himself had just before his downfall consented to restore the old municipal franchises. It would surely have been the height of inconsistency in William after taking up arms for the purpose of indicating the invaded charters of corporations to recognise persons chosen in defiance of those charters as the legitimate representatives of the towns of England. On Saturday the 22nd the Lords met in their own house. That day was employed in settling their order of proceeding. A clerk was appointed and as no confidence could be placed in any of the 12 judges some surgeons and barristers of great note were requested to attend. For the purpose of giving advice on legal points it was resolved that on the Monday the State of the Kingdom should be taken into consideration. The interval between the sitting of Saturday and the sitting of Monday was anxious and eventful. A strong party among the peers still cherished the hope that the constitution and religion of England were secured without the deposition of the king. This party resolved to move a solemn address to him imploring him to consent to such terms as might remove the discontents and apprehensions which his past conduct had excited. Sandcroft who since the return of James from Kent to Whitehall had taken no part in public affairs from forth from his retreat on this occasion and to put himself at the head of the royalists. Several messengers were sent to Rochester with letters for the king. He was assured that his interests would be strenuously defended if only he could at this last moment make up his mind to renounce designs abhorred by his people. Some respectable Roman Catholics followed him in order to implore him for the sake of their common faith not to carry the vain contest further. The advice was good but James was in no condition to take it. His understanding had always been dull and feeble and such as it was womanish tremors and childish fancies now disabled him from using it. He was aware that his flight was the thing which his adherents most dreaded and which his enemies most desired. Even if there had been serious personal risk in remaining the occasion was one on which he ought to have thought it infamous to flinch for the question was whether he and his posterity should reign on an ancestral throne or should be vagabonds but in his mind all other feelings had given place to a craven fear for his life to the earnest and treaties and unanswerable arguments of the agents whom his friends had sent to Rochester he had only one answer his head was in danger in vain he was assured that there was no ground for such an apprehension that common sense if not principal would restrain the Prince of Orange from incurring the guilt and shame of Regicide and Parasite and that many who never would consent to dispose their sovereign while he remained on English ground would think themselves absolved from their allegiance by his desertion. Fright overpowered every other feeling James determined to depart and it was easy for him to do so he was negligently guarded all persons were suffered to repair to him vessels ready to put to sea lay at no great distance and their boats might come close to the garden of the house in which he was lodged had he been wise the pains which his keepers took to facilitate his escape would have sufficed to convince him that he ought to stay where he was in truth the snare were so ostentatiously exhibited that it could impose on nothing but folly bewildered by terror the arrangements were expediously made on the evening of Saturday the 22nd the King assured some of the gentlemen who had been sent to him from London with intelligence and advice that he see them again in the morning he went to bed rose at dead of night and attended by Berwick stole out at a back door and went through the garden to the shore of the medway a small skiff was in waiting soon after the dawn of Sunday the fugitives were on board of a smack which was running down the Thames that afternoon the tidings of light reached London the King's adherence were confounded the wigs could not conceal their joy the good news encouraged the Prince to take a bold and important step he was informed that communications were passing between the French embassy and the party hostile to him it was well known that at that embassy all the arts of corruption were well understood and there could be little doubt that at such a conjuncture neither intrigues nor pistols would be spared Barillion was most desirous to remain a few days longer in London and for that end admitted no art which could conciliate the Victoria's party in the streets he quieted the populace who looked angrily at his coach by throwing money among them at his table he publicly drunk the health of the Prince of Orange that William was not to be so good old he had not indeed taken on himself to exercise regal authority but he was a general and as such he was not bound to tolerate within the territory of which he had taken military occupation the presence of one whom he regarded as a spy before that day close Barillion was informed that he must leave England within 24 hours he begged hard for a short delay but minutes were precious the order was repeated in more parenterie terms and he unwillingly set off for Dover that no mark of contempt and defiance might be admitted he was escorted to the coast by one of his Protestant countrymen whom persecution had driven into exile so bitter was the resentment excited by the French ambition and arrogance that even those Englishmen who were not generally disposed to take a favourable view of William's conduct loudly applauded him for with so much spirit the insolence with which Lewis had during many years treated every court in Europe on Monday the lords met again Halifax was chosen to preside the primate was absent the royalists sad and gloomy the wigs eager and in high spirits it was known that James had left a letter behind him some of his friends moved that it might be produced in the faint hope that it might contain propositions which might furnish a basis for a happy settlement on this motion the previous question was put and carried Goodolphin who was known not to be unfriendly to his old master uttered a few words which were decisive I have seen the paper and I grieve to say that there is nothing in it which will give your lordships any satisfaction in truth it contained no expression of regret for past eras it held out no hope that those eras would for the future be avoided and it threw the blame of all that had happened on the malice of William and on the blindness of the property none ventured to propose that a negotiation should be opened with a prince whom the most rigid discipline of adversity seemed only to have made more obstinate in wrong something was said about inquiring into the birth of the prince of wales but the weak peers treated the suggestion with disdain I did not expect to hear anybody at this time of day mention the child who was called prince of wales and I hope that we have now heard the last of him after long discussion it was resolved that two addresses should be presented to William one address requested him to tell him that the prince of wales one address requested him to take on himself provisionally the administration of the government the other recommended that he should by circular letters subscribed with his own hand invite all the constituent bodies of the kingdom to send up representatives to Westminster at the same time the peers took upon themselves to issue an order banishing lists except a few privileged persons from London and the vicinity the lords presented their addresses to the prince on the following day without waiting for the issue of the deliberations of the commoners whom he had called together it seems indeed that the hereditary nobles were disposed at this moment to be punctilious in asserting their dignity and were unwilling to recognise a co-ordinate authority in an assembly unknown to the law they conceived that they were a real house of lords the other chamber they despised as only a mock house of commons William however wisely excused himself from coming to any decision till he had ascertained a gentleman who had formally been honoured with the confidence at the counties and towns of England the commoners who had been summoned met in St Stephen's chapel and formed a numerous assembly they placed in the chair Henry Powell who had represented Sir and sister in several parliaments and had been eminent among the supporters of the exclusion bill addresses were proposed and adopted similar to those which the lords had already presented no difference of opinion appeared on any serious question and some feeble attempts which were made to raise a debate on points of form were put down by the general contempt Sir Robert Sawyer declared that he could not conceive how it was possible for the prince to administer the government without such distinguishing title such as regent or protector Old Maynard who as a lawyer had no equal and who was also a politician first in the tactics of revolutions was at no pains to conceal his disdain for so purile an objection taken at a moment when union and promptitude were of the highest importance we shall sit here very long he said if we sit till Sir Robert can conceive how such a thing is possible and the assembly thought the answer is good as the cavel deserved the resolutions of the meeting were communicated to the prince he forthwith announced his determination to comply with the joint request at the two chambers which he had called together to issue letters summoning a convention of the estates of the realm and till the convention should meet to take on himself the executive administration he had undertaken no like task the whole machine of government was disordered the justices of the peace had abandoned their functions the officers of the revenue had ceased to collect the taxes the army which Feversham had disbanded was still in confusion and ready to break out into mutiny the fleet was in a scarcely less alarming state large arrears of pay were due to the civil and military servants of the crown and only 40,000 pounds remained in the Exchequer the prince addressed himself with vigor to the work of restoring order he published a proclamation by which all magistrates were continued in office and another containing orders for the collection of the revenue the new modelling of the army went rapidly on many of the noblemen and gentlemen whom James had removed from the command of the English regiments were reappointed a way was found of employing the thousands of Irish soldiers whom James had brought into England they could not safely be suffered to remain in a country where they were objects of religious and national animosity they could not safely be sent home to reinforce the army of Trichonal it was therefore determined that they should be sent to the continent where they might under the banners of the House of Austria render indirect that effectual service to the cause of the English constitution and of the Protestant religion Dartmouth was removed from his command and the navy was conciliated by assurances that every sailor should speedily receive his due the city of London undertook to extricate the prince from his financial difficulties the common council by a unanimous vote engaged to find him £200,000 it was thought a great proof both of the wealth and of the public spirit of the merchants of the capital that in 48 hours the whole sum was raised on no security but the prince's word a few weeks before James had been unable to procure a much smaller sum though he had offered to pay higher interest and to pledge valuable property in a very few days the confusion which the invasion the insurrection the flight of James and the suspension of all regular government had produced and the kingdom war again it's a custom aspect there was a general sense of security even the classes which were most obnoxious to public hatred and which had most reason to apprehend a persecution were protected by the politic clemency of the conqueror persons deeply implicated in the illegal transactions of the late rain they walked the streets in safety but offered themselves as candidates for seats in the convention Mulgrave was received not ungraciously at St. James Feversham was released from arrest and was permitted to resume the only office for which he was qualified that of keeping the bank at the queen dowager's basset table but no body of men had so much reason to feel grateful to William as the roman catholics it would not have been safe to rescind formally the severe resolutions which the peers had passed against the professors of a religion generally aboard by the nation but by the prudence and humanity of the prince those resolutions were practically annulled at the time of march from Torbay to London he had given orders that no outrage should be committed on the persons or dwellings of papists he now renewed those orders and directed Burnett to see that they were strictly obeyed a better choice could not have been made for Burnett was a man of such generosity and good nature was the unhappy and at the same time he's known hatred of popery was a sufficient guarantee to the most zealous protestants that the interests of their religion would be safe in his hands he listened kindly to the complaints of the roman catholics procured passports for those who wished to go beyond sea and went himself to Newgate to visit the prelates who were imprisoned there he ordered them to be removed to a more commodious apartment and supplied with every indulgence he solemnly assured them that not a hair on their heads should be touched and that as soon as the prince could venture to act as he wished they should be set at liberty the Spanish minister reported to his government through his government to the pope that no Catholic need feel any scruple of conscience on account of the late revolution in England that for the danger to which the members of the true church were exposed James alone was responsible and that William alone had saved them from a sanguinary persecution there was therefore a satisfaction with which the princes of the house of Austria and the sovereign Pontiff learned that the long vacillage of England was at an end when it was known at Madrid that William was in the full career of success a single voice in the Spanish council of state faintly expressed regret that an event which in a political point of view was most auspicious should be prejudicial to the interests of the true church but the tolerant policy of the prince soon quieted all scruples and his elevation was seen with scarcely less satisfaction by the bigoted grandies of Castile than by the English Whigs with very different feelings had the news of this great revolution been received in France the politics of a long eventful and glorious reign had been confounded in a day England was again the England of Elizabeth and of Cromwell and all the relations of all the states of Christendom were completely changed by the sudden introduction of this new power into the system the Parisians could talk of nothing but what was passing in London national and religious feeling impelled them to take the part of James they knew nothing of the English constitution they abominated the English church our revolution appeared to them not as the triumph of public liberty over despotism but as a frightful domestic tragedy in which a venerable and pious service was hurled from his throne by a Tarquin and crushed under the chariot wheels of Italia they cried shame on the traitorous captains executed the unnatural daughters and regarded William with a mortal loathing tempered however by the respect which valor, capacity and success seldom failed to inspire exposed to the night wind and rain with the infant air of three crowns clasped to her breast the king stopped, robbed and outraged by ruffians were objects of pity and of romantic interest to all France but Lewis saw with peculiar emotion the calamities of the house of Stuart all the selfish and all the generous parts of nature were moved alike after many years of prosperity he had at length met with a great check he had reckoned on the support or neutrality of England he had now nothing to expect from her but energetic and potosious hostility a few weeks earlier he might not unreasonably have hope and to give law to Germany at present he might think himself fortunate if he should be able to defend his own frontiers against a confederacy such as Europe had not seen during many ages from this position so new so embarrassing so alarming nothing that accounted revolution or a civil war in the British islands could extricate him he was therefore impelled by ambition and by fear to espouse the cause of the fallen dynasty and it is but just to say that Mottis nobler than ambition or fear had a large share in determining his course his heart was naturally compassionate and this was an occasion which could not fail to call forth all his compassion his situation had prevented his good feelings from fully developing themselves sympathy is really strong where there is a great inequality of condition and he was raised so high above the mass of his fellow creatures that their distresses excited in him only a language pity such as that with which we regard the sufferings of the inferior animals of a famished red breast or of an over driven post horse the devastation of the Palatinate and the persecution of the Huguenots had therefore given him no uneasiness which pride and bigotry could not effectually soothe but all the tenderness of which he was capable was called forth by the misery of a great king who had a few weeks ago been served on the knee by Lords and who is now a destitute exile with that tenderness was mingled in the soul of Lewis a not ignoble vanity he would exhibit to the world a pattern of munificence and courtesy he would show mankind what ought to be the bearing of a perfect gentleman in the higher station and on the greatest occasion and in truth his conduct was marked by chivalrous generosity and urbanity such as had not embellished the annals of Europe since the black prince had stood behind the chair of King John at the supper on the field Portiers End of Chapter 10 Part 6 For more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of England from the accession of James II by Thomas Bavington Macaulay Chapter 10 Part 7 As soon as the news that the Queen of England was on the French coast had been brought to Versailles a palace was prepared for her reception carriages and troops of guards were dispatched to await her orders workmen were employed to mend the Calais Road that her journey might be easy Lausanne was not only assured that his past offences were forgiven for her sake but was honoured with a friendly letter in the handwriting of Louis Mary was on the road towards the French court when news came that her husband had after a rough voyage the royal village of omblatures persons of high rank were instantly dispatched from Versailles to greet a escort him meanwhile Louis attended by his family and his nobility went forth in state to receive the exiled Queen before his gorgeous coach went the Swiss halberdeers on each side of it and behind it rode the body guards with symbols clashing and trumpets pealing after the King in a hundred carriages each drawn by six horses came the most splendid aristocracy of Europe all feathers, ribbons, jewels and embroidery before the procession had gone far it was announced that Mary was approaching Louis alighted and advanced on foot to meet her she broke forth into passionate expressions of gratitude Madam said her host it is but a melancholy service I am rendering you today I hope that I may be able hereafter to render you services greater and more pleasing he embraced the little Prince of Wales and made the Queen sit herself in the royal state coach on the right hand the cavalcade then turned towards Saint-Germain's at Saint-Germain's on the verge of a forest swarming with beasts of chase and on the brow of a hill which looks down on the windings of the Seine since the first had built a castle and Henry IV had constructed a noble terrace of the residences of the French kings none stood in a more saluberous air or commanded a fairer prospect the huge size and venerable age of the trees the beauty of the gardens the abundance of the springs were widely famed Louis XIV had been born there and when a young man held his court there had added several stateless pavilions to the mansion of Francis and had completed the terrace of Henry soon however the magnificent king conceived an inexplicable disgust for his birthplace he quitted Saint-Germain's for Versailles and expended some's almost fabulous in the vain attempt to create a paradise on a spot singularly sterile and unwholesome all sand or mud without wood without water and without game Saint-Germain's had now been selected to be the abode of the royal family of England sumptuous furniture had been hastily sent in the nursery of the Prince of Wales had been carefully furnished with everything that an infant could require one of the attendants presented to the queen the key of a superb casket which stood in her apartment she opened the casket and found in it six thousand pistols on the following day the Prince of Wales arrived at Saint-Germain's Louis was already there to welcome him the unfortunate exile bowed so low that it seemed as if he was about to embrace the knees of his protector Louis raised him and embraced him with brotherly tenderness the two kings then entered the queen's room here is a gentleman said Louis to Mary whom you will be glad to see then after entreating his guests to visit him next day at Versailles and to let him have the pleasure of showing them his buildings pictures and plantations he took the unceremonious leave of an old friend in a few hours the royal pair were informed that as long as they would do the king of France the favour to accept of his hospitality forty-five thousand pounds sterling a year would be paid to them from his treasury ten thousand pounds sterling were sent for outfit the glory of Louis however was much less rare and admirable than the exquisite delicacy with which he laboured to soothe the feelings of his guests and to lighten the almost intolerable weight of the obligations which he laid upon them he who had hitherto on all questions of precedence been sensitive litigious, insolent who had been more than once ready to plunge Europe into war rather than concede the most frivolous point of etiquette punctilius indeed but punctilius for his unfortunate friends against himself he gave orders that Mary should receive all the marks of respect that had ever been paid to his own deceased wife a question was raised whether the princes of the house of Bourbon were entitled to be indulged with chairs in the presence of the queen such trifles were serious matters at the old court of France there were precedents on both sides but Louis decided the point against his own blood some ladies of illustrious rank omitted the ceremony of kissing the hem of Mary's robe Louis remarked the omission and noticed it in such a voice and with such a look that the whole peerage was ever after ready to kiss her shoe when Esther just written by Racine was acted at Sancier Mary had the seat of honour James was at her right hand Louis modestly placed himself on the left nay, he was well pleased that in his own palace an outcast living on his bounty should assume the title of king of France should as king of France quartered the lilies with the English lions and should as king of France dress in violet on days of court morning the demeanour of the French nobility on public occasions was absolutely regulated by their sovereign but it was beyond even his power to prevent them from thinking freely and from expressing what they thought in private circles with the keen and delicate wit characteristic of their nation and of their order their opinion of Mary was favourable they found her person agreeable and her deportment dignified they respected her courage and her maternal affection and they pitted her ill fortune but James they regarded with extreme contempt they were disgusted by his insensibility by the cool way in which he talked to everybody of his ruin and by the childish pleasure which he took in the pomp and luxury of Versailles this strange apathy they attributed not to philosophy or religion but to stupidity and meanness of spirit and remarked that nobody who had had the honour to hear his Britannic Majesty tell his own story could wonder that he sat Saint-Germain's and his son-in-law at Saint James in the United provinces the excitement produced by the tidings from England was even greater than in France this was the moment at which the Batavian Federation reached the highest point of power and glory from the day on which the expedition sailed the anxiety of the whole Dutch nation had been intense never had there been such crowds never had the enthusiasm of the preachers been so ardent the inhabitants of the Hague could not be restrained from insulting Albeveel his house was so closely beset by the populace day and night that scarcely any person ventured to visit him and he was afraid that his chapel would be burnt to the ground as mail after mail arrived with news of the Prince's progress the spirits of his countrymen rose higher and higher at length it was known that he had on the invitation of the lords and of an assembly of eminent commoners taken on himself the executive administration a general cry of pride and joy rose from all the Dutch factions an extraordinary mission was with great speed dispatched to congratulate him Dijkveld, whose adroitness and intimate knowledge of English politics made his assistance at such a conjuncture particularly valuable of the ambassadors and with him was joined Nicholas Vitson a burgamaster 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 8th of January Dijkveld and Vitson made their appearance at Westminster William talked to them with a frankness and an effusion of heart which seldom appeared in his conversations 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 Hosanna today and will perhaps be crucify him tomorrow 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 wigs 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 the elections went on rapidly and smoothly the contest for the nation had during more than a year been kept in constant expectation of a parliament Ritz indeed had been twice issued and twice recalled some constituent bodies had under those Ritz 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 exertions must be spared to carry the demands 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 obliquy 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 that his enemies seemed 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 humour with itself and still more out of humour with his natural chief a great majority therefore of the shires and burrows returned Whig members End of Part 7