advice was brought him, from his minister in Holland, that he must soon expect a formidable invasion, as the states had at last acknowledged, that the purpose of all their naval preparations was to transport forces into England. Though James could reasonably expect no other intelligence, he was much affected with the news: he grew pale, and the letter dropped from his hand. (1) His delirium of power vanished; and he found himself on the brink of a frightful precipice, which had hitherto been concealed from his view by the illusions of superstition. He now saw the necessity of providing for his safety, as well as of endeavouring to conciliate the affections of his people. He immediately ordered his fleet to be assembled, and his army to be recruited with new levies. He sent for troops from Scotland and Ireland; and to his no small satisfaction, found his land forces amount to forty thousand men.(2)

Nor was the king less liberal of his civil concessions than vigorous in his military preparations. He had already issued writs for the meeting of parliament on the twenty-seventh of the ensuing November. He followed these with a declaration, that it was his fixed purpose to endeavour to establish a LEGAL settlement of a universal liberty of conscience for all his subjects; that he had resolved to preserve inviolate the church of England: and he protested, that it was his intention Roman Catholics should remain incapable of sitting in the house of commons. He gave orders to the lord-chancellor, and the lord-lieutenants of the several counties, to replace all the deputylieutenants and justices, who had been deprived of their commissions for their adherence to the test and the penal laws against non-conformists: he restored the charter of London, and the charters of all the corporations in the kingdom: he annulled the court of ecclesiastical commission: he reinstated the expelled president and fellows of Magdalen college; and he invited again to his councils all the bishops whom he had so lately persecuted and insulted, assuring them, that he was ready to do whatever they should think necessary for the security of the Protestant religion and the civil rights of his subjects.(3) But these concessions, though important in themselves, were made too late to be allowed much merit; and being generally supposed to be extorted by fear, they were coldly received by the nation. Nor was the conduct of the king, in other respects, answerable to such conciliating measures. He recalled the writs for the meeting of parliament, without issuing any new ones; a step which created universal suspicion of his sincerity, and begot a belief that all his concessions were no more than temporary expedients. He showed, however, a laudable zeal for his own honour, in obtaining a legal proof of the birth of the prince of Wales; but by an imprudence approaching to insanity, the heir of the crown was baptized in the Romish communion, and the pope, represented by his nuncio, stood godfather to the boy.(4)

Meanwhile, the prince of Orange continued his preparations. A powerful fleet was ready to put to sea; the troops fell down the Maese from Nimeguen; the transports, which had been hired at different ports, were speedily assembled: the artillery, arms, ammunition, provisions, horses, and men, were embarked; and William, after taking formal leave of the states, and calling God to witness, that he had not the least intention to invade, subdue, or make himself master of the kingdom of England, went himself on board.(5) His whole armament, which sailed from the Brille and Helvoetsluys, on the 19th of October, consisted of fifty stout ships of war, twenty-five frigates, and an equal number of fireships; with five hundred transports, carrying about fifteen thousand land forces, including five hundred and fifty-six officers. Admiral Herbert, who had left the service of James, led the van; the Zealand squadron, under vice-admiral Evertzen, brought up the rear; and the prince of Orange in person commanded in the centre, carrying a flag with English colours, and his own arms, surrounded with these popular words-" The PROTESTANT RELIGION and the LIBERTIES of ENGLAND." Under this inscription was

(1) Hume, vol. viii.
(4, Burnet, book iv. James II., 1688.

(2) James II., 1688.

(3) Gazettes, passim.
(5) Neuville, tom. 1.

placed the apposite motto of the house of Nassau:—Je maintiendrai, “I will maintain !"(1)

This great embarkation, the most important which had, for some ages, been undertaken in Europe, was scarce completed, when a dreadful tempest arose at south-west, and drove the Dutch fleet to the northward. The storm raged for twelve hours, and the prince was obliged to return to Helvoetsluys. But he soon repaired his damages, and again put to sea. An east wind carried him down the channel; where he was seen from both shores, between Dover and Calais, by vast multitudes of anxious spectators, who felt alternately the extremes of hope and fear, mingled with admiration, at such a magnificent spectacle. After a prosperous voyage, he landed his army in Torbay, without the smallest opposition either by sea or land.(2)

The same wind which favoured the enterprise of the prince of Orange confined the English fleet to its own coast. Lord Dartmouth, who was inviolably attached to James, lay near Harwich with thirty-eight ships of the line, and twenty-three frigates; a force sufficient to have disconcerted the designs of William, if it could possibly have put to sea; so that the success of the glorious revolution may be said to have depended upon the winds! The destruction of the Dutch fleet, even after the landing of the prince, would have discouraged his adherents, and proved fatal to his undertaking. Sensible of this, Dartmouth came before Torbay, with a fixed resolution to attack the Hollanders, as they lay at anchor. But his fleet was dispersed by a violent storm, and forced to return to Spithead, in such a shattered condition, as to be no more fit for service that season.(3) Little wonder if, after such singularly fortunate circumstances, William's followers began to consider him and themselves as the peculiar favourites of Heaven; and that even the learned Dr. Burnet could not help exclaiming, in the words of Claudian,

O nimium dilecte Deo, cui militat æther,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.

"Heaven's darling charge! to aid whose great design,
The fighting skies and friendly winds combine."

The prince of Orange, immediately on his landing, dispersed a printed declaration, which had been already published in Holland, and contributed not a little to his future success. In that elaborate performance, written origi nally in French by the pensionary Fagel, and translated into English by Dr. Burnet, the principal grievances of the three British kingdoms were enumerated; namely, the exercise of a dispensing and suspending power; the revival of the court of ecclesiastical commission; the filling of all offices with Catholics; the open encouragement given to popery, by building every where places of worship, colleges, and seminaries for that sect; the displacing of judges, if they gave sentence contrary to the orders or the inclinations of the court; the annulling the charters of all the corporations, and thereby subjecting elections to arbitrary will and pleasure: the treating of petitions to the throne, even the most modest, and from persons of the highest rank, as criminal and seditious; the committing of the whole authority in Ireland, civil and military, into the hands of papists; the assuming of an absolute power over the religion and laws of Scotland, and openly exacting in that kingdom an obedience without reserve. He concluded with protesting, that the sole object of his expedition was to procure a redress of these grievances; to get a legal and free parliament summoned, that might provide for the liberty and security of the nation, and examine the proofs of the legitimacy of the prince of Wales, in regard to which he expressed the most violent suspicions.(4)

(1) Burnet, book iv. D'Avaux, tom. iv. Rapin, vol. ii. fol. edit. (3) Burnet, book iv. Torrington's Mem.

(2) Id. ibid.

(4) The proofs produced by James, in support of the birth of his son, before an extraordinary council, to which the lords both spiritual and temporal were summoned, and at which the lord mayor and aldermen of London and all the judges were present, were as strong as any that can perhaps be produced to esta blish such a fact. But if any doubts in regard to this matter could still remain in the most prejudiced mind, the declaration of the duke of Berwick, the king's natural son, and a man of unimpeached veracity,

Though this declaration was received with ardour by the nation, the prince, for some time after his landing, could not boast of his good fortune. A great deal of rain having fallen, the roads were rendered almost impassable; and he possessed neither cattle nor carriages sufficient to convey the baggage of his army. He directed, however, his encumbered march to Exeter; but without being joined by any person of eminence, either on his way or for eight days after his arrival at that place. His troops were discouraged: he himself began to think of abandoning his enterprise; and actually held a council of his principal officers, to deliberate whether he should not re-embark.(1) Impatient of disappointment, he is said even to have publicly declared his resolution to permit the English nation to settle their own differences with their king; and to direct his father-in-law where to punish, by transmitting to him the secret correspondence of his subjects.(2)

The friends of the court exulted mightily at the coldness of William's reception; but their joy was of short duration. One Burrington having shown the example, the prince was speedily joined by the gentry of the counties of Devon and Somerset, and an association was signed for his support. The earl of Abingdon, Mr. Russel, son of the earl of Bedford, lord Wharton, Mr. Godfrey, Mr. Howe, and a number of other persons of distinction, repaired to Exeter. All England was soon in commotion. Lord Delamere took arms in Cheshire; the city of York was seized by the earl of Danby; the earl of Bath, governor of Plymouth, declared for the prince; and the earl of Devonshire made a like declaration in Derby. Every, day discovered some new instance of that general confederacy into which the nation had entered against the measures of the king. But the most dangerous symptom, and that which rendered his affairs desperate, was the defection of the army. Many of the principal officers were inspired with the prevailing spirit of the nation, and disposed to prefer the interests of their country to their duty to their sovereign. Though they might love James, and have a due sense of the favours he had conferred upon them, they were startled at the thought of rendering him absolute master, not only of the liberties, but even of the lives and properties of his subjects; and yet this, they saw, must be the consequence of suppressing the numerous insurrections, and obliging the prince of Orange to quit the kingdom. They therefore determined rather to bear the reproach of infidelity, than to run the hazard of becoming the instruments of despotism.

The example of desertion among the officers was set by lord Colchester, son of the earl of Rivers, and by lord Cornbery, son of the earl of Clarendon. The king had arrived at Salisbury, the head-quarters of his army, when he received this alarming intelligence; but as the soldiers in general seemed firm in their allegiance, and the officers in a body expressed their abhorrence of such treachery, he resolved to advance upon the invaders. Unfortunately, however, for his affairs, the Dutch had already taken possession of Axminster. A sudden bleeding at the nose, with which he was seized, occasioned a delay of some days; and farther symptoms of defection appearing among the officers, he judged it prudent to retire towards London. Lord Churchill, afterward the great duke of Marlborough, and the duke of Grafton, natural son of Charles II., who had given their opinion for remaining at Salisbury, fled under cover of the night to the prince of Orange. Succes

would be sufficient to remove them. "I could speak knowingly on the subject," says he, "for I was present; and, notwithstanding my respect and attachment to the king, I could never have consented to so detestable an action, as that of introducing a supposititious child, in order to deprive the true heirs of the crown. Much less should I have continued, after the king's death, to support the pretensions of an impostor: honour and conscience would have restrained me." (Mem. of the Duke of Berwick, written by himself, vol. i. p. 40.) The answer of Anne princess of Denmark (July 4, 1688) to the questions of her sister Mary princess of Orange, relative to the birth of the prince of Wales, is still more satisfactory. Though seemingly disposed to favour the idea of an imposture, she enumerates so particularly, even to indelicacy, the circumstances attending the queen's delivery, and the persons of both sexes present at it (who were many, and of high rank), that it is truly astonishing William should afterward have assigned the illegitimacy of the prince of Wales as one of his reasons for landing in England. (Dalrymp. Append. part ii.) See farther, on this much-contested subject, a Letter from Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne to the Prin Bess Suphia, ubi sup. (2) Dalrymple's Append.

(1) Duke of Berwick's Mem, vol. i.

sive misfortunes poured in on the unfortunate monarch. Trelawney, who occupied an advanced post at Warminster, deserted with all his captains, except one. Prince George of Denmark, the king's son-in-law, and the young duke of Ormond, left him at Andover. Every day diminished the number of his officers; and to increase his accumulated misfortunes, he found, on his arrival in London, that his favourite daughter, Anne, princess of Denmark, had secretly withdrawn herself the night before, in company with lady Churchill.(1) All his firmness of mind left him: tears started from his eyes; and he broke out into sorrowful exclamations, expressive of his deep sense of his now lost condition. "God help me!" cried he, in the agony of his heart; "my own children have forsaken me!"

Henceforth, the conduct of the infatuated James is so much marked with folly and pusillanimity, as to divest his character of all respect, and almost his sufferings of compassion. Having assembled, as a last resource, a council of the peers then in London, he issued, by their advice, writs for a new parliament, and appointed the marquis of Halifax, the earl of Nottingham, and lord Godolphin, his commissioners, to treat with the prince of Orange. Thinking the season for negotiation past, William continued to advance with his army, at the same time that he amused the commissioners. Though he knew they were all devoted to his cause, he long denied them an audience. Meanwhile, James, distracted by his own fears, and alarmed by the real or pretended apprehensions of others, sent the queen and the prince of Wales privately into France, and embraced the extraordinary resolution of following them in person. He accordingly left his palace at midnight, attended only by sir Edward Hales; and, in order to complete his imprudence and despair, he commanded the earl of Feversham to disband the army, recalled the writs for the meeting of the parliament, and threw the great seal into the Thames !(2)

If James had deliberately resolved to place the prince of Orange on the throne of England, he could not have pursued a line of conduct more effectual for that purpose. Besides the odious circumstances of seeking refuge with the heir of the crown in a country distinguished for popery and arbitrary power, and recalling the writs for a free parliament, the anarchy and disorder which ensued on the sudden dissolution of government made all men look up to William as the saviour of the nation. The populace rose in London, and not only destroyed all the popish chapels, but even rifled the houses of the ambassadors of Catholic princes and states, where many of the papists had lodged their most valuable effects. Riot and devastation every where prevailed. The whole body of the people, released from the restraints of law, felt one general movement; and new violences were apprehended from the licentious soldiers, whom Feversham had disbanded without either disarming or paying them.(3)

In order to remedy these evils, and restore public tranquillity, an office which seemed now beyond the power of the civil magistrate, such of the bishops and peers as were in London assembled in Guildhall; and erecting themselves into a supreme council, executed all the functions of royalty. They gave directions to the mayor and aldermen for keeping the peace of the city: they issued their commands, which were readily obeyed, to the fleet, to the neglected army of James, and to all the garrisons in England. They ordered the militia to be raised; and they published a declaration, by which they unanimously resolved to apply to the prince of Orange to settle the affairs of the nation, deserted by the king, through the influence of evil counsellors.

William was not backward in assuming that authority which the imprudence of James had devolved upon him. He exercised, in his person, many acts of sovereignty; and in order to make his presence more welcome in London, he is said to have propagated a report, that the disbanded Irish had taken arms, and begun a general massacre of the Protestants. Such a (1) Burnet, book iv. Duke of Berwick's Mem. vol. i. James II., 1688. (3) Ralph. Hume.

(2) Id. ibid.

rumour at least was spread all over the kingdom, and begot universal con. sternation. The alarm bells were rung, the beacons fired; and men fancied they saw at a distance the smoke of the burning cities, and heard the dying groans of those who were slaughtered by the enemies of their religion!(1) Nothing less than the approach of the prince of Orange and his Protestant army, it was thought, could save the capital from ruin.

William had advanced to Windsor, when he received the unwelcome news, that the king had been seized in disguise, by some fishermen, near Feversham in Kent, on supposition that he was some popish priest, or other delinquent, who wanted to make his escape. This intelligence threw all parties into confusion. The prince of Orange sent orders to James, not to approach nearer to London than Rochester. But the messenger missed him on the way, and he once more entered his capital amid the loudest acclamations of joy. The people forgot his misconduct in his misfortunes, and all orders of men seemed to welcome his return.(2)

This, however, was only a transient gleam before a new storm. Scarce had the king retired to his bedchamber, when he received a message from the prince, desiring him to remove to Ham, a house belonging to the dutchess of Lauderdale; and the following night, as he was going to rest, the Dutch guards, without farther notice, took possession of his palace, and displaced the English, to the great disgust of the army, and no inconsiderable part of the nation. James set out next morning, by permission, for Rochester, in preference to Ham, under a Dutch guard; and although convinced, that he could not do a more acceptable service to his rival, and that he had underrated the loyalty of his subjects, he still resolved to make his escape to France.

The earls of Arran, Dumbarton, Aylesbury, Litchfield, and Middleton, the gallant lord Dundee, and other officers of distinction, who had assembled at Rochester, argued strenuously against his resolution. They represented to the king, that the opinion of mankind began already to change, and that events would daily rise in favour of his authority. "The question, sir," urged Dundee, with all his generous ardour, "is whether you will stay in England, or fly to France? Whether you shall trust the returning zeal of your native subjects, or rely on a foreign power?-Here you ought to stand. Keep possession of a part, and the whole will submit by degrees. Resume the spirit of a king; summon your subjects to their allegiance: your army, though disbanded, is not annihilated. Give me your commission, and I will collect ten thousand of your troops: I will carry your standard at their head through England, and drive before you the Dutch and their prince." James replied, that he believed it might be done, but that it would occasion a civil war; and he would not do so much mischief to a people who would soon return to their senses. Middleton, who saw the fallacy of this opinion, pressed him to stay, though in the remotest part of his kingdom. "Your majesty," said he, "may throw things into confusion by your departure, but it will be only the anarchy of a month: a new government will soon be settled; and then you and your family are ruined for ever."(3)

But these animated remonstrances could not inspire with new firmness a mind broken by apprehension and terror. Afraid of being taken off either by poison or assassination, (4) and mortified at his present abject condition, James continued to meditate his escape; and as the back-door of the house in which he lodged was intentionally left without any guard, he found no difficulty in accomplishing his design. He privately withdrew at midnight, accompanied by his natural son, the duke of Berwick, and went on board a large sloop, which waited for him in the river Medway. After some obstructions, he safely arrived at Ambleteuse, in Picardy; whence he hastened to St. Germains, where the queen and the prince of Wales had arrived the day before.(5)

(1) Hist. Desert. p. 91. Rapin, vol. ii. fol. edit.
(3) Macpherson's Original Papers, 1688.

(5) Duke of Berwick's Mem. vol. i. James II 1688.

(2) Burnet, book iv.
(4) James II. 1688.