elliptical device, "I will maintain."

The ellipsis was now

filled up with words of high import,-"The liberties of England and the Protestant religion.

The prince had not been many hours on board when the wind became fair. On the nineteenth the armament put to sea, and traversed, before a strong breeze, about half the distance between the Dutch and English coasts. Then the wind changed, blew hard from the west, and swelled into a violent tempest. The ships, scattered and in great distress, regained the shore of Holland as they best might. The Brill reached Helvoetsluys on the twenty-first. The prince's fellow-passengers had observed with admiration that neither peril nor mortification had for one moment disturbed his composure. He now, though suffering from seasickness, refused to go on shore; for he conceived that, by remaining on board, he should in the most effectual manner notify to Europe that the late misfortune had only delayed for a very short time the execution of his purpose. In two or three days the fleet reassembled. One vessel only had been cast away. Not a single soldier or sailor was missing. Some horses had perished; but this loss the prince with great expedition repaired; and, before the London Gazette had spread the news of his mishap, he was again ready to sail.*

His declaration preceded him only by a few hours. On the first of November it began to be mentioned in mysterious whispers by the politicians of London, was passed secretly from man to man, and was slipped into the boxes of the post-office. One of the agents was arrested, and the packets of which he was in charge were carried to Whitehall. The king read, and was greatly troubled. His first impulse was to hide the paper from all human eyes. He threw into the fire every copy which had been brought to him, except one; and that one he would scarcely trust out of his own hands.†

The paragraph in the manifesto which disturbed him most was that in which it was said that some of the peers, spiritual and temporal, had invited the Prince of Orange to invade England. Halifax, Clarendon, and Nottingham were then in London. They were immediately summoned to the palace and

* London Gazette, Oct. 29, 1688; Burnet, i. 782; Bentinck to his wife, Oct., Oct. 22, Oct. 24 Oct. 27 1688. Nov. 1' Nov. 3' Nov. 6'

↑ Citters, Nov. 2, 1688; Adda, Nov.

interrogated. Halifax, though conscious of innocence, refused at first to make any answer. "Your majesty asks me," said he, "whether I have committed high treason. If I am suspected, let me be brought before my peers. And how can your majesty place any dependence on the answer of a culprit whose life is at stake? Even if I had invited his highness over, I should without scruple plead Not Guilty." The king declared that he did not at all consider Halifax as a culprit, and that he had asked the question as one gentleman asks another who has been calumniated whether there be the least foundation for the calumny. "In that case," said Halifax, “I have no objection to aver, as a gentleman speaking to a gentleman, on my honor, which is as sacred as my oath, that I have not invited the Prince of Orange over." Clarendon and Nottingham said the same. The king was still more anxious to ascertain the temper of the prelates. If they were hostile to him, his throne was indeed in danger. But it could not be. There was something monstrous in the supposition that any bishop of the Church of England could rebel against his sovereign. Compton was called into the royal closet, and asked whether he believed that there was the slightest ground for the prince's assertion. The bishop was in a strait; for he was himself one of the seven who had signed the invitation; and his conscience, not a very enlightened conscience, would not suffer him, it seems, to utter a direct falsehood. "Sir," he said, "I am quite confident that there is not one of my brethren who is not as guiltless as myself in this matter.' The equivocation was ingenious; but whether the difference between the sin of such an equivocation and the sin of a lie be worth any expense of ingenuity may perhaps be doubted. The king was satisfied. "I fully acquit you all," he said. "But I think it necessary that you should publicly contradict the slanderous charge brought against you in the prince's declaration." The bishop very naturally begged that he might be allowed to read the paper which he was required to contradict; but the king woulo not suffer him to look at it.

On the following day appeared a proclamation threatening with the severest punishment all who should circulate, or who snould even dare to read, William's manifesto.† The primate

Ronquillo, Nov. 12, 1688. "Estas respuestas," says Ronquillo, "son ciertas, aunque mas las encubrian en la corte.'

""

+ London Gazette, Nov. 5, 1688. The proclamation is dated Nov. 2.

66

and the few spiritual peers who happened to be then in London had orders to wait upon the king. Preston was in attendance with the prince's declaration in his hand. My lords," said James, "listen to this passage. It concerns you." Preston then read the sentence in which the spiritual peers were mentioned. The king proceeded: "I do not believe one word of this; I am satisfied of your innocence; but I think it fit to let you know of what you are accused."

The primate, with many dutiful expressions, protested that the king did him no more than justice. "I was born in your majesty's allegiance. I have repeatedly confirmed that allegiance by my oath. I can have but one king at one time. I have not invited the prince over; and I do not believe that a single one of my brethren has done so." "I am sure I have not," said Crewe of Durham. "Nor I," said Cartwright of Chester. Crewe and Cartwright might well be believed; for both had sate in the Ecclesiastical Commission. When Compton's turn came, he parried the question with an adroitness which a Jesuit might have envied. "I gave your majesty my answer yesterday."

James repeated again and again that he fully acquitted them all. Nevertheless it would, in his judgment, be for his service and for their own honor that they should publicly vindicate themselves. He therefore required them to draw up a paper setting forth their abhorrence of the prince's design. They remained silent; their silence was supposed to imply consent; and they were suffered to withdraw.*

Meanwhile the fleet of William was on the German Ocean. It was on the evening of Thursday, the first of November, that he put to sea the second time. The wind blew fresh from the east. The armament, during twelve hours, held a course towards the north-west. The light vessels sent out by the English admiral for the purpose of obtaining intelligence, brought back news which confirmed the prevailing opinion that the enemy would try to land in Yorkshire. All at once, on a signal from the prince's ship, the whole fleet tacked, and made sail for the British Channel. The same breeze which favored the voyage of the invaders prevented Dartmouth from coming out of the Thames. His ships were forced to strike yards and topmasts; and two of his frigates, which had gained the open sea, were

*Tanner MSS.

shattered by the violence of the weather and driven back into the river.*

Meanwhile the Dutch fleet ran fast before the gale, and reached the Straits at about ten in the morning of Saturday the third of November. William himself, in the Brill, led the way. More than six hundred vessels, with canvass spread to a favorable wind, followed in his train. The transports were in the centre. The men of war, more than fifty in number, formed an outer rampart. The squadron which guarded the rear, and which, if Dartmouth had given chase, would have been the first to engage, was commanded by Herbert; and many English sailors, inflamed against Popery, and attracted by high pay, were under Herbert's command. No arrangement could be more prudent. There was in the king's fleet much discontent and an ardent zeal for the Protestant faith. But within the memory of old mariners the Dutch and English navies had thrice, with heroic spirit and various fortune, contended for the empire of the sea.` Our sailors had not forgotten the broom with which Van Tromp had threatened to sweep the Channel, or the fire which De Ruyter had lighted in the dockyards of the Medway. Had the rival nations been once more brought face to face on the element of which both claimed the sovereignty, all other thoughts might have given place to mutual animosity. A bloody and obstinate battle might have been fought. Defeat would have been fatal to William's enterprise. Even victory would have deranged all his deeply-meditated schemes of policy. He therefore wisely determined that the pursuers, if they overtook him, should be hailed in their own mother tongue, and adjured, by an admiral under whom they had served and whom they esteemed, not to fight against old messmates for Popish tyranny. Such an appeal might possibly avert a conflict. If a conflict took place, one English commander would be opposed to another; nor would the pride of the islanders be wounded by learning that Dartmouth had been compelled to strike to Herbert.t

Happily William's precautions were not necessary. Soon

*Burnet, i. 787; Rapin; Whittie's Exact Diary; Expedition of the Prince of Orange to England, 1688; History of the Desertion, 1688; Dartmouth to James, Nov. 5, 1688, in Dalrymple.

† Avaux, July 12, Aug. 14, 1688. In a letter to Bentinck, dated Sept. 1, 1688, William insists strongly on the importance of avoiding an action, and begs Bentinck to represent this to Herbert. "Ce

after midday he passed the Straits. His fleet spread to within a league of Dover on the north and of Calais on the south. The men of war on the extreme right and left saluted both fortresses at once. The troops appeared under arms on the decks. The flourish of trumpets, the clash of cymbals, and the rolling of drums were distinctly heard at once on the English and French shores. An innumerable company of gazers blackened the white beach of Kent. Another mighty multitude covered the coast of Picardy. Rapin de Thoyras, who, driven by persecution from his country, had taken service in the Dutch army, and accompanied the prince to England, described the spectacle, many years later, as the most magnificent and affecting that was ever seen by human eyes. sunset the armament was off Beachy Head. Then the lights were kindled. The sea was in a blaze for many miles. But the eyes of all the steersmen were fixed throughout the night on three huge lanterns which flamed on the stern of the Brill.*

At

Meanwhile a courier had been riding post from Dover Castle to Whitehall with news that the Dutch had passed the Straits, and were steering westward. It was necessary to make an immediate change in all the military arrangements. Messengers were despatched in every direction. Officers were roused from their beds at dead of night. At three on the Sunday morning there was a great muster by torchlight in Hyde Park. The king had sent several regiments northward in the expectation that William would land in Yorkshire. Expresses were despatched to recall them. All the forces, except those which were necessary to keep the peace of the capital, were ordered to move to the west. Salisbury was appointed as the place of rendezvous: but, as it was thought possible that Portsmouth might be the first point of attack, three battalions of guards and a strong body of cavalry set out for that fortress. In a few hours it was known that Portsmouth was safe; and these troops received orders to change their route and to hasten to Salisbury.†

n'est pas le tems de faire voir sa bravoure, ni de se battre si l'on le peut éviter. Je luy l'ai déjà dit: mais il sera nécessaire que vous le répétiez, et que vous le luy fassiez bien comprendre."

* Rapin's History; Whittie's Exact Diary. I have seen a contemporary Dutch chart of the order in which the fleet sailed.

† Adda, Nov. 1, 1688; Newsletter in the Mackintosh Collection; Citters, Nov. 16: