while the ensign of the adventurers, a blue flag, was set up in the marketplace. The military stores were deposited in the town hall; and a Declaration setting forth the objects of the expedition was read from the Cross.* CHAP. V. ration. This Declaration, the masterpiece of Ferguson's genius, His Declawas not a grave manifesto such as ought to be put forth by a leader drawing the sword for a great public cause, but a libel of the lowest class, both in sentiment and language.† It contained undoubtedly many just charges against the government. But these charges were set forth in the prolix and inflated style of a bad pamphlet; and the paper contained other charges of which the whole disgrace falls on those who made them. The Duke of York, it was positively affirmed, had burned down London, had strangled Godfrey, had cut the throat of Essex, and had poisoned the late King. On account of those villanous and unnatural crimes, but chiefly of that execrable fact, the late horrible and barbarous parricide,such was the copiousness and such the felicity of Ferguson's diction,-James was declared a mortal and bloody enemy, a L tyrant, a murderer, and an usurper. No treaty should be made with him. The sword should not be sheathed till he had been brought to condign punishment as a traitor. The government should be settled on principles favourable to liberty. All Protestant sects should be tolerated. The forfeited charters should be restored. Parliament should be held annually, and should no longer be prorogued or dissolved by royal caprice. The only standing force should be the militia the militia should be commanded by the Sheriffs; and the Sheriffs should be chosen by the freeholders. Finally Monmouth declared that he could prove himself to have been born in lawful wedlock, and to be, by right of blood, King of England, but that, for the present, he waived his claims, that he would leave them to the judgment of a free Parliament, and that, in the meantime, he desired to be considered only as the Captain General of the English Protestants, who were in arms against tyranny and Popery. : Disgraceful as this manifesto was to those who put it forth, His popuit was not unskilfully framed for the purpose of stimulating the West larity in the passions of the vulgar. In the West the effect was great. of EngThe gentry and clergy of that part of England were indeed, Journals of the House of Commons, June 13. 1685; Harl. MS. 6845.; Lansdowne MS. 1152. † Burnet, i. 641.; Goodenough's con fession in the Lansdowne MS. 1152. land. CHAP. V. with few exceptions, Tories. But the yeomen, the traders of the towns, the peasants, and the artisans were generally animated by the old Roundhead spirit. Many of them wer Dissenters, and had been goaded by petty persecution into a temper fit for desperate enterprise. The great mass of the population abhorred Popery and adored Monmouth. He was no stranger to them. His progress through Somersetshire and Devonshire in the summer of 1680 was still fresh in the memory of all men. He was on that occasion sumptuously entertained by Thomas Thynne at Longleat Hall, then, and perhaps still, the most magnificent country house in England. From Longleat to Exeter the hedges were lined with shouting spectators. The roads were strewn with boughs and flowers. The multitude, in their eagerness to see and touch their favourite, broke down the palings of parks, and besieged the mansions where he was feasted. When he reached Chard his escort consisted of five thousand horsemen. At Exeter all Devonshire had been gathered together to welcome him. One striking part of the show was a company of nine hundred young men who, clad in a white uniform, marched before him into the city. The turn of fortune which had alienated the gentry from his cause had produced no effect on the common people. To them he was still the good Duke, the Protestant Duke, the rightful heir whom a vile conspiracy kept out of his own. They came to his standard in crowds. All the clerks whom he could employ were too few to take down the names of the recruits. Before he had been twenty-four hours on English ground he was at the head of fifteen hundred men. Dare arrived from Taunton with forty horsemen of no very martial appearance, and brought encouraging intelligence as to the state of public feeling in Somersetshire. As yet all seemed to promise well.† But a force was collecting at Bridport to oppose the insurgents. On the thirteenth of June the red regiment of Dorsetshire militia came pouring into that town. The Somersetshire, or yellow regiment, of which Sir William Portman, a Tory gentleman of great note, was Colonel, was expected to arrive on the following day. The Duke determined to strike an immediate blow. A detachment of his * Historical Account of the Life and magnanimous Actions of the most illustrious Protestant Prince James, Duke of Monmouth, 1683. + Wade's Confession, Hardwicke Papers; Axe Papers; Harl. MS. 6845. Harl. MS. 6845. troops was preparing to march to Bridport when a disastrous CHAP. event threw the whole camp into confusion. Fletcher of Saltoun had been appointed to command the cavalry under Grey. Fletcher was ill mounted; and indeed there were few chargers in the camp which had not been taken from the plough. When he was ordered to Bridport, he thought that the exigency of the case warranted him in borrowing, without asking permission, a fine horse belonging to Dare. Dare resented this liberty, and assailed Fletcher with gross abuse. Fletcher kept his temper better than any one who knew him expected. At last Dare, presuming on the patience with which his insolence had been endured, ventured to shake a switch at the high born and high spirited Scot. Fletcher's blood boiled. He drew a pistol and shot Dare dead. Such sudden and violent revenge would not have been thought strange in Scotland, where the law had always been weak, where he who did not right himself by the strong hand was not likely to be righted at all, and where, consequently, human life was held almost as cheap as in the worst governed provinces of Italy. But the people of the southern part of the island were not accustomed to see deadly weapons used and blood spilled on account of a rude word or gesture, except in duel between gentlemen with equal arms. There was a general cry for vengeance on the foreigner who had murdered. an Englishman. Monmouth could not resist the clamour. Fletcher, who, when his first burst of rage had spent itself, was overwhelmed with remorse and sorrow, took refuge on board of the Helderenbergh, escaped to the Continent, and repaired to Hungary, where he fought bravely against the common enemy of Christendom.* V. rebels with at Brid Situated as the insurgents were, the loss of a man of parts Encounter and energy was not easily to be repaired. Early on the of the morning of the following day, the fourteenth of June, Grey, the militia accompanied by Wade, marched with about five hundred men port. to attack Bridport. A confused and indecisive action took place, such as was to be expected when two bands of ploughmen, officered by country gentlemen and barristers, were opposed to each other. For a time Monmouth's men drove the militia before them. Then the militia made a stand, and Monmouth's men retreated in some confusion. Grey and his cavalry never stopped till they were safe at Lyme again: but * Buyse's evidence in the Collection of State Trials; Burnet, i. 642. Ferguson's MS. quoted by Eachard. CHAP. V. Wade rallied the infantry and brought them off in good order.* There was a violent outcry against Grey; and some of the adventurers pressed Monmouth to take a severe course. Monmouth, however, would not listen to this advice. His lenity has been attributed by some writers to his good nature, which undoubtedly often amounted to weakness. Others have supposed that he was unwilling to deal harshly with the only peer who served in his army. It is probable, however, that the Duke, who, though not a general of the highest order, understood war very much better than the preachers and lawyers who were always obtruding their advice on him, made allowances which people altogether inexpert in military affairs never thought of making. In justice to a man who has had few defenders, it must be observed that the task, which, throughout this campaign, was assigned to Grey, was one which, if he had been the boldest and most skilful of soldiers, he could scarcely have performed in such a manner as to gain credit. He was at the head of the cavalry. It is notorious that a horse soldier requires a longer training than a foot soldier, and that the war horse requires a longer training than his rider. Something may be done with a raw infantry which has enthusiasm and animal courage: but nothing can be more helpless than a raw cavalry, consisting of yeomen and tradesmen mounted on cart horses and post horses; and such was the cavalry which Grey commanded. The wonder is, not that his men did not stand fire with resolution, not that they did not use their weapons with vigour, but that they were able to keep their seats. Still recruits came in by hundreds. Arming and drilling went on all day. Meantime the news of the insurrection had spread fast and wide. On the evening on which the Duke landed, Gregory Alford, Mayor of Lyme, a zealous Tory, and a bitter persecutor of Nonconformists, sent off his servants to give the alarm to the gentry of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire, and himself took horse for the West. Late at night he stopped at Honiton, and thence despatched a few hurried lines to London with the ill tidings. He then pushed on to Exeter, where he found Christopher Monk, Duke of Albemarle. This nobleman, the son and heir of George * London Gazette, June 18. 1685; Wade's Confession, Hardwicke Papers. + Lords' Journals, June 13. 1685. V. the restorer of the Stuarts, was Lord Lieutenant of CHAP. hire, and was then holding a muster of militia. Four nd men of the trainbands were actually assembled his command. He seems to have thought that, with rce, he should be able at once to crush the rebellion. refore marched towards Lyme. rebels with minster. when, on the afternoon of Monday the fifteenth of June, Encounter ched Axminster, he found the insurgents drawn up there of the counter him. They presented a resolute front. Four the militia ieces were pointed against the royal troops. The thick at Axs, which on each side overhung the narrow lanes, were with musketeers. Albemarle, however, was less alarmed e preparations of the enemy than by the spirit which red in his own ranks. Such was Monmouth's popularity g the common people of Devonshire that, if once the bands had caught sight of his well known face and figure, would probably have gone over to him in a body. bemarle, therefore, though he had a great superiority of , thought it advisable to retreat. The retreat soon beè a rout. The whole country was strewn with the arms uniforms which the fugitives had thrown away; and, had mouth urged the pursuit with vigour, he would probably taken Exeter without a blow. But he was satisfied with advantage which he had gained, and thought it desirable his recruits should be better trained before they were loyed in any hazardous service. He therefore marched irds Taunton, where he arrived on the eighteenth of June, etly a week after his landing.* , the rebellion carried he Court and the Parliament had been greatly moved by News of news from the West. At five in the morning of Saturday thirteenth of June, the King had received the letter which to London. Mayor of Lyme had despatched from Honiton. The Privy Incil was instantly called together. Orders were given t the strength of every company of infantry and of every op of cavalry should be increased. Commissions were issued the levying of new regiments. Alford's communication Loyalty of laid before the Lords; and its substance was communi- the Pared to the Commons by a message. The Commons examined couriers who had arrived from the West, and instantly lered a bill to be brought in for attainting Monmouth of Wade's Confession; Ferguson MS.; then a boy, lived very near the scene of on, 701, 702. Oldmixon, who was liament. |