Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/570

556 November, a fatal day for popery, William readied Torbay, his real destination.

James meantime had been in a state of dreadful agitation. The very day that William had set sail some of his declarations had been seized in circulation in London, and James ordered all but one copy to be destroyed, and suddenly summoned to his presence Halifax, Clarendon, and Nottingham. His eye had been arrested instantly by the paragraph which declared that William was earnestly invited to England by lords both temporal and spiritual. He demanded whether they had taken any part in any such invitation. They replied that they had not. He then sent for the bishop of London, who had many causes of discontent, and who was actually one of the seven who had signed the invitation. Compton replied with ready evasion that he was confident that there was not one of the bishops who were not as innocent as himself of any such matter. James, however, summoned all the bishops who were in town. They appeared on the morrow—Bancroft, the archbishop, Crewe of Durham, Cartwright of Chester, and the bishops of St. David's and London. James drew their attention to the assertion about the lords spiritual; declared that he did not believe a word of it, but still would like to have their explicit denial. Bancroft, Crewe, and Cartwright emphatically denied any participation in so treasonable an act—as they truly could, for Sancroft was not in the confidence of the revolutionary party, and Cartwright and Crewe had been thorough-going High Commission men. When Compton was asked again, he replied, "I answered yesterday." But James was not satisfied; he ordered them to draw their denial in a written form which he might publish to the nation, and they withdrew in silence as if about to comply, though in no very zealous mood. James sent repeatedly to hasten their proceedings, and at length they appeared and repeated their protestations of innocence. "But where," demanded James, "is the paper?" They replied that, on consultation, they did not feel that a written answer was requisite, as his majesty fully acquitted them. "But I expected a paper; I consider that you promised me one." "We assure your majesty," said the prelates, "that not one man in five hundred believes the declaration to be the prince's." " But five hundred," retorted James, angrily, "would bring in the prince of Orange upon my throat;" and he repeated that he must have their written answer. The bishops, however, now knew that the prince's fleet was sailing down the Channel, and they excused themselves from meddling in state affairs, having, as Sancroft remarked, so lately suffered imprisonment for a matter of state. At this hard hit James lost all patience, and he broke out in violent language. "If ever," says the bishop of Rochester, "in all my life I saw him more than ordinary vehement in speech and transported in his expressions, it was on this occasion." The primate alone returned a written answer, perfectly exonerating himself, and declaring his belief of the innocence of his brethren.

Scarcely had the bishops quitted the palace when the news arrived that the prince of Orange had landed at Torbay. James had a much superior army in point of numbers; he had forty thousand regular troops, besides seven regiments of militia—William only about fifteen thousand; and his unquestionable policy was to march rapidly down on the invader and crush him before he could be strengthened by any men of influence going over to him. If he succeeded in that, the disaffected would be careful to remain quiet, and, at the worst, he would have compelled the prince to fight, which would have injured his prestige as a peaceable deliverer from oppression, and converted him into a martial invader. This was the advice which Louis urgently gave him, and undoubtedly it was the best; but James was never wise in his decisions; his whole career had been one of the most flagrant absurdity, and he was now surrounded by traitors who, by giving him conflicting counsel, augmented his own indecision. James resolved to get the main army at Salisbury ready to march against the enemy. Father Petre strongly dissuaded him from quitting the capital at all advice of the very worst character, because it would allow the disaffected both north and south to gather under their heads unmolested. Lord Feversham and the count de Roye, two foreigners whom he had most unadvisedly, under the circumstances, placed at the head of the army, also protested against fixing his head-quarters so far from the capital. James, therefore, divided his forces, ordering twenty battalions of infantry and thirty squadrons of horse to march for Sahsbury, and Marlborough and six battalions of infantry, and the same number of squadrons of horse, to protect London.

The prince of Orange during this time had landed at Torbay, the weather continuing rainy and bad, but so far favourable that it still defied all the efforts of lord Dartmouth to pursue him. The people declared that it was the evident will of Providence that the prince should deliver the country from popery; for just a century before, the Spanish Armada, coming to destroy protestantism, had been destroyed itself by tempests; and now the fleet which was intended to intercept the landing of Wlliam was not allowed to approach him. Most monarchs would have suspected the zeal of Dartmouth; but James, with all his follies and crimes, was only too unsuspicious, and he listened to his representations, and, as a naval man himself, fully excused him. Yet it is notorious that, whatever was the loyalty of Dartmouth, the greater part of his officers were in perfect understanding with admiral Herbert, who was even now at the head of William's fleet; and it is as doubtful whether the sailors themselves would have fought for the popish tyrant, numbers of them being also in the Dutch fleet.

William took up his quarters in a cottage whilst his troops were landing, and from its thatched roof waved the flag of Holland, bearing the significant motto, "I will maintain the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England." Burnet was one of the first to congratulate William on his landing on English soil; and, at the recommendation of Carstairs, the first thing on the complete disembarkation was to collect the troops, and return public thanks to Heaven for the successful transit of the armament. The next day William marched in the direction of Exeter; but the rains continued, and the roads were foul, so that he made little progress. It was not till the 9th that he appeared before the city. The people received him with enthusiasm, but the magistracy shrank back in terror, and the bishop Lamplugh and the dean had fled to warn the king of the invasion. The city was in utter confusion, and at first shut its gates; but as