Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/572

558 a lieutenant-general, and the duke of Grafton, the king's nephew, especially fervid in their expressions of loyalty; there were Trelawuey, smarting secretly over the persecution of his brother, the bishop of Bristol—and the savage Kirke, who, when James had importuned him to turn papist, had replied that he was sorry, but he had already engaged to the grand Turk that if he changed his religion he would become a mussulman. Reassured by these hollow professions, James gave orders for joining the camp at Salisbury; but the next morning, before he could set out, he was waited on by a numerous deputation of lords spiritual and temporal, with Bancroft at their head, praying that a free parliament might be immediately called, and a communication opened with the prince of Orange.

Queen of James II. concealed at Gravesend. James received the deputation ungraciously. In all his hurried concessions he had still shown his stubborn spirit by refusing to give up the dispensing power; and now, though he declared that what they asked he passionately desired, he added that he could not call a parliament till the prince of Orange quitted the kingdom. "How," he asked, "can you have a free parliament whilst a foreign prince, at the head of a foreign force, has the power to return a hundred members?" He then fell foul of the bishops, reminding them that the other day they refused to avow under their hands their disapproval of the invasion, on the plea that their vocation was not in politics; and yet here they were at the very head of a political movement. He charged them with fomenting the rebellion, and retired, declaring to his