Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/34

xxii The Prince of Orange, however, was not of the same opinion with the King; and what is more extraordinary, considering the relative positions of the three parties, did confer the command upon Sidney, who certainly continued to hold it till he was deprived of it by James, a few months after his accession.

We are told by Collins, that on the day of that King's coronation, when the crown was accidentally about to fall from his head, (a fact that has been stated by several writers,) Sidney stepped forward to fix it there, saying, that it was not the first time that a Sidney had supported the crown. Whether this be true or not, certain it is that, before three years had passed away, no hand in England was more zealously engaged to tear it from his brow, and place it on that of another.

Though deprived by James of the command of the British forces in Holland, he does not appear at that time to have distrusted him, for, after the defeat of Monmouth, he was sent back with Bentinck to the Prince of Orange: but this confidence