contrary to all expectation, on the 20th of June, 1688, this last hope was dissipated by the birth of a prince, who was baptized according to the forms of the Catholic church, and to whom the Pope himself, represented by his nuncio, stood sponsor, only one feeling pervaded all men's minds, namely, that it had become necessary to seek some efficient remedy against the continuance of a domination so universally detested. A rumour shortly afterwards spread, that the newly born prince was a supposititious child; and, unfounded as it was, the report obtained such general credence, that even the king's daughters and the Prince of Orange, in the beginning at least, either believed it or pretended to believe it. Constant complaints were made by the first men in England of the violation by James of all the civil and religious institutions of the country; and these complaints, accompanied by urgent requests that the Prince of Orange, a prince distinguished both as a statesman and a soldier, would lend his support to an oppressed people, were not unfavourably received.

William had long been prepared for such an application. For a while he deceived both James

and the King of France on the subject of his military preparations. When, at length, Louis had obtained conclusive information respecting the prince's designs, the alliance of France was offered to James but declined by him; nor was it till September, 1688, when the English minister at the Hague forwarded the clearest proofs of the intentions of the Prince of Orange, that James could be awakened to a consciousness of his danger. Timidity now took the place of that inflexible obstinacy, which, while trampling upon every principle of legality, had refused to listen to the warning of prudence, from whatever side it might come. A series of mild ordinances were issued, but their true motive was too evident to allow of their producing any effect upon the public mind.

In the mean time, the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay on the 4th of November. His troops disembarked on the following day, after which he advanced rapidly towards London, most of the English officers joining him on his march. During the night of the 6th of December, the distracted James sent his wife and son to France, and, abandoned by all, even by his own children, he

disappeared himself from Whitehall in the night of the 12th, after having written to the Earl of Feversham, the commander of his troops, that nothing remained to be done, and that it was of no use to protract the struggle. The complete disbanding of the army would have been the consequence, had not the Prince of Orange himself done everything in his power to prevent the dissolution of a military force which he might reasonably hope to convert to his own use. As he crossed the Thames, James threw the great seal into the river, and had already embarked, with the intention of escaping to France, when he was arrested and brought back to Feversham, under a belief that the fugitive was one of the adherents of the king. On the 16th he actually returned to Whitehall; but William, to whom this return was anything but welcome, found means to have James advised to withdraw once more from the theatre of public events; and, on the 18th of December, while James, helpless and apprehensive even of personal violence, was escaping in a barge from London, on his way to Rochester, at the other end of the metropolis, William was holding his triumphant entry; and

Anne, the favourite daughter of the fugitive monarch, while her father was fleeing, as he believed, for his life, went in state to the theatre, amid the lighting of bonfires and the ringing of bells. James, however, had no intention to remain at Rochester. Confiding in French aid, and persuaded that his absence from England could in no way invalidate his rights, his chief anxiety was to reach the French coast, which, as no attempt was made to prevent his leaving Rochester, he succeeded in doing on the 25th of December, 1688, literally fulfilling a prophecy stated to have been made to the Prince of Orange by Charles II., to the effect that when James came to the crown "he would go on so madly, that in four years it would be up with him."

CHAPTER III.

DEATH OF JAMES-JAMES III. (CHEVALIER DE ST. GEORGE) 4 HIS UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT AT INVASION

IN SCOTLAND.]

LOUIS XIV. did not fail to receive his guests in a very splendid manner. The palace of St. Germain, magnificently fitted up, was assigned to James and his queen, with 50,000 crowns by way of outfit, and a farther monthly allowance of 50,000 francs; nor was it many months before the French monarch showed that he contemplated active measures for the restoration of the dethroned king.

As soon as James had left England, the peers, assembled in London, called upon William to assume the provisional regency, and to summon a Parliament. William, accordingly, called together to a Convention, as it was named, all those who had been members of the last parliament of Charles II. The Convention met on the