CHAPTER XVI
NEWS FROM ENGLAND
The weeks that followed, so full of great events, passions, movements,and suspenses in Britain, passed with an almost uneventful calm in TheHague, where the Princess, round whose rights half the turmoil hadarisen, and the wives of many eminent men engaged in, or affected by,the rapid changing of events, waited for the packets that brought theEnglish letters, and lived in between their coming in a kind of retiredanxiety supported by prayers and saddened by tears.
The Elector of Brandenburg and his wife came on a visit to Mary, and sheentertained them as best she might with her heart aching with otherthoughts. They went, and she was alone again and free to go to and fromher chapel and wait for her letters and wonder and dread the futurethrough the cold winter days in the quiet town, which seemed, as shewas, to be waiting with suspended breath.
The progress of affairs in England came brokenly and from varioussources, letters arrived slowly, at irregular intervals, delayed byice-blocked rivers, storms at sea, detained messengers. At first thenews was of the Prince's progress to Exeter and the cold reception ofthat city, the long delay of his friends to join him, the mere wonderingapathy of the country-people, who made no movement one way or another,save to make a spectacle of the passing of this foreign army and topetition the Prince that he would, when he could, remove the hearth tax.
The next news was that when the Prince was near resolved to return homethe spirited English gentry began to rise in his favour, the LordWharton and the Lord Colchester marched from Oxford to join him, and myLord Lovelace broke through the militia, and though arrested once andtaken to Gloucester, yet forced out of prison, and with the help of someyoung gentlemen who had taken up arms for the Prince, drove all thePapists out of that city, and so joined His Highness at Exeter; soonafter the Lord Delamere came from Nottingham and took Chester, which,under a Papist, Lord Molineux, held out for the King, and my Lord Danbyrose up in the North, and with other persons of quality seized on thecity of York and turned out the Papists and clapt up the Mayor, whileColonel Copley, with the aid of some seamen, seized Hull and the powdermagazine, and the Earl of Bath took Plymouth from the Earl of Huntingdonand declared for the Prince, as did all the seaport towns in Cornwall.
At which, the news ran, the King went to join his army at Salisbury,having sent the Prince of Wales to Portsmouth, but afterwards returnedto Windsor upon an alarm of the approach of M. de Schomberg, and so toLondon, where he found his favourite, Lord Churchill, his son-in-law,Prince George, and his daughter, Anne, had fled to the Prince of Orange,attended by the suspended Bishop of London, who had signed theinvitation to His Highness. Then followed news of the skirmish atWincanton, where some of the Prince's guards under Lieutenant Campbellwere put to the rout by the King's men, commanded by that gallantIrishman, Patrick Sarsfield; soon the fleet, growing cold in the serviceof His Majesty, sent up an address for a free parliament and the armydeserted by the regiment.
Now the King took out of the Tower Sir Bevil Skelton, late ambassador toVersailles, cast there for the move he had concerted with M. D'Avaux,which if truly followed had saved the King, as he now came to say, andso made Sir Bevil governor of the Tower and Master of the Keys of theKingdom.
After which he went to Hungerford in great despair of mind, where,advised by the Queen and the Jesuits, he sent overtures to the Prince,offering to defer all grievances to the calling of a free parliament,the writs for which the Lord Chancellor Jefferies had already been bidto issue.
The Lords Halifax, Nottingham, and Godolphin, having taken this message,brought back an answer which was the best the King could have hoped for,since it made only those demands which were reasonable, such as that thePapists should be removed from office and that Tilbury Fort and theTower of London should be put into the hands of the Capital.
But when they returned with these terms to Whitehall, the commissionersfound that the King, either through fearfulness or weakness, or wroughton by the advices of M. Barillon, had taken the extraordinaryresolutions--first, of sending his wife and son to France, and secondly,of flying London himself, leaving the government in chaos. Upon whichthese three lords, perceiving they had been sent on a mock embassy,became for ever incensed against His Majesty. He left a letter for thecommander of the army, a Frenchman, Lord Feversham, which that generaltook to be an order for the disbanding of the forces, which finally puteverything into the greatest disorder.
The next letters that came to The Hague were full of the Prince'ssuccess against the Irish Guards at Twyford Bridge, outside the town ofReading, and the behaviour of the multitude in London, who, as soon asthey heard of the departure of the King and the Jesuits, and the nearapproach of the Prince of Orange, got together and demolished all thenew mass chapels and convents; among which was the great monastery ofSt. John, which had been two years building at a great expense, but wasnow burnt down and the goods seized as the monks were hurriedlyremoving, besides all the timber stored in Smithfield for the finishing,which was stacked into a bonfire and burnt at Holborn by the riverfleet.
Likewise the chapels in Lime Street and Lincoln's Inn Fields, thelodgings of the resident of the Duke of Florence, and Nild House, whichwas the mansion of the Spanish Ambassador, were spoiled and defaced; yetto the great credit of the English people, in all this heat andexcitement, there was not one slain or even hurt.
To put a stop to these mischiefs, the lords who were then in London wentto the Guildhall and, having demanded the keys of the Tower from SirBevil Skelton and delivered them to the Lord Lucas, they took uponthemselves the governance of the kingdom for the maintenance of orderand the prevention of bloodshed. At first they associated withthemselves the magistrates of the city, but on finding that those whoare born traders cannot contest with gentlemen in great affairs, theyused them not as their colleagues but as their servants, and gave theirorders as the King had done.
Soon after they invited the Prince, who was now at Windsor, to London,and the same day that he received their address he was presented withanother to the same effect from the city of London, which he acceptedwith more pleasure, and let it be seen that he did; for his titles andencouragements had always come from the people, and his enemies from thenobles, both in his own country and England.
To the anxious hearts at The Hague all seemed now clear for a peacefulconclusion, when the news came that the King, having by foul weatherbeen cast upon the coast of Kent, was there stopped and roughly handledby several of the common people who knew him not.
When the governing lords heard of this they sent an express begging HisMajesty to return to London, which he did after some difficulty, and onSunday, being the 16th of December, entered the capital, attended bysome troops of the Life Guards and Grenadiers; and a set of boysfollowing him with cheers put up his spirits so that he thought he hadthe people with him again.
At this juncture he sent the Lord Feversham to His Highness at Windsor,asking him to come to St. James's and settle matters; but His Highnesshad by now perceived that no settlement of any difficulty could bearrived at while this obstinate, foolish, and fearful King remained inLondon, and, having discovered that His Majesty had no courage to resistauthority, he took a high hand, arrested the Lord Feversham fortravelling without a passport, and sent three lords to Whitehall with amessage desiring the King to retire to Ham, having first secured all theposts and avenues about Whitehall by replacing the English guards byDutch. On receipt of the message the King instantly agreed, only askingthat it might be Rochester and not Ham, which desire being communicatedto the Prince by messenger (His Highness being then at Zion House), whosent an answer by M. Bentinck that he gave his consent, only adding thathe wished His Majesty to leave early that he might not meet him on theroad.
So the King, having with him the Earl of Arran and a few othergentlemen, went by barge to Gravesend and so overland to Rochester,where he lay in the house of Sir Richard Head.
The afternoon of
this day on which the King left London for ever, thePrince and his retinue came to St. James's, the whole city shouting andblazing in his honour. But having always hated these displays, anddespising the levity that prompted them, he drove by a back way to thePalace, and the people got no sight of him. All the persons of qualityin town now flocked to offer their congratulations, and the city sent upa most obliging address which His Highness very cordially received; soonthe lords and the city requested the Prince to take the government onhimself, which he did, his first act being one which gave him peculiarsatisfaction--he ordered M. Barillon to leave the kingdom in twenty-fourhours, and had him escorted to the coast by Dutch guards, which was asevere knock to the pride of France.
As to the affairs of the kingdom, he ordered writs to be issued for thecalling of a Convention, which was to consist of all persons who had satin parliament during the reign of His Majesty Charles II.
All this was great and triumphant news to the States and the Princess.The nobility then at The Hague came to compliment Her Highness, andthree deputies were sent from the States-General to congratulate thePrince, and were magnificently received by the English.
The Prince then commanded all Papists to depart out of London andWestminster within three days, and to engage the city in his interest heasked them for a loan, and though the security was but his bare word andthe sum he asked but a hundred thousand, they subscribed three hundredthousand and paid it in, in so many days.
His Majesty being gone to Windsor so as not to prejudice the meeting ofthe Convention, that body came together on the 22nd of January, andafter having humbly thanked His Highness for their deliverance, prayedhim to continue to administer the government, and appointed a day ofthanksgiving, fell to considering what course they should take.
With comparative ease they declared the throne vacant by the flight ofthe King, but were not so quick in deciding who should fill it. ThePrince meanwhile kept silence, observing the same composure that he hadmaintained during the whole progress of the Revolution, even hunting,staying at private houses, and keeping out of the capital; only sendingone brief letter to the Convention, in which he prayed them to comequickly to a decision, as there was the safety of Europe to consider.
Despite this withdrawal of himself, this calm that he displayed in themidst of the turmoil, he was the pivot round which all circled, the oneauthority respected by all, the one defence against anarchy andmischievous confusion.
The English, who knew in their hearts that they could not do withouthim, could by no means make up their minds what to do with him, andsoon, after their custom, split into very decided parties, which weremost violent against each other and got every day farther from asettlement.
At this time the news that reached The Hague was of the most astonishingand unwelcome to the Princess, and this was the manner of her receivingit, one day, very cold, in late January. She was riding in her chariotin the Voorhout, reflecting on this extraordinary revolution in hernative country, and thinking of her father (who was now fled to France),when she was accosted by M. D'Avaux, who still remained at The Hague.
The Princess was much surprised by this, and was giving a mere formalsalute, when M. D'Avaux, with his hat clasped to his bosom, galloped upto her open chariot in such a manner that she could do nothing butdesire it to stop.
"Ah, Madam," said he, smiling, and very courteous, "am I to condole withthe daughter of King James or congratulate the wife of the Prince ofOrange?"
She looked at him, very pale, but with a great majesty.
"You are to respect a woman in an extraordinary and sad situation,Monsieur," she answered gravely.
"Extraordinary indeed, Your Highness," said M. D'Avaux. "But scarcelysad to you, I think, who are like to be Queen."
It flashed through Mary's mind how near to war they must be with Francebefore he could venture to speak so.
She answered instantly--
"I take no public reprimand from the Ambassador of France, Monsieur."
M. D'Avaux bowed.
"More a congratulation, Highness, to the future sovereign of England."
Her look of amaze was not to be concealed. His keen eyes, that neverleft her face, remarked it.
"Ah, Your Highness hath not heard the last news from England?" he askedquietly.
"News from England!" repeated Mary, "I hear nothing else----"
"Then you will have heard that the Convention is for making you Queen,Madam," he answered, "which perhaps is not quite the consummation HisHighness desired."
Mary gazed at him a second, then made a motion with her gloved hand tothe coachman.
"It is cold to keep the horses waiting," she said, and so drove on.
Cold indeed, and the snow beginning to fall in heavy flakes across thestraight fronts of the noble houses in the Voorhout; the people ofquality gathered there on horseback and on foot began to scatter beforethe chilly wind and slow darkness. The Princess shuddered inside herfur coat, and drove back to the 'huis ten bosch.'
As she passed down the gaunt avenues of bare trees overshadowing frozenwater and frozen ground, showing between their dark trunks glimpses of apale February sunset fast being blotted out by the thick snow clouds,she felt to her very heart the awful desolation of approaching change,the wild regret for a happy period closed, the unnameable lonelinesswhich assailed her when she considered how she was being caught up andhurried into a whirl of events foreign and distasteful.
When she reached home she asked for her letters; but evidently thepacket that had brought M. D'Avaux his had none for her. She made nocomment, but played basset awhile with Lady Sunderland, went early toher prayers, then wept herself to sleep.