WHilAJI AND MAEY.

47

a Jacobite party in the navy. Alarming rumours had workedtheir way round from France. It was said that the enemyreckoned on the cooperation of some of those officers on whosefidelity, in this crisis, the safety of the State might depend.Russell, as far as can now be discovered, was still unsuspected.But others, who were probably less criminal, had been moreindiscreet. At all the coffee houses admirals and captainswere mentioned by name as traitors who ought to be instantlycashiered, if not shot. It was even confidently affirmed thatsome of the guilty had been put under arrest, and others turnedout of the service. The Queen and her counsellors were in agreat strait. It was not easy to say whether the danger oftrusting the suspected persons or the danger of removing themwere the greater. Mary, with many painful misgivings, re-solved, and the event proved that she resolved wisely, to treatthe evil reports as calumnious, to make a solemn appeal tothe honour of the accused gentlemen, and then to trustthe safety of her kingdom to their national and professionalspirit.

On the fifteenth of May a great assembly of officers wasconvoked at Saint Helen’s on board the Britannia, a fine threedecker, from which Russell’s flag was flying. The Admiraltold them that he had received a despatch which he wascharged to read to them. It was from Nottingham. The Queen,the Secretary wrote, had been informed that stories deeplyaffecting the character of the navy were in circulation. It hadeven been affirmed that she had found herself under the neces-sity of dismissing many officers. But Her Majesty was de-termined to believe nothing against those brave servants of theState. The gentlemen who had been so foully slandered mightbe assured that she placed entire reliance on them. This letterwas admirably calculated to work on those to whom it wasaddressed. Very few of them probably had been guilty of any

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1692 .