JAMES THE SECOND.

301

and rebellion. He was the first peer of the realm who made c *^ p 'his appearance at the quarters of the Prince of Orange. * 1CSB ';“

But the King had less to fear from those who openly ar-rayed themselves against his authority, than from the darkconspiracy which had spread its ramifications through hisarmy and his family. Of that conspiracy Churchill, un-rivalled in sagacity and address, endowed by nature with acertain cool intrepidity which never failed him either infighting or lying, high in military rank, and high in the favourof the Princess Anne, must be regarded as the soul. It wasnot yet time for him to strike the decisive blow. But eventhus early he inflicted, by the instrumentality of a subor-dinate agent, a wound, serious if not deadly, on the royalcause.

Edward Viscount Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl ofoeser-Clarendon, was a young man of slender abilities, loose prin-cornbury.ciples, and violent temper. He had been early taught toconsider his relationship to the Princess Anne as the ground-work of his fortunes, and had been exhorted to pay her as-siduous court. It had never occurred to his father that thehereditary loyalty of the Hydes could run any risk of con-tamination in the household of the King’s favourite daughter:but in that household the Churchills held absolute sway; andCornbury became their tool. He commanded one of theregiments of dragoons which had been sent westward. Suchdispositions had been made that, on the fourteenth of No-vember, he was, during a few hours, the senior officer atSalisbury, and all the troops assembled there were subjectto his authority. It seems extraordinary that, at such a crisis,the army on which every thing depended should have beenleft, even for a moment, under the command of a youngColonel who had neither abilities nor experience. Therecan be little doubt that so strange an arrangement was theresult of deep design, and as little doubt to what head and towhat heart the design is to be imputed.

Suddenly three of the regiments of cavalry which hadassembled at Salisbury were ordered to march westward.

* Burnet, i. 190.; Life of William, 1703.