JAMES THE SECOND.

309

dition could not succeed without such help, it would notsucceed at all: and William, who had as much professional - 16SS _feeling as Sehomberg, concurred in this opinion. Commis-sions therefore for raising new regiments were very sparinglygiven; and none but picked recruits were enlisted.

It was now thought desirable that the Prince should give apublic reception to the whole body of noblemen and gentle-men who had assembled at Exeter. He addressed them in ashort but dignified and well considered speech. He was not,he said, acquainted with the faces of all whom he saw. Buthe had a list of their names, and knew how high they stood inthe estimation of their country. He gently chid their tardi-ness, but expressed a confident hope that it was not yet toolate to save the kingdom. “Therefore,” he said, “gentle-men, friends, and fellow Protestants, we bid you andall your followers most heartily welcome to our court andcamp.”*

Seymour, a keen politician, long accustomed to the tacticsof faction, saw in a moment that the party which had begunto rally round the Prince stood in need of organization. Itwas as yet, he said, a mere rope of sand: no common objecthad been publicly and formally avowed: nobody was pledgedto anything. As soon as the assembly at the Deanery brokeup, he sent for Burnet, and suggested that an associationshould be formed, and that all the English adherents of thePrince should put their hands to an instrument binding themto be true to their leader and to each other. Burnet carriedthe suggestion to the Prince and to Shrewsbury, by both ofwhom it was approved. A meeting was held in the Cathedral.

A short paper drawn up by Burnet was produced, approved,and eagerly signed. The subscribers engaged to pursue inconcert the objects set forth in the Prince’s Declaration; tostand by him and by each other; to take signal vengeance onall who should make any attempt on his person; and, even ifsuch an attempt should unhappily succeed, to persist in their

* Fourth Collection of Papers, 1688 ; Letter from Exon.; Burnet,i. 192.