JAMES THE SECOND.

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chamber as usual. At dead of night she rose, and, accom- c “Ap.panied by her friend Sarah and two other female attendants, - J683 _stole down the back stairs in a dressing gown and slippers.

The fugitives gained the open street unchallenged. A hack-ney coach was in waiting for them there. Two men guardedthe humble vehicle. One of them was Compton, Bishop ofLondon, the Princess’s old tutor: the other was the magni-ficent and accomplished Dorset, whom the extremity of thepublic danger had roused from his luxurious repose. Thecoach drove instantly to Aldersgate Street, where- the townresidence of the Bishops of London then stood, within the.shadow of their Cathedral. There the Princess passed thenight. On the following morning she set out for EppingForest. In that wild tract Dorset possessed a venerable man-sion, which has long since been destroyed. In his hospitabledwelling, the favourite resort, during many years, of witsand poets, the fugitives made a short stay. They could notsafely attempt to reach William’s quarters; for the roadthither lay through a country occupied by the royal forces.

It was therefore determined that Anne should take refugewith the northern insurgents. Compton wholly laid aside,for the time, his sacerdotal character. Danger and conflicthad rekindled in him all the military ardour which he had felttwenty-eight years before, when he rode in the Life Guards.

He preceded the Princess’s carriage in a buff coat and jack-boots, with a sword at his side and pistols in his holsters.

Long before she reached Nottingham, she was surrounded bya body guard of gentlemen who volunteered to escort her.

They invited the Bishop to act as their colonel; and he con-sented with an alacrity which gave great scandal to rigidChurchmen, and did not much raise his character even in theopinion of Whigs.*

When, on the morning of the twenty-sixth, Anne’s apart-

* Clarendon’s Diary, Nov. 25, 26.1088; Citters, 7 — ; Ellis Cor-

respondence, Dec. 19.; Duchess of Marlborough’s Vindication; Burnet,i. 192.; Compton to the Prince of Orange, Dec. 2 . 1688, in Dalrymple.

The Bishop’s military costume is mentioned in innumerable pamphletsand lampoons.