JAMES THE SECOND.

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formation about men and things, he came to assist the deli- CI |* P -Iterations of William.* 1638 .

Thus far the Prince’s enterprise had prospered beyond the Dissen-anticipations of the most sanguine. And now, according to 111the general law which governs human affairs, prosperity began Prince’sto produce disunion. The Englishmen assembled at Salis- camp 'bury were divided into two parties. One party consisted ofWhigs who had always regarded the doctrines of passive obe-dience and of indefeasible hereditary right as slavish supersti-tions. Many of them had passed years in exile. All had beenlong shut out from participation in the favours of the crown.

They now exulted in the near prospect of greatness and ofvengeance. Burning with resentment, flushed with victoryand hope, they would hear of no compromise. Nothing lessthan the deposition of their enemy would content them: norcan it be disputed that herein they were perfectly consistent.

They had exerted themselves, nine years earlier, to excludehim from the throne, because they thought it likely that hewould be a bad King. It could therefore scarcely be expectedthat they would willingly leave him on the throne, now that hehad turned out a far worse King than any reasonable mancould have anticipated.

On the other hand, not a few of William’s followers werezealous Tories, who had, till very recently, held the doctrineof nonresistance in the most absolute form, but whose faith inthat doctrine had, for a moment, given way to the strongspassions excited by the ingratitude of the King and by theperil of the Church. No situation could be more painful orperplexing than that of the old Cavalier who found himself inarms against the throne. The scruples which had not pre-vented him from repairing to the Dutch camp began to tor-ment him cruelly as soon as he was there. His mind misgavehim that he had committed a crime. At all events he had ex-posed himself to reproach, by acting in diametrical oppositionto the professions of his whole life. He felt insurmountabledisgust for his new allies. They were people whom, eversince he could remember, he had been reviling and perse*

* titters, Nov. Dec. ft., 1C88.

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