JAMES THE SECOND.

375

stairs: and round it were eight or ten boats filled with Dutchsoldiers. Several noblemen and gentlemen attended theKing to the waterside. It is said, and may well be believed,that many tears were shed. For even the most zealous friendof liberty could scarcely have seen, unmoved, the sad andignominious close of a dynasty which might have been sogreat. Shrewsbury did all in his power to sooth the fallenSovereign. Even the bitter and vehement Delamere wassoftened. But it was observed that Halifax, who was generallydistinguished by his tenderness to the vanquished, was, onthis occasion, less compassionate than his two colleagues.The mock embassy to Ilungerford was doubtless still ranklingin his mind.*

While the King’s barge was slowly working its way onrough billows down the river, brigade after brigade of thePrince’s troops came pouring into London from the west. Ithad been wisely determined that the duty of the capitalshould be chiefly done by the British soldiers in the serviceof the States General. The three English regiments werequartered in and round the Tower, the three Scotch regimentsin Southwark. **

In defiance of the weather a great multitude assembledbetween Albemarle House and Saint James’s Palace to greetthe Prince. Every hat, every cane, was adorned with anorange riband* The bells were ringing all over London.Candles for an illumination were disposed in the windows.Faggots for bonfires were heaped up in the streets. "William,however, who had no taste for crowds and shouting, took theroad through the Park. Before nightfall he arrived at SaintJames’s in a light carriage, accompanied by Schomberg. Ina short time all the rooms and staircases in the palace werethronged by those who came to pay their court. Such wasthe press, that men of the highest rank were unable to elbowtheir way into the presence chamber.*** While Westminster

* Cillers, Dec. ig. 1088 ; Evelyn’s Diary, same dale; Clarke’s Life ofJames, ii. 260 , 201. Oris- Mem.

** Cillers, Dec. Ig. 168S.

LuiirelJ’s Diary; Evelyn’s Diary; Clarendon’s Diary, Dec. IS. 1688 ;Revolution Politics.

/

CHAP.

X.

1688 .

Arrival ofWilliamat St.James’s.