When the king’s arrest was first reported in London, the intelligence was not believed; but all uncertainty on the subject was removed by a communication from James himself in the shape of a letter, but without any address, which was put into the hands of Lord Mulgrave by a stranger at the door of the council chamber at Whitehall. A body of about thirty peers and bishops had, on the flight of the king, formed themselves into a council, and had assumed the reins of government, and many of these, on this letter being read, were desirous of taking no notice of it, lest they might, by so doing, displease the prince. Lord Halifax, the chairman, who favoured the prince’s designs, attempted to quash the matter, by adjourning the meeting, but Mulgrave prevailed on the members of the council to remain, and obtained an order to despatch the Earl of Feversham with 200 of the life-guards to protect the person of the king.
On the arrival of Feversham the king resolved to remain in the kingdom, and to return to London, a resolution which he adopted at the urgent entreaty of Lord Winchelsea, whom, on his apprehension, he had appointed lord-lieutenant of Kent. James was not without hopes that the prince would still come to terms, and to ascertain his sentiments he sent Feversham to Windsor to invite the prince to a personal conference in the capital, and to inform him that St. James’s palace would be ready for his reception. The arrival of the earl with such a proposal was exceedingly annoying to William and his adherents, the former of whom, on the supposition that the king had taken a final adieu of the kingdom, had begun to act the part of the sovereign, while the latter were already intriguing for the great offices of the state. Instead of returning an answer to the king’s message, William, on the pretence that Feversham had disbanded the army without orders, and had come to Windsor without a passport, ordered him to be arrested, and committed a prisoner to the round tower, an order which was promptly obeyed.
At Rochester, whence he had despatched Feversham, the king was met by his guards, and thence proceeded to London, which he entered on the 16th of December amidst the acclamations of the citizens, and the ringing of bells, and other popular manifestations of joy, a remarkable proof of the instability and inconstancy of feeling which actuate masses of people under excitement.
As James conceived that the only chance he now had of securing the confidence of his subjects and preserving his crown, consisted in giving some signal proof of his sincerity to act constitutionally, he made the humiliating offer to Lewis and Stamps, two of the city aldermen, to deliver himself up into their hands on receiving an assurance that the civil authorities would guarantee his personal safety, and to remain in custody till parliament should pass such measures as might be considered necessary for securing the religion and liberties of the nation. But Sir Robert Clayton dissuaded the common council from entering into any engagement which the city might possibly be unable to fulfil, and thus a negotiation was dropt, which, if successful, might have placed William in a situation of great embarrassment.[545]
But although James did not succeed in his offer to the city, his return to Whitehall had changed the aspect of affairs, and had placed William in a dilemma from which he could only extricate himself by withdrawing altogether his pretensions to the crown, or by driving his uncle out of it by force. William considered that the most safe and prudent course he could pursue would be to force James to leave the kingdom; but in such a manner as to induce the belief that he did so freely and of his own accord. Accordingly, to excite the king’s alarms, a body of Dutch guards, by order of the prince, marched into Westminster, and, after taking possession of the palace of St. James’s, marched with their matches lighted to Whitehall, of which they also demanded possession. As resistance, owing to the great disparity of numbers, was considered by the king to be unavailing, he, contrary to the opinion of Lord Craven, the commander of his guards, who, though eighty years of age, offered to oppose the invaders, ordered the guards to resign their posts, of which the Dutch took possession. This event took place late on the evening of the 16th of December.[546]
The king now received orders from William to quit Whitehall by ten o’clock next morning, as the latter meant to enter London about noon, and that he should retire to Ham, a house in Surrey belonging to the dowager duchess of Lauderdale, which had been provided for his reception. The king objected to Ham as a residence being uncomfortable, but stated his willingness to return to Rochester. Permission being granted by the prince, James left Whitehall about twelve o’clock noon, after taking an affectionate adieu of his friends, many of whom burst into tears. He embarked on board the royal barge, attended by Viscount Dundee and other noblemen, and descended the river, surrounded by several boats filled with Dutch guards, in presence of an immense concourse of spectators, many of whom witnessed with sorrow the humiliating spectacle.[547]
The king arrived at Rochester the following day from Gravesend, where he had passed the previous night. Having remained four days at Rochester, he, accompanied by two captains in the navy, his natural son the Duke of Berwick, and a domestic, went on board the Eagle fireship, being unable to reach, on account of the unfavourable state of the weather, a fishing smack which had been hired for his reception. On the following morning he went on board the smack, and after a boisterous voyage of two days, arrived at Ambleteuse, in France, on the 25th of December, and joined his wife and child, at the castle of St. Germain’s, on the 28th. Thus ingloriously and sadly ended the reign of the last of the unfortunate and seemingly infatuated royal race of Stuarts.
Considering the crisis at which matters had arrived, the course which the king pursued, of withdrawing from the kingdom, was evidently the most prudent which could be adopted. All his trusty adherents in England were without power or influence, and in Scotland the Duke of Gordon was the only nobleman who openly stood out for the interests of his sovereign. He had been created a duke by Charles II. James had appointed him governor of the castle of Edinburgh, and he had been thereafter made a privy-counsellor and one of the lords of the treasury. Though a firm and conscientious Catholic, he was always opposed to the violent measures of the court, as he was afraid that however well meant, they would turn out ruinous to the king; not indeed that he did not wish to see the professors of the same faith with himself enjoy the same civil privileges as were enjoyed by his Protestant countrymen, but because he was opposed to the exercise of the dispensing power at a time when the least favour shown to the professors of the proscribed faith was denounced as an attempt to introduce popery. The king, influenced by some of his flatterers, received the duke coldly on his appearance at court in March, 1688, and curtailed some of his rights and privileges over the lands of some of his vassals in Badenoch. Even his fidelity appeared to be questioned, by various acts of interference with the affairs of the castle, of which he disapproved. He resented these indignities by tendering his resignation of the various appointments he held from the crown, and demanded permission from the king to retire beyond seas for a time; but James put a negative upon both proposals, and the duke returned to his post at Edinburgh.[548]
Notwithstanding the bad treatment he had received, the duke, true to his trust, determined to preserve the castle of Edinburgh for the king, although the Prince of Orange should obtain possession of every other fortress in the kingdom. He requested the privy council to lay in a quantity of provisions and ammunition, but this demand was but partially attended to, for though the garrison consisted only of 120 men, there was not a sufficiency of materials for a three months’ siege. The duke shut himself up in the castle, and invited the Earl of Perth, the chancellor, to join him; but the earl declined the offer, and, in attempting to make his escape to the continent, was seized near the Bass, in the Frith of Forth, by some seamen from Kirkcaldy, under a warrant from the magistrates of that burgh, and committed to Stirling castle, where he remained a close prisoner for nearly four years.[549] A few days after the duke had retired to the castle, an attempt was made by some of the prince’s adherents to corrupt the fidelity of the garrison, by circulating a false report that the duke meant to make the whole garrison, who were chiefly Protestants, swear to maintain the Catholic religion. A mutiny was on the eve of breaking out, but it was detected by the vigilance of some officers. The duke, thereupon, drew out the garrison, assured them that the report in question was wholly unfounded, and informed them that all he required of them was to take the oath of allegiance to the king, which was immediately done by the greater part of the garrison. Those who refused were at once dismissed. To supply the deficiency thus made, the duke sent notice to Francis Gordon of Midstrath to bring up from the north 45 of the best and most resolute men he could find on his lands; but, on their arrival at Leith, a hue and cry was raised that the duke was bringing down Papists and Highlanders to overawe the Protestants. To calm the minds of the people, the duke ordered these men to return home.[550]