clesfield, a well-known High Churchman. At home the Earls of Danby
and Devonshire prepared silently with Lord Lumley for a rising in the
North. In spite of the profound secrecy with which all was conducted,
the keen instinct of Sunderland, who had stooped to purchase continuance
in office at the price of a secret apostasy to Catholicism, detected the
preparations of William; and the sense that his master's ruin was at
hand encouraged him to tell every secret of James on the promise of a
pardon for the crimes to which he had lent himself. James alone remained
stubborn and insensate as of old. He had no fear of a revolt unaided by
the Prince of Orange, and he believed that the threat of a French
attack on Holland itself would render William's departure impossible. At
the opening of September indeed Lewis declared himself aware of the
meaning of the Dutch armaments and warned the States that he should look
on an attack upon James as a war upon himself.

[Sidenote: James gives way.]

Fortunately for William so open an announcement of the union between
England and France suited ill with the plans of James. He still looked
forward to the coming Parliament, and the knowledge of a league with
France was certain to make any Parliament reluctant to admit Catholics
to a share in political life. James therefore roughly disavowed the act
of Lewis, and William was able to continue his preparations. But even
had no such disavowal come the threat of Lewis would have remained an
empty one. In spite of the counsel of Louvois he looked on an invasion
of Holland as likely to serve English interests rather than French and
resolved to open the war by a campaign on the Rhine. In September his
troops marched eastward, and the Dutch at once felt themselves secure.
The States-General gave their public sanction to William's project, and
the armament he had prepared gathered rapidly in the Scheldt. The news
of war and of the diversion of the French forces to Germany no sooner
reached England than the king passed from obstinacy to panic. By drafts
from Scotland and Ireland he had mustered forty thousand men, but the
temper of the troops robbed him of all trust in them. Help from France
was now out of the question. There was nothing for it but to fall back,
as Sunderland had for some time been advising him to fall back, on the
older policy of a union with the Tory party and the party of the Church;
and to win assent for his plans from the coming Par