informers were brought forward to
swear to a conspiracy for the assassination of the Earl himself, and to
the share of the Duke of York in the designs of his fellow-religionists.
A paper found in a meal-tub was produced as evidence of the new danger.
Gigantic torchlight processions paraded the streets of London, and the
effigy of the Pope was burnt amidst the wild outcry of a vast multitude.

[Sidenote: The Reaction begins.]

Acts of yet greater daring showed the lengths to which Shaftesbury was
ready to go. He had grown up amidst the tumults of civil war, and,
greyheaded as he was, the fire and vehemence of his early days seemed to
wake again in the recklessness with which he drove on the nation to a
struggle in arms. Early in 1680 he formed a committee for promoting
agitation throughout the country; and the petitions which it drew up for
the assembly of the Parliament were sent to every town and grand jury
and sent back again with thousands of signatures. Monmouth, in spite of
the king's orders, returned at Shaftesbury's call to London; and a
daring pamphlet pointed him out as the nation's leader in the coming
struggle "against Popery and tyranny." So great was the alarm of the
Council that the garrison in every fortress was held in readiness for
instant war. But the danger was really less than it seemed. The tide of
opinion had fairly turned. Acquittal followed acquittal. A reaction of
horror and remorse at the cruelty which had hurried victim after victim
to the gallows succeeded to the pitiless frenzy which Shaftesbury had
fanned into a flame. Anxious as the nation was for a Protestant
sovereign its sense of justice revolted against the wrong threatened to
James's Protestant children; and every gentleman in the realm felt
insulted at the project of setting Mary aside to put the crown of
England on the head of a royal bastard.

[Sidenote: Petitioners and Abhorrers.]

The memory too of the Civil War was still fresh and keen, and the rumour
of an outbreak of revolt rallied men more and more round the king. The
host of petitions which Shaftesbury procured from the counties was
answered by a counter-host of addresses from thousands who declared
their "abhorrence" of the plans against the Crown; and the country saw
itself divided into two great factions of "petitioners" and "abhorrers,"
the germs of the two great parties which have played so prominent a
part in our political history from the time of the Exclusion Bill