ed to have been met, according to custom, by a
long cavalcade of baronets, knights and squires: but not a single person
of note appeared to welcome him. He sent out letters commanding the
attendance of the gentry: but only five or six paid the smallest
attention to his summons. The rest did not wait to be dismissed.
They declared that they would take no part in the civil or military
government of their county while the King was represented there by a
Papist, and voluntarily laid down their commissions. [334]

Sunderland, who had been named Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire in the
room of the Earl of Northampton, found some excuse for not going down to
face the indignation and contempt of the gentry of that shire; and his
plea was the more readily admitted because the King had, by that time,
begun to feel that the spirit of the rustic gentry was not to be bent.
[335]

It is to be observed that those who displayed this spirit were not
the old enemies of the House of Stuart. The Commissions of Peace and
Lieutenancy had long been carefully purged of all republican names. The
persons from whom the court had in vain attempted to extract any promise
of support were, with scarcely an exception, Tories. The elder among
them could still show scars given by the swords of Roundheads, and
receipts for plate sent to Charles the First in his distress. The
younger had adhered firmly to James against Shaftesury and Monmouth.
Such were the men who were now turned out of office in a mass by the
very prince to whom they had given such signal proofs of fidelity.
Dismission however only made them more resolute. It had become a sacred
point of honour among them to stand stoutly by one another in this
crisis. There could be no doubt that, if the suffrage of the freeholders
were fairly taken, not a single knight of the shire favourable to the
policy of the government would be returned. Men therefore asked one
another, with no small anxiety, whether the suffrages were likely to be
fairly taken. The list of the Sheriffs for the new year was impatiently
expected. It appeared while the Lords Lieutenants were still engaged
in their canvass, and was received with a general cry of alarm and
indignation. Most of the functionaries who were to preside at the county
elections were either Roman Catholics or Protestant Dissenters who had
expressed their approbation of the Indulgence. [336] For a time the most
gloomy apprehensions prevailed: but soon they beg