s from Holland. He had conspired with Tyrconnel
and with France against Mary's rights, and had made arrangements for
depriving her of one at least of the three crowns to which, at his
death, she would have been entitled. It was now believed by the great
body of his people, and by many persons high in rank and distinguished
by abilities, that he had introduced a supposititious Prince of
Wales into the royal family, in order to deprive her of a magnificent
inheritance; and there is no reason to doubt that she partook of the
prevailing suspicion. That she should love such a father was impossible.
Her religious principles, indeed, were so strict that she would probably
have tried to perform what she considered as her duty, even to a father
whom she did not love. On the present occasion, however, she judged
that the claim of James to her obedience ought to yield to a claim more
sacred. And indeed all divines and publicists agree in this, that,
when the daughter of a prince of one country is married to a prince of
another country, she is bound to forget her own people and her father's
house, and, in the event of a rupture between her husband and her
parents, to side with her husband. This is the undoubted rule even when
the husband is in the wrong; and to Mary the enterprise which William
meditated appeared not only just, but holy.

But, though she carefully abstained from doing or saying anything that
could add to his difficulties, those difficulties were serious indeed.
They were in truth but imperfectly understood even by some of those who
invited him over, and have been but imperfectly described by some of
those who have written the history of his expedition.

The obstacles which he might expect to encounter on English ground,
though the least formidable of the obstacles which stood in the way of
his design, were yet serious. He felt that it would be madness in him
to imitate the example of Monmouth, to cross the sea with a few British
adventurers, and to trust to a general rising of the population. It was
necessary, and it was pronounced necessary by all those who invited him
over, that he should carry an army with him. Yet who could answer for
the effect which the appearance of such an army might produce? The
government was indeed justly odious. But would the English people,
altogether unaccustomed to the interference of continental powers in
English disputes, be inclined to look with favour on a deliverer who
was surr