ter announced that, in obedience to the royal commands,
he designed to restore the ejected members of Magdalene College.
He fixed the twenty-first of October for this ceremony, and on the
twentieth went down to Oxford. The whole University was in expectation.
The expelled Fellows had arrived from all parts of the kingdom, eager
to take possession of their beloved home. Three hundred gentlemen on
horseback escorted the Visitor to his lodgings. As he passed, the bells
rang, and the High Street was crowded with shouting spectators. He
retired to rest. The next morning a joyous crowd assembled at the gates
of Magdalene: but the Bishop did not make his appearance; and soon it
was known that he had been roused from his bed by a royal messenger,
and had been directed to repair immediately to Whitehall. This strange
disappointment caused much wonder and anxiety: but in a few hours came
news which, to minds disposed, not without reason, to think the worst,
seemed completely to explain the King's change of purpose. The Dutch
armament had put out to sea, and had been driven back by a storm. The
disaster was exaggerated by rumour. Many ships, it was said, had been
lost. Thousands of horses had perished. All thought of a design on
England must be relinquished, at least for the present year. Here was
a lesson for the nation. While James expected immediate invasion and
rebellion, he had given orders that reparation should be made to those
whom he had unlawfully despoiled. As soon as he found himself safe,
those orders had been revoked. This imputation, though at that time
generally believed, and though, since that time, repeated by writers who
ought to have been well informed, was without foundation. It is
certain that the mishap of the Dutch fleet could not, by any mode of
communication, have been known at Westminster till some hours after the
Bishop of Winchester had received the summons which called him away
from Oxford. The King, however, had little right to complain of the
suspicions of his people. If they sometimes, without severely examining
evidence, ascribed to his dishonest policy what was really the effect of
accident or inadvertence, the fault was his own. That men who are in the
habit of breaking faith should be distrusted when they mean to keep it
is part of their just and natural punishment. [492]

It is remarkable that James, on this occasion, incurred one unmerited
imputation solely in consequence of his eagerness to c