of treachery, or at least of slackness. [510]

The weather had indeed served the Protestant cause so well that some men
of more piety than judgment fully believed the ordinary laws of nature
to have been suspended for the preservation of the liberty and religion
of England. Exactly a hundred years before, they said, the Armada,
invincible by man, had been scattered by the wrath of God. Civil freedom
and divine truth were again in jeopardy; and again the obedient elements
had fought for the good cause. The wind had blown strong from the east
while the Prince wished to sail down the Channel, had turned to the
south when he wished to enter Torbay, had sunk to a calm during the
disembarkation, and, as soon as the disembarkation was completed, had
risen to a storm, and had met the pursuers in the face. Nor did men omit
to remark that, by an extraordinary coincidence, the Prince had reached
our shores on a day on which the Church of England commemorated, by
prayer and thanksgiving, the wonderful escape of the royal House and
of the three Estates from the blackest plot ever devised by Papists.
Carstairs, whose suggestions were sure to meet with attention from the
Prince, recommended that, as soon as the landing had been effected,
public thanks should be offered to God for the protection so
conspicuously accorded to the great enterprise. This advice was taken,
and with excellent effect. The troops, taught to regard themselves as
favourites of heaven, were inspired with new courage; and the English
people formed the most favourable opinion of a general and an army so
attentive to the duties of religion.

On Tuesday, the sixth of November, William's army began to march up the
country. Some regiments advanced as far as Newton Abbot. A stone, set
up in the midst of that little town, still marks the spot where the
Prince's Declaration was solemnly read to the people. The movements of
the troops were slow: for the rain fell in torrents; and the roads
of England were then in a state which seemed frightful to persons
accustomed to the excellent communications of Holland. William took
up his quarters, during two days, at Ford, a seat of the ancient and
illustrious family of Courtenay, in the neighbourhood of Newton Abbot.
He was magnificently lodged and feasted there; but it is remarkable that
the owner of the house, though a strong Whig, did not choose to be the
first to put life and fortune in peril, and cautiously abstained from
doi