-General of the Forces, his grace the Duke of
Ormonde, who was within at the Council. There were with him two more
lieutenant-generals, nine major-generals and brigadiers, seven colonels,
eleven peers of Parliament, and twenty-one members of the House of
Commons. The guard was with us within and without the Palace: the queen
was with us; the Council (save the two Whig dukes, that must have
succumbed); the day was our own, and with a beating heart Esmond walked
rapidly to the Mall of Kensington, where he had parted with the prince on
the night before. For three nights the colonel had not been to bed: the
last had been passed summoning the prince's friends together, of whom the
great majority had no sort of inkling of the transaction pending until
they were told that he was actually on the spot, and were summoned to
strike the blow. The night before and after the altercation with the
prince, my gentleman, having suspicions of his royal highness, and fearing
lest he should be minded to give us the slip, and fly off after his
fugitive beauty, had spent, if the truth must be told, at the "Greyhound"
tavern, over against my Lady Esmond's house in Kensington Square, with an
eye on the door, lest the prince should escape from it. The night before
that he had passed in his boots at the "Crown" at Hounslow, where he must
watch forsooth all night, in order to get one moment's glimpse of Beatrix
in the morning. And fate had decreed that he was to have a fourth night's
ride and wakefulness before his business was ended.

He ran to the curate's house in Kensington Mall, and asked for Mr. Bates,
the name the prince went by. The curate's wife said Mr. Bates had gone
abroad very early in the morning in his boots, saying he was going to the
Bishop of Rochester's house at Chelsea. But the bishop had been at
Kensington himself two hours ago to seek for Mr. Bates, and had returned
in his coach to his own house, when he heard that the gentleman was gone
thither to seek him.

This absence was most unpropitious, for an hour's delay might cost a
kingdom; Esmond had nothing for it but to hasten to the "King's Arms", and
tell the gentlemen there assembled that Mr. George (as we called the
prince there) was not at home, but that Esmond would go fetch him; and
taking a general's coach that happened to be there, Esmond drove across
the country to Chelsea, to the bishop's house there.

The porter said two gentlemen were with his lordship, and Esmond