hrough being detained and partly through
idling his time away, was five or six weeks behind his friend when he
landed at Lyme, in Dorset: having at his right hand an unlucky nobleman
called LORD GREY OF WERK, who of himself would have ruined a far more
promising expedition. He immediately set up his standard in the market-
place, and proclaimed the King a tyrant, and a Popish usurper, and I know
not what else; charging him, not only with what he had done, which was
bad enough, but with what neither he nor anybody else had done, such as
setting fire to London, and poisoning the late King. Raising some four
thousand men by these means, he marched on to Taunton, where there were
many Protestant dissenters who were strongly opposed to the Catholics.
Here, both the rich and poor turned out to receive him, ladies waved a
welcome to him from all the windows as he passed along the streets,
flowers were strewn in his way, and every compliment and honour that
could be devised was showered upon him. Among the rest, twenty young
ladies came forward, in their best clothes, and in their brightest
beauty, and gave him a Bible ornamented with their own fair hands,
together with other presents.

Encouraged by this homage, he proclaimed himself King, and went on to
Bridgewater. But, here the Government troops, under the EARL OF
FEVERSHAM, were close at hand; and he was so dispirited at finding that
he made but few powerful friends after all, that it was a question
whether he should disband his army and endeavour to escape. It was
resolved, at the instance of that unlucky Lord Grey, to make a night
attack on the King's army, as it lay encamped on the edge of a morass
called Sedgemoor. The horsemen were commanded by the same unlucky lord,
who was not a brave man. He gave up the battle almost at the first
obstacle--which was a deep drain; and although the poor countrymen, who
had turned out for Monmouth, fought bravely with scythes, poles,
pitchforks, and such poor weapons as they had, they were soon dispersed
by the trained soldiers, and fled in all directions. When the Duke of
Monmouth himself fled, was not known in the confusion; but the unlucky
Lord Grey was taken early next day, and then another of the party was
taken, who confessed that he had parted from the Duke only four hours
before. Strict search being made, he was found disguised as a peasant,
hidden in a ditch under fern and nettles, with a few peas in his pocket
which