parture was hailed by the shouts and threats of a gang of pitmen
from the Blackett colliery, but nothing like another fight occurred,
thanks to the vigilance of Fairburn the elder.

CHAPTER II

THE ATTACK ON THE COLLIERY

Not often has Europe been in a greater state of unrest than it was at
the time this story opens. James II, the exiled King of England, had
lately died in his French home, and his son, afterwards famous as the
Old Pretender, had been acknowledged as the new English king by Louis
XIV of France, to the joy of the many Jacobites England still
contained, but to the dismay of the majority of Englishmen. There was
likely to be dire trouble also respecting the vacant throne of Spain.
There had been originally three candidates for the throne of the
weakling Charles, not long dead--Philip of Anjou, whose claims had the
powerful support of his grandfather, the ambitious Louis; Charles, the
second son of the Emperor Leopold of Austria; and Joseph, the
Electoral Prince of Bavaria. But the last mentioned had died, leaving
the contest to Philip and Charles, the French and Austrian claimants.
The rest of Europe was naturally in alarm when the already
too-powerful Louis actually placed his grandson on the Spanish throne.
Practically the step amounted on the part of France to an annexation
of the once predominant kingdom of Spain with all its appanages. And
when the Grand Monarque, as his flatterers called him, proceeded
further to garrison the strongholds of the Netherlands, then a Spanish
province, with his own troops, it was clear that Louis considered
himself King both of France and Spain. As for the Protestants of
Europe, their very existence seemed to be threatened by the designs of
the French sovereign.

Who was there, then, to withstand the ambitious and arrogant Louis?
There was but one great and effective opponent, William of Orange,
King of England. He had spent his life in thwarting the ambitious
policy of the French monarch, and so long as William lived Louis was
sure of a vigorous and powerful antagonist. And William was preparing,
in both his English and his Dutch dominions, for yet another conflict.
War was indeed imminent; the sole question being when it would
actually break out, and who would be ruler over England when it did.
For William III was in feeble health; his death might occur any day,
and his crown pass to his sister-in-law Anne. Such was the condition
of affairs at the time Geor