self-abnegation he had, in his early
declaration given forth at Lyme, declared that he should leave the
choice of a monarch to the Commons of England, but having found that
his enemies did most scandalously and basely make use of this his
self-denial, and did assert that he had so little confidence in his own
cause that he dared not take publicly the title which is due to him, he
hath determined that this should have an end. Know, therefore, that it
is hereby proclaimed that James, Duke of Monmouth, is now and henceforth
rightful King of England; that James Stuart, the Papist and fratricide,
is a wicked usurper, upon whose head, dead or alive, a price of five
thousand guineas is affixed; and that the assembly now sitting at
Westminster, and calling itself the Commons of England, is an illegal
assembly, and its acts are null and void in the sight of the law. God
bless King Monmouth and the Protestant religion!'

The trumpeters struck up a flourish and the people huzzaed, but the
Mayor raised his thin white hands as a signal for silence. 'A messenger
hath reached me this morning from the King,' he continued. 'He sends a
greeting to all his faithful Protestant subjects, and having halted at
Axminster to rest after his victory, he will advance presently and be
with ye in two days at the latest.

'Ye will grieve to hear that good Alderman Rider was struck down in the
thick of the fray. He hath died like a man and a Christian, leaving all
his worldly goods, together with his cloth-works and household property,
to the carrying on of the war. Of the other slain there are not more
than ten of Taunton birth. Two gallant young brothers have been cut off,
Oliver and Ephraim Hollis, whose poor mother--'

'Grieve not for me, good Master Timewell,' cried a female voice from the
crowd. 'I have three others as stout, who shall all be offered in the
same quarrel.'

'You are a worthy woman, Mistress Hollis,' the Mayor answered, 'and your
children shall not be lost to you. The next name upon my list is Jesse
Trefail, then come Joseph Millar, and Aminadab Holt--'

An elderly musqueteer in the first line of the Taunton foot pulled his
hat down over his brows and cried out in a loud steady voice, 'The Lord
hath given and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the
Lord.'

'It is your only son, Master Holt,' said the Mayor, 'but the Lord also
sacrificed His only Son that you and I might drink the waters of eternal
life. The ot