jesty's friends throughout
England would lose all heart if the army lay motionless and struck no
blow. The rustics would flock off to their wives and homes. Such an
example is catching. I have seen a great army thaw away like an icicle
in the sunshine. Once gone, it is no easy matter to collect them again.
To keep them we must employ them. Never let them have an idle minute.
Drill them. March them. Exercise them. Work them. Preach to them. Make
them obey God and their Colonel. This cannot be done in snug quarters.
They must travel. We cannot hope to end this business until we get
to London. London, then, must be our goal. But there are many ways of
reaching it. You have, sire, as I have heard, many friends at Bristol
and in the Midlands. If I might advise, I should say let us march round
in that direction. Every day that passes will serve to swell your forces
and improve your troops, while all will feel something is astirring.
Should we take Bristol--and I hear that the works are not very
strong--it would give us a very good command of shipping, and a rare
centre from which to act. If all goes well with us, we could make
our way to London through Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. In the
meantime I might suggest that a day of fast and humiliation be called to
bring down a blessing on the cause.'

This address, skilfully compounded of worldly wisdom and of spiritual
zeal, won the applause of the whole council, and especially that of King
Monmouth, whose melancholy vanished as if by magic.

'By my faith, Colonel,' said he, 'you make it all as clear as day.
Of course, if we make ourselves strong in the West, and my uncle is
threatened with disaffection elsewhere, he will have no chance to hold
out against us. Should he wish to fight us upon our own ground, he must
needs drain his troops from north, south, and east, which is not to be
thought of. We may very well march to London by way of Bristol.'

'I think that the advice is good,' Lord Grey observed; 'but I should
like to ask Colonel Saxon what warrant he hath for saying that Churchill
and Feversham are on their way, with three thousand regular foot and
several regiments of horse?'

'The word of an officer of the Blues with whom I conversed at
Salisbury,' Saxon answered. 'He confided in me, believing me to be one
of the Duke of Beaufort's household. As to the horse, one party pursued
us on Salisbury Plain with bloodhounds, and another attacked us not
twenty miles fr