CHAPTER XV
THE SECOND SAILING
The next day the Prince of Orange re-entered Helvoetsluys attended byfour maimed ships, the rest having been utterly scattered and dispersedby the fearful storm; he then, though giddy and scarce able to standthrough seasickness, proceeded, with a serene composure, to go from shipto ship animating his discomfited followers, and refused to be put onshore, lest it should be taken as a sign that he was discouraged in hisenterprise and intended to postpone his sailing till the spring.
For the next week the great ships of war with tattered sails and brokenmasts came creeping out of the ports and creeks where they had takenshelter to join the fleet at Helvoetsluys.
Many of the horses had been thrown overboard to save the others, and onetransport had been lost on the coast of Ireland, but there was nofurther damage, and the Prince by his great constancy, enthusiasm,spirit, and courage soon had all repaired and made fit, though he causedit to be put in the Dutch Gazette that he was utterly confounded and hisforces so broken by the storm that he could not possibly sail beforeApril, and copies of these Gazettes he saw were smuggled into England,where they were read by King James, who was mightily pleased by thisnews--and said it was no wonder since the Host had been exposed a week,and thereupon he withdrew all the concessions that the reported comingof the Prince had frightened him into, and so showed plainly that fearand not desire had wrung them from him; and both the relaxing and thetightening of his rule were fatally too late for his fortunes, for menhad no longer any trust in his word or sincerity, and half the greatlords were pledged to the Prince, and the greater number thought therecould be no salvation save in his coming, so gave no heed to the actionsof the King, but watched the weather-cocks and prayed for a Protestantwind.
Within Whitehall was a medley of priests and women, mingled with somehonest gentlemen who really were loyal to the Kingship and the House ofStewart, and who were in no way listened to, and silent courtiers whowere pledged to William, about the stern foolish King who alternatedbetween weak hesitation and self-confident obstinacy.
Sunderland had kept the business of the Kingdom together, and nowSunderland was gone everything fell into bewildering chaos; the King,distracted between the advices of M. Barillon and the fears of FatherPetre, the tears of the Italian Queen and the sullen coldness of hisnobles, bitterly regretted Sunderland, whose intrigues he had not as yetany glimpse of. There was a fine fleet the King might have relied on,and the Admiral, Lord Dartmouth, was loyal enough, but the Duke ofGrafton, son of the late King, and a rude handsome rake, went downprivately to Plymouth and extorted a secret promise from most of theCaptains that they would not fight for a Catholic King against aProtestant Prince.
The Army was gathered on Hounslow Heath with the object of overawing thecapital, and the advice of those spirited gentlemen who were trulydesirous to see the King retain his dignities was that he should puthimself at the head of it and so advance to meet the invader.
But the spirit that had inspired James when he was rowed with his flagthrough the fires of Solebay had long left him; his courage had been themere flash of youth and noble blood; he was old now, and his soul sankbefore danger; the terrors of his father's fate, the miseries of his ownexiled youth, came upon him with horrible vividness; he let disasterscrowd down upon him, and clung to his priests and his faith with thedespair of stupidity.
Meanwhile the Prince of Orange, having taken a second leave of his wifeand the States, sailed with great pomp, the sound of trumpets, theflutter of flags, and the discharge of artillery, from Helvoet, havingbeen but eleven days repairing his ships, replacing his horses, andreassembling his fleet, and having, by the serenity of his behaviour,the unfaltering decision of his actions, the wisdom of his proposals,snatched glory from disappointment, as was ever the way of this Prince.
The little advice packets that darted out from the coast of England towatch his movements reported that he was making for the north, in whichdirection, with a brisk gale in his sails, he indeed steered for twelvehours; but when the night fell and the advice packets had hastened homewith news, the Prince signalled to his fleet to tack about, which itdid, and, with all the sail it could spread, put before the wind to thewestward, and under a fair sky bore for the coasts of Devon.
This ruse had its full effect, for Lord Feversham, who commanded theEnglish troops, was bid march northwards, and all the cattle wereordered to be driven from the coasts of Yorkshire.
With the next dawn the Dutch van made the Channel, along which itstretched for twenty miles in full view of England and France, theshores of both these countries being covered with spectators who vieweda sight such as had not been seen in these waters since the great Armadacrossed these seas, a hundred years before.
The magnificence of this procession of mighty ships, which took sevenhours to pass, going at their full speed before a strong east wind, thestrength and purpose that they symbolized, the power of the Religion,once despised and oppressed, but that now was able to split the worldinto factions, whose name showed beneath the arms of Orange, that familywhich of all others had been most distinguished in the defence ofliberty, the sheer pomp of war in the great vessels with their guns,flags, and netting, their attendant ships and companies of soldiers onboard, the prestige of the man who led this daring expedition, allcombined to thrill the hearts of those who watched, whether on theFrench or English coasts, whether they uttered curses or blessings,prayers for failure or success.
About noon, they then being in Calais roads, the Prince gave orders tolay by, both to call a council of war and to strike terror into the twowatching nations by displaying his strength in this narrow sea.
Accordingly he himself changed to the foremost vessel, taking with himhis own standard, and there waited for the rest of the armament to comeup, which they presently did, and formed into one body, sixteen shipssquare, only a league at each side, from either shore, and when theywere drawn up, the Prince, from that ship which was nearest the Englishcoast, signalled that the two famous forts of Calais and Dover were tobe saluted, which was done at the same moment with great thunder of thedeep-mouthed artillery, which was an astonishing spectacle that thereshould be in Dover Straits a fleet so huge that it could salute thesetwo forts at the same time and be but a league from either. There wassomething awful in the sound of this warlike courtesy, to the ears ofboth nations, and some awe and terror mingled with their admiration asthe smoke obscured the green dancing waves.
From Dover Castle there was no reply, the doubt of England beingexpressed in this silence; but from Calais came a proud answering saluteas from a mighty foe who honours himself by the formalities of respectto his adversary, and the Prince standing on the upper deck amid theslow-clearing gunpowder vapour flushed to hear again the French guns whohad last spoken to him among the heights of St. Denis, ten years ago.
At the council of war now held it was decided that the disposition ofthe fleet should be changed, for news had come that the English, who layat the Gunfleet, were making full endeavours to overtake and fight theDutch, for though Lord Dartmouth knew that half his officers werepledged to the Prince, and his men very doubtful of engaging in thecause of the King, yet he resolved to use his utmost powers to preventthe landing of His Highness, for he was under personal obligations toJames, who had always treated him more as a friend than a subject, andwas filled with an honourable desire to serve His Majesty in thiscrisis.
The Prince, knowing this from my Lord Grafton, was eager to avoid aconflict, for however well disposed the English sailors might be to hisreligion and person, he wisely suspected that a nation so proud, and inparticular so jealous of their prestige on the sea, would, when faced inorder of battle with those people whom they had so often and so recentlyfought, forget everything save the desire to achieve a victory over thatRepublic which alone disputed with them the over-lordship of the ocean.
For this reason His Highness had given Admiral Herbert the c
ommand ofhis armament, that the English might salve their arrogance by thethought that an Englishman led this invading force; yet he secretlybelieved that the names of Herbert and Russell would not prove so potenta motive for peace, as the sight of the foreign flags, jacks, andhaughty ships would prove an incentive to rage in the bosoms of theBritish, who could endure, it seemed, any hardship but the idea offoreign dominion.
Therefore it was decided that the Prince and the transports with thetroops should continue to lead the van with three ships of war to guardhim, and so, sailing down the Channel, make the coast of England, in thewest, and that the bulk of the fleet should remain in the van ready toengage the English should they leave their station and venture into theopen straits.
But this, though it was the thing he most longed to accomplish, LordDartmouth found impossible, for that east wind so favourable to thehopes of the Prince was a tyrant to him and held him helpless abreast ofthe Long Sands, with his yards and topmasts down incapable of purchasinghis anchors, while he beheld some of the Dutch vessels pass within hisvery sight making triumphantly for the coast he was bidden protect whilehis ships rode at their station useless as a fishing fleet.
And this was in some part the fault of my Lord Dartmouth, who cursed thewind in a passion of misery, for he had ignored the advice of HisMajesty, who was a knowing man in naval affairs, which was to anchoreast of the Gallopper, so that his ships might be free to move which waythey pleased, instead of which he acted on his own sense, which was notequal to the King's advice; as was proved, for the scouts, who were leftat the Gallopper, captured a Dutch transport, and if they had beengreater in strength might have served the whole body of the invader thesame.
Now in full sight of the shores of these two countries, England andFrance, the Dutch fleet performed their evolutions, with the pomp ofwar, the discharge of artillery, the music of trumpets and drums, andthe salutes of the entire armament to the ship which carried the Princeand his standard as she made her way to the van; and this all under ablue sky crystal-clear that reflected in the tumbling waves lashed bythe strong high English wind a hundred tints of azure and water-green,above which the smoke hung in light vapours.
The Prince, under full sail, made for Torbay, which was large enough tocontain a great number of the transports, but the Dutch pilot, not beingjust in his reckoning, went past both that port and the next, which wasDartmouth. The third port was Plymouth, but this being a naval stationand a well-fortified place, the Prince was by no means inclined to riska landing there, since he was not certain of the disposition of theinhabitants towards him, and his great object on land, as on sea, was toavoid a combat, since his sole argument for interfering in the affairsof England was the wish of the English themselves and the invitation oftheir principal nobles, as he had acknowledged in his Declaration, andit would give a very ill look to this claim of his if his landing wasopposed by a bloody fight.
Yet to tack about to enter Torbay was attended by almost equal danger,since the wind had changed, and Lord Dartmouth with his entire fleet hadleft Long Sands and was now under full sail in pursuit.
The Prince, distracted by these conflicting considerations, knew notwhat course to take, and was tortured by the most cruel anxiety, sinceto either advance or retire might be followed by misfortunes fatal tohis whole design.
While he was still undecided as to what orders to give and which risksto choose, the wind changed in an instant to the south, which had theeffect of bringing the Prince within a few hours into Torbay and forcingthe English Admiral back to Long Sands.
It being the 4th of November when the Prince saw the cliffs of Devon andthe great natural harbour overlooked by the tourelles and towers ofBrixham and Torquay, he was anxious to effect a landing there, becauseit was both his birthday and the anniversary of his marriage, and so heput off in a cock boat with a few of the English nobles and M. Bentinck,and came ashore at Brixham, where there were none but fishermen toreceive him, the which stood about staring half in admiration, half inawe, thinking maybe of Monmouth's landing not so far off nor so longago, and how the county had suffered for it under the executions of myLord Chief Justice.
The Prince called for horses, which were being landed as fast as mightbe where the water was shallower; yet it was not possible to make thelanding effectual till the morrow, and but few of the transports wereable to land that night.
The Prince, who had well studied the map of England, resolved to marchto Exeter and there wait the coming of his English friends; but for thisnight the wooden tent that he used in war was put up in a neighbouringfield, to the great amazement of the country-folk, who had never beheldanything of this nature.
The friends and followers of the Prince being gathered about him tocongratulate and flatter, among them came his chaplain, Dr. Burnet,expounding in his usual talkative excitement on the marvellous successof the expedition.
The Prince was more than ordinarily cheerful, and spared the rebuke withwhich he usually checked the meddling enthusiast.
He gave the Englishman his hand, and looking round the darkeninglandscape said, with a smile--
"Well, doctor, what do you think of predestination now?"
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