Two of the seven prelates who had signed the memorable petition, Lloyd, Bishop of St.Asaph, and Trelawney, Bishop of Bristol, had, during their residence in the tower, reconsidered the doctrine of nonresistance, and were ready to welcome an armed deliverer.

A brother of the Bishop of Bristol, Colonel Charles Trelawney, who commanded one of the Tangier regiments, now known as the Fourth of the Line, signified his readiness to draw his sword for the Protestant religion.

Similar assurances arrived from the savage Kirke.

Churchill, in a letter written with a certain elevation of language, which was the sure mark that he was going to commit a baseness, declared that he was determined to perform his duty to heaven and to his country, and that he put his honour absolutely into the hands of the Prince of Orange.

William doubtless read these words with one of those bitter and cynical smiles which gave his face its least pleasing expression.