He was not, he said, acquainted with the faces of all whom he saw.

But he had a list of their names, and knew how high they stood in the estimation of their country.

He gently chid their tardiness, but expressed a confident hope that it was not yet too late to save the kingdom.

"Therefore," he said, "gentlemen, friends, and fellow Protestants, we bid you and all your followers most heartily welcome to our court and camp." [531] Seymour, a keen politician, long accustomed to the tactics of faction, saw in a moment that the party which had begun to rally round the Prince stood in need of organization.

It was as yet, he said, a mere rope of sand: no common object had been publicly and formally avowed: nobody was pledged to anything.