Long before she reached Nottingham, she was surrounded by a body guard of gentlemen who volunteered to escort her.

They invited the Bishop to act as their colonel; and he consented with an alacrity which gave great scandal to rigid Churchmen, and did not much raise his character even in the opinion of Whigs.

[545] When, on the morning of the twenty-sixth, Anne's apartment was found empty, the consternation was great in Whitehall.

While the Ladies of her Bedchamber ran up and down the courts of the palace, screaming and wringing their hands, while Lord Craven, who commanded the Foot Guards, was questioning the sentinels in the gallery, while the Chancellor was sealing up the papers of the Churchills, the Princess's nurse broke into the royal apartments crying out that the dear lady had been murdered by the Papists.

The news flew to Westminster Hall.