He made haste to print it.

Many copies were dispersed by the post, and passed rapidly from hand to hand.

Discerning men had no difficulty in pronouncing it a forgery devised by some unquiet and unprincipled adventurer, such as, in troubled times, are always busy in the foulest and darkest offices of faction.

But the multitude was completely duped.
Indeed to such a height had national and religious feeling been excited against the Irish Papists that most of those who believed the spurious proclamation to be genuine were inclined to applaud it as a seasonable exhibition of vigour.

When it was known that no such document had really proceeded from William, men asked anxiously what impostor had so daringly and so successfully personated his Highness.