No pilot, however was to be found; and they were under the necessity of trusting to their own skill in navigation.

They soon ran their ship aground, and, after some bloodshed, were compelled to lay down their arms.

[586] William had now been five weeks on English ground; and during the whole of that time his good fortune had been uninterrupted.

His own prudence and firmness had been conspicuously displayed, and yet had done less for him than the folly and pusillanimity of others.

And now, at the moment when it seemed that his plans were about to be crowned with entire success, they were disconcerted by one of those strange incidents which so often confound the most exquisite devices of human policy.
On the morning of the thirteenth of December the people of London, not yet fully recovered from the agitation of the Irish Night, were surprised by a rumour that the King had been detained, and was still in the island.