The report gathered strength during the day, and was fully confirmed before the evening.
James had travelled with relays of coach horses along the southern shore of the Thames, and on the morning of the twelfth had reached Emley Ferry near the island of Sheppey.

There lay the hoy in which he was to sail.
He went on board: but the wind blew fresh; and the master would not venture to put to sea without more ballast.

A tide was thus lost.
Midnight was approaching before the vessel began to float.

By that time the news that the King had disappeared, that the country was without a government, and that London was in confusion, had travelled fast down the Thames, and wherever it spread had produced outrage and misrule.

The rude fishermen of the Kentish coast eyed the hoy with suspicion and with cupidity.