Marlborough undertook to move such an address in the Lords; and there would have been no difficulty in finding some gentleman of great weight to make a similar motion in the Commons.
If the address should be carried, what could William do?
Would he yield?
Would he discard all his dearest, his oldest, his most trusty friends?
It was hardly possible to believe that he would make so painful, so humiliating a concession.

If he did not yield, there would be a rupture between him and the Parliament; and the Parliament would be backed by the people.

Even a King reigning by a hereditary title might well shrink from such a contest with the Estates of the Realm.

But to a King whose title rested on a resolution of the Estates of the Realm such a contest must almost necessarily be fatal.

The last hope of William would be in the army.