But, before the preparations were complete, a strange suspicion rose in the minds of some of the Jacobites.

That the author of this bold and artful scheme wished to pull down the existing government there could be little doubt.

But was it quite certain what government he meant to set up?
Might he not depose William without restoring James?
Was it not possible that a man so wise, so aspiring, and so wicked, might be meditating a double treason, such as would have been thought a masterpiece of statecraft by the great Italian politicians of the fifteenth century, such as Borgia would have envied, such as Machiavel would have extolled to the skies?
What if this consummate dissembler should cheat both the rival kings?
What if, when he found himself commander of the army and protector of the Parliament, he should proclaim Queen Anne?
Was it not possible that the weary and harassed nation might gladly acquiesce in such a settlement?
James was unpopular because he was a Papist, influenced by Popish priests.

William was unpopular because he was a foreigner, attached to foreign favourites.

Anne was at once a Protestant and an Englishwoman.