The Patriot (24 page)

The slow advance towards the capital was resumed.

Surprise and indignation was general, therefore when, a few days later, the Prince and his party learned, at Sion House only a few miles from the city, that James was in fact back in Whitehall and indeed had just held a Privy Council'. Not only that, but the news came via a royal courier who actually brought a summons for Prince William to appear before the unpredictable monarch and Council at St. James's Palace in two days' time.

For the first time Andrew Fletcher saw William of Orange really angry - and it was quite a fearsome sight. His wrath was as much against the Privy Council as against his father-in-law, for reported attending were men who had sent messages to The Hague imploring him to come and take the throne. He forthwith sent a high-powered group, led by the Marquis of Halifax, the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Delamere, to Whitehall, to announce that he would indeed be at St. James's Palace in a couple of days but not for any meeting with King James - only with the Privy Council. And he would come to it with his full armed strength. James had forfeited all right to the crown and must retire out of London before then, to await his,William's decision as to his disposal. That was all.

And so they waited at Sion, not without tension. The Council would come to heel, no doubt; but how would the notoriously volatile London mob behave, in its hatred of foreigners - and undoubtedly William of Orange, although half a Stewart, would be esteemed a foreigner. The Londoners had brought havoc to great causes before this. There might have to be fighting yet.

Next noonday however, a joint deputation arrived from the Privy Council and the Lord Mayor and sheriffs. They declared that they awaited Prince William's command; that King James had retired to Rochester with only a small party and his chaplains; and that the citizens of London were everywhere proclaiming His Royal Highness as saviour. They were lighting bonfires and had dragged Lord Chancellor Jeffreys from his house and all but pulled him limb from limb.

It looked as though the thing was done, at last.

William paced the floor of the Whitehall Palace chamber, watched with varying degrees of concern, apprehension and wariness by about a dozen men, most more splendidly-dressed than the Prince himself, who was more plain soldier than lover of show and ostentation. These were all great ones, Dutch and English, save for two - Gilbert Burnet and Andrew Fletcher. Why the latter should have been summoned to this meeting he could not imagine. Burnet was different, for he was William's constant adviser as well as chaplain, and had already been offered the bishopric of Durham, the greatest in England after the archiepiscopal sees of Canterbury and York; he could well now rank amongst the great. But Andrew, since coming to London, was seldom in any close association with the Prince and had already applied for permission to leave and return to Scotland.

"The position is intolerable!" William declared, not for the first time. "And I will
not
tolerate it for much more long." Sometimes when he was upset, his normally excellent English suffered a little. "Unless you wish for me to return to the Netherlands. Where I am
required.
Not, as here, kept waiting like some, some lackey!"

Cries of protest and dismay rose from the English lords, against grunts of approval from the Dutchmen.

"Your Royal Highness - bear with us, of your clemency. And do not, in God's name, desert us!" the Duke of Ormond exclaimed. "The position is most difficult. Decisions cannot be taken lacking the proper authority. This is a kingdom not a, not an electorate. The King is the fo
unt of all lawful authority and
lawful appointments. King James has not abdicated and is still on English soil. However inconvenient this is. He only can order the recall of Parliament, for Parliament to take the decisions that are required."

"Your
Oliver Cromwell got over that
problem without great difficulty forty years ago, my lord!"

Throats were cleared at mention of that ominous name.

"For your own sake, Highness, all must be done in due order," the Earl of Nottingham said, almost reproachfully.

"But
nothing
is being done, sir - nothing!"

"Your Highness will not allow us to approach the King for his permission."

"I will not, Great God! To do that is to admit that he still reigns. And he does not. What of this Privy Council? If King James had died, been killed by that mob, what then?"

"Then, sir, the Lord Chamberlain would have had to call the Council together to appoint a Council of Regency until the heir to the throne was declared monarch." That was Shrewsbury.

"Why not now, then?"

"Highness, the Lord Chancellor is in the Tower awaiting trial for his grievous crimes. You would not seek
Jeffreys'
authority?"

"The heavens forbid! But you, my lords, are almost all members of the Privy Council, I think? Can you do nothing without that oaf Jeffreys? Can you not appoint a new Chancellor?"

"Only the King can do that, sir."

"Christ God grant me patience! We do things better in my country, I promise you!"

"Highness," Gilbert Burnet put in. "King James, at Portsmouth, sent you a courier with a letter proposing a meeting. He suggested that you should be Regent. That letter bears his royal signature, royal authority. If Your Highness would agree to be Regent, even if only for a short time, that signature and suggestion would suffice, I think. The problem would be solved."

"I shall not be Regent, Dr. Burnet. I have told you. A regent rules only for another; that other
reigns.
So the Regent is
servant to the monarch. I will not play servant for any man."

There was silence save for William's pacing steps.

The Bishop of London spoke; he was an adviser of the Princess Anne's. "Your Royal Highness - if you sent for your wife to join you here, perhaps the King could be persuaded to abdicate in her favour. She, his eldest daughter. She would then become Queen with your royal self consort."

"No, my lord Bishop. No man can esteem a woman more than I do the Princess. But I am so made that I cannot think of holding anything by apron-strings. Nor can I think it reasonable to have any share in the government unless it be put in my own person, and that for the term of my life." That was slowly, heavily, said. "Moreover, to send for my wife from The Hague would take time. Am I, and my army and supporters, to wait here, on the whim of an ageing man who had thrown away his kingdom but clings to its crown?"

"You are saying, Highness, that you will be neither Regent nor Prince Consort?" Halifax put to him. "Does that mean that you wish to be King?"

"Yes."

"Yet, sir, it is your wife who is - or was - heir to the throne. Before this infant prince was born. Would you override her right?"

"I would not. My wife must be Queen. But I will not be a mere consort. We must be full King and Queen together. And the government mine."

"But . . . but is that possible, Highness?"

"If it is in Scotland - as I am assured." William glanced over at Andrew. "Then it can be here, my lords. King Charles created his son and his wife, the Countess of Buccleuch, Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. Together, each and both, full duke and full duchess, neither consort. He did that here, from Whitehall. Do you question his right?"

The Englishmen eyed each other doubtfully. There were some murmurs about damned Scots and bastards.

The Prince waved a hand for silence. "You must see to it, my lords. And quickly. Send to James at Rochester and persuade him to abdicate. And to recall your Parliament as his last act as King. The Parliament a
nd Council proclaim my wife and
myself King and Queen. It is understood? Else I return to my own country and meddle no more in your affairs."

The finality of that had its effect on all. It also allowed an aide to come forward to deliver some message to William, who nodded.

"General the Lord Dundee honours us with his presence, gentlemen," he declared. "He is, I am assured, a friend of Mr. Fletcher's. So perhaps he is not so black as he is painted!"

Andrew looked nonplussed. He knew of no Lord Dundee. Presumably he came from the Scots army, which had marched south over the Border at James's command on the first news of William's landing, to support the English forces which never fought. Unopposed, it had got as far south as Watford and there halted when it learned that no one else was going to draw sword for King James. Since when, in idleness, it had been making a considerable nuisance of itself to all concerned, nobody knowing quite what to do about it.

The aide came back. "Major-General the Lord Viscount of Dundee, Your Royal Highness," he announced. Behind him the handsome, debonair figure of John Graham of Claverhouse strode in, to bow and smile and wave a lace-edged handkerchief, very much at ease.

If Andrew was astonished, he was more so in a moment when Graham paced right up to William and was shaken warmly by the hand and even clasped to the princely bosom. Then he recollected the story that Graham had once fought in the Orange Guards and had saved the Prince's life at some battle.

The English notables looked highly disapproving.

"My lords," William told them, "when I said that this new viscount was a friend of Mr. Fletcher's, I could have added that he was a friend of my own also. In that, fourteen years ago, I owed my life to his braveness on the field of Seneff. He now commands the Scots force at Watford, and I have asked him to come here, under my safe-conduct, in order that the problem of the Scottish troops may be dealt with in friendship. But first may I congratulate the General on his new dignity? King James made many errors, I fear. But not, I say, when he made our friend viscount! Recently, I believe, my lord?"

"Less than a month ago, Highness," Graham agreed with his brilliant smile. "I swear that I am the newest-fledged nobleman of two realms!"

"Was that the price of you bringing your rabble over the Border?" the Duke of Grafton demanded, a rough diamond to be half-brother to the late mannerly Monmouth.

"My rabble, sir, was in duty bound to support the King of Scots. And still is. As to price, what did your mother pay for
your
dukedom?"

"Hrr'mm. Enough!" William exclaimed. "In my presence there will be civil speaking." He paused. "My lord of Dundee -what did you mean about supporting the King of Scots? Still?"

"I mean, Highness, that whatever may be the position here in England, James Stewart is still lawful King of Scots. And while he remains so, I and all other of his leal subjects must support him to our utmost. However great our admiration for your own royal person."

"M'mm
. I see. Do you agree with that, Mr. Fletcher?"

Andrew cleared his throat. "Yes - and no, Your Highness. Yes, in that the King of Scots is entitled to the support of all Scots, irrespective of what the English may decide. But not if he has broken his coronation-oath to defend the Reformed Faith - since our duty to God ranks before even our duty to the monarch."

"Well, said, my friend. My lord - is that not true with you also?"

"I fear, Highness, that I have never been quite so religious of mind as my friend Mr. Fletcher, alas - whom I rejoice to see, after so long."

"And your duty towards King James - to what does that constrain you in this present tangle?" the Prince demanded. "Your army at Watford?"

"Why, continued support for His Grace, sir. Until he tells me otherwise. The King ordered my force to march south to his aid. So I, and it, remain until the King gives me different orders."

"But this is folly, sir - folly! James is not making a fight of it. So he has no need of your troops." "He has not told me so, Highness."

"He tells nobody anything! He but sits at Rochester saying nothing, doing nothing. You cannot keep your Scots at Watford, idle, plaguing the good folk there. It is beyond all reason."

Graham shrugged.

The Prince pointed a finger which shook a little with his suppressed ire. "You are not so sure of your position as you have us to believe, my lord. I know your state. I am well-informed. Many of your people have deserted you and gone back to Scotland. Some go every day. You have now little more than three thousand left. You cannot hold even these for much longer. I have five times so many standing to arms. I could destroy your force in but hours, sir!"

"You could try, sir. But you
have
not tried. And will not, I think. Since you will not wish to offend Scotland, in this pass."

"Damn you . . . !" With an obvious effort William controlled himself. "See you, my lord - we are old friends and need have no quarrel between us. Why dispute? There is nothing for you here, save in my goodwill. James cannot use your men and your support now. Take your troops back to Scotland and we shall forget all this. And when I am King you will be the gainer, I promise you - and hope that you will serve me as loyally."