nd of a prince," says Hume, in (speaking of Monmouth)
"whose great qualities would have made him an ornament to the court, and
who was capable of serving well his country. The tenderness which his
father, the king, bore for him; the praises of a large faction and the
blind devotion of the populace, drew him into an enterprise beyond his
strength. The love of the people followed him in all the vicissitudes of
fortune; even after his execution, his followers cherished the belief
that they would some day see him at their head."

We will explain later the cause of this singular hope of the prince's
adherents, and how Monmouth had, in effect, survived his execution.

Having removed his disguise as the Caribbean, and the dye which stained
his features, Monmouth wore an ample gown of light blue covered with
orange flowers, and read attentively a large number of papers spread
before him.

In order to explain the mistake of which the chevalier was the voluntary
victim, we must explain that Croustillac, without really resembling
Monmouth, was of the same age, the same height, brown as the other, as
slender, and that the duke had, in common with the Gascon, a nose
decidedly prominent, and a strong chin. Others beside Rutler, a Dutch
officer arrived from the United Provinces in the suite of William of
Orange, would have fallen into the same error, above all, seeing in the
hands of Croustillac certain priceless objects known to have belonged to
the son of Charles II.

As to the choice of Rutler, one must understand that in order to fulfill
such a mission with all its consequences, it needed a man careful,
fearless, blindly devoted, and capable of pushing that devotion even to
assassination. The choice of William of Orange was necessarily
circumscribed by such exigencies; it would have been probably impossible
for him to have found a man who knew Monmouth personally who would not
have recoiled before such terrible extremities as were entailed in this
perilous and cruel undertaking.

Monmouth was deeply absorbed in reading several English journals. All at
once the door of his room opened violently, and Angela threw herself on
his neck, crying, "Saved! saved!"

Then, bursting into tears, laughing and sobbing by turn, kissing his
hands, his forehead, his eyes, she repeated, in a stifled voice, "Saved!
my beloved James! Saved! there is no longer any danger for thee, my
lover, my husband. God be praised, the danger is past! But what