y
following into banishment a master zealous for a faith which was not
their own. The edicts which had been issued against the Huguenots might
perhaps have been justified by the anarchical opinions and practices of
those sectaries; but it was the height of injustice and of inhospitality
to put those edicts in force against men who had been driven from their
country solely on account of their attachment to a Roman Catholic
King. Surely sons of the Anglican Church, who had, in obedience to her
teaching, sacrificed all that they most prized on earth to the royal
cause, ought not to be any longer interdicted from assembling in some
modest edifice to celebrate her rites and to receive her consolations.
An announcement that Lewis had, at the request of James, permitted the
English exiles to worship God according to their national forms would
be the best prelude to the great attempt. That attempt ought to be
made early in the spring. A French force must undoubtedly accompany His
Majesty. But he must declare that he brought that force only for the
defence of his person and for the protection of his loving subjects, and
that, as soon as the foreign oppressors had been expelled, the foreign
deliverers should be dismissed. He must also promise to govern according
to law, and must refer all the points which had been in dispute between
him and his people to the decision of a Parliament.

It was determined that Preston should carry to Saint Germains the
resolutions and suggestions of the conspirators, John Ashton, a person
who had been clerk of the closet to Mary of Modena when she was on the
throne, and who was entirely devoted to the interests of the exiled
family, undertook to procure the means of conveyance, and for this
purpose engaged the cooperation of a hotheaded young Jacobite named
Elliot, who only knew in general that a service of some hazard was to be
rendered to the good cause.

It was easy to find in the port of London a vessel the owner of which
was not scrupulous about the use for which it might be wanted. Ashton
and Elliot were introduced to the master of a smack named the James and
Elizabeth. The Jacobite agents pretended to be smugglers, and talked
of the thousands of pounds which might be got by a single lucky trip to
France and back again. A bargain was struck: a sixpence was broken; and
all the arrangements were made for the voyage.

Preston was charged by his friends with a packet containing several
importan