edible if it had not been frankly and even
boastfully recorded by one of themselves. [338]

At length all differences were compromised. It was determined that an
attempt should be forthwith made on the western coast of Scotland, and
that it should be promptly followed by a descent on England.

Argyle was to hold the nominal command in Scotland: but he was placed
under the control of a Committee which reserved to itself all the most
important parts of the military administration. This committee was
empowered to determine where the expedition should land, to appoint
officers, to superintend the levying of troops, to dole out provisions
and ammunition. All that was left to the general was to direct the
evolutions of the army in the field, and he was forced to promise that
even in the field, except in the case of a surprise, he would do nothing
without the assent of a council of war.

Monmouth was to command in England. His soft mind had as usual, taken
an impress from the society which surrounded him. Ambitious hopes, which
had seemed to be extinguished, revived in his bosom. He remembered the
affection with which he had been constantly greeted by the common people
in town and country, and expected that they would now rise by hundreds
of thousands to welcome him. He remembered the good will which the
soldiers had always borne him, and flattered himself that they would
come over to him by regiments. Encouraging messages reached him in quick
succession from London. He was assured that the violence and injustice
with which the elections had been carried on had driven the nation mad,
that the prudence of the leading Whigs had with difficulty prevented a
sanguinary outbreak on the day of the coronation, and that all the great
Lords who had supported the Exclusion Bill were impatient to rally round
him. Wildman, who loved to talk treason in parables, sent to say that
the Earl of Richmond, just two hundred years before, had landed in
England with a handful of men, and had a few days later been crowned, on
the field of Bosworth, with the diadem taken from the head of Richard.
Danvers undertook to raise the City. The Duke was deceived into
the belief that, as soon as he set up his standard, Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire would rise in arms. [339] He
consequently became eager for the enterprise from which a few weeks
before he had shrunk. His countrymen did not impose on him restrictions
so elaborately absurd a