the height among them by the
precepts and example of one of the most celebrated of the dissenting
clergy, Joseph Alleine. Alleine was the author of a tract, entitled, An
Alarm to the Unconverted, which is still popular both in England and
in America. From the gaol to which he was consigned by the victorious
Cavaliers, he addressed to his loving friends at Taunton many epistles
breathing the spirit of a truly heroic piety. His frame soon sank under
the effects of study, toil, and persecution: but his memory was long
cherished with exceeding love and reverence by those whom he had
exhorted and catechised. [377]

The children of the men who, forty years before, had manned the ramparts
of Taunton against the Royalists, now welcomed Monmouth with transports
of joy and affection. Every door and window was adorned with wreaths
of flowers. No man appeared in the streets without wearing in his hat
a green bough, the badge of the popular cause. Damsels of the best
families in the town wove colours for the insurgents. One flag in
particular was embroidered gorgeously with emblems of royal dignity, and
was offered to Monmouth by a train of young girls. He received the gift
with the winning courtesy which distinguished him. The lady who headed
the procession presented him also with a small Bible of great price.
He took it with a show of reverence. "I come," he said, "to defend the
truths contained in this book, and to seal them, if it must be so, with
my blood." [378]

But while Monmouth enjoyed the applause of the multitude, he could not
but perceive, with concern and apprehension, that the higher classes
were, with scarcely an exception, hostile to his undertaking, and that
no rising had taken place except in the counties where he had himself
appeared. He had been assured by agents, who professed to have derived
their information from Wildman, that the whole Whig aristocracy was
eager to take arms. Nevertheless more than a week had now elapsed since
the blue standard had been set up at Lyme. Day labourers, small farmers,
shopkeepers, apprentices, dissenting preachers, had flocked to the rebel
camp: but not a single peer, baronet, or knight, not a single member
of the House of Commons, and scarcely any esquire of sufficient note to
have ever been in the commission of the peace, had joined the invaders.
Ferguson, who, ever since the death of Charles, had been Monmouth's evil
angel, had a suggestion ready. The Duke had put himself i