rdshire. John Fell, Bishop of Oxford,
who was also Dean of Christchurch, summoned the undergraduates of his
University to take arms for the crown. The gownsmen crowded to give in
their names. Christchurch alone furnished near a hundred pikemen and
musketeers. Young noblemen and gentlemen commoners acted as officers;
and the eldest son of the Lord Lieutenant was Colonel. [388]

But it was chiefly on the regular troops that the King relied. Churchill
had been sent westward with the Blues; and Feversham was following with
all the forces that could be spared from the neighbourhood of London.
A courier had started for Holland with a letter directing Skelton
instantly to request that the three English regiments in the Dutch
service might be sent to the Thames. When the request was made,
the party hostile to the House of Orange, headed by the deputies of
Amsterdam, again tried to cause delay. But the energy of William, who
had almost as much at stake as James, and who saw Monmouth's progress
with serious uneasiness, bore down opposition, and in a few days the
troops sailed. [389] The three Scotch regiments were already in England.
They had arrived at Gravesend in excellent condition, and James had
reviewed them on Blackheath. He repeatedly declared to the Dutch
Ambassador that he had never in his life seen finer or better
disciplined soldiers, and expressed the warmest gratitude to the Prince
of Orange and the States for so valuable and seasonable a reinforcement
This satisfaction, however, was not unmixed. Excellently as the men went
through their drill, they were not untainted with Dutch politics and
Dutch divinity. One of them was shot and another flogged for drinking
the Duke of Monmouth's health. It was therefore not thought advisable to
place them in the post of danger. They were kept in the neighbourhood of
London till the end of the campaign. But their arrival enabled the King
to send to the West some infantry which would otherwise have been wanted
in the capital. [390]

While the government was thus preparing for a conflict with the rebels
in the field, precautions of a different kind were not neglected. In
London alone two hundred of those persons who were thought most likely
to be at the head of a Whig movement were arrested. Among the prisoners
were some merchants of great note. Every man who was obnoxious to the
Court went in fear. A general gloom overhung the capital. Business
languished on the Exchange; and the