r. Wilding left Monmouth's army at Lyme on Sunday, the 14th of
June, and rejoined it at Bridgwater exactly three weeks later. In the
meanwhile a good deal had happened, yet the happenings on every hand had
fallen far short of the expectations aroused in Mr. Wilding's mind,
now by one circumstance, now by another. In reaching London he had
experienced no difficulty. Men travelling in that direction were not
subjected to the scrutiny that fell to the share of those travelling
from it towards the West, or, rather, to the scrutiny ordained by the
Government; for Wilding had more than one opportunity of
observing how very lax and indifferent were the constables and
tything-men--particularly in Somerset and Wiltshire--in the performance
of this duty. Wayfarers were questioned as a matter of form, but in no
case did Wilding hear of any one being detained upon suspicion. This
was calculated to raise his drooping hopes, pointing as it did to the
general favouring of Monmouth that was toward. He grew less despondent
on the score of the Duke's possible ultimate success, and he came to
hope that the efforts he went to exert would not be fruitless.

But rude were the disappointments that awaited him in town. London, like
the rest of the country, was not ready. There were not wanting men who
favoured Monmouth; but no rising had been organized, and the Duke's
partisans were not disposed to rashness.

Wilding lodged at Covent Garden, in a house recommended to him by
Colonel Danvers, and there--an outlaw himself--he threw himself with a
will into his task. He heard of the burning of Monmouth's Declaration by
the common hangman at the Royal Exchange, and of the bill passed by
the Commons to make it treason for any to assert that Lucy Walters was
married to the late King. He attended meetings at the "Bull's Head,"
in Bishopsgate, where he met Disney and Danvers, Payton and Lock; but
though they talked and argued at prodigious length, they did naught
besides. Danvers, who was their hope in town, definitely refused to have
a hand in anything that was not properly organized, and in common with
the others urged that they should wait until Cheshire had risen, as was
reported that it must.

Meanwhile, troops had gone west under Kirke and Churchill, and the
Parliament had voted nearly half a million for the putting down of the
rebellion. London was flung into a fever of excitement by the news
that was reaching it. The position was not quite as