im; they knew at about what time
he would come, at about a fortnight from hay-harvest. Already, quite
unknown to the authorities, we had men picked out to carry the news
of the landing to different parts of the country. So far, I think, the
Duke's affairs were well planned. But though we had all this enthusiasm
in three counties, besides promises of similar risings in London, we
were in no real case to take the field. Our adherents, however numerous,
however brave, were only a mob, when all is said; they were not an army.
The Duke thought that the regular army, or at least some regiments of
it, would desert to him, as happened some years later, when the great
Prince William did what my master attempted. But my master forgot that
he had neither the arms nor the officers to make his faction a likely
body for regular troops to join.

CHAPTER XV. THE ROAD TO LYME

We spread the tidings as far as Exeter, where Mr. Blick made some
pretence of handing me over to a schoolmaster, one Hubble, a red-faced,
cheery clergyman, one of the most ardent rebels on our side. Indeed, the
clergymen everywhere supported us, as defenders of the Protestant faith,
which that dastard James would have destroyed. Mr. Hubble made some
excuse for not taking me in at the instant; but gave us letters of
introduction to people in towns further on, so that we could pass the
militia without difficulty, to give the news in western Dorset. So after
waiting for a little while in Exeter, gathering all the news we could of
the whereabouts of the troops of militia, we pushed on eastward, by way
of Sidmouth, to the big town of Dorchester. As we came east, we found
the militia very much more suspicious than they had been on the western
side of Exeter. At every little town we found a strong guard so placed
that no one could enter without passing under the captain's eye. We were
brought before militia captains some two or three times a day. Sometimes
we were searched; sometimes, if the captain happened to be drunk, we
were bullied with threats of the gaol. Mr. Blick in these cases always
insisted on being brought before the magistrate, to whom he would tell
a fine indignant tale, saying what a shame it was that he could not
take his orphan nephew peaceably to school, without being suspected of
complicity in a rebellion. He would then show Mr. Hubble's letters,
or some other papers signed by the Dartmouth magistrates. These always
cleared our characters, so tha