other the French king, as well as upon his own
royal word, that they should have free leave to visit his court and
return after the labour.*

* The letter was directed not only for privy counsellors,
but also to the duchesses of Somerset and Beaufort, the
marchioness of Halifax, the countesses of Derby, Mulgrave,
Rutland, Brooks, Nottingham, Lumley, and Danby, the ladies
Fitzharding and Fretchville, those of sir John Trevor,
speaker of the house of commons, sir Edward Seymour, sir
Christopher Musgrave, the wives of sir Thomas Stamford,
lord-mayor of London, sir William Ashhurst and sir Richard
Levert, the sheriffs, and, lastly, to Dr. Chamberlain, the
famous practitioner in midwifery.

This invitation however no person would venture to accept. He afterwards
employed his emissaries in circulating a printed declaration, importing
that the king of France had enabled him to make another effort to
retrieve his crown; and that although he was furnished with a number of
troops sufficient to untie the hands of his subjects, he did not intend
to deprive them of their share in the glory of restoring their lawful
king and their ancient government. He exhorted the people to join his
standard. He assured them that the foreign auxiliaries should behave
with the most regular discipline, and be sent back immediately after his
re-establishment. He observed, that when such a number of his subjects
were so infatuated as to concur with the unnatural design of the prince
of Orange, he had chosen to rely upon the fidelity of his English army,
and refused considerable succours that were offered to him by his most
christian majesty; that when he was ready to oppose force with force, he
nevertheless offered to give all reasonable satisfaction to his subjects
who had been misled, and endeavoured to open their eyes with respect to
the vain pretences of his adversary, whose aim was not the reformation
but the subversion of the government; that when he saw himself deserted
by his army, betrayed by his ministers, abandoned by his favourites, and
even his own children, and at last rudely driven from his own palace
by a guard of insolent foreigners, he had for his personal safety taken
refuge in France: that his retreat from the malice and cruel designs
of the usurper had been construed into an abdication, and the whole
constitution of the monarchy destroyed by a set of men illegally
assembled, who,