Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

followers most heartily welcome to our court and
camp. Let the whole world now judge if our
pretensions are not just, generous, sincere, and
above price, since we might have even a bridge of
gold to return back; but it is our principle rather to
die in a good cause than live in a bad one."[14]
Courage is as contagious as fear. The first
accessions to the prince were followed by crowds
of all ranks. The bishops, the great cities, the nation
at large declared on his side. The king made hardly
any show of opposition. The tempests of the ocean
had disabled his fleet; a spirit of desertion had crept
in among his soldiers, and his army could not be
relied on. The priests and Jesuits, who had urged
him to violent measures, forsook him now, when
he was in extremity, and consulted their own safety
in flight. The friends on whom formerly he had
showered his favors, and whom he believed
incapable of ever deserting him, proved false; even
his own children forsook him. No one stood by him
at this hour but his queen, and she deemed it
prudent to retire to France. The man who but a few
days before stood at the head of one of the most
powerful kingdoms of Europe, who had fleets and
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