Lewis shut himself up in his oratory, confessed, received the Eucharist, and gave orders that the host should be exposed in his chapel.  His wife ordered all her nuns to their knees.610 London was kept in a state of distraction by a succession of rumours fabricated some by Jacobites and some by stockjobbers.  Early one morning it was confidently averred that there had been a battle, that the allies had been beaten, that the King had been killed, that the siege had been raised.  The Exchange, as soon as it was opened, was filled to overflowing by people who came to learn whether the bad news was true.  The streets were stopped up all day by groups of talkers and listeners.  In the afternoon the Gazette, which had been impatiently expected, and which was eagerly read by thousands, calmed the excitement, but not completely; for it was known that the Jacobites sometimes received, by the agency of privateers and smugglers who put to sea in all weathers, intelligence earlier than that which came through regular channels to the Secretary of State at Whitehall.  Before night, however, the agitation had altogether subsided; but it was suddenly revived by a bold imposture.  A horseman in the uniform of the Guards spurred through the City, announcing that the King had been killed.  He would probably have raised a serious tumult, had not some apprentices, zealous for the Revolution and the Protestant religion, knocked him down and carried him to Newgate.  The confidential correspondent of the States General informed them that, in spite of all the stories which the disaffected party invented and circulated, the general persuasion was that the allies would be successful.  The touchstone of sincerity in England, he said, was the betting.  The Jacobites were ready enough to prove that William must be defeated, or to assert that he had been defeated; but they would not give the odds, and could hardly be induced to take any moderate odds.  The Whigs, on the other hand, were ready to stake thousands of guineas on the conduct and good fortune of the King.611

The event justified the confidence of the Whigs and the backwardness of the Jacobites.  On the sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth of August the army of Villeroy and the army of William confronted each other.  It was fully expected that the nineteenth would be the decisive day.  The allies were under arms before dawn.  At four William mounted, and continued till eight at night to ride from post to post, disposing his own troops and watching the movements of the enemy.  The enemy approached his lines in several places, near enough to see that it would not be easy to dislodge him; but there was no fighting.  He lay down to rest, expecting to be attacked when the sun rose.  But when the sun rose he found that the French had fallen back some miles.  He immediately sent to request that the Elector would storm the castle without delay.  While the preparations were making, Portland was sent to summon the garrison for the last time.  It was plain, he said to Boufflers, that Villeroy had given up all hope of being able to raise the siege.  It would therefore be an useless waste of life to prolong the contest.  Boufflers however thought that another day of slaughter was necessary to the honour of the French arms; and Portland returned unsuccessful.612