But a journey across the bridge, and along Cornhill and Cheapside, Fleet Street, and the Strand, would have been too great an effort for his enfeebled frame.  He accordingly slept at Greenwich, and thence proceeded to Hampton Court without entering London.  His return was, however, celebrated by the populace with every sign of joy and attachment.  The bonfires blazed, and the gunpowder roared, all night.  In every parish from Mile End to Saint James’s was to be seen enthroned on the shoulders of stout Protestant porters a pope, gorgeous in robes of tinsel and triple crown of pasteboard; and close to the ear of His Holiness stood a devil with horns, cloven hoof, and a snaky tail.

Even in his country house the king could find no refuge from the importunate loyalty of his people.  Reputations from cities, counties, universities, besieged him all day.  He was, he wrote to Heinsius, quite exhausted by the labour of hearing harangues and returning answers.  The whole kingdom meanwhile was looking anxiously towards Hampton Court.  Most of the ministers were assembled there.  The most eminent men of the party which was out of power had repaired thither, to pay their duty to their sovereign, and to congratulate him on his safe return.  It was remarked that Somers and Halifax, so malignantly persecuted a few months ago by the House of Commons, were received with such marks of esteem and kindness as William was little in the habit of vouchsafing to his English courtiers.  The lower ranks of both the great factions were violently agitated.  The Whigs, lately vanquished and dispirited, were full of hope and ardour.  The Tories, lately triumphant and secure, were exasperated and alarmed.  Both Whigs and Tories waited with intense anxiety for the decision of one momentous and pressing question.  Would there be a dissolution?  On the seventh of November the King propounded that question to his Privy Council.  It was rumoured, and is highly probable, that Jersey, Wright and Hedges advised him to keep the existing Parliament.  But they were not men whose opinion was likely to have much weight with him; and Rochester, whose opinion might have had some weight, had set out to take possession of his Viceroyalty just before the death of James, and was still at Dublin.  William, however, had, as he owned to Heinsius, some difficulty in making up his mind.  He had no doubt that a general election would give him a better House of Commons; but a general election would cause delay; and delay might cause much mischief.  After balancing these considerations, during some hours, he determined to dissolve.

The writs were sent out with all expedition; and in three days the whole kingdom was up.  Never—­such was the intelligence sent from the Dutch Embassy to the Hague—­had there been more intriguing, more canvassing, more virulence of party feeling.  It was in the capital that the first great contests took place.  The decisions of the Metropolitan constituent bodies were impatiently expected as auguries