lords concur to condemn in one general vote all that they had
approved of in a former Parliament by many particular resolutions.
Among several bloody resolutions proposed and agitated at this time,
the resolution of impeaching me of high treason was taken; and I
took that of leaving England, not in a panic terror improved by the
artifices of the Duke of Marlborough (whom I knew even at that time
too well to act by his advice or information in any case), but on
such grounds as the proceedings which soon followed sufficiently
justified, and as I have never repented building upon. Those who
blamed it in the first heat were soon after obliged to change their
language; for what other resolution could I take? The method of
prosecution designed against me would have put me immediately out of
condition to act for myself, or to serve those who were less exposed
than me, but who were, however, in danger. On the other hand, how
few were there on whose assistance I could depend, or to whom I
would, even in those circumstances, be obliged? The ferment in the
nation was wrought up to a considerable height; but there was at
that time no reason to expect that it could influence the
proceedings in Parliament in favour of those who should be accused.
Left to its own movement, it was much more proper to quicken than
slacken the prosecutions; and who was there to guide its motions?
The Tories who had been true to one another to the last were a
handful, and no great vigour could be expected from them. The
Whimsicals, disappointed of the figure which they hoped to make,
began, indeed, to join their old friends. One of the principal
amongst them was so very good as to confess to me that if the Court
had called the servants of the late Queen to account, and had
stopped there, he must have considered himself as a judge, and have
acted according to his conscience on what should have appeared to
him; but that war had been declared to the whole Tory party, and