The very day after his departure the trial of Lord Preston and Mr. Ashton began. Both were implicated in this plot, and both had occupied important positions in the household of King James. Ashton was executed, but Preston's life was spared in this way: Lady Catherine Graham, a little girl nine years of age, was his daughter, and loved him very dearly. During his trial she remained at Windsor Castle, where she had lived up to that period with her parents. The day after Lord Preston was condemned the queen found the child in St. George's gallery gazing earnestly up at a picture of James II. Her mournful expression attracted the attention of Mary, who asked little Catherine, "What she saw in that picture that made her look at it so steadily?" "I was thinking," replied the child, "how hard it is that my father must die for loving yours." The queen's conscience was pricked by this answer, and she signed Lord Preston's pardon. But she may have had another reason for this good deed, for Preston could tell all the particulars of the plot, and did so. His evidence caused the punishment of many of the nobility and clergy, and led to the imprisonment of the queen's uncle, Lord Clarendon, who remained shut up in the Tower as long as Mary's regency lasted. Many people were put to the torture who either had conspired against their majesties or were suspected of doing so; and Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, besides other Church of England clergymen, were deprived of their positions, {386}because they refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. During these dreadful proceedings King William's life had been in danger on the coast of Holland, where a dense fog prevented his making land as soon as he expected. Hearing from some fisherman that he was not more than a mile and a half from shore, the king resolved to be rowed in his barge. The Duke of Ormond and some other noblemen accompanied him. In a few moments the boat was lost in the fog, and could neither approach the shore nor return to the fleet. Night came on, and the waves dashed over the king, as he lay in the bottom of the boat covered up with his cloak. Some one expressed alarm at the situation when William asked sternly, "What, are you afraid to die with me?" At daybreak the fog had risen, and the party in the royal barge landed. The king met with a grand reception at the Hague, for this was his first appearance there since he had mounted the British throne, and the Dutch considered that he had made the conquest of Great Britain. They hailed him "The Conqueror," which was not a pleasant sound to the Englishmen who had accompanied him. After a stay of three months William returned to Eng-land for a supply of money and troops, and arrived just in time to see the Palace of Whitehall burned to the ground. Queen Mary barely escaped with her life, for she was a sound sleeper, and had not been aroused until the fire was well under way in the part of the palace she occupied.