The 4th of November being Sunday, and also the Prince’s birthday, he spent in devotion. Intending to land at Torbay, he found himself carried beyond his destination by the violence of the wind, or the unskilfulness of the pilot; and some measure of agitation,--such as thrilled the multitudes straining their eyes on the Dover Cliffs, whilst the quaintly-built vessels passed by,--must have moved the inhabitants of the towns and villages on both sides the sweep of water at the mouth of the Ex: as we imagine, on the red sand hills, groups gathered here and there, peering through windy weather in search of the ships about to rest under the headland of Devonshire Tor. The next day, the Dutch reached the desired spot, and “the forces were landed with such diligence and tranquillity, that the whole army was on shore before night.”[43] [Sidenote: THE CRISIS.] The associations of the year and the day were propitious. Just a century before, God had scattered the Spanish Armada; and on the 5th of November, 1605, the three Estates of England had been delivered from the Gunpowder Plot. The Calvinist William took the Arminian Burnet by the hand, asking, “Will you not believe in predestination?” “I will never forget,” the chaplain cautiously replied, “that providence of God which has appeared so signally on this occasion.” Public worship followed the landing. Carstairs was the first, “Scotsman and Presbyterian as he was,” to call down the blessings of Heaven on the expedition; and after his prayer, “the troops all along the beach, at his instance, joined in the 118th Psalm,” and this act of devotion produced a sensible effect on the troops.[44] The Prince for awhile seemed elated, yet soon relapsed into his habitual gravity; but Burnet only interpreted the general feeling of the moment when he says, “We saw new and unthought-of characters of a favourable providence of God watching over us.”[45] Tidings of what had happened rapidly spread, and excited all sorts of people, especially such as had religious sympathies with the new visitors. Devonshire traditions afford an idea of what was felt and done by Dissenters. A lady, worshipping in a meeting-house at Totnes, in commemoration of the discovery of Gunpowder Plot, when she learnt that the Prince had reached the neighbouring bay, immediately hastened, in company with another like-spirited matron, to meet His Highness at Brixham, who “shook hands with them, and gave them a parcel of his Proclamations to distribute, which they did so industriously that not one was left in the family as a memorial of their adventure.”[46] [Sidenote: 1688.]