Clarendon made his way to Berwick--the house used by the Prince at the time was in the possession of one of Clarendon’s relatives--there he had a private conference with His Highness, and was received “very obligingly.” The Earl wished that the opposing parties might come to terms, and talked with Burnet, who, walking up and down the room, in wonderful warmth exclaimed, “What treaty? How can there be a treaty? The sword is drawn. There is a supposititious child, which must be inquired into.” Clarendon was puzzled at Burnet’s conduct, and asked him why the day before, at prayers in the Cathedral, he had behaved so as to make the congregation stare; for when the usual collect for the Sovereign was being repeated, he sat down in his stall and made an “ugly noise.” Burnet replied, he could not join in the usual supplications for James as King of England.[63] [Sidenote: THE CRISIS.] As William rode on horseback from Berwick to Salisbury, the people flocked to see and bless him. He acknowledged their affectionate salutations by taking off his hat, saying, “Thank you, good people. I am come to secure the Protestant religion, and to free you from Popery.” William’s popularity advanced with hasty strides from the south to the north and east of England, obtaining marked manifestation in certain towns and cities, connected with other and somewhat similar struggles. The nobility and gentry of the northern midland counties met at Derby--where, a little more than half a century later, the Pretender Charles Edward lodged for a few days, flushed with the hope of recovering his grandfather’s crown--and there they declared it to be their duty to endeavour the healing of present distractions, as they apprehended the consequences which might arise from the landing of an army. They wished there should be the calling of a free Parliament, to which the Prince of Orange was willing to submit his pretensions. At Nottingham, the refuge of the Princess Anne--where Charles I. had raised his standard, and Colonel Hutchinson had held the Castle--many of the upper and middle classes assembled, to enumerate grievances under which the nation groaned. The laws, as they said, had become a nose of wax, and being sensible of the influence of Jesuitical councils in the Government, they avowed their determination not to deliver posterity over to Rome and slavery, but to join with the Prince in recovering their almost ruined laws, liberties, and religion. [Sidenote: 1688.]