At the first there seemed some reason for fear that the prince would not meet with adequate support. On his march to Exeter, and for eight days after arriving there, he was not joined by any person of consequence. The nation, however, soon became alive to the necessity of giving him encouragement. The gentry of Devon and Somersetshires formed an association in his behalf. The Earls of Bedford and Abingdon, with other persons of distinction, repaired to his quarters at Exeter. Lord Delamere took arms in Cheshire; the city of York was siezed by the Earl of Danby; the Earl of Bath, governor of Plymouth, declared for the prince; and the Earl of Devonshire made a like declaration in Derby. Every day discovered some new instance of that general confederacy into which the nation had entered against the measures of the king. But the most dangerous symptom, and that which rendered his affairs desperate, was the spirit which he found to prevail in his army. On his advancing at its head to Salisbury, he learned that some of the principal officers had gone over to the Prince of Orange. Lord Churchill (afterwards famous as Duke of Marlborough), Lord Trelawney, and the king’s son-in-law, George, Prince of Denmark, successively followed this example. Even his daughter, the Princess Anne, deserted him. In great perplexity, he summoned a council of peers, by whose advice writs were issued for a new Parliament, and commissioners despatched to treat with the prince. A kind of infatuation now took possession of the king; and having sent the queen and infant prince privately to France, he quitted the capital at midnight, almost unattended, for the purpose of following them, leaving orders to recall the writs and disband the army. By this procedure, the peace of the country was imminently endangered; but it only served to hasten the complete triumph of the Prince of Orange, who had now advanced to Windsor. The supreme authority seemed on the point of falling into his hands, when, to his great disappointment, the king, having been discovered at Feversham, in Kent, was brought back to London, not without some marks of popular sympathy and affection. There was no alternative but to request the unfortunate monarch to retire to a country-house, where he might await the settlement of affairs. James, finding his palaces taken possession of by Dutch guards, and dreading assassination, took the opportunity to renew his attempt to leave the kingdom. He proceeded on board a vessel in the Medway, and after some obstructions, arrived safely in France, where Louis readily afforded him an asylum.