He had sent a letter to the Secretary of State when London was agog with the Axminster affair, and the tale--of which Sir Edward Phelips wrote to Colonel Berkeley as "the shamefullest story that you ever heard"-- of how Albemarle's forces and the Somerset militia had run before Monmouth in spite of their own overwhelming numbers.

This promised ill for James, particularly when it was perceived as perceived it was--that this running away was not all cowardice, not all "the shamefullest story" that Phelips accounted it.

It was an expression of good-will towards Monmouth on the part of the militia of the West, and it was confidently expected that the next news would be that these men who had decamped before him would presently be found to have ranged themselves under his banner.
Sunderland had given no sign that he had received Wilding's communication.

And Wilding drew his own contemptuous conclusions of the Secretary of State's cautious policy.

It was a fortnight later--when London was settling down again from the diversion of excitement created by the news of Argyle's defeat in Scotland--before Mr.Wilding attempted to approach Sunderland again.