[252] One of the circumstances which filled James, at this time, with vain hopes, was that his wife was pregnant and near her delivery.

He flattered himself that malice itself would be ashamed to repeat any longer the story of the warming pan, and that multitudes whom that story had deceived would instantly return to their allegiance.

He took, on this occasion, all those precautions which, four years before, he had foolishly and perversely forborne to take.

He contrived to transmit to England letters summoning many Protestant women of quality to assist at the expected birth; and he promised, in the name of his dear brother the Most Christian King, that they should be free to come and go in safety.
Had some of these witnesses been invited to Saint James's on the morning of the tenth of June 1688, the House of Stuart might, perhaps, now be reigning in our island.

But it is easier to keep a crown than to regain one.