96 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



" A Monmouth ! A Monmouth ! The Protestant re- 

 ligion ! " Grey being the only peer or person of note, 

 as Macaulay says, who joined Monmouth's army, he 

 was appointed to command the raw cavalry " con- 

 sisting of yeomen and tradesmen mounted on cart- 

 horses or post-horses. Day labourers, small farmers, 

 shopkeepers, apprentices, dissenting preachers, flocked 

 to the rebel camp ; but not a single peer, baronet, 

 or knight, not a single member of the House of 

 Commons, and scarcely any squire of sufficient note 

 to have been ever in the Commission of the Peace." * 

 Evelyn notes, f " Most of Grey's party were Ana- 

 baptists and poor clothworkers of the country, no 

 gentleman of note being come unto him." 



Grey, however, at the head of his motley hunt, 

 attacked King James' militia at Bridport. C. J. Fox 

 says that in this engagement " Grey left his troops to 

 conquer, and sought his personal safety in flight ;" 

 and quotes Ferguson, one of the rebels, to the effect 

 that when after Bridport Monmouth said to one of 

 his officers " what shall I do with Lord Grey ? " the 

 other replied, that " he was the only general in Europe 

 who would ask such a question ;" intending no doubt 

 to reproach the Duke with the excess to which he 

 pushed his characteristic virtues of mildness and for- 

 bearance. Even Macaulay, strong Whig champion 

 as he is, is obliged to characterise Grey as " intrepid 

 everywhere except when swords were clashing and 

 guns going off" around him." 



Once, however, Grey showed himself brave, and 

 bore himself better than at any other moment of his 

 life. After failing to secure Bristol, the Duke of 

 Monmouth in a fit of despondency would have de- 

 serted his peasant followers but for Grey's firmness. 

 Grey saved his unhappy master from the moment of 

 perfidy and baseness : and when news came that the 



Macaulay. f Evelyn's Diary, Nov. 22, 1687, p. 245. 

 J Macaulay, I., 597. 



