THE KEY OF THE WEST 305 



sibly it may be said that William's fleet would, under 

 such circumstances, never have found its way into 

 Tor Bay, nor that historic landing have been consum- 

 mated at Brixham. True enough ; but granting the 

 landing, the proclamation at Newton Abbot, and the 

 advance to the gates of Exeter, how then if James had 

 been less of the stubborn oak and more of the com- 

 plaisant willow ? Can it be supposed that they would 

 have welcomed this frigid, hawk-nosed foreiQ;ner of the 

 cold eye and silent tongue ? And if the Dutchman 

 and his mynheers had been ill-received at Exeter, 

 what then ? Take the map and study it for answer. 

 You will see that the ' Ever Faithful ' stands at the 

 Gates of the West. The traveller always has had to 

 enter these portals if he would go in either direction, 

 and the more imperative was this necessity to those 

 coming from West to East. Even now the traveller 

 by railway passes through Exeter to reach further 

 Devon and Cornwall, equally with him who fares the 

 high-road. 



What chance, then, of success would a foreign 

 expedition command were its progress barred at this 

 point ? Less mobile than a single traveller, or party 

 of mere travellers, it could not well evade the struggle 

 for a passage by taking another route. William and 

 his followino; mio;ht, in such an event, have at o-reat 

 risk forced the passage of the treacherous Exe estuary, 

 but even supposing that feat achieved, there is diffi- 

 cult country beyond, before the road to London is 

 reached. To the northwards of his march from 

 Brixham lies Dartmoor and its outlying hills, and 

 let those who have explored those inhospitable wastes 



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