On his arrival in London, the Prince of Orange I summoned a Convention of the Estates of the Realm, at which, among other subjects, the future status of the army was discussed. Before recording the decisions which were reached on that question, it will be as well to notice certain steps that were taken in regard to the army during the interregnum between the disappearance of James and the accession of William and Mary. The army, like the navy, had played a somewhat ignominious part in the Revolution. The treatment it had received at the hands of King James had not been conducive to the establishment of a trustworthy force, and the weapon which he had attempted to forge for the government of the country failed at the critical moment. The author of The Desertion expressed the hope that