A sloop was in waiting for Prior.  He hastened on board, and on the third day, after weathering an equinoctial gale, landed on the coast of Suffolk.817

Very seldom had there been greater excitement in London than during the month which preceded his arrival.  When the west wind kept back the Dutch packets, the anxiety of the people became intense.  Every morning hundreds of thousands rose up hoping to hear that the treaty was signed; and every mail which came in without bringing the good news caused bitter disappointment.  The malecontents, indeed, loudly asserted that there would be no peace, and that the negotiation would, even at this late hour, be broken off.  One of them had seen a person just arrived from Saint Germains; another had had the privilege of reading a letter in the handwriting of Her Majesty; and all were confident that Lewis would never acknowledge the usurper.  Many of those who held this language were under so strong a delusion that they backed their opinion by large wagers.  When the intelligence of the fall of Barcelona arrived, all the treason taverns were in a ferment with nonjuring priests laughing, talking loud, and shaking each other by the hand.818

At length, in the afternoon of the thirteenth of September, some speculators in the City received, by a private channel, certain intelligence that the treaty had been signed before dawn on the morning of the eleventh.  They kept their own secret, and hastened to make a profitable use of it; but their eagerness to obtain Bank stock, and the high prices which they offered, excited suspicion; and there was a general belief that on the next day something important would be announced.  On the next day Prior, with the treaty, presented himself before the Lords justices at Whitehall.  Instantly a flag was hoisted on the Abbey, another on Saint Martin’s Church.  The Tower guns proclaimed the glad tidings.  All the spires and towers from Greenwich to Chelsea made answer.  It was not one of the days on which the newspapers ordinarily appeared; but extraordinary numbers, with headings in large capitals, were, for the first time, cried about the streets.  The price of Bank stock rose fast from eighty-four to ninety-seven.  In a few hours triumphal arches began to rise in some places.  Huge bonfires were blazing in others.  The Dutch ambassador informed the States General that he should try to show his joy by a bonfire worthy of the commonwealth which he represented; and he kept his word; for no such pyre had ever been seen in London.  A hundred and forty barrels of pitch roared and blazed before his house in Saint James’s Square, and sent up a flame which made Pall Mall and Piccadilly as bright as at noonday.819