 A slow advance, apart from being necessitated by heavy rainfall anyway, had the added benefit of not over-extending the supply lines; the Dutch troops were under strict orders not even to forage, for fear that this would degenerate into plundering, which would alienate the population.On 9 November (Julian calendar) William took Exeter after the magistrates had fled the city, entering on a white palfrey, with the two hundred black men forming a guard of honour, dressed in white, with turbans and feathers.In the South support from the local gentry was disappointingly limited, but from 12 November, in the North, many nobles began to declare for William, as they had promised, often by a public reading of the "Declaration".