he had reason to complain of any disrespect or other defect which he had met with in the too mean, but very friendly entertainment which his house afforded; and being answered by the marquèss, that his treatment had been full of civility, that he had never passed so many days more agreeably in his life, and could not but wonder why the other should suspect the contrary. The nobleman then told him, 'that the leaving ten pistoles to be distributed among the servants, was treating his house as an inn, and was the greatest affront that could be offered to a man of quality; that he paid his own servants well, and had hired them to wait on his friends as well as himself; that he considered him as a stranger that might be unacquainted with the customs of France, and err through some practice deemed less dishonourable in his own country, otherwise his resentment should have prevented any expostulation; but as the case stood, after having explained the nature of the affair, he must either redress the mistake by receiving back the ten pistoles, or give him the usual satisfaction of men of honour for an avowed affront.' The marquess," adds the historian, "acknowledged his error, took back his money, and returned to Paris with less anxiety about his subsistence. The same way of thinking still prevails, though possibly not in so great a degree, as at that time, in France; but few men of quality will suffer a servant to stay a moment in their houses who receives any thing from a stranger or a visitant. They generally treat their servants (who think themselves settled, if they get into a good family) with great affection and kindness; but will not allow them in any degree or manner to depend upon any other than themselves; so that their families, however large and numerous, are more orderly and quiet, and the gentlemen are better served than in any other nation of Europe."* The distress to which the marquess was reduced was indeed so great that it became necessary to take some decided step, for the suitable maintenance of his marchioness and children. In this emergency one obvious resource occurred, the estates which had been possessed by the marchioness in her own right, might reasonably be claimed from the justice of Cromwell, who had always expressed a great respect for the marchioness, and was also known to favour the adherents of the royal family in Ireland. It was probably under somewhat more circumstantial views of the chances attendant upon such a step, that the marchioness went over to England to solicit for a provision out of her own estates. Her claim was respectfully entertained by Cromwell, who obtained for her an order of parliament, authorising the commissioners for Irish affairs to set apart, as a provision for the marchioness and her children, the clear yearly value of £2000 a-year out of her own inheritance, together with Dunmore house near Kilkenny for her residence.+ The marquess was in the mean time not allowed to remain without occupation; being a principal party to all the exertions made in foreign courts for the king's restoration, and the entire manager of the very troublesome, laborious and difficult negotiations attendant upon the endeavour to raise an army for the king's service, among the Irish who were engaged in foreign service; his courage, address and efficient activity in every undertaking, not only made him the principal support of the king in the midst of the various emergencies of his uncertain condition of dependence upon the shifting alliance of intriguing courts; they also subjected him to extraordinary fatigues and dangers, in his efforts to serve the royal cause and the interests of the members of the royal family, who seem to have turned to him for aid in every exigency. Among many occasions illustrative of this, Carte details at considerable length the severities which were resorted to by the queen Dowager of England and the queen Regent of France, to induce the duke of Gloucester to change his religion. The young prince had been set at liberty and permitted by Cromwell to join his family in France; he had been educated in the Protestant religion, but was not long with them when all the ordinary resources of persuasion, argument, and menace, were employed to induce him to conform to the church of Rome; the young prince showed a firmness, good sense, and amiability of temper truly admirable in one of his tender age, and the last resort of personal constraint which had no effect, was succeeded by a most cruel and unnatural expulsion from the Louvre where he had resided with his mother. The English residents in Paris were forbidden to entertain him; and, his mother refused to see his face again; but while these proceedings were in their course, a strong apprehension was at the same time communicated to the king, lest some still more stringent course should be resorted to, and he sent the marquess from Cologne, where he then was, to attempt his extrication from so dangerous a situation, of which the consequences, should the Dowager succeed, would be so destructive to the king's interests in England. The marquess after a laborious journey arrived in Paris, and by his presence and counsel not only confirmed the resolution of the prince, but overawed and repressed the activity of the queen's party. After being turned out of doors by his mother the prince was received by lord Hatton, with whom he continued for two months, while the marquess raised money by pawning his garter and the jewel formerly presented to him by the parliament, to enable them to travel to the king. When they reached Antwerp the marquess was seized with a severe and dangerous fever which delayed their journey, so that the spring was far advanced when they reached Cologne. On this journey the marquess had a narrow escape from being drowned in the Rhine. Having gone to bathe in this river, he put his clothes in a boat under the bank, which he committed to the charge of a servant, and swam out into the stream; when he was out the servant left his charge, and the boat was taken across the river by a stranger; the incident attracted the attention of the marquess who seeing the boat in which he had left his clothes on its way, immediately turned back and crossing the stream recovered it. Having dressed himself he got into the boat and directed his course toward the side from which he came; he did not however succeed in keeping the course he would have steered, and was not only carried a great way down the river, but at last found exceeding difficulty in regaining the bank. The marquess on his arrival at Cologne, was sent by the king to conduct the princess royal to him, and on his return attended the royal party to Frankfort, where they went to see the great fair. He was next sent to the duke of Neuberg to solicit his mediation with the Spanish court. for its assistance in his majesty's behalf. And shortly after the cardinal Mazarin, having written a letter to Oliver Darcy, titular bishop of Dromore misrepresenting the conduct of the marquess and others who had engaged the Irish officers and soldiers in the French service, to leave it after the French government had entered into a league with Cromwell; he was replied to by the marquess in a letter very remarkable for its dignity and justice of sentiment, as well as clearness of statement: such was its force that it was at the time taken up by the cardinal's opponents, as a means of attack upon his * government. We extract the last paragraph. "And since he hath been pleased to usurp an authority to judge and condemn me, with circumstances of calumny not usually proceeding from the minister of one prince to the servant of another, I conceive he gives me just ground to put you in mind, that by his ministration, an alliance is made between France and the murtherers of a just and lawful king; and that not only without any necessity, but upon such infamous conditions as no necessity can justify: I mean the banishing out of France dispossessed princes, the grand-children to Henry the Fourth. Add to this, that his Eminence is the instrument of such an alliance, as gives countenance and support to the usurpers of the rights of kings, and the professed persecutors of Roman catholicks, and the destroyers of your nation, and to those by whom the nobility aud gentry of it are massacred at home, and led into slavery, or driven to beggary abroad." On receiving an intimation of the king's wishes from the marquess, lord Muskerry proceeded to Paris and according to the terms of his engagement in the French service, demanded a discharge for himself and his men. The cardinal with some hesitation granted a pass for himself, but refused it for the men; Muskerry went to Flanders and was followed by his regiment to a man. They were formed into a new corps, under the command of the duke of York as colonel, and Muskerry as lieutenant-colonel. Having passed a very distressing winter at Brussels, where he was commissioned to meet Don Juan for the king, it was suggested by this commander that there should be some competent person in England to take the conduct of the loyalists, before the king of Spain could safely venture to embark his forces in the service of Charles. The accounts from England very much exaggerated the strength and determination of this party, but the Spaniard had probably received accounts more nearly approaching the truth. The marquess without hesitation volunteered on this difficult service, "proposing to go over in disguise, and to know the utmost of what could be done, and that if things were ripe for action he might be at the head of it, and if they grew successful to such a degree as might invite the great men of the kingdom, such as the marquess of Hertford, the earl of Northumberland, or others to come in, who might scruple to be commanded by him, he would resign the command and serve under them, &c."+ This * The letter is in Carte's appendix, but too long and too little to our present purpose to extract it here. VOL. III. + Carte. M devoted offer was accepted with real or seeming reluctance. To cover the design and divert inquiry the absence of the marquess was prepared for by a fictitious embassy into Germany, on which having proceeded as far as Cleves with Sir R. Beling, the marquess passed into Holland where he met Daniel O'Neile, and with him took shipping for England, where he landed in January on the Essex coast. Having proceeded as far as Chelmsford he and O'Neile parted, and he went on to London. There he found Sir W. Honeywood who conducted him to a place prepared for his concealment, and sought out for him the persons he desired to meet. The marquess began most judiciously with the inferior class of persons, from whose representations he might best infer the real state of facts. His first meeting was in an upper room at an apothecary's with about eight persons, to whom he was introduced by Honeywood as "a gentleman for whom he undertook, who was going to the king, and was the fittest person who might be found to tell his majesty how all things stood." To him, therefore, he assured them, they might fully explain their minds and state what they could do. All however refused to make communications of so dangerous a nature to one of whom they knew nothing; they declared that they would await the arrival of some person of sufficient authority from his majesty. On this the marquess disclosed himself, to their great surprise and confusion; they had in fact professed beyond their means, and were little prepared to be so taken at their words. Their statements were so incoherent, and so little grounded on any facts or probabilities of a tangible nature, as to convince the marquess that there was nothing to be expected from such vague and confused boasting. He nevertheless said every thing to encourage the good affection of these persons. He next met colonel Russel, Sir R. Willis, and other noblemen and gentlemen, at one time in Bedford gardens and again in Gray's inn. These gentlemen were more distinct and less sanguine in their statements. The marquess met several who were willing to come forward with such men as they could raise, but there was no substantial plan or preparation, nor did there appear any hope of being able to effect the sole object which could be of any real or efficient importance, which was the seizure of some seaport town of adequate strength. All was scattered and uncertain, and it was apparent, that the pervading vigilance, and activity of Cromwell was such, that the conspirators against his government, could not without much danger and difficulty even venture to communicate with each other. The marquess soon received from his friend lord Broghill, an intimation that his being in England was known to Cromwell, and was under the necessity of escaping without delay. It was afterwards discovered from the correspondence found among Cromwell's papers, that he had been betrayed by one of the gentlemen, who had been presented to him as a royalist. During this visit to England, he had been subject to extraordinary fatigue, and the anxiety of increasing alarm; he was several times under the necessity of changing his quarters, and so great was the precaution required, that he never undressed at night, but lay down in his clothes, to be ready for a sudden escape. The sum of his observations upon the prospects of the royal family amounted to this, that the spirit of the people was favourable to a rising in favour of the king, to a degree even beyond his expectations; but such was the vigilance and activity of Cromwell, and so completely did he hold all the civil and military powers of the kingdom, that it would be vain to hope for any organized movement, unless with the aid of strong external support. If, however, the king should obtain the promised aid from Spain, the marquess advised a descent upon Yarmouth, which might be secured without a blow, before Cromwell could have time to stir. Charles was eager to put this plan into execution, and the Spanish general, Don Juan, was liberal in promises and assurances of the requisite aid; and both the king and his friends were thus kept amused with deceitful hopes during the spring of 1658. During this time, the marquess lay concealed at Paris, in as much danger, says Carte, "of the bastile there, as he had been of the Tower in London!" He had fortunately two sisters there, the countess Clancarty and lady Hamilton, at whose lodgings he found concealments more endurable than it was always his fortune to meet. While there he received orders from Charles to come to him with such speed as his safety would admit: and as he had, nearly at the same time, received intelligence that Cromwell had sent to the cardinal Mazarin to secure him, his escape was not without both difficulty and danger: and as it was not to be doubted that he would be watched for on the road to Flanders, he had no resource but to direct his flight to Italy. Discontented with the conduct of Spain, the king at last entertained the project of going thither himself, but was dissuaded on many strong grounds by his advisers; and the cardinal De Retz, whom he consulted through the marquess, advised that he should at least postpone his design till the campaign in which the Spanish army was then engaged should be concluded. At this time the king's finances received a seasonable reinforcement by the marriage of the earl of Ossory with Emilia, daughter of Louis of Nassau, with whom he received £10,000, of which the greater part went to the royal coffer. To effect this match, which was chiefly rendered desirable to the family by the worth and attractions of the young lady who had won the young earl's heart, the marchioness was under the necessity of settling £1200 per annum out of her small estate. During the transactions which we have been here relating, the condition of the marchioness was far from happy. Separated from her lord, she was immersed in litigation and in protracted applications and suits about the lands which were assigned for her maintenance. She was first compelled to prove her right to these lands, and the rates at which they had been let in 1640, which was the standard of value by which the portion allowed by parliament was to be ascertained. After her schedule was given in and examined by a committee, and the assignment made, the lands were found short of the value at which they had been rated. On some parts the rent was exceeded by the contributions and assessments to which they were subject, and others were subject to mortgages and other incumbrances. From these and other causes, which so affected the tenure of the lands that they could not be let to advantage, the marchioness found it necessary to make a fresh application to have a more profitable settlement of these lands. She was in this successful; but in consequence of the complication of her affairs, was |