11 of the fleet at that time was by the election and He took notice of the prejudice that might be- conveniences in many respects which were like to attend their making him many visits. But when there was visibly always in him such a vivacity and cheerfulness as could not be counterfeited, that was not interrupted nor clouded upon such ill news as came every week out of England, of the improvement of the power and insolence of his enemies; all men concluded, that he had somewhat about him above a good constitution, and prosecuted him with all the offices of civility and respect they could manifest towards a stranger. There were two inconveniences which he foresaw might happen, and could not but discompose the serenity of his mind. The first, and that which gave him least apprehension, though he could not avoid the thinking of it, nor the trouble of those thoughts which could not be separated from it, was, how he should be able to draw as much money out of England as would support his expense; which, though husbanded with as much frugality as could be used with any decency, he foresaw would amount to a greater proportion than he had proposed to himself. His indisposition and infirmity, which either kept him under the actual and sharp visitation of the gout, or, when the vigour of that was abated, in much weakness of his limbs when the pain was gone, were so great, that he could not be without the attendance of four servants about his own person; having, in those seasons when he enjoyed most health and underwent least pain, his knees, legs, and feet so weak, that he could not walk, especially up or down stairs, without the help of two men; and when he was seized upon by the gout, they were not able to perform the office of watching: so that to the English servants which he had brought with him, which with a cook, and a maid to wash his linen, amounted to six or seven, he was compelled to take four or five French servants for the market and other offices of the house; and his lodging cost him above two hundred pistoles. But all the apprehensions of this kind were upon short reflections composed, in the assurance he had of the affection and piety of his children, who he believed out of his and their own state would raise enough for his unavoidable disbursements. The other apprehension stuck closer to him, and made him even tremble in the very reflection. He could not forget the treatment he had between Calais and Roan, and the strange violent importunity that was used to him to get out of the kingdom, when he had not strength to get out of his bed. And though he was now at ease from such inhuman pressures; yet his enemies, who had even extorted that importunity from a people not inclined to such incivilities, had still the same power, and the same malice, and a froppish kind of insolence, that delighted to deprive him of any thing that pleased him, and manifestly pleased itself in vexing him. And if they should again prevail with the same ministers to remove him from his quiet, and oblige him to new journeys, the same spirit would chase him from place to place; there being none in view like to be superior to their influence, when France had been subdued by it. So that besides the impossibility of preserving the peace and repose of his mind in so grievous a fatigue, and continual torture of his body, he saw no hope of rest but in his grave. And against this kind of tyranny he could by no b See above, p. 1181, &c. As soon as he had digested and transmitted this his answer and vindication to his children, which he did in a short time after his arrival at Montpelier, he appeared to all men who conversed with him to be entirely possessed of so much tranquillity of mind, and so unconcerned in all that had been done to him or said of him, that men believed the temper to be affected with much art, and could not be natural in a man, who was known to have so great an affection for his own country, the air and climate thereof; and to take so much delight and pleasure in his relations, from whom he was now banished, and at such a distance, that he could not wish that they should undergo the in reasonable discourse with himself provide any se- | that it might not appear that he had ever been a curity, or stock of courage to support it. 66 counsellor of state, or a magistrate of justice; a method that was never practised towards the greatest malefactor? to what worthy or necessary end could that exorbitant demand be made and pursued in France, to expose him and the honour of that crown to the general reproach of all men, with such unparalleled circumstances? His friend the abbot Mountague, who was the only advocate he had to that court, used all his powerful rhetoric to allay those fears, and to comfort him against those melancholic apprehensions, by assuring him, "that the ministers were far "from such inclinations, and that nothing but reason of state could dispose them to that se- These very extraordinary attempts and unheard verity:" yet he prepared him not to think of of devices seemed to all wise men but the last removing from Montpelier, without first acquaint- effort of vulgar spirited persons, and the faint ing that court with it. And when afterwards he grasping of impotent malice; and instead of deproposed to him, " that he might have leave to pressing the spirits of him they hated, raised his "reside in Orleans, or some other city, at such a confidence, that God would not permit such gross nearer distance from England, that his children inventions of very ill and shortsighted men to or friends might more easily repair to him;" triumph in the ruin of an honest man, whose the court did not like the proposition, but pro-heart was always fixed úpon his protection, and posed Moulins, whither they would not yet give him a pass, till first their ambassador in England should know that it would not be unacceptable to his majesty so that he found himself upon the matter not only banished from his country, but confined to Montpelier, without any assurance that he should not be again shortly banished from thence. 66 However after he had revolved all the expedients that occurred to him for the prevention of such a mischief, he concluded there was no other remedy to be applied to those contingencies, than in acquiescing in the good pleasure of God, and depending upon him to enable him to bear what no discretion or foresight of his own could prevent. And in this composure of mind he betook himself to his books, and to the entertainment and exercise of such thoughts, as were most like to divert him from others which would be more unpleasant. God blessed him very much in this composure and retreat. And the first consolation he administered to himself was from the reflection upon the wonderful and unusual proceedings and prosecution that had been against him, in another kind of manner, and after another measure, than used to be practised by the most bitter enemies, and than was necessary to their ends and advantages who had contrived them: not to mention the malice and injustice of their first design of removing him from the trust and credit he had with the king, and to alienate his majesty's affection and kindness from him, to which the corrupt hopes and expectation of benefit to themselves might incline them; and then such unrighteous ends cannot naturally be prosecuted but by as unrighteous means. When they were not only privy to but contrivers of his escape, which they looked upon as attended with more benefit to them than his imprisonment or the taking his life could have been; when they were secure of his absence, and of no more being troubled or contradicted by him, by the bill of banishment, by which they broke their faith and promises to the king, and made him depart from his own resolutions: to what purpose was all their other prosecution of him both at home and abroad, more derogatory to the king's honour, and that innate goodness of nature and clemency that all men know he abounds in, than mischievous to him? why must he be absurdly charged with counsels and actions, of which he could never be suspected? and why must his name be struck out of all books of council, and catalogues and lists of servants, whom he had so often preserved from more powerful stratagems: and he did really believe, that the divine justice would at some time expose the pride and ambition of those men to the infamy they deserved. To those persons with whom he did with the most freedom communicate, he did often profess, that upon the strictest inquisition he could make into all his actions from the time of the king's return, when his condition was generally thought to have been very prosperous, though at best it was exercised with many thorns which made it uneasy, he could not reflect upon any one thing he had done, (amongst many which he doubted not were justly liable to the reproach of weakness and vanity,) of which he was so much ashamed, as he was of the vast expense he had made in the building of his house; which had more contributed to that gust of envy that had so violently shaken him, than any misdemeanour that he was thought to have been guilty of; and which had infinitely discomposed his whole affairs, and broken his estate. For all which he had no other excuse to make, than that he was necessitated to quit the habitation he was in at Worcester-house, which the owner required, and for which he had always paid five hundred pounds yearly rent, and could not find any convenient house to live in, except he built one himself, (to which he was naturally too much inclined;) and that he had so much encouragement thereunto from the king himself, that his majesty vouchsafed to appoint the place upon which it should stand, and graciously to bestow the inheritance of the land upon him after a short term of years, which he purchased from the present possessor: which approbation and bounty of his majesty was his greatest encouragement. And his own unskilfulness in architecture, and the positive undertaking of a gentleman, (who had skill enough, and a good reward for his skill,) that the expense should not amount to a third part of what in truth it afterwards amounted to, which he could without eminent inconvenience have disbursed, involved [him] in that rash enterprise, that proved so fatal and mischievous to him; not only in the accumulation of envy and prejudice that it brought upon him, but in the entanglement of a great debt, that broke all his measures; and, under the weight of his sudden, unexpected misfortune, made his condition very uneasy, and near insupportable. And this he took all occasions to confess, and to reproach himself with the folly of it. And yet, when his children and his nearest friends pro posed and advised the sale of it in his banishment, for the payment of his debts, and making some provision for two younger children; he remained still so much infatuated with the delight he had enjoyed, that, though he was deprived of it, he hearkened very unwillingly to the advice; and expressly refused to approve it, until such a sum should be offered for it, as held some proportion to the money he had laid out; and could not conceal some confidence he had, that he should live to be restored to it, and to be vindicated from the brand he suffered under, except his particular complete ruin were involved in the general distraction and confusion of his country, of which he had a more sensible and serious apprehension. 66 66 He was wont to say, "that of the infinite blessings which God had vouchsafed to confer upon him almost from his cradle," amongst which he delighted in the reckoning up many signal instances," he esteemed himself so happy in none as in his three acquiescences," which he called "his three vacations and retreats he had " in his life enjoyed from business of trouble and "vexation;" and in every of which God had given him grace and opportunity to make full reflections upon his actions, and his observations upon what he had done himself, and what he had seen others do and suffer; to repair the breaches in his own mind, and to fortify himself with new resolutions against future encounters, in an entire resignation of all his thoughts and purposes into the disposal of God Almighty, and in a firm confidence of his protection and deliverance in all the difficulties he should be obliged to contend with; and towards the obtaining whereof, he renewed those vows and promises of integrity and hearty endeavour to perform his duty, which are the only means to procure the continuance of that protection and deliverance. The first of these recesses or acquiescences was, his remaining and residing in Jersey, when the prince of Wales, his now majesty, first went into France upon the command of the queen his mother, contrary, as to the time, to the opinion of the council the king his father had directed him to govern himself by, and, as they conceived, contrary to his majesty's own judgment, the knowing whereof they only waited for; and his stay there, during that time that his highness first remained at Paris and St. Germain's, until his expedition afterwards to the fleet and in the Downs. His second was, when he was sent by his majesty as his ambassador, together with the lord Cottington, into Spain; in which two full years were spent before he waited upon the king again. And the third was his last recess, by the disgrace he underwent, and by the act of banishment. In which three acquiescences, he had learned more, knew himself and other men much better, and served God and his country with more devotion, and he hoped more effectually, than in all the other more active part of his life. He used to say, that he spent too much of his younger years in company and conversation, and too little with books; which was in some degree repaired, by the greatest part of his conversation being with persons of very eminent parts of learning and virtue, and never with men of loose and debauched manners. And he took great pleasure frequently to remember and mention the names of those with whom he kept most company, when he first entered into the world; many whereof lived to be very eminent in church and state: to whose information and example, and to the affection, awe, and reverence, he had to their persons, he did acknowledge to owe all that was commendable [in] him. He did very much affect to be loved and esteemed amongst men of good name and reputation, which made him warily avoid the company of loose and dissolute men, and to preserve himself from any notable scandal of any kind, and to live cautè, if not castè. Nor was the conversation he lived in liable to any other exception, than that it was with men superior to him in their quality and their fortunes, which exposed him to greater expense than his fortune would warrant: and yet it pleased God to preserve him from ever undergoing any reproach or inconvenience. He accused himself of entering too soon out of a life of ease and pleasure and too much idleness, into a life of too much business, that required more labour and experience and knowledge than he was supplied for; for he put on his gown as soon as he was called to the bar; and, by the countenance of persons in place and authority, as soon engaged himself in the business of the profession as he put on his gown, and to that degree in practice, that gave little time for study, that he had too much neglected before; besides that he still indulged to his beloved conversation. Few years passed before the troubles in Scotland appeared, and the little parliament was convened; which being dissolved and presently a new one called, he was a member in both, and wholly gave himself up to the public affairs agitated there, and where he was enough esteemed and employed, till the spirit reigned there, and drove men of his principles from thence. He was entirely and without reserve trusted, with two other of his friends, in all the king's affairs which related to the parliament, before the rebellion appeared; which brought him into prejudice and jealousy with many of both houses, who before were very kind to him. And in the beginning of the rebellion he was sworn of the privy-council and made chancellor of the exchequer: and from this time the pains he took, and the great fatigue he underwent, were notorious to all men; insomuch as, the refreshment of dinner excepted, for he never supped, he had very little of the day, and not much of the night, vacant from the most important business. When the prince was separated from his father, the king commanded him to attend his highness into the west, under more than a common trust: and by the inequality of humours amongst the counsellors, the wants and necessities of the prince's little court and family, the want of wisdom in his governor, that made him want that respect from the prince and all other people that was due to him, the faction amongst all the country gentlemen, and, above all, the ill success in the king's affairs, and the prevalence of the parliament in all places, made the province he had very uncomfortable and uneasy. The unavoidable necessity of transporting the person of the prince out of the kingdom (which was intrusted only to four of the council by the king, and by his command reserved from his governor and another) when there should be apparent danger of bloody and inhuman rebellion contrived by them who were generally believed to be the most solicitous and zealous for the peace and prosperity of the kingdom, with such art and subtilty, and so great pretences to religion, that it looked like illnature to believe that such sanctified persons could ligion was made a cloak to cover the most impious designs; and reputation of honesty, a stratagem to deceive and cheat others who had no mind to be wicked. The court [was] as full of murmuring, ingratitude, and treachery, [and] as willing and ready to rebel against the best and most bountiful master in the world, as the country and the city. A barbarous and bloody fierceness and savageness had extinguished all relations, hardened the hearts and bowels of all men; and an unire-versal malice and animosity had even covered the most innocent and best-natured people and nation upon the earth. These unavoidable reflections first made him discern how weak and foolish all his former imaginations had been, and how blind a surveyor he had been of the inclinations and affections of the heart of man; and it made him likewise conclude from thence, how uncomfortable and vain the dependence must be upon any thing in this world, where whatsoever is good and desirable suddenly perisheth, and nothing is lasting but the folly and wickedness of the inhabitants thereof. In this first vacation, he had leisure to read many learned and pious books; and here he began to compose his Meditations upon the Psalms, by applying those devotions to the present afflictions and calamities of his king and country. He began now by the especial encouragement of the king, who was then a prisoner in the army, to write The History of the late Rebellion and Civil Wars, and finished the four first books thereof; and made an entry upon some exercises of devotion, which he lived to enlarge afterwards. his falling into the hands of the rebels, and the as | necessary deferring it till that danger was even in view, and the designs of some of the prince's servants with the county to obstruct and prevent it when it was in view; the executing it in a seasonable article of time before or in the moment that it was suspected, and disguising it by a re-entertain any but holy purposes. In a word, retreat to Scilly, and staying there till they could be provided for a further voyage; and then the prince's remove from thence to Jersey, the contests which happened there between the counsellors upon the queen's commands for his highness's present repair into France, her majesty's declared displeasure, and the personal animosities which grew from thence between the persons in the greatest trust; were all particulars of that weight and distraction, that made great impression upon his mind and faculties, which needed much flection and contemplation to compose them. This first retreat gave him opportunity and leisure to call himself to a strict account for whatsoever he had done, upon revolving of all his particular actions, and the behaviour of other men; and to compose those affections and allay those passions, which, in the warmth of perpetual actions and chafed by continual contradictions, had need of rest, and cool and deliberate cogitations. He had now time to mend his understanding, and to correct the defects and infirmities of his nature, by 'the observation of and reflection upon the grounds and successes of those counsels he had been privy to, upon the several tempers and distempers of men employed both in the martial and civil affairs of the greatest importance, and upon the experience he had and the observation he had made in the three or four last years, where the part he had acted himself differed so much from all the former transactions and commerce of his life. He had originally in his nature so great a tenderness and love towards mankind, that he did not only detest all calumniating and detraction towards the lessening the credit or parts or reputation of any man, but did really believe that all men were such as they seemed or appeared to be; that they had the same justice and candour and goodness in their nature, that they professed to have; and thought no men to be wicked and dishonest and corrupt, but those who in their manners and lives gave unquestionable evidence of it; and even amongst those he did think most to err and do amiss, rather out of weakness and ignorance, for want of friends and good counsel, than out of the malice and wickedness of their natures. But now, upon the observation and experience he had in the parliament, (and he believed he could have made the discovery no where else, without doubt not so soon,) he reformed all those mistakes, and mended that easiness of his understanding. He had seen those there, upon whose ingenuity and probity he would willingly have deposited all his concernments of this world, behave themselves with that signal uningenuity and improbity that must pull up all confidence by the roots; men of the most unsuspected integrity, and of the greatest eminence for their piety and devotion, most industrious to impose upon and to cozen men of weaker parts and understanding, upon the credit of their sincerity, to concur with them in mischievous opinions, which they did not comprehend, and which conduced to dishonest actions they did not intend. He saw the most When he had enjoyed, in that pleasant island of Jersey, full two years, in as great serenity of mind as the separation from country, wife, and children, can be imagined to admit, he received a command from the queen, then at St. Germain's, and an express order from the king, upon which the other had been sent, his majesty being then prisoner in the Isle of Wight, that he should forthwith attend the person of the prince of Wales, who, upon the revolt of the ships under the command of the parliament in the Downs, and their profession of obedience to the king, was advised to make all possible haste to them; and the chancellor was required to wait upon his highness at Roan upon a day assigned, which was past before the orders came to him. And [then] without any delay he used all possible diligence to find the prince; who with greater expedition, without coming to Roan, passed to Calais, and from thence to Holland to possess the ships which he found there, and possessed with all that alacrity (which is always very loud) that seamen can express; and by the assistance of the prince of Orange got more victual quickly on board, that he might be in the Downs with the fleet to second some attempt which was already on foot in Kent, and others expected in several parts of the kingdom. And the chancellor having in his way called upon the lord Cottington at Roan, and together with him, and some other persons of honour and quality, made what haste they could to Dieppe, that they might there embark for any place where they should hear the prince to be; and there they were informed, that his highness was at the Brill in Holland. And thereupon they put themselves on board a French man of war, and upon the sea were taken prisoners by Ostenders, who, upon the advantage of being in the ship of an enemy, concluded them to be lawful prize, and treated them accordingly, with all the circumstances of barbarity; and after having plundered them thoroughly of money and jewels of great value, and stripped most of their servants to their shirts, they carried them in great triumph to Ostend; where though their persons were used with civility and respect, and presently set at liberty, yet they were compelled to stay there many days, in hope to obtain the jewels and money of which they had been robbed, and, finding that not to be done, (those privateers being subject to no discipline, nor regarding the orders of the admiralty, or any other governor,) to make such provision as was necessary for a further voyage. And at last they got from Ostend to Flushing, having found means to inform the prince of their misadventures, and of their readiness at Flushing to receive and obey his commands. The fleet was then in the Downs in so good a posture, by the access of other ships and vessels to it, and by some notable commotions on land, that the prospect was fair and hopeful. And the prince received the advertisement no sooner, than he was pleased to send a frigate to Flushing for those who had been so long expected. But the winds proved then so cross and tempestuous in the gentlest season of the year, that after several attempts at sea, they were so often driven back again into the harbour, sometimes by very dangerous storms, that in the end they received new directions to attend the prince at the Hague, the fleet being at the same time under sail for that coast. The earl of Lautherdale was at that time come to the fleet as commissioner from the kingdom of Scotland, to inform the prince, that duke Hamilton with a powerful army was already marched into England; and thereupon to invite his highness to make what haste he could, to put himself in the head of that army, according to a promise the king had made in some private treaty with the Scots; and which the queen had sent very positive commands to be observed and obeyed. This was the reason, not without other more reasonable motives, so suddenly to quit the Downs, that he might get more victual for the fleet, and therewith sail to the north, and disembark in such a place as should be nearest to the Scots army, with which he doubted not to find a very considerable conjunction of the English; since he knew that sir Marmaduke Langdale had possessed himself with a body of English officers and gentlemen, of Berwick, and sir Philip Musgrave had done the same with the like assistance, at Carlisle, before the Scots began their march. The lord Cottington and the chancellor came to the Hague the next day after the prince's arrival, and were very graciously received by his highness, and with a wonderful kindness by all the court, and all the gentlemen who had attended upon him; not so much out of affection to them, as out of detestation of one another, who had kept company for the space of two months last past. The prince had found the common seamen full of such a keen devotion for his service upon the true principles of the cause, and for the redemption of the king his father out of prison, and so full of indignation against those who had formerly misled them into rebellion, especially the presbyterians; that as they had before the declaration set all those officers on shore by force, who were appointed by the parliament to command them, so now they thought the new ones, which they had chosen for themselves, not fierce and resolute enough for their purposes. The truth is; there had been much unskilful tampering amongst them by emissaries from Paris, and other attempts. And the duke of York, having made his escape very little time before, and being then at the Hague when the fleet came to Helvoetsluys, upon the first notice lost no time in making haste to them. It was generally known, that the king his father had long designed to make him high admiral of England; and the commission which had been formerly granted to the earl of Northumberland they all knew to be repealed and cancelled: so that he no sooner came to the fleet, but he was received with the usual acclamations of joy as their admiral, and he as cheerfully assumed the command. And his small family presently began to propagate their several factions and animosities, with which they abounded, to make such parties amongst the seamen as might advance their several pretences. And in this posture the prince found the fleet when he came to it, and resolved to take the command immediately into his own hand, and that the duke should remain at the Hague with his sister, till that expedition were over; and so he made haste with the fleet into the Downs, hoping that some present occasion would be the best expedient to extinguish that fire, and compose those distempers, which he discerned already to be kindled amongst the seamen. The advice and instruction which were brought from Paris were grounded upon the treaty with Scotland, the marching of that army, and the expectation of some notable attempt by the presbyterian party in London; in order to which, all address was to be made to that city, and a declaration to he published to gratify that party. This secret was intrusted only to one of the council, and one other who was to be ministerial in whatsoever the other directed. And this temper was quickly discovered when they came into the Downs, by the great [care] that was taken to give no offence or interruption to the trade of the city, which all men believed would be the best means to reduce it. Ships of return, richly laden, were suffered quietly to pass thither; others coming from thence, very well freighted, were likewise quietly permitted to prosecute their voyage: all which was passionately opposed by prince Rupert and all the rest of the council. And this contradiction was quickly known to the lords of the bedchamber, and others, who had no reverence for that council, and were now the more inflamed upon this division of opinion. And the seamen likewise coming to take notice of it, cried out, "the prince was betrayed;" and grew into such rage and fury, that they declared, "that they "would throw those overboard who gave the prince such evil counsel." Two or three unprosperous attempts at land, and then the lord 66 |