:'-7RS OF '}"" 5rbf Chart : . ?s of Orier; .s C LIBRARY UN .rttjITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO LIBRIS MARGARITAE CODRINGTM "Si ' ' ^-~ /^6^^y^^- MADAME BY JULIA CARTWRIGHT (MRS HENRY ADY) AUTHOR OF "SACHAR1SSA," "THE PILGRIMS' WAY," ETC., ETC. " Madame, que les siecles entiers auront peine a remplacer et pour la beaute et pour la belle jeunesse et pour la danse." MADAME DE SEVIGNE. " Cette princesse a qui tout avail concouru, Pour lui gagner les coeurs, et se voir adoree, Semble n'avoir paru, Qne pour estre pleuree." EPITAPH ON MADAME. Second Edition LONDON SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED 38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET 1900 CONTENTS CHAPTER I 1644 1646 Birth of Princess Henrietta at Exeter Her Baptism in the Cathedral Flight of the Queen Exeter relieved by the King Besieged and taken by Fairfax Escape of Lady Dalkeith and the Princess to France . . i CHAPTER II 16461655 Wars of the Fronde The Royal Exiles in Paris Death of Charles I. The Prin- cess Henrietta brought up a Roman Catholic Attack on the Duke of Gloucester's Religion . V '** 1 7 CHAPTER III l6 S5 16 5 6 Education of the Princess Henrietta Court F$tes and Ballets Visit of the Princess of Orange to Paris Charles II. at Bruges . v *.'. v 32 CHAPTER IV 1657 1660 Marriage of Louis XIV. Portraits of the Princesse d'Angleterre Letters from Charles II. The Restoration Letters of Henrietta to her Brother 44 CHAPTER V 1660 Philip, Duke of Orleans, makes Henrietta an Offer of Marriage State Entry of Louis XIV. and his Queen Embassy of the Comte de Soissons to England Death of Henry, Duke of Gloucester Visit of the Princess of Orange to London Reception of the Queen-mother and Princess Henrietta in England . f . . . . . .61 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI 1660 1661 Death of the Princess of Orange Illness of the Princess Henrietta Her Return to Paris Her Marriage with Monsieur celebrated at the Palais Royal 77 CHAPTER VII 1661 Madame at the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud Friendship of the King for Madame Files of the Court at Fontainebleau Ballet des Saisons . . 88 CHAPTER VIII 1661 1662 Intrigues and Jealousies in the Royal Family The Comte de Guiche F$te de Vaux Disgrace of Fouquet Illness of Madame Letters from Charles II. Intrigues at the Palais- Royal Birth of Marie Louise d'Orleans . 104 CHAPTER IX 1662 Carrousel at the Louvre Henrietta Maria goes to England Marriage of Charles II. to the Infanta of Portugal Louis XIV. and La Valliere Sale of Dunkirk Madame de Ch&tillon's Petition M. de Comminges sent as Ambassador to England . . . . . .117 CHAPTER X 1663 Ballet des Arts Charles II. corresponds with Louis XIV. through Madame Foire de Saint-Germain Attack on the Lord Chancellor Madame de Mecklembourg's Marriage Illness of Louis XIV. . . . 129 CHAPTER XI 1663 Intrigues of De Vardes and the Comtesse de Soissons Illness of Queen Catherine Lord Hollis sent as Ambassador to France The Quarrel of the Coaches Madame becomes the true Ambassador .... 141 CHAPTER XII 1664 files at Paris, at Versailles and Fontainebleau Court Intrigues Disputes be- tween Lord Hollis and the French Ministers Negotiations with Holland . . . . . . ^,' 156 \ CONTENTS. V CHAPTER XIII 1664 Birth of the Due de Valois Intrigues of De Vardes Letters of Charles II. and Renewal of Negotiations Madame endeavours to recover her Father's Jewels . . . . '' V' "'"'. ** 164 CHAPTER XIV 1664 1665 Arrest of De Vardes Madame's last Interview with the Comte de Guiche Verdict of contemporary Writers on her Character Madame de La Fayette's Vie de Madame Henriette Madame a Patron of Art and Letters Her Friendship with Moliere, Racine, La Fontaine, Bussy and others . 180 CHAPTER XV 1665 Ballet of the Birth of Venus The Comet War between England and Holland Negotiations between Charles II. and Louis XIV. conducted by Madame A Special Embassy sent to London . . . .198 CHAPTER XVI 1665 1666 Naval War between England and Holland Victory of the Duke of York Rejoicings in Paris The Great Plague Return of the Ambassadors to France Death of Anne of Austria Sermons of 1'Abbe* Bossuet . 212 CHAPTER XVII 1666 The Chevalier de Lorraine becomes Monsieur's Favourite Excellent Influence of Cosnac, Bishop of Valence Libel of Manicamp Copies destroyed by the Bishop His Admiration for Madame, and Character of this Princess in his Memoirs Peace of Breda .... '-H^-f '-i 267 CHAPTER XXI 1669 Secret Negotiations continued L'Abbe Pregnani sent to England Madame corresponds with Buckingham and Arlington Last Letters from Charles II. to his Sister . . . 1- ^, v- ''<* '"-.' . 278 CHAPTER XXII 669 Birth of Madame's younger Daughter Death of Queen Henrietta Maria Bossuet's Funeral Oration Madame de La Fayette's Vie de Madame Henriette Arrest of Cosnac, and Dismissal of Madame de Saint-Chaumont . 294 CHAPTER XXIII 1670 Arrest of the Chevalier de Lorraine Monsieur retires to Villers-Cotterets Arrival of the English Envoys Colbert induces Monsieur to return to Court He consents reluctantly to Madame's visit to England Letters of Henrietta to Madame de Saint-Chaumont .... 308 CHAPTER XXIV 1670 Journey of the Court to Flanders Madame's Visit to Dover The Treaty of Dover finally concluded Chief Articles of the Secret Treaty Waller's Sonnet Madame returns to France Her last Days at Saint- Cloud . . 327 CONTENTS. Vli CHAPTER XXV 1670 Sudden Illness and Death of Madame at Saint-Cloud, on Monday, June 30 344 CHAPTER XXVI 1670 Grief of the King and Court for Madame Popular Feeling in England The Suspicion that she was Poisoned becomes General Letters of Montagu Saint-Simon's Version Was Madame Poisoned, or was her Death due to Natural Causes ? ..... 356 CHAPTER XXVII 1670 Conduct of Monsieur after his Wife's Death Grief of Madame's Friends Funeral Services at Saint-Denis, Val-de-GrSce and Saint-Cloud Bossuet's Oraison . ' . . . . , . . 373 CHAPTER XXVIII Portraits of Madame by Mignard, Lely and Petitot Her Children, Marie Louise, Queen of Spain, and Anne Marie, Queen of Sardinia . . 388 INDEX 403 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS HENRIETTA, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, after Mignard Frontispiece PAGE PHILIP, DUKE OF ORLEANS, after Wallerant Vaillant . 98 CHARLES II., after Sir Peter Lely 132 Louis XIV., after Le Brun, . . . . . . 274 HENRIETTA, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, after Sir Peter Lely 388 PREFACE HENRIETTA, Duchess of Orleans, is so interesting and attractive a figure in the history of the seven- teenth century, and forms so important a link be- tween Charles II. and Louis XIV., that it is strange to find how little has been written about her in our own time and country. All we have are a few chapters in Mrs Everett-Green's Lives of English Princesses, and in Miss Strickland's Lives of the Four Last Stuart Princesses. Of these two accounts, the former is by far the fullest and most accurate. But the limits of her work naturally prevented Mrs Green from doing justice to her subject, and there are many notable omissions in her history of Madame Henriette. She does not give any of the letters which have been published in Daniel de Cosnac's Memoirs, nor had she access to that portion of Charles II. 's correspondence which is preserved in the French Archives. A few fragments of these letters, addressed by this monarch to his sister be- tween 1660 and 1669, were printed by Sir John Dalrymple in his Memoirs of the Reign of Charles //., and by Mignet in his Negotiations relatives a la Suc- cession cCEspagne. But the greater part remained unknown, to all but a few students, until some ten X PREFACE. years ago they were published by M. de Baillon, in a volume entitled Henriette Anne d'Angleterre, sa vie et sa Correspondence avec son frere Charles //., a work of considerable merit, which is now out of print. Even here, however, several letters of the series are omitted, and Charles II.'s vigorous English naturally loses much of its force and character by being translated into French. These letters, which are now for the first time given to the world in their original form, are ninety-eight in number, and have been copied from the MSS. in the Archives du Ministere des Affaires ttrangdres, by special permis- sion obtained through M. Ribot, Ministre des Affaires Mr anger es, from the Commission des Archives diplo- matiques at the request of her Majesty's Ambassador, the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, K.P. My thanks are also due, in an especial manner, to M. Girard de Rialle, Ministre Pttnipotentiare, Chef de la Divi- sion des Archives des Affaires Stranger es, for the great kindness and courtesy with which he assisted my researches. These letters, as might be expected, are of rare interest. Their style is as lively as their contents are varied. They treat of the chief political events in England during the first ten years after the Restora- tion, and are full of gossip about public and private matters. Charles II.'s first impressions of his new Queen, his quarrels with the Duchess of Richmond, the struggle of England and Holland for naval supremacy, the fall of Clarendon and the intrigues of Buckingham, the conclusion of the Triple Alli- ance, and the long negotiations that were carried on PREFACE. Xl secretly between the two kings, are all freely dis- cussed. And, on the whole, they give us a better idea of this monarch's character than we had before. We see him, it is true, with all his faults and weak- nesses, his incurable levity and cynical unconcern, his indolence and easy good-nature. But at the same time we see his remarkable abilities and keen sense of humour, the courage and spirit with which he could defend the privileges of his subjects and the rights of the British flag, and the deep and lasting affection which he had for his " dearest Minette" as he called the sister whom he loved so well. Besides this valuable series of letters, several documents, from the collection of State Papers on French affairs in the Record Office, are now pub- lished for the first time, and help to throw fresh light on various incidents in the life of this English Princess. Madame, to call her by the more familiar name, was herself an active and charming letter-writer. Her descriptions are of the most graphic kind, her language is clear and simple. " With all her divine qualities," writes the Bishop of Valence, "this Prin- cess was the most human of creatures." She pours out her heart in the most unconstrained manner to her different correspondents. Whether her mood be grave or gay, whether she discusses important affairs of state, or sends a hasty note to a friend, her style is always bright and natural, full of life and spirit. Her wit brightens the most tedious controversies, and the generous warmth of her heart reveals itself at every page. In her graver moments she is full xii PREFACE. of charm, in her darkest and most desolate hours her words have a pathos which would move the hardest heart. It is impossible not to share her joys, or to be touched by the tale of her sorrows. We yield unconsciously to the might of her spell, and own the power of a fascination which the ablest men of the day were unable to resist. Unfortunately, all Madame's letters to her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, have perished, and we only possess a small part of her correspondence with her brother, Charles II. Forty-three letters from her pen are all that I have been able to discover. Of these, seventeen addressed to Charles are preserved in the collection of Royal MS. Letters in the library of Lambeth Palace. Nine letters to her brother are among the French State Papers at the Record Office, and one short note was lent by the Due de Fitz- James to the Stuart Exhibition. A copy of a letter, addressed to Sir Ellis Leighton, is in the French Archives. Eleven others, written by Madame to the governess of her children, Madame de Saint Chau- mont, or to the author himself, are given by Daniel de Cosnac in his Memoirs. Of the remaining four, two, addressed to the Princesse Palatine arid the Cardinal de Retz, belonged to M. Monmerque's col- lection. The other two, addressed respectively to Madame de La Fayette and the Marechal de Tur- enne, are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Bibliotheque de Nantes. Contemporary Memoirs and letters supply another important source of information. Here the wealth of material at the biographer's disposal is almost inex- PREFACE. Xlll haustible. There is hardly a French work of the period which has not something to tell of Madame. In Madame de La Fayette's Histoire de Madame Henriette, we have a detailed account of certain epi- sodes in her life, written by an intimate friend, at her own suggestion, and partly from her own dicta- tion. This book was first published in 1720, half a century after Madame's death. Since then it has gone through many editions. The last appeared in 1882, and had the advantage of an admirable Intro- duction from the pen of M. Anatole France, which deserves to be reprinted. Next in importance to Madame de La Fayette's Life is a far less known work, the Memoirs of Daniel de Cosnac, Bishop of Valence. As Grand Almoner in Monsieur's house- hold, this prelate was closely associated with Madame in the most difficult moments of her life, and her figure occupies a large space in his reminiscences. Besides these, we have a whole host of contemporary records, dealing more or less directly with Madame's history. Pere Cyprien de Gamaches and Madame de Motteville give us many interesting details re- garding her early years. Mademoiselle de Mont- pensier, PAbb6 de Choisy, the Marquis de La Fare, M. de Beaumelle, Saint - Simon and the Princesse Palatine, who became the second wife of Monsieur, all speak of her triumphs and sorrows, and bear witness to her influence and popularity at the Court of Louis XIV. The letters of Madame de Sevigne and of Madame de La Fayette, of Bussy-Rabutin and of Madame de Scudery repeat the praises of her charms and of her goodness, of the superior intellect xiv PREFACE. and cultivated taste which made her the ornament of her age. Jean Loret, the author of the Muse Histo- rique, introduces her name at every page of his quaint rhyming chronicle. Benserade and Madame de Suze addressed their courtly verses to her, as the leader of beauty and fashion. Racine and Moliere dedicated their great plays to her, as the most intelligent and accomplished of princesses. The correspondence of Colbert and Lionne, of Temple and of Pomponne, of Buckingham and Arlington, of Hollis and Montagu, reveal a new aspect of her character. There we see her conduct- ing important negotiations between two powerful monarchs, trusted with all their secrets, correspond- ing with their several ministers, and displaying a tact and ability, a coolness and penetration, which amazed grey-headed statesmen. So brilliant and memorable was the part that Madame played during the short twenty-six years of her life. That life, as we all know, was brought to a close by a sudden and terrible death. The elo- quence of Bossuet has made its tragic circumstances famous, and the suspicion of poisoning, that was generally aroused at the time, has arrested the atten- tion not only of her contemporaries, but of posterity. No less than five different accounts of Madame's last illness have been left us by persons who were at Saint-Cloud on that fatal night. Bossuet and the Jansenist priest, Feuillet, Madame de La Fayette, Mademoiselle and the English Ambassador, Ralph Montagu, have all recorded their impressions of the scene, and of Madame's actions and words during PREFACE. XV those eight hours of mortal agony. But the best account is given by Cosnac, who, although absent himself, received a full report of Madame's death, either from his friend, M. de Saint-Laurens, or from some other member of Monsieur's household. He confirms the truth of the chief facts recorded by the above-named eye-witnesses, and describes, better than any one of them, the interview of Bossuet with the dying Princess, and the last words with which she passed out of this life, "to the infinite grief," wrote Cardinal Barberini, " not only of France, but of all Europe." MADAME CHAPTER I 1644 1646 Birth of Princess Henrietta at Exeter Her Baptism in the Cathedral Flight of the Queen Exeter relieved by the King Besieged and taken by Fairfax Escape of Lady Dalkeith and the Princess to France. OF all the royal ladies of the Stuart race, none has a stronger claim on our interest than Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans. The charm of her personality, and the romantic story of her life both attract us in a peculiar manner. Among the famous men and women of that famous century, there is no more gracious figure than that of this young Princess, who, born in the midst of civil war, and bred in poverty and exile, lived to play an important part in political life, and to become the brightest star of the most splendid Court in Europe. Henrietta belongs so entirely to France by her education and marriage, that we are apt to forget the share we have in her. We think of her only as the wife of Louis XIV.'s brother, the Madame of Bossuet's Oraison, and need to be reminded that she was a Princess of England. Yet Mignard's portraits, for all their French prettiness, reveal her birth. The long, oval face, the straight, thin nose, the arched brows, the eyes and hair, all bear a strong likeness to the kingly features which Vandyke has immortalised. And in spite of the vivacity and sparkle which she inherited from her mother, her character, on the whole, was more that of a Stuart than of a Bourbon. She possessed, in a prominent degree, the A 2 BIRTH OF HENRIETTA. distinctive qualities of her illustrious ancestors. She had their remarkable abilities and their engaging manners, their love of culture and refined taste in art and literature. She had the same natural gaiety, the same love of amusement, the same scorn for conventionalities, the same impatience of etiquette and ceremonial. Her actions display the same impetuous feeling and carelessness of appearances, together with the same generous warmth of heart. At the same time, her character is plainly marked by that deeper and more serious vein, that strain of thoughtful and tender melancholy which was common to the best of the Stuarts. Above all, Henrietta possessed, in a supreme measure, that gift of draw- ing out sympathy and inspiring devotion in those about her, which was so striking a characteristic of her ill-fated race. She had many rivals, and not a few enemies, but no one was more faithfully served and more passionately beloved, or more deeply and enduringly lamented. And when a tragic fate brought her days to a close, at the very moment of her proudest triumph, she met her end with a courage and a gentleness not unworthy of a daughter of Charles I. The romance of Henrietta's life begins from her cradle. She was born at Exeter in 1644, at a critical moment of the Civil Wars. Two months before, on the eve of the battle of Newbury, Queen Henrietta Maria had parted, for the last time on earth, from her husband. As the Parliament's forces increased in strength, and the war raged fiercely round Oxford, Charles had urged her to seek a quieter and safer retreat. From Abingdon, after taking leave of the King, Henrietta travelled by easy stages to Exeter, where she had decided to seek shelter under the protection of the Governor, Sir John Berkeley, one of the King's most trusted servants. Her health had been failing for some time past. She suffered from rheumatic fever, and was so ill on the journey that she doubted if she would ever reach Exeter alive. Here, how- ever, she arrived about the 1st of May, and took up her abode at Bedford House, a residence belonging to the Russell family, which then occupied the site of Bedford Circus, be- tween Southernhay and High Street. So great was the un- happy Queen's weakness, and so acute her suffering, that she ILLNESS OF THE QUEEN. 3 had small hopes of surviving her child's birth, and the King, alarmed by the accounts of her condition which reached him, sent a pressing despatch to his chief physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne, begging him to hasten to Exeter without delay. " Mayerne," he wrote, " for love of me, go to my wife. C. R." This urgent note produced the desired result. Mayerne, who was then in London, obeyed the summons, and reached Exeter on the 28th of May. About the same time, a French nurse, Madame P6ronne, who had assisted at the birth of the young King Louis XIV. and that of his brother, and who had previously attended Henrietta Maria on similar occasions, was sent over by Anne of Austria, the Queen Regent of France, with a gift of money and clothes for the use of her distressed sister-in-law. At length, on the i6th of June, a little Princess was born. The royal infant, a small and delicate babe, was at once given into the charge of Anne Villiers, the wife of Robert Douglas, Lord Dalkeith, eldest son of the Earl of Morton. This lady, a daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, half-brother of George, Duke of Buckingham, and ancestor of the present Earl of Jersey, had all the beauty and high spirit of her family. From the first she watched over her precious charge with the tenderest care, and was soon to give the highest proofs of her courage and devotion. 1 The unfortunate Queen remained in a very precarious state. " I have seen the Queen," wrote M. de Sabran, the French envoy, who had hastened to Exeter, in spite of the troubled state of the kingdom, to pay his respects on this occasion. " She has given birth to a lovely little Princess, but is herself in a state of extreme weakness and suffering." To add to Henrietta's distress, Lord Essex now advanced against Exeter, and threatened to besiege the city. The Queen applied to him for a safe-conduct to Bath, but, instead of granting her request, the Parliamentary General replied "that if he escorted Her Majesty anywhere, it would be to London to answer to Parliament for the war." Thus reduced to ex- tremity, Henrietta roused herself to take a desperate step. Weak and suffering as she was, she determined to make her escape from the beleaguered town, resolved that, whatever 1 See Note on p. 16. 4 FLIGHT OF THE QUEEN. risks she might have to run, she would never fall alive into the hands of the rebels. On the 28th of June, she wrote a touching letter to the King, from her bed, informing him of her intention to make her way to Falmouth, and there embark for France. She knew well the perils to which she would be exposed, but for his sake she was ready to dare all. " I will show you," she wrote, " by this last action, that there is nothing which lies so near my heart as your safety. My life is but a small thing compared with that. For, in the present state of affairs, your condition would be in great peril if you came to my relief, and I know that your affection would make you risk all for my sake. And so I prefer rather to risk this miserable life of mine, a thing worthless enough in itself, saving in as far as it is precious to you. My dear heart, farewell. The most unhappy creature in the world, who can no longer hold a pen." The next day Henrietta took a tender farewell of her little daughter, and, commending this babe of a fortnight old to the care of Sir John Berkeley and Lady Dalkeith, she set out on her perilous journey, accompanied only by Sir John Winton, her physician-in-ordinary, her Capuchin Confessor Father Phillips, and one lady-in-waiting. Three miles from Exeter they narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. The Queen was forced to hide in a wretched hut, and her companions heard the Parliamentary troopers boast they would yet carry the Queen's head to London. But they suc- ceeded in passing the enemy's outposts safely, and were soon afterwards joined by the other members of the Queen's house- hold, among whom were Lord Jermyn and the valiant dwarf, Sir Geoffrey Hudson, who had left Exeter by different roads to avoid suspicion. Thus attended, the Queen travelled to Falmouth, with Sir John Winton walking by the side of her litter the whole of the way. On arriving at the royal castle of Pendennis, the Queen heard from Lady Dalkeith that the infant Princess was suffering from convulsions, and at her entreaty, Sir John returned at once to Exeter to attend her. After a few days' repose, Henrietta Maria herself embarked on board a Dutch vessel that was cruising in the bay, and on the I4th of July, set sail for France. But her adventures were not FLIGHT OF THE QUEEN. 5 yet ended. An English cruiser in the Parliament's service gave chase to the Queen's bark, and pursued it hotly as far as Jersey. There a shell struck the vessel, and for a short time it appeared in danger of being captured. Amid the con- sternation of her ladies, Henrietta alone retained her courage, and bade the captain blow up the ship, rather than allow her to fall into the hands of the rebels. Fortunately, a squadron of Dieppe vessels now appeared in sight, and under their friendly escort, the Queen's ship pursued its way safely to the French coast. Even then, the perils of the voyage were not yet over. Henrietta's journeys were proverbially unlucky. " Mam's bad fortune at sea " was often the subject of her son Charles II.'s merry jests to his sister. A furious gale sprang up in the night, scattering the French fleet in all directions, and driving the Queen's vessel on the rocks near Brest. Here Henrietta and her ladies landed in a small boat and took shelter in a fishing village on the coast, where the peasants gave them food and lodging. Soon, however, the news of the Queen's presence spread through the country, and the whole population flocked to welcome the daughter of Henri Quatre. Directly the tidings reached Paris, the Queen Regent sent carriages and doctors to meet the unhappy fugi- tive and received her with the most generous kindness. " I am welcomed," Henrietta wrote to her husband, " on all sides with such marks of affection as surpass all imagination." Meanwhile Charles I., as yet unaware of his wife's flight had hastened to her rescue, and fighting his way through the Parliament's troops, entered Exeter on the 26th of July. With him came the Prince of Wales, who was lodged at the Deanery, while the King took up his residence at Bedford House. Here he saw his infant daughter for the first time, and was moved to tears, when he clasped the unconscious babe in his arms and thought of her absent mother. The little Princess had suffered from repeated attacks of con- vulsions, but, under the care of Sir John Winton and her devoted nurse, Lady Dalkeith, she had survived, and good hopes of her progress were now entertained. Even before the King's arrival, he had sent orders that the child should be baptised according to the rites of the Church of England. In BAPTISM OF THE INFANT PRINCESS. obedience with his commands, the christening of the infant Princess took place in the Cathedral, on the 2ist of July. A new font was placed in the nave, and a canopy of state erected in honour of the occasion. The Dean of Exeter, Dr Lawrence Burnell, officiated, and the Governor, Sir John Berkeley, Lady Dalkeith and Lady Poulett, acted as sponsors. The following entry, recording this event, is to be found in the registers of the Cathedral, one of the few in England which is also a parish church : "Henrietta, daughter of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and our Gracious Queene Mary, was baptised the 2ithof July 1644." The name of Henrietta was apparently the only one then given to the royal infant. That of Anne was afterwards added by her mother, out of compliment to the Queen Regent, whose generous assistance and kindly forethought had proved of such timely help in her hour of need. Charles now pursued his victorious march against Essex into Cornwall, but in September he again took up his quarters at Exeter and spent another week at Bedford House with his little daughter. Before his final departure, he assigned the excise duties of the city for the support of her household, and appointed Dr Thomas Fuller chaplain to the three-months- old Princess. Then he gave her his farewell blessing, and left Exeter to renew the campaign. During the following twelve months, the West of England remained comparatively tranquil, and in August 1645, the Prince of Wales paid his little sister a second visit and spent a month at Exeter. Hardly had he taken his departure, than the armies of the Parliament, under Fairfax and Waller, once more closed round the city. Lady Dalkeith, who had received orders from the Queen to remove the Princess, on the first approach of danger, made a vain attempt to take her charge to Cornwall. But it was too late, Exeter was once more sur- rounded by hostile forces, and the little Princess and her faithful servants found themselves again exposed to all the perils and hardships of a siege. Henrietta Maria, who from LADY DALKEITH'S DEFENCE. 7 her retreat in France, watched the course of events in England with the keenest anxiety, was beside herself with grief and rage, when she heard of her child's situation. She heaped reproaches on Lady Dalkeith's name, and censured her con- duct with so much severity, that Sir Edward Hyde took up arms in the innocent lady's defence and wrote to Lord Jermyn in the following terms : " In reply to your postscript concerning the Princess and her governess, I think it will break her heart when she hears of the Queen's displeasure ; which, pardon me for saying, is with much severity conceived against her. Your motto seems to be that an unfortunate friend is as bad as an un- faithful. I'll be bold to say, let the success be what it will, that the governess is as faultless in the business as you are, and hath been as punctual, as solicitous, and as impatient to obey the Queen's directions, as she could be to save her soul. She could not act her part without assistance ; and what assistance could she have? How could she have left Exeter, and whither have gone? She had just got the Queen's letter, when the Prince was last at Exeter, about the end of September ; she showed it me, and asked my help ; I durst not communicate, the season being not come which was pointed out by the Queen for her remove, which was when Exeter should be in danger to be besieged, which we had no reason to believe would be before winter was over. It was no wonder if they were not forward to leave that place till forced, since there they had complete subsist- ence, which nobody else had, and which they could not expect in any other place in England. No more remained to be done but to foresee the danger, and to provide in time for her remove. On the enemy's advance, we had reason to believe our troops, then little inferior in number, would have stopped them awhile, and, moreover, a report was just then raised that we were carrying the Prince of Wales to France, which caused fresh disturbance, and at Exeter itself, people would have formally protested against it, had not the Governor prevented them. In Cornwall, at the public sessions, a petition was framed by the judges that 8 DR. FULLER'S TRACTS. the Prince should be desired to declare that no adverse fortune should drive him out of the kingdom, but it was suppressed by Killigrew ; even the servants spoke big and vowed what they would do, if the Prince's removal were undertaken. Was this the time to remove the Princess ? Had it been done, all security for the Prince's safety would have passed away. The governess would have procured a pass to bring the Princess to Cornwall, had not letters been taken at Dartwell, by which the designs of transporting her transpired. You have now the whole story, and may con- clude the governess could as easily have beaten Fairfax, as prevented being shut up in Exeter, from whence I hope she will yet get safely with her charge, to whom I am con- fident she hath omitted no part of her duty." Clarendon's defence of Lady Dalkeith was as manly as it was honest, but many months were to elapse before the brave lady and her charge were to escape from the be- leaguered city. Meanwhile, within the walls of Exeter, Dr Fuller spent his time in composing and printing quaint little tracts, for the future instruction of his royal pupil. The first of these, entitled Good Thoughts in Bad Times, was dedi- cated to Lady Dalkeith, in a long epistle which concludes with the words : " But I am tedious, for Your Honour can spare no more minutes from looking on a better book, her infant Highness, committed to your charge. Was ever more hope of worth in a less volume? But O, how excel- lently will the same, in due time, be set forth, seeing the paper is so pure, and Your Ladyship the overseer to correct the press ! " A copy of the book, bound in blue morocco, and adorned with the Princess Henrietta's cypher and coronet, was solemnly presented to the royal child, who received it, in the arms of Lady Dalkeith, at an audience to which Dr Fuller and the loyal ladies of the besieged city were admitted. The book, it is interesting to learn, was carefully preserved by the Princess, and although she did not long remain a member of the Anglican Church, she valued her kind old tutor's gift, and inscribed several passages in her own writing, on the title-page. SURRENDER OF EXETER. 9 As the winter months wore on, food became scarce, and the inhabitants of Exeter were beginning to suffer from starvation, when, one day, a sudden flight of larks poured into the town, " an arrival," writes good Dr Fuller, " as welcome as quails in the wilderness." So plentiful was the supply that they sold for twopence a dozen, "and of this miraculous event," the divine adds : " I was not only an eye but a mouth witness." But the blockade continued, and the larks came no more. At length Sir John Berkeley, finding himself and his gallant comrades reduced to starvation, was compelled to surrender. On the I3th of April, the garrison marched out with the honours of war, and Sir John Berkeley himself escorted Lady Dalkeith and the Princess Henrietta to Salisbury. The Mercurius Civicus of April 2 3rd records, amongst other items of news from Exeter, that the Princess Henrietta, " the last of the royal offspring, but the first that was in any town, when it stooped to the obedience of the Parliament, came out with her governess, upon the entering of our force, and we hear, is gone with Sir John Berkeley to Oxford." So the youthful Princess left her native town. She was never there again, but the loyal capital of the West treasured her memory fondly, and after Henrietta's death, Charles II., who never forgot that his sister was " an Exeter woman," pre- sented the faithful city with a beautiful portrait of her by Sir Peter Lely. This picture, which represents Madame in the bloom of her lovely womanhood, still hangs in the Guildhall of Exeter, a precious memorial of her connection with the old Devon town. By the terms of Sir John Berkeley's surrender, it had been expressly agreed that the Princess and her household, together with all her plate, money and goods, should be allowed to proceed to any place in the kingdom which her guardian might choose, and that a sum for their maintenance should be allowed by Parliament, until the King's pleasure as to the disposal of his child could be ascertained. Lady Dalkeith accordingly communicated with the King, and on the 1 8th of April, forwarded his decision to Sir Thomas Fairfax. IO THE PRINCESS AT OATLANDS. "I have prevailed with Mr Ashburnham," she wrote, " to acquaint you that I have His Majesty's allowance to remain, with the Princess, for some time about London, in any of His Majesty's houses. I have judged Richmond the fittest. This bearer will inform you of those particulars concerning the settlement of the Princess in that place, wherein I conceive your assistance and recommendation to the Parliament to be necessary, which His Majesty will acknowledge as a service, and I as an obligation to, Sir, your humble servant, "A. DALKEITH." Fairfax promptly forwarded this note to the Speaker Lenthall, begging that the honourable House might make its pleasure concerning the same known by the bearer, who was appointed to meet Lady Dalkeith at Salisbury on the follow- ing Thursday. But it proved to be the pleasure of Parlia- ment that the Princess and her servants should be conducted, not to Richmond, but to Oatlands, where they all lived for the next three months, at Lady Dalkeith's expense. In vain this courageous lady addressed repeated applications to the Speakers of both Houses, to Sir Thomas Fairfax and to the Parliamentary Committee for the County of Surrey, then sitting at Kingston, begging that the allowance promised for the Princess's support might be paid. No notice whatever was taken of her request until the 24th of May, when, to her dismay, she received a message from the House of Commons, ordering that the Princess Henrietta should be brought up to London and placed with her brother and sister, the young Duke of Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth, at St. -James's Palace, in the charge of Lady Northumberland, and that the whole of her present retinue should be dismissed. But Lady Dalkeith was determined never to part from the child until she could deliver her safely into the hands of her royal parents, and, nothing daunted, she addressed a spirited re- monstrance to the Speakers of both Houses. The original of her letter to the House of Lords may still be seen in the Bodleian Library, and is as follows : " MY LORD, Presently upon the surrender of Exeter, LADY DALKEITH'S PETITION. II while the Princess Henrietta, under my care, was on her way towards these parts, I presented your Lordship my humble desires to the Parliament, concerning the settlement of Her Highness with such allowance as to them should seem ex- pedient, since which time, there having been nothing therein determined, I have been necessitated to renew those desires. I am not now so hopeful as I was, yet once more entreat that the honourable Houses would be pleased to consider that I received this trust from his Majesty ; that I have his injunction, as will appear by this letter I have sent inclosed to your Lordship, not to leave the Princess, and that, by the article of Exeter which concerns Her Highness, you may also perceive she is to be disposed of, according to His Majesty's directions ; that I have preserved Her Highness, not without many cares and fears, from a weak to a very hopeful con- dition of health, that I am best acquainted with her condition and constitution, that my coming into these parts was volun- tary, that I have disbursed a great sum of money for the support of Her Highness and her family, since the treaty at Exeter, that I have, because the time is very precious in the condition I am in, endeavoured to anticipate all possible obstructions, which, I humbly conceive, did either arise from the charge or inconvenience of dividing the King's children into two families, or that they had not full confidence in me, or that there is some other exception to my person. To all which, I did humbly answer that I did cheerfully consent to remain with Her Highness at St. -James's, and to be sub- ordinate to my Lord and Lady of Northumberland, and, from time to time, receive and follow their directions concerning the Princess, and to be continued no longer than, after the severest reflection upon my deportment, I shall appear with- out the least exception. All my desire is now to be con- tinued about her person, quitting all power, without being any kind of burden to the Parliament, or inconvenience to my Lord and Lady of Northumberland, resolving to bring such an obedience as I hope shall make me acceptable. And I do very humbly conceive I have not at any time deserved ill of the Parliament, which does often make me hope this request will be granted, without which I am ruined, my interest and 12 ESCAPE OF LADY DALKEITH AND THE PRINCESS. inclination being both in this service. But if this be not satis- factory, I have only these requests, that I may be reimbursed the money I have laid out during my attendance and expec- tation of the Parliament's pleasure, and that I may have a pass to send one to his Majesty to know his pleasure, without which, in honour and honesty, I cannot deliver up his child. And in the meantime (which cannot be long) I most humbly entreat there may be a present order for a weekly allowance for Her Highness and her family, which will enable me with more patience to expect the reimbursement of my money. Having nothing more but my earnest and humble instance to have these communicated to both the honourable Houses, if it be thought fit, I do most humbly entreat it may be by a conference and a speedy signification of the Parliament's pleasure. I remain, my Lord, your Lordship's humble servant, " A. DALKEITH. " OATLANDS, the -sZthJune 1646." Another month passed and still no answer came. Then Lady Dalkeith, fearing to see the child torn from her arms, resolved to carry her off, out of the reach of the Parliament. She disguised herself in a shabby cloak and gown, placed a hump of old rags on one shoulder to conceal her graceful figure, and, dressing the little Princess in a ragged suit of boy's clothes, walked to Dover with the child on her back. None of the household at Oatlands were in the secret, excepting two servants named Lambert and Dyke, and a French valet who passed as Lady Dalkeith's husband. The only risk of detection lay in the angry exclamations of the little Princess herself, who resented the shabby dress she wore as much as the name of Pierre, which had been given her for the time, and told everyone they met on the road that she was not Pierre, but the Princess, and that these rags were not her real clothes. Fortunately her baby language did not arouse suspicion, and Sir John Berkeley, who, following at some distance, kept his eye on the travellers all the way, saw them safely on board the French boat for Calais. Great was the alarm at Oatlands when, on Friday, July the 25th, both Lady ESCAPE OF LADY DALKEITH AND THE PRINCESS. 13 Dalkeith and the Princess were found to be missing, but a few hours later the fears of the household were set at rest by the arrival of the following letter from her ladyship : " GENTLEWOMEN, You are witness with what patience I have expected the pleasure of the Parliament. I have found it impossible to obtain any justice to Her Highness or favour to myself, or any of you. I was no longer able to keep her, which was the cause I have been forced to take this upon me. Be pleased to repair to His Majesty, all of you, or as many of you as think fit. I then am sure you will enjoy the blessing of serving Her Highness, which, believe me, is heartily wished by me. It will be a great mark of your faithfulness and kindness to your mistress, to conceal her being gone as long as you can, and it will make your past service more con- sidered, and that to come more acceptable. And, trust me, your divulging of it will be of no advantage to you. Thus you may do it, seeming to expect her the day following after the receipt of this letter, and then come to deliver this other to Mr Marshall, after you have read it, and tell him which is truth that I have removed Her Highness to a better air, whither you may, if you will, follow her. All her wearing clothes, woollen or linen, you may distribute amongst you ; the little plate she hath, Mr Case will have a care of, her other things are to be continued with Mr Marshall. I am so con- fident you will behave yourselves kindly and faithfully to your mistress, that you may yet more oblige me to be, what you shall always find me, which is to you all, a very hearty, kind friend, A. DALKEITH. " For her Highness the Princess Henrietta, her gentlewomen" The members of the household obeyed these orders im- plicitly, and the Parliament did not receive news of the Princess's flight for three days after her departure. By that time, Lady Dalkeith and her precious charge had reached France safely. The joyful news was quickly borne to Paris. Carriages were sent to meet Lady Dalkeith at Calais, and the little Princess, once more clad in her own clothes, was at length restored to her mother's arms. The i4 WALLER'S ODE. Queen wept tears of joy, as she once more clasped her long-lost child in her embrace, and kissed her again and again. Lady Dalkeith, herself worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and exhausted with her long journey on foot, fell seriously ill on her arrival at Saint-Germain, where the Queen was then residing. On her recovery she found herself quite a heroine. Her name was on every lip, her adventures became the theme of eve/y cavalier, at the Court of the exiled Queen. The King, who had never heard of his little daughter's flight, until the news reached him from Paris, warmly expressed his deep sense of gratitude to her brave deliverer, in his letters to Jermyn and Culpepper. And Sir Richard Browne, John Evelyn's father- in-law, who was at that time the English Ambassador in Paris, writing home on the I7th of August, remarks : " I was yesterday at St Germain, to kiss the sweet little Princess Henrietta's hands ; the manner of the Lady Dal- keith's bringing Her Highness away from Oatlands, is a pretty romance." In later years, this romantic episode was celebrated both in prose and verse. It supplied the poet Waller with a subject for a New Year's Ode, which he addressed, in 1650, " To my Lady Morton, at the Louvre in Paris." By the death of her father-in-law, Lady Dalkeith had lately become Countess of Morton, and after congratulating her on these new honours, " To the fair Villiers we Dalkeith prefer, And fairest Morton now as much as her," he compares her exploits in turn with those of Judith in slaying Holofernes, and of Venus in saving ./Eneas from the flames of Troy. He recalls the adventures of her flight, and the dis- guise which she had assumed with so much success : " Where the kind nymph, changing her faultless shape, Becomes unhandsome handsomely to 'scape, When, through the guards, the river and the sea, Faith, beauty, wit and courage made their way." And he winds up with a graceful compliment to the youthful Princess, for whose sake she had dared such perils by land and sea. BOSSUET'S ORAISOI*. 15 " Born in the storms of war, this royal fair, Produced like lightning in temptestuous air, Though now she flies her native isle, less kind, Less safe for her, than either sea or wind, Shall, when the blossom of her beauty's shown, See her great brother on the British throne, Where peace shall smile, and no dispute arise, But which rules most, his sceptre or her eyes." Twenty years afterwards, when Bossuet pronounced his famous Oraison funebre over the widowed Queen of England, in the presence of her daughter Henrietta and her husband, the Duke of Orleans, he recalled this incident of Madame's childhood, in a well-known passage of his discourse. " Princess, whose future destiny is to be so great and glorious ! Must you be born in the power of the enemies of your race ? Eternal God ! watch over her ! Holy angels, surround her with your unseen squadrons, and guard this illus- trious and forsaken child. God did protect her, messieurs ! Her governess, two years afterwards, saved her precious charge from the hands of the rebels, and although conscious of her own greatness, the child revealed herself, and refusing all other names, insisted on calling herself the Princess, she was safely borne to the arms of her royal mother, to be her consolation in misfortune, and to become the happy spouse of a great prince, and the joy of all France." Two curious entries, in the domestic State papers of Charles II.'s reign, are interesting, as giving us the names of the faithful servants who assisted Lady Dalkeith in her escape, and after- wards suffered for their loyalty. The first, dated September 1663, is the petition of Elinor Dyke for arrears of wages due to her for six years' service, 25, board wages at Exeter, and ,? for silver laced shoes for Princess Henrietta, " whom she attended into France, losing thereby her house and furniture for fifteen rooms, and now her pension of 60 is stopped, so that she has nothing left, and is beholden to the Countess of Berkshire for a house to live in." The second belongs to the year 1666, and is as follows: "Thomas Lambert and Mary his wife, petition for the customs on 2000 pieces of Holland linen, to enable them to drive a trade in their old age. Were 16 THE PRINCESS'S SERVANTS. obliged to save their lives by leaving the country six years, for their diligence in convoying the Princess Henrietta, from her barbarous enemies to the Queen-mother in France, are injured by searches in their millinery ware and lace for French commodities." NOTE REFERRED TO ON PAGE 3. One of the Queen's gentlemen, Archibald Hay, was at once despatched with the news to the King's camp at Buckingham, and on the 25th of June, Charles wrote to express his joy at Henrietta's happy delivery, and to assure her that troops should be speedily sent to her assistance. Four days afterwards, the battle of Cropredy Bridge was fought, and on the 3Oth of June the King wrote the following letter from the manor-house of Willscote : ' ' Dear Heart, Sithence I began this, I had no time to send it, nor have I much now, but I could stay no longer from giving thee an account of yesterday's good success, which, though it has not been the greatest, yet it was the dearest that I have seen, but it was the ugliest beginning that ever I saw ; as for the particulars, I refer thee to this bearer's relation, who was an eye-witness, and other men's pens. " Now I must again rejoice with thee for thy happy delivery. As for the christening of my youngest, and, as they say, prettiest daughter, I heartily thank thee that, I being so far off, thou wouldst stay for my directions. For the one part, which is choosing of the godfathers, I leave totally to thee ; but for the place and form, I desire it should be in the Cathedral, if the health of my little baby will permit it, and in the same way of the Church of England, as all the rest of my children have been, so I rest eternally thine. C. R." Unfortunately, these affectionate letters were intercepted at Chippenham by Captain John Cartwright, of the Parliamentarian army, and never reached Exeter. CHAPTER II 1646 1655. Wars of the Fronde The Royal Exiles in Paris Death of Charles I. The Prin cess Henrietta brought up a Roman Catholic Attack on the Duke of Gloucester's Religion. THE first scene in the chequered drama of the Princess Hen- rietta's life had ended happily. The storm-clouds which threatened to burst on the royal infant's head, had been for- tunately averted, but on the friendly shore where she had found shelter, there were still dangers and hardships enough in store for her. Nothing could exceed the warmth of the reception which the English Queen had met with in her native land, or the generous kindness with which she had been welcomed by her sister-in-law, the Queen Regent of France. Wherever she went she was treated with royal honours. The people of the towns through which she passed, received her with acclamations as a daughter of France, the Queen Regent and the young King Louis met her at the gates of Paris, and brought her to the Louvre in their state coaches. A pension of thirty thou- sand livres a month was granted her, and she was given rooms in the Louvre and allowed the use of the palace of Saint-Germain as a country residence. For some time she retained all the state of a crowned head, kept up a large household of ladies and gentlemen-in-waiting, and drove about in splendid equip- ages, attended by guards and running footmen. But little by little, observes her niece, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, this pomp diminished, until at length it disappeared altogether. All the money she could spare was sent to her husband, and be- fore long, all the plate and jewels she possessed were sold to B 1 8 COURT OF THE EXILED QUEEN. supply him with funds. In these early days of her exile, her Court became the meeting place of those banished cavaliers who had lost all for the King's cause. The Prince of Wales had joined his mother in September 1646, and both Prince Rupert and Lord Newcastle came to Paris, after their defeat at Marston Moor. There, too, the poets and men of letters, who had sung the praises of the Queen in happier days, now sought shelter. There came Cowley and Denham, and the fickle Waller, when he, too, had been driven into exile, for plotting against his party. Others, such as Wilmot and Henry Percy, Davenant and Culpepper, went to and fro between France and England, hatching fresh schemes against the Parliament, and carrying on an active intercourse between the King and his exiled Queen. Henrietta Maria received them all graciously, and had a smile and kind word for each. In spite of the havoc which time and trouble had wrought with her beauty, and the sad change which old friends, such as Madame de Motteville saw in her once fair face, she still kept much of her old charm. In her saddest moments, when the tears were running down her cheeks at the thought of her troubles, she would recall some amusing incident of her adventures, and would make others laugh by her wit and lively descriptions. She loved to tell her niece, Mademoiselle, of the happy days which she had spent in England, and dwelt on the beauty of the country and the splendour of her Court at Whitehall. At that time, the idea of a marriage between the young Prince of Wales and his cousin, Mademoiselle, was already entertained. This Princess, the only child of Henrietta Maria's younger brother, Gaston, Duke of Orleans, by his first marriage with Mademoiselle de Montpensier, had in- herited the vast estates of the House of Guise from her mother, and was the richest heiress in Europe. The pride she felt in her rank and position, was further increased by the consciousness of her youthful charms. In the Memoirs written in her old age, she dwells with complacency on her fine figure, dazzling complexion and fair hair, on the magnificence of her attire, and the compliments that were paid her on all sides. She had a sincere liking for her aunt of England, CHARLES II. AND MADEMOISELLE. 19 " that poor lady who has no joy left her on earth," and was well pleased to accept the attentions of her young cousin, but had not the slightest intention of marrying him in his present forlorn condition. She describes Charles, then a boy of sixteen, as tall for his age, with a fine figure, dark complexion and a beautiful black head of hair. He knew very little French and had to employ Prince Rupert as an interpreter, so he could not make many fine speeches, but Mademoiselle allowed him to wear her colours of red, black and white, to sit on a stool at her feet at the theatre, hand her to her coach, and even hold a flambeau at her toilette. " Since, at that time, however, I thought of marrying the Emperor," she remarks, " I looked on the Prince of Wales merely as an object of pity." But Charles left Paris to take command of the Royalist fleet, and the cabals and tumultuous scenes of the Fronde filled Mademoiselle's head with other schemes. Meanwhile, Henrietta Maria's position .became every day more painful. Her husband was a prisoner in his own palace, and she was full of anxiety for her absent children. Her money was all spent, her plate and jewels had been sold, partly to supply the King, partly to help the exiled cavaliers, many of whom were reduced to the verge of starvation. Her son's servants came to her for their wages, and she was forced to dismiss her own, for want of money. Madame de Motteville, who paid her a visit at the Louvre, on the I4th of July 1648, found her in sore straits for lack of funds, and was filled with compassion when the Queen showed her a little gold cup, out of which she drank, and told her that this was the only coin which she possessed in the world. The French Royal Family were hardly in a better plight, for the flames of civil war had spread to their own land, and early in January the Queen Regent and her son left the Louvre secretly and retired to Saint-Germain, where they fortified themselves in the old chateau, while the ..troops laid siege to Paris. Their Majesties were in want of everything. Mademoiselle de- scribes the hardships to which the Court was reduced. " Those who had beds had no hangings, and those who had hangings were without clothes." And Anne of Austria, hear- 2O THE FRONDE. ing of the Queen of England's destitute condition, sent her word how gladly she would have relieved her, but that "neither she nor the King had a single sou, and that she knew not where to obtain either a dinner or a gown." Well might Madame de Motteville remark : " In that year a terrible star reigned against kings." Henrietta remained shut up in the vast precincts of the Louvre, during the most tumultu- ous weeks of the Fronde, unmoved by the fighting that went on in the barricaded streets, and the slaughter that took place at her doors. And with her was her little daughter, who, for the second time in her short life, now experienced the horrors of a siege. The Queen's own thoughts were too much absorbed in the terrible scenes then passing in England, to reck of the riots and bloodshed outside. It was from the Louvre, on the 6th of January, at the very hottest moment of the struggle between the contending parties, that she addressed the letters to the Parliament, asking leave to come to London to see the King, her husband, before his trial. But the House of Commons refused to receive her petition, on the plea that she had been already voted guilty of high treason, and since no couriers were now allowed to enter Paris, the Queen remained for some time without further news from England. The same week that she sent her last appeal to the Parlia- ment, the Cardinal de Retz, who was then all-powerful in Paris, paid a visit to the Louvre, to inquire how the Queen fared, in the midst of the strife raging around her. It was a bitter winter's day, and the snow was falling fast. But he found Her Majesty of England sitting by the bedside of her little daughter. There was no fire in the room, and not a stick in the house, for it was six months since she had re- ceived her pension, and the tradespeople had refused to supply her. " You see," said the Queen, cheerfully, " I am keeping my Henrietta company, since we have no fire, and the poor child could not rise to-day." "You will do me the justice to believe," wrote the Cardinal to a friend, "that Madame d'Angleterre did not stay in bed the next day, for want of a faggot." He described the scene that he had wit- nessed to the Parliament of Paris, and pleaded the cause CHARLES I. BEHEADED. 21 of the royal exiles so eloquently, that 40,000 livres were at once sent to Henrietta Maria, for her present use. " Posterity," the Cardinal remarks in his Memoirs, " will hardly believe that a Queen of England and a grand-daughter of Henri Quatre wanted firewood in the month of January, in the Louvre." But worse sorrows were in store for the unhappy Queen. Rumours of the King's trial reached the members of her household early in February, but for some time his wife remained in ignorance of the terrible truth. She often expressed her confidence in the loyalty of the English nation, and spoke so hopefully of the King's release from captivity, that no one dared to undeceive her. At length, on the i8th of February, she sent a gentleman of her household to Saint- Germain, to endeavour to obtain tidings from England. Then Lord Jermyn broke the news to her. For some time she remained speechless, and those about her feared she would lose her reason. " Neither our words, nor yet our tears could rouse her from her ^stupor," writes her chaplain, Pere Cyprien de Gamaches. "Curce leves loquuntur, graves stupent." In that hour of agony, the little Princess Henrietta, he tells us, was the widowed Queen's only comfort, and the child's unconscious prattle did more to soothe her anguish than all other attempts at consolation. For her sake alone, did the Queen consent to remain in the world, and give up the intention, which she had at first announced, of spending the rest of her life in the Carmelite convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. As it was, she retired there for several weeks, leaving her little daughter to the care of Lady Morton and Father Cyprian, who looked on the petite princesse as his own especial charge. From that day, Henrietta wore widow's mourning, and called herself La reine malheureuse, a name which she frequently used in signing her letters. " She has often told me since," says Madame de Motteville, " that she wondered how she had been able to survive such a blow. She knew that life had nothing left to give her. She had lost not only a crown, but a husband and friend, whose loss she could never regret enough good, just and wise, worthy of her love and of that of his subjects." 22 WORCESTER AND DUNBAR. The same lady reports how, the very day after receiving the fatal news, the Queen bade her tell her mistress, the Queen Regent of France, that her lord the King had lost his life, because he had never been allowed to know the truth, and that she conjured her, by her love for her native land, to listen to those who told her the real state of things, before it was too late. The Prince of Wales, who had been already recognised as King of England by the States-General, now joined his mother, and accompanied her to Saint-Germain, where she went in July, at the earnest request of Anne of Austria. The journey was not without its perils, and Evelyn describes how a mob of angry creditors surrounded the carriage in which the Queen and her little daughter sat, and how the young King, in deep mourning, rode by the side, with one hand on the door of the coach, to protect her from the insults of the populace. By the end of the month, however, some degree of tranquillity was restored, and the young King of France was able to return to Paris, where his first act was to pay a visit of condolence to his aunt. Charles II. was now received with royal honours at the Court, and showed a true spark of kingly feeling when, in spite of his mother's prayers and tears, he determined to make another effort to recover his crown. 'Better to die in such an enterprise," he replied, "than to wear away life in shameful indolence." So he left Paris for Jersey, where he was proclaimed King by the loyal islanders, and, in the following May, landed in Scotland, to conduct the expedition which ended in the disastrous defeats of Dunbar and Worcester. That year proved a sadder one than ever for the widowed Queen. In September 1650 she received the news of her daughter Elizabeth's death at Carisbrook Castle, and two months later, her son-in-law, the Prince of Orange, died of smallpox at the Hague, leaving her eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, a widow at the age of nineteen. A week afterwards, this Princess gave birth to a son, who was one day to ascend her father's throne, and reign over Great Britain as King William III. The death of the Prince of Orange was a serious loss to the English royal family. Both the young King and the Duke of York had found a hospitable welcome CHARLES II. IN FRANCE. 23 at his Court in all their wanderings, and had been generously supplied with money and arms for their campaigns. Now his young widow was left alone to maintain the rights of her orphan boy against a rival faction, closely allied with the leaders of the military despotism in England, who had doomed her father to death. And now, to add to Henrietta's sorrows, came the failure of Charles II.'s expedition and her anxiety on his account. News of his defeat at Worcester reached her, and for some time, she did not know if her son were alive or dead. " All the world," writes her niece, Mademoiselle, " went to console the Queen of England, but this only increased her grief, for she did not know if her son had been slain, or made a prisoner." The sudden arrival of the King, and the romantic story of his escape, had the effect of softening this haughty lady's heart, and she owns that her cousin's appearance and conversation impressed her favourably. His black curls had been cut off to complete his disguise, but his presence was manly and majestic, and he spoke French with ease. She hastened to congratulate him on his return, and as he led her back through the gallery that connects the Louvre and the Tuileries, he gave her an amusing account of his adventures after Worcester, of his concealment in the oak of Boscobel, and his escape to the coast. But what struck her fancy most, was the picture which he drew of the miserable life that he had led in Scotland, where he vowed there was not a single woman to be seen, and where the men were such barbarians, that they actually held it sinful to play on the violin. " No wonder," she exclaims, "the poor King was glad to find himself again in a civilised country." After that first meeting, Charles was a frequent visitor at the Tuileries, where Mademoiselle held receptions, and danced with her English cousin, to the music of her famous violins. She lent a willing ear to his soft speeches, and was well content to have this royal lover at her beck and call, but when Charles made her serious proposals of marriage, she rejected them with scorn. Her latest ambition was to become the wife of her cousin, King Louis XIV., and she replied that, no one could expect her to stoop to a monarch who was one 24 LOUIS XIV. RETURNS TO PARIS. only in name, when she might at any moment become Queen of France. So she preferred to play the part of heroine in the Fronde, and to join the Prince of Cond and his peers in their revolt against the influence of the hated Cardinal. She held Orleans against the royal forces, and appeared on horseback with her ladies at the head of the troops. Then she returned to Paris, to enjoy her well-earned laurels, and be hailed with acclamations, by princes and people, as a new Joan of Arc. "You are indeed another Pucelle," said the Queen of England to her niece. " First you drove out the English, and then you rescued Orleans." The sarcasm was by no means displeasing to Mademoiselle, who liked above all to find her- self a person of importance. But her triumph was of brief duration. " Corpo di bacco ! " the Cardinal exclaimed, when he heard that Mademoiselle had ordered the guns of the Bastille to fire on the King's troops. " That cannon-shell has killed her husband." He was right. Neither Louis XIV. nor his mother ever forgave the insult, and when the Court returned to Paris, Mademoiselle was politely desired to vacate the Tuileries and retire to her chateau at Saint-Fargeau. Meanwhile, Queen Henrietta and her son had refrained from joining either party, " with more prudence," Mademoiselle observes, " than we should ever have shown." On her part, she was violent in denouncing both their Majesties of England for refusing to take her side. The Queen, on the contrary, em- ployed all the influence she had with her brother Gaston, the Prince of Conde, and his sister, the Duchess of Longueville, to effect a reconciliation between them and the Queen-mother, and was sincerely rejoiced when the civil war was at length brought to a close. On the 2ist of October 1652, the young King Louis, now fourteen years of age, made his entry into Paris, riding at the head of his guards, and his manly presence won the hearts of the fickle populace, who welcomed him with shouts of joy. His first act was to recall the proscribed Cardinal, who returned without delay, and once more took up the reins of government, which he held undisturbed until his death. Mazarin, however, was too wily a politician to lend his support to the English monarch, and shortly after his return to power, CONVENT OF CHAILLOT. 25 he publicly recognised Cromwell as Lord Protector, and sent an envoy to negotiate terms of peace with him. The blow was a heavy one to Queen Henrietta, who saw in this step an insult to her husband's memory, and the ruin of the hopes which she had hitherto cherished of her son's restoration. " Since my great trouble," she wrote to the Duke of York at the Hague, " I have felt nothing equal to this. God take us under His protection and give us patience to wait His time." Anne of Austria, on her part, did her utmost to alleviate the sadness of her sister-in-law's position. She increased her pension, and insisted on her leaving the Louvre, to come and occupy a suite of rooms in the Palais-Royal, where she and her sons had now fixed their abode. Henrietta complied with her request, although she preferred the quiet of the Louvre, and resolved to find a spot, where she could retire at her pleasure. The nuns of Port-Royal invited her to take up her abode at their convent, in the Rue Saint-Jacques, but Henri- etta preferred to found an independent community of her own. For this purpose, with the help of the Queen Regent, she bought a house on the heights of Chaillot, which had been originally built by Catherine de Medicis and granted by Henri Quatre to the Mare'chal de Bassompierre. Here she invited ten or twelve nuns from the convent of the Filles de Marie near the Bastille, to take up their residence, and obtained letters-patent from Anne of Austria constituting the house a royal foundation, under the protection of the Queen of England. This convent, which occupied the site of the present Trocadro, and was destined to be intimately associated with several generations of Stuarts, now became Henrietta's favourite retreat. She retained a suite of rooms overlooking the Seine, and commanding a noble view of Paris, for her own use, and often retired there, with her ladies, for several weeks at a time. Here the Queen Regent also came to spend days of prayer and meditation, in her sister-in-law's company. Her example was soon followed by the Princesses and other ladies of rank, and Louise de La Fayette, once the object of Louis XIII.'s adoration, but now known as the Mere Angelique, became abbess of the new community. Here too, the Queen of England often brought her little daughter Henrietta. From 26 FATHER CYPRIAN AND LADY MORTON. the moment of her birth, she had secretly vowed that this " enfant de benediction" as she loved to call her, should be bred in the faith of her own Church. Accordingly, she had early entrusted her religious education to her French chaplain, Pere Cyprien de Gamaches, to whose Memoirs we owe the few details we possess of Henrietta's early years. "As soon as the first sparks of reason began to ' glimmer in the mind of that precious child,'" writes the old father, "the Queen honoured me with the command to instruct her, and took the trouble herself to bring her to the chapel of the Louvre, where I taught children the Christian doctrine ! " Lady Morton was always present at these instructions, and one day told the little Princess, laughingly, " I think Father Cyprian's catechis- ing is intended as much for my benefit, as for that of youi Royal Highness." The Princess, who already, Father Cyprian tells us, showed signs of a remarkably quick intelligence, re- peated the remark to her mother, who said, " My dear child, as you are so devout yourself, why do you not try to convert your governess ? " " Madame," replied the eager child, " I do my best I embrace her, I clasp my arms round her neck, I say to her, ' Do be converted, Lady Morton. Father Cyprian says you must be a Catholic to be saved. You have heard him as well as I have. Do be a Catholic, ma bonne dame, and I will love you still more dearly ! ' " But in spite of Father Cyprian's arguments, and the Princess's still more persuasive caresses, Lady Morton re- sisted all endeavours to shake her faith, and remained a staunch Protestant. After her husband's death, in 1651, she obtained leave from the Queen to go to England, where the interests of her children required her presence. There she died, three years later, of a sudden attack of fever, without seeing her little Princess again. Meanwhile, a report reached the Hague, that the Queen intended to make her daughter a Catholic, and excited great uneasiness in the minds of the Princess of Orange and of the English refugees at her Court. Charles II. himself was con- siderably disturbed, and on his return to France, in 1651, he took the first opportunity of remonstrating with his mother, for acting in a manner thus contrary to his father's dying PRINCESS HENRIETTA BROUGHT UP A ROMAN CATHOLIC. 27 wishes. The Queen resented this interference passionately, and Charles tried to shift the unpleasant task on Chancellor Hyde, who spoke freely to his mistress, and pointed out the evil it would do her son's cause, and the " irrecoverable ruin " it would be to the Princess herself, in the eyes of all England. Upon this, the Queen urged, not without reason, the exist- ence of the clause in her own marriage treaty, which provided that all her children should be brought up under her care, till their thirteenth year. This clause had been broken in regard to her other children, but the late King, she insisted, had promised her faithfully, that it should be observed in the case of this her youngest child. She further contended that, Tar from being injurious to the Princess's future, her education in the Catholic faith would prove of the greatest possible advan- tage to her future establishment, and spoke with so much passion and resolution, that Clarendon gave up his attempt as useless, and contented himself with obtaining a promise that the Princess should not be put into a nunnery. After this, the Chancellor advised his master to take no further steps in the matter at present, and pointed out that, for the next three or four years, his sister would be capable of understanding but little of religion, and that, by the end of that time, he might find himself better able to take her under his own care. Clarendon was afterwards blamed for giving his master this advice, but it is difficult to see what else could be done under the circumstances. " I could not give better counsel," he wrote to Sir Edward Nicholas, the King's secretary, "or I would. Not that I was satisfied with the resolution, or will not do all in my power to alter it, by any way under heaven ; yet, if by that time, the King have any place to put her in, it will easily be done ; if not, I know not what to say to it. Since I could never be suspected of kindness to that religion, and in that particular of your mistress, I think I did more than any other body, and I advised to have had somewhat done, when may be, it was seasonable enough, but I confess, when I spoke with the Queen and saw her passion and resolution in it, I could not advise the King what he could do, to remedy it, and then the less was spoken of it, for the present, I thought the best, till he might be able to do somewhat, which at present 28 PRINCESS HENRIETTA'S EDUCATION. he could not. Tell me, I pray you, what could the King have possibly done in that business, if the Queen had been willing to have delivered her to him ? " These arguments were unanswerable. The exiled King had neither house nor home to offer his sister, and she depended for her bread on the French Queen Regent, who was a still more bigoted Roman Catholic than Henrietta Maria herself. Even the Duchess of Savoy, the Queen's elder sister, wrote to implore her to educate her daughter in the true faith ; and to satisfy her relatives' anxiety on this point, Henrietta Maria caused Father Cyprian to publish the manual of instruction which he had drawn up for the Princess's use, and thus show the world that the child was brought up in the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church. A handsome copy of this book, bound in red leather and bearing the initials " H.A." stamped in gold on the cover, may be seen in the British Museum. Unfortunately for the peace of the English royal family, Father Phillips, who had for many years held the post of Confessor to the Queen, died at the close of 1652, and was succeeded by Walter Montagu, Abbot of Pontoise. This ecclesiastic, a brother of the Earl of Manchester, had been won over by the Jesuits to the Roman Church during a visit to Paris, some years before, and had all the fiery zeal of a recent convert. He at once induced the two Queens to put a stop to the Anglican services which had been held by Dr Cosin, the exiled Bishop of Durham, in a hall of the Louvre, during Henrietta's residence there. The King and the Duke of York now attended the English Church services held at the house of Sir Richard Browne, who was still nominal ambas- sador on behalf of Charles II. And when, at the close of 1653, the young Duke of Gloucester, having been set free by Cromwell, joined his mother at the Palais-Royal, he attended those offices daily, on his way to his riding and dancing lessons. This excited the Queen's displeasure, and, urged by Abb6 Montagu, she determined if possible to make a convert of this her youngest son. Early in 1654, a Treaty of Alliance was concluded between France and England. One of the conditions on which Crom- ATTEMPTS TO CONVERT THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. 29 well insisted, was the departure of Charles II. from France. Accordingly, in July, the King left Paris to take refuge at Cologne, and, fearing his mother would take advantage of his brother's youth, obtained a solemn promise from her, before his departure, that she would not attempt to pervert him. But hardly was his back turned, than the young Duke was exposed to a series of attacks, both from the Queen and Abb Montagu. The boy was not yet fourteen, but, mindful of his dying father's last charge, he resisted these attempts in the most resolute manner. The Queen dismissed his faithful tutor, Lovel, sent him to Pontoise for a month with Abb6 Montagu, and would have made him enter a Jesuit's college, if it had not been for the determined opposition shown by the rest of her children. The Duke of York stood by his brother manfully, and the Princess of Orange wrote in great concern to Chancellor Hyde of " the great misfortune likely to fall upon the family, by her brother Harry's being made a Papist." Her aunt, the good Queen of Bohemia, who loved her nephew as dearly as her own children, was no less distressed. " I was on Saturday last," she wrote to Sir Edward Nicholas, "with my best niece (the Princess of Orange), it being her birthday. I assure you that she is in much trouble for her dear brother Gloucester. I am sorry the King has so much cause for grief. I beseech God that He may speedily remedy it. I believe that my dear nephew Gloucester has a good resolution, but there is no trusting to one of his tender age. I confess I did not think the Queen, his mother, would have proceeded thus." Clarendon told the Princess of Orange that he had never seen the King so awakened, as in this business. Even Charles's indolent nature was roused. He sent a spirited remonstrance to the Queen, and, on the loth of November 1654, addressed a long letter to his brother, commanding him never to set foot in a Jesuit's college, and advising him to refuse to enter into any controversy with the Queen or Abbe Montagu. " Do not let them persuade you," he concludes, " either by force or fair promises. The first, they neither dare nor will use, and for the second, as soon as they have persuaded you, they will have their end, and then they will care no more for 30 GLOUCESTER LEAVES PARIS. you. If you do not consider what I say unto you, remember the last words of your dead father, which were, to be constant to your religion, and never to be shaken in it, which, if you do not deserve, this shall be the last time that you will hear from, dear brother, Your most affectionate brother, "CHARLES R." Still the Queen, with Anne of Austria's influence to sup- port her, persevered in her endeavour. On the young Duke's return from Pontoise, she tried the effect of caresses and tears, assuring the boy of her tender affection, and promising him wealthy benefices in France, and even a Cardinal's hat, if he would only embrace the Catholic faith. But the young Duke stood firm, and, after another long conference with Abb6 Montagu, sent his mother word that he would never leave the Church of England. The Abbe* replied, "Then it is Her Majesty's command that you see her face no more." It was Sunday morning, and the Queen was starting for Chaillot in her coach, when her son fell on his knees before her, and asked her farewell blessing. She turned angrily away, and the boy went back heart-broken to his own room. Montagu, see- ing his distress, asked him what the Queen had said to him, upon which the young Duke replied sharply, "What I may thank you for, sir, and what I now repeat to you. Be sure that I see your face no more." He turned on his heel, and accompanied the Duke of York to the English service at Sir Richard Browne's chapel. On his return he found his rooms in the Palais-Royal dismantled, and no dinner prepared for him. His servants were dismissed, his horses turned out of the royal stables. But the exiled cavaliers rallied round him. Lord Hatton gave him shelter in his lodgings, and Lord Ormonde sold his George, the last jewel that he possessed, to supply him with funds for his journey. That night the young Duke came back to the Palais-Royal, to take leave of the little sister whom he loved so tenderly, before the Queen should have returned from vespers at Chaillot. The poor little Princess, hearing of her brother's intended departure, burst into tears, and, dimly conscious that he had quarrelled with her mother, cried out through her sobs, " Oh me, my brother ! CROMWELL THE BEAST. 31 Oh me, my mother ! What shall I do ? I am undone for ever." So they parted, and the Duke, with his faithful companion Ormonde, set out to join the King at Cologne. On the way, he paid a secret visit to his sister, the Princess of Orange, who welcomed him with open arms. But the States-General had lately entered into alliance with Cromwell, and Mary dared no longer receive her brother openly. In her joy at seeing the young Duke, she persuaded him to prolong his visit, hoping the States would take no notice of his presence. " I am extreme glad," wrote the Queen of Bohemia, who had hastened to meet her " sweet nephew," " the King per- mits him to see his sister and me. I hope he will suffer him to stay some time with my dear niece ; it will be a great con- tentment to her and no hurt to him. And I am sure our Hoghen Moghens High- Mightinesses will take no notice of him, as long as nothing is said to them." But she was wrong, and soon Mary received a formal message from the States, requesting the young Prince's dis- missal, and reminding her of the treaty which had been made with Cromwell. There was no help for it but to obey this ungracious order, and, much to the distress of his sister and aunt, the Duke started for Cologne. "Sure," wrote the Queen of Bohemia in her vexation, "Cromwell is the beast in the Revelation, whom all the kings of the earth do worship. I wish him an end, and speedily." CHAPTER III 1655 1656 Education of the Princess Henrietta Court fetes and Ballets Visit of the Princess of Orange to Paris Charles II. at Bruges. IN the midst of all this strife and tumult, while civil wars were raging without and family quarrels within, the young Princess Henrietta grew up a bright and charming child. The Queen- mother had spared no pains in her education, and Henrietta certainly received more regular instruction, and proved far more intelligent and accomplished than any of the other princesses at the French Court. The education of princesses, in those days, was, as a rule, singularly neglected. Monsieur's second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of Bavaria, declares that the way in which the French princesses were brought up was a positive scandal. " They are taught nothing and allowed to do whatever they please, from the time they are seven until they are twenty ! " This at least could not be said of the English Princess. Henrietta was naturally quick and clever, fond of reading, and taking delight in music and poetry. She sang well, played the guitar and harpsichord with considerable skill, and danced with a grace and elegance that attracted general attention, in those days when dancing was looked upon as an important part of a lady's education. Madame de La Fayette observes that this youthful Princess had enjoyed the inestimable advantage of being educated as a private person, and had thus acquired all the knowledge, the sweetness and humanity in which royal personages are too often wanting. The lessons of adversity had not been wasted on Henrietta. " You could see by her very perfections that she had been trained in the school of misfortune." 32 PRINCESS HENRIETTA. 33 In her own home she was the pet and plaything of the whole household, especially of her eldest brother Charles, whose affection for his little sister was noticed by English residents at Paris, during the years which he spent in France. Those early days saw the foundation of that warm and constant love between the brother and sister which was to last to the end of Henrietta's life, and was probably the deepest and strongest element in Charles II.'s fickle nature. It was the same at the convent of Chaillot, where the Queen often took her child for long visits. The nuns welcomed her with delight, and nothing pleased her mother better than to see the young Princess waiting on the Abbess and the Filles de Marie, as they sat at table on great festivals. Visitors to Chaillot were charmed with the liveliness and grace of this engaging child. Madame de La Fayette and Madame de Sevign6 both saw her there for the first time, and never forgot the pleasant impression which she then made. Another and more important personage, with whom the English Princess early became a great favourite, was her aunt, the Queen-mother of France. Anne of Austria invariably treated her young niece with the greatest kindness. Her heart was touched with sympathy for the lonely child, and, convinced that the retired life which her mother led could not be good for one so young, she would often come herself to the Palais Royal, and take her back with her to share in the amusements of her cousins, King Louis and his brother Philippe, the young Duke of Anjou. The Court had now returned to the Louvre, and was gayer and more brilliant than it had been for many years past. The long-drawn troubles of the Fronde were over, the last rumours of civil war had died away, and, while the Cardinal held the helm of state in his firm hand, the young King gave himself up to amusement. F/tes and balls were the order of the day. The King danced well, and took the greatest delight in the ballets and masques that had been lately introduced at Court. A perfect passion for masquerading had seized on the youthful members of the royal family. Mademoiselle took a childish pleasure in dressing herself up in various disguises, and her cousin, Monsieur, as the King's C 34 COURT FTES. brother was now called, was never so happy as when he could put on a long mantle and skirts, and appear among his mother's ladies with patches on his face, and his handsome head dressed like that of a girl. On one occasion they both figured at a ball in the picturesque costume of the paysannes de Bresse, wearing skirts of silver tissue, trimmed with rose- coloured ribands, and stomachers and hats of black velvet with white, pink and flame-coloured plumes, and carrying gilded crooks in their hands. On another, they appeared in the habits of friars, an escapade which seriously displeased the Queen-mother. The King early showed a preference for those mythological and pastoral ballets which became so prominent a feature of his Court in later years. These ballets were in reality theatrical representations of a most elaborate kind, which were composed with the help of the best poets and musicians at Court, and performed with the utmost splendour of costume and scenery. The Princess Henrietta was early invited to take her part in these brilliant entertainments. She first appeared at Court at the age of nine, at a magnificent ball given by Cardinal Mazarin, in February 1654, to celebrate the marriage of his niece, Anna Martinozzi, with the Prince of Conti. On that occasion the Cardinal's three younger nieces, the Mancini, who had lately arrived from Rome, made their first public appearance, but among the youthful guests none were more admired than the child-Princess of England, who was present with her brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester. The Court chronicler, Jean Loret, who so often sang the praises of Madame in after years, mentions her, that evening, for the first time in his metrical record, as a gracious aurore now about to dawn upon the world. Henrietta Maria still shrank from appearing in public at Court festivities, and would gladly have kept her daughter in seclusion for a few more years, but Anne of Austria overcame her sister-in-law's reluctance, and, at her prayer, the youthful Princess was allowed to take part in a grand ballet, entitled " The Nuptials of Thetis and Peleus," which was performed by the leading personages of the Court, at the Theatre du Petit Bourbon, in April that year. The costumes were unusually splendid, the mise-en-scene most BALLET OF THETIS. 35 costly and elaborate. The decorations were designed by Torelli, the verses written by Benserade ; the musk was composed by Lulli, that wonderful Italian boy who had been originally a valet in Mademoiselle's household, but had shown so much genius for the violin that he had been taken into the King's service. Comedians from Mantua had been brought to Paris to assist in the performance. The Duke of York, Monsieur, and his favourite, the Comte de Guiche, were among the actors. Olympia Mancini, who engrossed the King's attentions at that moment, represented Music. Louis himself appeared in no less than five different parts, and represented in turn, Apollo, Mars, a Fury, a Dryad and a courtier. The beauty of the music and of the grouping was exceedingly admired, and the King's elegance and graceful dancing had never before been seen to so great advantage. But the tableau that was most applauded was the one in which the King appeared in his favourite role of Apollo, the Sun-god, surrounded by the nine Muses, and uttered a long speech, proclaiming himself the world's victor, before whom all powers must quail, save only Love. Then the youthful Princess Henrietta stepped forward, crowned with roses and myrtle, as Erato, the Muse of love and poetry, and, holding a lyre in her hands, repeated the following verses with the most charming simplicity and grace: " Ma race est du plus pur sang, Des dieux, et sur mes montagnes, On me voit tenir un rang Tout autre que mes compagnes. Mon jeune et royal aspect Inspire avec le respect, La pitoyable tendresse, Et c'est a moi qu'on s'adresse, Quand on veut plaindre tout haut Le sort des grandes personnes, Et dire tout ce qu'il faut Sur la chute des couronnes." The Court poet had, it must be acknowledged, touched a more pathetic chord than usual, and the recital of these lines by the orphan child, with her innocent face and winning air 36 COURT FETES. took all hearts by storm. The ballet naturally met with immense applause, and the King was so well satisfied with its success, that he repeated it several times in the course of the following winter. Among those present, there were not wanting courtiers, who whispered that the King might do worse than marry his fair young cousin. Such a union would have gratified the Queen of England's fondest wishes, and there can be no doubt that at one moment Anne of Austria seriously entertained the idea. The wish of her life, she said openly, was to see her son wedded to her own niece, the Infanta of Spain, but since the political situation seemed to render this impossible, she hoped that he would choose this amiable young English Princess for his wife. But Louis himself looked on his cousin as a mere child, and his eyes were dazzled by the more brilliant attractions of the Cardinal's nieces. Madame de Motteville relates an amusing instance of the way in which he already showed that he intended to be the master, and would brook no interference with his own pleasure. During the winter of 1655, many small dances were given at the Louvre, and the Queen-mother invited the Queen of England to come in privately one evening, and see the King dance. She herself had been ailing for some days, and wore a cornette (mob-cap) and dressing-gown, to show that she was keeping her room, and only a few duchesses and young ladies, wives and daughters of the chief officers of the Crown, were admitted besides the ladies-in-waiting. In fact, says Madame de Motteville, the dance was merely given to show off the King's dancing, and to amuse the young Princess of England, who was just growing out of childhood and showing how charming she would soon become. The violins struck up, and the King, who at that time of his life was entirely devoted to the Mancini, offered his hand to the Duchess de Mercceur, the eldest, and as yet the only married one of Mazarin's nieces. Upon this, his mother, amazed at his want of thought, rose hastily, and whispered that he must lead out his cousin, the Princess of England. Here the English Queen, alarmed at the evident resentment of the King, interfered, declaring that her daughter had a pain in her foot and could THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE. 37 not dance. Anne of Austria replied, with some heat, that if the Princess might not dance, neither should the King. So, in order to avoid a scene, Henrietta Maria desired her daughter to dance, although this was much against the young Princess's will. The Queen-mother took her son gravely to task, the next day, but Louis replied sulkily, that he did not like little girls. " Yet the Princess," adds Madame de Motte- ville, " was at that time eleven years old, and the King sixteen or nearly seventeen, but it is true that in appearance and manner, he seemed more like twenty." As a rule, however, the King treated his aunt and cousin of England with all the respect and attention due to their rank and misfortunes. In a letter to her son Charles, dated November 8, 1655, Henrietta Maria speaks warmly of her nephew's agreeable manners, and of the courtesy and defer- ence with which he approached her. The other members of his family were, unfortunately, not always so thoughtful in their behaviour, and treated the poor Queen and her daughter with scant consideration on more than one occasion. The Princess Henrietta's name figures in the Court Gazette repeatedly during the next few years. She accompanied her mother to Rheims for the King's coronation, and was often present at great religious functions at the principal churches of Paris. But, except on these rare occasions, she led a secluded life with her mother, either at the Palais-Royal and Chaillot, or else at Colombes, a pretty country house on the Seine, which Henrietta had bought for her summer residence. In the winter of 1656, the quiet round of their lives was suddenly enlivened by a visit from the Princess of Orange. This Princess still remained the stay of her brothers and their exiled friends. She supplied them with money, gave Clarendon a house at Breda, and, since she could not receive Charles in Dutch territory, met him at Spa or Breda, and paid him visits at Cologne. In the summer of 1654 the brother and sister took a journey up the Rhine to Frankfort, travelling incognito, at least, as Charles remarks in a merry letter to his aunt of Bohemia, " It is so great a secret, that not above half the town of Cologne know of it, but we do intend to foreswear ourselves, till we be here again." In spite of the troubles 38 THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE AT PARIS which had darkened her young life, the Princess Royal had kept her beauty and high spirits, and, when she could escape from political cares and be alone with her brothers, she was as gay and light-hearted as Charles himself. But the genuine affection which she had for her own family, made her anxious to heal the breach, that had been caused by the Queen's ill- advised attempts at converting her youngest son, and her chief object in visiting Paris was to effect a reconciliation be- tween the King and his mother. Charles, however, who was entering into negotiations with the King of Spain, and had lately sent Ormonde on a mission to Madrid, did all in his power, to stop his sister's journey. Still Mary persisted in her intention, and pleaded her natural anxiety to embrace the mother whom she had not met for thirteen years, and the sister whom she had never seen, and, after writing several angry letters, Charles gave way and bade her please herself. Accordingly, Mary started gaily on her journey, taking her new maid-of-honour, the Chancellor's daughter, Anne Hyde, in her suite, in the hope of softening the Queen's well-known antipathy to the girl's father, whose independent spirit and frankness of speech she could not forgive. They were met on the frontier by the Duke of York, who had been serving as a volunteer in Turenne's army against the Spaniards, and who now saw, for the first time, the fair maid-of-honour whose charms were soon to win his heart. Meanwhile, great preparations were being made at Paris for the Princess Royal's reception, and Cromwell's emissaries were a good deal disturbed, fearing her visit might lead to a breach of the peace between England and Holland. " What should occasion her coming in so unseasonable weather at this time of the year, I know not," wrote one of them from Paris, " unless it be in the hope the French King will fall in love with her." The same suspicion had already crossed Mademoiselle's mind, but she observes, in her caustic manner that the times were not auspicious for such affairs. The Princess was received at Paris with every possible honour. The whole Royal Family and the Cardinal went out to meet her at Saint-Denis, and brought her to the Palais- Royal with a great flourish of trumpets. " Her reception," wrote THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE AT PARIS. 39 Jermyn to Charles II., on the evening of the 4th of February, " has been universally civil in all things and from all persons, and, without any flattery, she doth make an impression it is likelier to mend than impair. On Sunday she is to be at Monsieur's ball, where there will be the best assembly this Court can form, and we discover already that she will hold her place very well. The Cardinal hath advanced great pro- fessions of civility to her, and inclinations of entering into the interests of her son, which, perhaps, may be of important advantage to him. I find a strong appetite in her to make the confidence between the Queen and you more entire than she supposes it to be, and I am infinitely joyed that the Queen shall have so irreproachable a witness of her good inclinations." And the Queen herself added a few lines in her own hand, expressing her gratification at the reception which had been given her daughter. " I leave better pens than mine to give you a description of the arrival of your sister, the Princess Royal. She has been received right royally, and she pleases everyone here from the least to the greatest. She has been to-day so over- whelmed with visits, that I am half- dead with fatigue, which is my excuse for not telling you more." On the 1 8th she wrote again, rejoicing that the King of Spain had declared war against Cromwell, and saying : " Your sister will tell you all she is doing here. I think she is very tired of receiving visits from morning till night. As for me, I am almost dead with them, but you who know France, are well aware that, after the first few days, one is. left quiet enough." During the next few weeks, the newly-arrived Princess found herself in a whirl of gaiety, unlike anything that she had ever seen before. Two days after her arrival, Monsieur's ball took place in the Salle des Gardes, which was hung with tapestries, and brilliantly illuminated. Anne of Austria would allow no widows to dance at her Court, except in, private, so Mary looked on while the King opened the ball, with her young sister, and the Court Gazetteer again paints, the admiration that Henrietta's grace and youth excited. 4O COURT BALLS. " La jeune infante d'Angleterre, Qui semblait un ange sur terre, Que menait le Roy tre*s chrestien, Dansa si parfaitement bien, Que de toute la compagnie Elle fut mille fois be"nie." On the I4th, the Princess of Orange was present at a comedy performed at the Louvre, and two days afterwards, she witnessed a ballet on the story of Psyche, composed by the King himself. But the grandest of all the fetes, this carnival time, was that given by Chancelier Seguier in her honour. The English Queen was not present, but both her daughters and her son James sat at the royal table with the Queen-mother and her sons. At the conclusion of the banquet, the Chancellor led his guests through a gallery, lluminated with 300 torches, to the ball-room ; the King once more opened the ball with Henrietta, and when the violins struck up, each cavalier presented his lady with a richly- decorated basket filled with sweetmeats. Many similai entertainments followed, and Mary wrote in high glee to her faithful servants at the Hague : " To tell you the truth, I have scarcely time to eat a morsel of bread. I am, how- ever, impatient to tell you how well I am treated here, for I can assure you that I never, in all my life, received half so much civility." And to Charles II. she wrote a little later : " I must tell you first, that I have seen the masque, and in the entree of the performers, received another present, which was a petticoat of cloth of silver and embroidered Spanish leather, which is very fine and very extraordinary. I was, since then, at the Chancellor's, where the King and Queen and all the Court were, which was really extremely fine. Two nights ago, the King came here in masquerade, and others, and danced here. Monday next there is a little ball at the Louvre, where I must dance. Judge, therefore, in what pain I shall be ! This is all I have to tell you, for I have been this day at the Carmelites and, to confess the truth, am a little weary. I have forgot for three posts to send you verses of my uncle's making, which I pray pardon me for, and for the dirtiness of the paper, which has been so, with wearing it so long in my pocket." MADEMOISELLE. 4! The impression which Mary herself made at the French Court, was extremely favourable. Her bright and genial manners, and her amiability and evident enjoyment of the fetes which had been prepared for her, gave widespread satisfaction, and she was as popular with the people as with the Court. Anne of Austria treated her with the greatest distinction, and, when she paid a visit to the Louvre, made her sit down on a fauteuil, an honour usually reserved for crowned heads. "The Princess of Orange," observes a French contemporary, " outshone all our ladies, although the Court was never more crowded with handsome women, and if our Queen had permitted widows to dance, she would have done wonders." Mademoiselle, who somehow was apt to treat the English Royal Family in a very supercilious manner, was struck by the splendour of the pearls and diamonds which Mary wore, and the great affection with which she embraced her, when they met for the first time. She herself was still banished from Court, but she gave her aunt and cousins a sumptuous entertainment at her beauti- ful country house of Chilly, where all the princesses and duchesses in Paris were present. "The Princess Royal, Mary of Orange," she writes, " talked to me without ceasing, saying how desirous she had been to see me, and how sorry she should have been, to have left France, without having accomplished this desire, for the King, her brother, had talked of me with so much affection, that she had loved me before she saw me. I asked her how she liked the Court of France ? She replied that she was indeed well pleased with it the more so, because she had a horrible dislike for Holland, and that as soon as the King, her brother, was settled, she should go and live with him." The Queen also took advantage of the occasion, to recall her discarded suitor to Mademoiselle's mind. " Et ce pauvre Roi d' Angleterre ? " she said to her niece, "are you so un- grateful, you will not even ask for news of him ? HMos ! he s so foolish that he will never cease to love you, and he bade me tell you when he left France, how sorry he was to go without bidding you farewell. Think, if you were married, you would no longer be subject to your father's caprices, you 4 2 THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE. would be your own mistress, you would do what you pleased, and you would most likely be well established in England. Ce pauvre miserable will know no happiness without you \ Had you married him, he and I would be on better terms now, for you, I am sure, would have taught him to live more happily with me." Mademoiselle retorted, with some reason, that if the King did not live happily with his mother, he was not likely to live happily with her, and the subject was allowed to drop. Henrietta Maria, as might be expected, did not let her daughter leave France without attempting to bring her over to the Church of Rome. She took her to several functions at the Carmelite convent, and at Chaillot, and enticed her into repeated discussions on the subject. But, however affec- tionate and submissive a daughter Mary proved herself in other ways, on this point she held firm. Contemporary writers all bear witness that, whatever amusements occupied her in the week, on Sundays she always made a rule of attending the Anglican Church service. She also refused to be present at a Court ball on the anniversary of her husband's funeral, a scruple which surprised the French ladies immensely, since the Prince of Orange had been dead five years. But Mary's love for her young husband had been deep and true, and, during her visit to Paris, she is said to have refused more than one offer of marriage. In the midst of her amusements, she did not forget her brothers. She succeeded in restoring a degree of harmony between Charles and his mother, and snatched time from her devotions in Holy Week, to write a hurried letter to her " deare brother of Gloucester," in which she promises him a pension of five hundred guilders a month, and tells him that she is sending off a suit of clothes which he had begged her to order in Paris. " And for the payment of them," adds this kind sister, " that shall neither be upon one month nor another, for you will find enough to do with your money be- sides that." The arrival of that strange personage, Queen Christina of Sweden, at the French Court that summer, produced a renewal of fetes, and the Princess of Orange lingered on with her mother till November, when the news of her precious child's CHARLES II. AT BRUGES. 43 illness made her hasten her departure. Fortunately the little Prince's malady proved to be only an attack of measles, from which he soon recovered, and his mother stopped on her journey home, to visit her brother Charles at Bruges. She took him a welcome present of 20,000 pistoles, since he was, as usual, reduced to his last penny, and all the money he received was too soon squandered on his pleasures. These years of inaction had already produced a disastrous effect on his habits and character. Madame de Motteville, who was fondly attached to his mother, paints the change for the worse, which she had noticed in this once hopeful Prince, with her usual frankness. " The greatest heroes and sages of antiquity," she observes, " did not guide their lives by grander principles of action, than this young Prince at the opening of his career, but when he found that his struggles were doomed to failure, he sank into indifference, and bore the ills of poverty and exile with reck- less nonchalance, snatching at whatever pleasures came in his way, even those of the most degraded kind. So he gave himself up to lawless passion, and passed many years, in France and other countries, in the utmost sloth." CHAPTER IV 1657 l66 Marriage of Louis XIV. Portraits of the Princesse d'Angleterre Letters from Charles II. The Restoration Letters of Henrietta to her Brother. THE visit of the Princess of Orange brought a ray of sunshine into Queen Henrietta's sad life. After Mary's departure, the gloom seemed to settle down more deeply than before. The Queen's health was in a failing state, and her letters breathe a spirit of profound sadness. There seemed no prospect of a Royalist rising in England, and the hopes which Charles II. had entertained from his Spanish alliance were destined to end in smoke. Meanwhile Cromwell, seeing in Spain "the underpropper of the great Romish Babylon," formed a close alliance with Mazarin, and even sent a detachment of his Ironsides to join in Turenne's campaign against Spanish Flanders. " So," he wrote in his orders, " shall we be fighting the Lord's battles." This union between England and France greatly distressed Queen Henrietta, the more so that both her sons, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, had taken service in the Spanish army, and were fighting valiantly under the exiled Cond6, against his own land of France. Charles II. himself served in the Spanish army during the winter of 1657, and a false report that he had been dangerously wounded in an attack on Mardyck reached Paris. In the following June, Dunkirk was taken by the French and English forces, after a gallant defence by the Spaniards. There was great consterna- tion at the Hague and at Paris, for the Dukes of York and Gloucester were both in the van of the battle, and for some time, they were supposed to have been slain or made prisoners. In her distress and anxiety, the Princess of Orange took to 44 MADEMOISELLE. 45 her bed, and the Queen-mother went through agonies of fear, until she heard that her sons had reached Bruges safely. " You may imagine," she wrote to her eldest son, " how much I suffer and how ill I pass my time here." It was a dark period in her life, and she had little heart for the balls and masquerades, the picnics and hunting- parties of the gay Court around her. Both in 1657 and 1658, the Queen and her daughter spent some weeks for her health at the waters of Bourbon, where they were joined by her brother Gaston, Duke of Orleans, and his family. The remainder of the year was spent chiefly at Colombes, or else in retirement at Chaillot, and the appearances of the young Princess at Court were few and far between. Mademoiselle de Montpensier mentions a fete given by Chancellor Seguier at the carnival of 1658, where the Princesse d'Angleterre was present, and, " poor child, seemed enchanted to be there, since she only goes to balls at the Louvre, as a rule." On that occasion, however, Mademoiselle thought it necessary to claim precedence of her young cousin, a proceeding which excited the Queen-mother's displeasure. Mademoiselle de- fended her action to the Cardinal, saying that she had taken Henrietta by the hand to avoid disputes, but Mazarin replied drily : " It is said that you passed in to supper before her." Upon which Monsieur, who was always glad to oppose the Cardinal, took up the cudgels on Mademoiselle's behalf, and exclaimed : " And if she did, she was perfectly right ! Things must have come to a fine pass, if we are to allow people who depend upon us for bread to pass before us. For my part, I think they had better betake themselves else- where." The Queen-mother scolded the foolish boy for his impertinent speech, and the Cardinal tried to soothe Made- moiselle's offended dignity, by telling her that, in old days, the Kings of Scotland had given place to the sons of France, and that she might therefore, if she thought fit, dispute le pas with the Princess of England. Mademoiselle hastened to declare that she had always lived on the best of terms with her aunt and cousin, and had no wish to mortify the poor Queen in her present sad condition. But she took care to renew her claim at the first opportunity, and her jealousy cf 46 THE KING'S MARRIAGE. her youthful cousin was noticed by the whole Court. All these wrangles and unkind words were duly reported to Henrietta Maria, who wept bitterly when she heard of her nephew's speech, and tasted once more, to her cost, how salt is the bread of exile. Meanwhile, the question of the young King's marriage became every day more pressing. The war that still con- tinued between France and Spain had put an end to the Queen -mother's hopes of his union with the Infanta Marie Therese. Louis himself was devoted to the Cardinal's nieces, and spent his time in their company. After Olympia's marriage to the Comte de Soissons, in 1657, he transferred his affections to her younger sister, Marie Mancini, who, on her part, was passionately in love with him, and seriously contemplated the prospect of becoming Queen of France. The Queen-mother looked with dismay on her son's infatua- tion, and told the Cardinal that, as long as she lived, she would never consent to such a mesalliance. In her alarm at the possibility of such a disaster, her thoughts turned once more to the young Princess of England, and she was heard to say repeatedly, that she wished the King would make choice of a bride who was his equal in rank, and so well suited to him in all respects. For a time, the hopes of Queen Henrietta revived, and these rumours reached Cromwell's minister at the Hague, who reported that Harry Killigrew, a talkative gentleman of Charles II.'s bedchamber, spoke con- fidently of "a marriage between the King of France and Charles Stuart's sister in Paris." But Louis despised his slight and delicate girl cousin, and never showed the least inclination to choose Henrietta for his bride. " It was evi- dent," observes Mademoiselle, "that the King was not pre- possessed in her favour, although the Queen felt sincere affection for her." Mazarin himself, anxious to strengthen his political position, was inclined to marry the King to the Princess of Savoy, and with a view to this alliance, the Dowager Duchess of Savoy, or Madame Royale, as the eldest daughter of Henri Quatre was still called in France, brought her daughter to meet the King at Lyons, in November 1658. The Princess Marguerite was very small and olive-skinned, THE KING'S MARRIAGE. 47 with no particular charm to recommend her. " Sire," said Marie Mancini, "you will never let them give you such an ugly wife ! " And the Queen-mother was heard to say, that she thought the Princess of England would have made a far better wife for her son. Whether Marie Mancini's influence prevailed, or whether the secret proposals from the King of Spain, which had reached Mazarin, put an end to his former plan, it is certain that, after the first meeting at Lyons, the King showed no further inclination to pay his addresses to the Princess of Savoy. At the end of a few days, Madame Royale left France, and the Court returned to Paris. The Queen-mother told Mademoiselle that she was thankful to get rid of the whole party, and the King became more devoted than ever to Marie Mancini. It was even said that he implored his mother on his knees to allow the marriage. But Anne of Austria was inflexible, and even Mazarin dared not sanction such a departure from inviolable tradition, and told the King that if he persisted, it would be impossible for him to remain his minister. Finally the Cardinal took the wiser course of sending his nieces away. Louis shed tears as he parted from Marie Mancini, but once she was gone, he soon forgot her, and turned his thoughts towards the marriage with the Infanta which was now decided upon. All through that summer, negotiations of peace were carried on between Mazarin and the Spanish Court. A truce was soon pro- claimed, and in July, the Cardinal went to meet Dom Luis de Haro at the famous He des Faisans, near Saint-Jean de Luz, where the terms of the treaty were discussed during the next four months. The prospect of peace after so many years of protracted hostilities between the two countries, was hailed with joy on all sides. The English royal family shared in the general rejoicing, and entertained hopes that once France and Spain had made friends, the two countries would join in restoring Charles II. to the throne of his fathers. But their expecta- tions were again doomed to disappointment. The death of Cromwell in September 1658, had not produced the change of feeling, which the Royalists had expected to see in England, and when Charles travelled to Fontarabia, to lay his claims 48 TREATY OF THE PYRENEES. before the French and Spanish ministers, he was coldly received by both parties. As a last means of softening the powerful Cardinal, he offered to marry his niece Hortense, the handsomest of all the Mancini, who, many years after- wards, became well known at his own Court as the Duchesse de Mazarin. Even Queen Henrietta, who had violently opposed her son's union with the widowed Duchesse de Chatillon, as unworthy of his rank, eagerly embraced this plan, as a last chance of enlisting Mazarin on his side. But the wily minister replied that the King of England did him too much honour, and that as long as a cousin of his own remained unmarried, he must not stoop to think of a simple demoiselle. This allusion to Mademoiselle's scornful rejection of the exiled King's suit, was bitterly felt by his mother, and the matter dropped. Charles returned to Brussels in a worse plight than ever. His brothers lived at Breda, as pensioners on the Princess of Orange's bounty, and he was compelled to dismiss his servants and to pawn his plate. So great was the poverty to which he found himself reduced, that he was actually in want of clothes, and had to wear his coat thread- bare. The Treaty of the Pyrenees was finally signed on the 7th of November 1659, and a month afterwards, Louis XIV. started on a progress through the southern provinces of his kingdom, accompanied by his mother and brother, by Mademoiselle, Cardinal Mazarin and the whole Court. Christmas was spent at Toulouse, and the early spring in visiting the chief towns of Provence and Languedoc. By April, Saint-Jean de Luz was reached, and at the same time, the King of Spain and his daughter arrived at San Sebastian. A series of prolonged conferences now took place, in which all the details of the marriage contract, and the exact etiquette to be observed at the wedding, were carefully arranged. In her Memoirs, Mademoiselle has left us a lively record of the wrangling over questions of precedence to which this gave rise, and which in her eyes and in those of Monsieur were of such inestimable importance. She has also given us a minute account af the royal wedding, which was solemnised twice over, first on Spanish, then on French MADAME DE BREGIS' PORTRAIT. 49 territory, on the 36 and 9th days of June. When the nuptial ceremonies had been at length concluded, the Court set out once more on its homeward journey. While these splendid but tedious pageants were occupy- ing the attention of all Europe, the young Princess Henrietta of England remained alone at Colombes, with her sad mother. She had witnessed the magnificent preparations made by her cousins for the royal wedding, and the dazzling display of robes and jewels destined to be worn on this occasion, before the Court set out on this memorable journey. Even her young cousins of Orleans, Mademoiselle's step-sisters, had been summoned to bear the new Queen's train on the wedding-day. Brought up, as Henrietta had been at the French Court, and accustomed to take a part in its festive scenes, from her earliest childhood, she may well have felt life at Colombes dull and lonely, and have sighed, a little wearily, over the perpetual round of services in the convent at Chaillot. She was fifteen years of age now, and full of youthful vivacity and brightness. We possess more than one description of her appearance, at this period of her life, which give a good idea of her budding charms. Father Cyprian is never tired of dwelling on the perfections of his "petite princesse^ He extols her rare beauty of face, her exquisite figure, the grace of her movements, her skill in dancing and playing musical instruments, her lively wit and excellent disposition. Others, beside the too partial old priest, now began to discover her attractions. The practice of writing portraits had lately become fashionable at Court. Mademoiselle began by composing her own, and gave a fairly correct, although decidedly flattering, description of her appearance and character. All the wits of the day followed her example. An accomplished lady of the Precieuses group, Madame de Br6gis, wrote the following portrait of the Princesse d'Angleterre, in June 1658, when hopes were still entertained that she might one day be the bride of Louis XIV. " To begin with her height, I must tell you that this young Princess is still growing, and that she will soon attain a per- fect stature. Her air is as noble as her birth, her hair is of a D 50 MADAME DE BREGIS' PORTRAIT. bright chestnut hue, and her complexion rivals that of the gayest flowers. The snowy whiteness of her skin betrays the lilies from which she sprang. Her eyes are blue and bril- liant, her lips ruddy, her throat beautiful, her arms and hands well made. Her charms show that she was born on a throne, and is destined to return there. Her wit is lively and agree- able. She is admired in her serious moments and beloved in her most ordinary ones ; she is gentle and obliging, and her kindness of heart will not allow her to laugh at others, as cleverly as she could, if she chose. She spends most of her time in learning all that can make a princess perfect, and de- votes her spare moments to the most varied accomplishments. She dances with incomparable grace, she sings like an angel, and the spinet is never so well played as by her fair hands. All this makes the young Cleopatra the most amiable Princess in the world, and if Fortune once unties the fold that wraps her eyes, to gaze upon her, she will not refuse to give her the greatest of earth's glories, for she deserves them well. I wish them for her, more passionately than I can say." A year later, Sir John Reresby gives us a pleasant picture of his own intercourse with this fascinating Princess. This young Englishman had spent some months at Paris in 1654, studying French and learning the guitar and dancing. He tells us how, in those days, he often watched the King, the Duke of York and Prince Rupert, playing at billiards in a hall of the Palais-Royal, but how he dared not approach them, for fear Cromwell might be told that he was paying court to the exiled monarch, and take the opportunity to confiscate his Yorkshire estates. In 1657, Reresby returned to spend the winter at a pension in Paris, and then paid frequent visits to the French Court, and went " as often as he durst " to pay his respects to the Queen-mother of England, who received him with especial favour, since he was related to several noble French families, and had three cousins among the nuns in the convent of Chaillot. That summer he went back to England, but in November 1659, he once more arrived in Paris, which he had before found so agreeable a residence. Now that the dreaded Lord Protector was dead, his fears vanished, and he lost no time in paying his respects to Queen Henrietta. SIR JOHN RERESBY. $1 " As soon as I had put myself into some equipage," Sir John writes in his diary, " I endeavoured to be acquainted at the Queen-mother of England's Court, which she then kept at the Palais-Royal, which I did without any great notice taken of it in England, the King and Dukes being then banished into Flanders, and none of her children with Henri- etta Maria, but the Princess Henrietta. Few Englishmen making there their Court, made me the better received, besides speaking the language of the Court and dancing passably well. The young Princess, then aged about fifteen years, used me with all the civil freedom that might be, made me dance with her, played on the harpsichord to me in Her Highness's chamber, suffered me to attend upon her, when she walked in the gar- den with the rest of her retinue, and sometimes to toss her in a swing made of a cable which she sat upon, tied between two trees, and in fine suffered me to be present at most of her innocent diversions. The Queen commanded me to be there, as often as I conveniently could. She had a great affection for England, notwithstanding the severe usage she and hers had received from it. She discoursed much with the great men and ladies of France, in praise of the people and country of their courage, their generosity and good nature and would attribute the rebellion to a few desperate and infatuated persons, rather than the temper of the nation. To give an instance of her care, in regard to. our countrymen, I happened one day to carry an English gentleman to Court, and he, willing to be very gay, had got him a garniture of rich red and yellow ribbons to his suit. The Queen observing the absurd effect, called to me and advised me to tell my friend to mend his taste a little, as to his choice of ribbons, for the two colours he had joined, were ridiculous in France, and would make people laugh at him." Another and still more welcome visitor, took advantage of the King and Cardinal's absence, to come to Paris. This was Charles II., who, on his return from Spain, paid a brief visit to his mother, in her country house at Colombes. His sister Henrietta alludes to this intended visit, in the first letter that we have from her pen. It bears no date, but the mention of the peace which had been proclaimed in November, shows that 52 HENRIETTA'S LETTERS. it belongs to this period. Like all Henrietta's letters, it is written in French, and the original, still bearing the seals and brown silk ties that fastened it together, is preserved among the Royal MSS. in the library at Lambeth Palace. " I would not let Milord Inchiquin leave, without assuring Your Majesty of my respect, and thanking you for the honour you do me, in writing to me so often. I fear that this may give you too much trouble, and I should be sorry if Your Majesty should take so much for a little sister, who does not deserve it, but who can at least acknowledge and rejoice in the honour you do her. I hope the peace will give you all the happiness you desire, and then I shall be happy, because of the love and respect I bear Your Majesty. It is a cause of great joy to me, since it gives me the hope of seeing you,, which is most passionately desired by your very humble servant." Soon afterwards, Charles arrived at Colombes, and his presence had the good effect of removing the remains of the ill-feeling that had so long divided him from his mother. But Cardinal Mazarin would not give him leave to remain long on French territory, and he soon retired to Brussels. So the winter months passed gloomily. The situation re- mained unchanged in England, and the Cardinal's resolute refusal to give her son the least encouragement, had deeply distressed Queen Henrietta. To add to her troubles, Mazarin took advantage of a quarrel which had arisen over the government of Orange, to seize on that city, and this ancient principality, from which the Princes of Orange had long taken their title, was annexed to France. Henrietta's attempt at intervention on her grandson's behalf, proved ineffectual, but the boy Prince himself never forgave the wrong, and from that moment, became the bitter enemy of Louis XIV. Fortune seemed to have utterly forsaken the cause of the Stuarts. Charles and his brothers were left to drag on a miserable existence at Brussels or Breda, in the utmost poverty, and without a friend to help them, but their generous sister, Mary of Orange. Still the King, after his wont, found means to enjoy himself, and a letter which he wrote to his sister Henrietta from Brussels, on the 7th of CHARLES II.'S LETTER. 53 February, breathes his usual strain of light-hearted gaiety This letter belongs to the series preserved in the Archives du Ministere des Affaires ttrangeres at Paris, and is one of the few which are written in French. " I begin this French letter by assuring you, that I am very glad to be scolded by you. I withdraw what I said with great joy, since you scold me so pleasantly, but I will never take back the love I have for you, and you show me so much affection that the only quarrel we are ever likely to have, will be as to which of us two loves the other best. In that respect, I will never yield to you. I send you this letter by the hands of Janton, who is the best girl in the world. We talk of you every day, and wish we were with you, a thousand times a day. Her voice has almost entirely returned, and she sings very well. She has taught me the song de ma queue. ' I prithee, sweet harte, come tell me and do not lie/ and a number of others. When you send me the scapular, I promise to wear it always, for love of you. Tell Madame Boude tfiat I will soon send her my portrait. Just now the painter is away, but he returns in a few days. Tell me, I beg of you, how you spend your time, for if you stayed long at Chaillot in this miserable weather, you must have been not a little bored. " For the future, pray do not treat me with so much cere- mony, or address me with so many Your Majesties, for between you and me, there should be nothing but affec- tion. 1 C. R." 1 " Je commence cette lettre icy en frangois, en vous assurant que je suis fort aise de quoy vous me grondez ; je me dedis avec beaucoup de joye, puisque vous me querellez si obligeamment, mais je ne me dedieray jamais de 1'amitie que j 'ay pour vous, et vous me donnez tant de marques de la vostre, que nous n'aurons jamais autre querelle, que celle de qui de nous deux aimerons le plus 1'un 1'autre, mais en cela je ne vous ce"deray jamais. Je vous envoye celle-ci par les mains de Janton, qui est la meilleure fille du monde. Nous parlons tous les jours de vous, et souhaitons mille fois le jour d'estre avec vous. Sa voix lui est revenue quasi tout-4-fait, et elle chante fort bien. Elle m'a appris le chanson de ma queue. ' I prithee, sweet hearte, come tell me and do not lie,' et quantite" d'autres. Quand vous m'envoyerez le scapulaire, je vous promets de la porter toujours pour 1'amour de vous. "Ditesa Madame Boude que je luy envoyeray bientot mon portrait. Pr6- sentement le peintre n'est pas en cette ville, mais il reviendra dans peu de jours. Mandez-moi, je vous pris, comme vous passez votre temps, car si vous avez et6 54 THE RESTORATION. This letter, which breathes so tender an affection for his young sister and is in many respects so characteristic an effusion of the Merry Monarch, bears the royal seal, and is addressed on the fourth page " For deare, deare Sister" Four days after it was written, Monk entered London at the head of his army, and requested all the members of Parlia- ment who had been driven out in 1648, to return to the House. A month later, the Long Parliament voted its own dissolution, and Monk entered into negotiations with the exiled King. Charles now joined his sister Mary at Breda, where he drew up the famous Declaration, proclaiming a general amnesty and religious toleration for all his subjects. His restoration was now morally certain, and from all sides congratulations and protestations of friendship came pouring in. The French and Spanish Kings, who had so lately declined to give him any promise of support, now vied with each other in the warmth of their expressions. Mazarin was foremost in his congratulations, and intimated his readiness to give the King either of his remaining nieces in marriage, while the High and Mighty States of Holland, who had treated the exiled Princes so harshly, now loaded them with presents and honours- " Whoever is King of England," they said in private, " were it the devil himself, we must be friends with him." English Royalists and foreign ambassadors alike hastened to Breda. Guns were fired and bonfires kindled, and before long the whole place was in an uproar of tumultuous rejoicing. In the midst of all this turmoil, Charles found time to write another affectionate note to his sister at Paris. It is dated the 2Qth of April, and bears the inscription : " Pour ma chere> chere soeur " on the fourth page. " I wrote to you last week, and meant to send my letter in Jan ton's packet, but she had already closed hers, so I had to give my letter to Mason. I have received yours of the 23rd, which is so full of marks of affection that I know not how to quelque temps a Chaillot, par cette me"chante saison, vous vous y estes un peu beaucoup ennuye"e. Pour 1'avenir, je vous prie, ne me traitez pas avec tant de ce're- monie, en me dormant tant de Majeste"s, car je ne veux pas qu'il y ait autre chose entre nous deux qu'amitie." THE RESTORATION. 55 find words in which to express my joy. In return, I must assure you that I love you as much as possible, and that neither absence, nor any other cause will alter the affection I have promised to bear you, in the smallest degree. Never fear that others who are present shall get the advantage over you, for, believe me, no one can share the love I cherish for you. " I have sent to Gentseau to order some summer clothes, and have told him to take the ribbons to you, for you to choose the trimming and feathers. Thank you for the song which you have sent me. I do not yet know if it is pretty, as Janton has not yet learnt it. If you only knew how often we talk of you, and wish you were here, you would understand how much I long to see you, and do me the justice to believe that I am entirely yours. 1 C. R." On the ist of May the new Parliament met, and after reading the King's letter, at once proclaimed " that, according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, the government resides and ought to reside, in the King, Lords and Commons." Well might the widowed Countess of Derby write : " The change is so great, I can hardly believe it. My letter of the 1 2th of last month would tell you of the hope we had of the restoration of the King. This one will tell you that, by the grace of God, the Parliament has done justice and recognised His Majesty. On the ist of this month, the Houses of Lords and Commons unanimously consented to it. All are delighted, 1 " Je vous ecrivis la semaine passe, et croyait 1'envoyer dans'le paquet de Janton^ mais elle avait ferme le sien, de sorte que j'&ais contraint de donner ma lettre a Mason. J'ay la votre du 23^ ou j'ay trouve tant de marques d'amitie que je ne savais trouver de parolles pour exprimer ma joye. En recompense, je vous assure que je vous aime autant que je le puis faire, et que ny 1'absence, ni aucune autre chose, puisse jamais me detourner en la moindre facon de cette amitie que je vous ay dromise, et n'ayez point peur que ceux qui sont present auront 1'avantage sur vous, car croyez-moi, 1'amitie que j'ay pour vous ne peut pas estre partaigee. J'ai envoye" k Gentseau de me faire des habits pour 1'este, et je luy ay donn ordre de vous spporter le ruban, arm que vous choissiez la garniture et les plumes. " Je vous remercie pour la chanson que vous m'avez envoye ; je ne sgay pas si elle est jolie, car Janton ne la sgait pas encore. " Si vous ssaviez combien de fois nous parlons de vous, et vous souhaitons icy nous diriez qu'on souhaite fort de vous voir, et faites moy la justice de croire que je auis tout a vous." $6 THE RESTORATION. and have given evidence of their repentance for their past conduct. The King has written three letters, to the two Houses and to General Monk, who has conducted this affair with a prudence that will cause him to be esteemed for all generations. It is true that this passes human wisdom, and that, in all humility, we ought to recognise in it the hand of the Eternal : it is beyond our understanding, and can never be enough admired." A frenzy of enthusiasm now ran through the nation. The King's presence was clamorously desired, and the Parliament sent commissioners over to Holland, dutifully to invite his return. They bore with them a gift of 30,000, and the happy King called the Princess of Orange and the Duke of York, to see the gold, which he had so sorely needed, spread out before him. Gifts of money and pictures, a royal yacht and a sumptuous bed, were humbly presented by their High- Mightinesses of Holland, and the King was literally besieged with deputations from all parts. On the 23d, he embarked at the Hague, and the name of the ship which bore him, was changed from the Naseby to that of the Royal Charles. On the eve of his embarkation, the Queen-mother sent him a touching little note from Chaillot, begging him to remember those who had suffered for him and his father, and to satisfy her anxiety by sending her news of his arrival as speedily as possible. " My prayers," she adds, " go with you to England." A week later, a courier reached Colombes to announce that the King had landed safely at Dover, where he had been received with acclamation, and was now about to make his triumphal entry into London. The messenger also brought a letter for the Princess, written by the King from Canterbury, on the 26th of May. " I was so tormented with businesse at the Hague, that I <:ould not write to you before my departure, but I left orders with my sister (the Princess of Orange) to send you a small present from me, which I hope you will soon receave. I arrived yesterday at Dover, where I found Monk, with a great number of the nobility, who almost overwhelmed me with kindnesse and joy for my returne. My head is so dreadfully REJOICINGS AT COLOMBES. 57 stunned with the acclamations of the people, and the vast amount of businesse, that I know not whether I am writing sense or nonsense. Therefore pardon me if I say no more than that I am entirely yours. For my dear sister." ' The present which the Princess shortly received, to her great delight, was a handsome side-saddle with trappings of green velvet, richly embroidered and trimmed with gold lace. She wrote back promptly from Colombes : " I have received the letter you have sent me by Mr Progers, and which has delighted me in no small degree, for to know that you^have reached England, and at the same time that you have remembered me, has given me the greatest joy in the world. In truth, I wish I could express all that I feel for you, and you would see how true it is, that no one is more your servant than I am." Her mother poured out her heart in the following note to her son, written from Colombes, at five o'clock on the morning of the Qth of June : " You may judge of my joy, and if you are torn in pieces over in England, I have had my share here in France. I am going this moment to Chaillot to have a Te Deum sung there, and on to Paris to light our feux de joies. We had them here yesterday. I think I shall have all Paris to congratulate me. Indeed, you would never imagine what joy there is here. We must praise God. All this is from His hand. You can see it plainly. I will not detain you any longer. God bless you. I send you a letter from Madame de Motteville, which M. de Montagu opened, he tells me, by accident. He is very sorry, and begs me to close it, but I shall send it as it is. You will forgive him." Then came the news of the King's splendid reception in London, and his mothe'r wept tears of joy, when she heard that he was once more lodged in his own palace of Whitehall. " I stood in the Strand," wrote Evelyn in his journal, " and beheld it, and blessed God. All this was done without one drop of blood shed, and by that very army which rebelled 1 This letter is given by Mrs Everett Green, from the original in M. Donnadieu's collection. $8 REJOICINGS AT THE PALAIS-ROYAL. against him. But it was the Lord's doing, for such a Restora- tion was never mentioned in any history, ancient or modern, since the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity." No one was more surprised than Charles himself. " It is certainly a mistake," he said, with his usual irony, " that I did not come back sooner, for I have not met anyone to-day who has not professed to have always desired my return." Far off in Paris, the long exiled and widowed Queen shared in the ecstasy of joy which thrilled the nation's heart. The sorrows and humiliations of the past were forgotten in the rapture of the present. All Paris thronged to the Palais- Royal. The faithful friends who had sorrowed with her now came to rejoice in her joy. The fickle courtiers, who had treated her with neglect and contempt in her dark hours, hastened to assure her of their regard, in the first flush of her revived prosperity. Sir John Reresby, who was still in Paris, describes the extraordinary joy with which the news of the King's restoration was hailed, the bonfires and salutes which celebrated the happy event. He was present at the noble ball given on this occasion, at the Palais-Royal, to which " everybody of the greatest quality was invited, and all the Englishmen in Paris had admittance." At the Queen's command, Sir John himself led out the Cardinal's beautiful niece, Hortense Mancini. He stayed on in Paris till the 2d of August, and tells us in his journal, how favourite a resort the English Queen's Court had now become, and how far more largely attended it was than that of the two French Queens, on their return to Fontainebleau. " For our Queen's good humour and wit, and the great beauty of the young Princess, her daughter, made it more attractive than the solemn Spanish etiquette observed in the others." Sir John adds that he him- self received more honours from the Queen and Princess than he deserved, and finally went home with letters of particular recommendation to the King, from his mother and sister, which procured him a very favourable reception at White- hall. During the next few weeks, the Palais-Royal was besieged with English gentlemen, on their way home, all of whom came to beg for a few words of recommendation to the King, from HENRIETTA'S LETTERS. 59 the Queen or her daughter. Several notes of this description are to be found among the Princess's letters at Lambeth. On the 3