defired to see him at the mercy of his own rebels, which they faw now was like to be the cafe, and they were therefore refolved to wed his interest in such a way and manner as the queen of England fhould defise, in which he well knew how much her majefty would depend upon his counsel. He faid it was abfolutely neceffary, fince the crown of France refolved to wed the king's intereft, that the perfon of the prince of Wales fhould refide in France; that the method he had thought of proceeding in was, that the queen of England should make choice of fuch a perfon whom the thought beft affected, and beft qualified for fuch an employment, whom the king would immediately fend as his extraordinary ambaffador to the king and to the parliament; that he should govern himself wholly by fuch inftructions as the queen fhould give him, which he knew would be his work to prepare; that all things fhould be made ready as foon as the queen would nominate the ambaffador; and that upon the arrival of the prince of Wales in any part of France, as foon as notice fhould be fent to the court of it, for which due preparation fhould be made, the ambaffador fhould be in the fame manner dispatched for England, with one only inftruction from France, which fhould be, That he fhould demand a fpeedy anfwer from the parliament, whether they would fatisfy the demands he had made; which if they fhould refuse to do, he should forthwith in the king his mafter's name declare a war against them, and immediately leave the kingdom and return home, and then there fhould be quickly fuch an army ready as was worthy 'for the prince of Wales to venture

his own person in, and that he fhould have the honour to redeem and reftore his father. This difcourfe ended, he wanted not language to extol the generofity and the magnanimity of the refolution, and to pay the cardinal all his compliments in his own coin, and from thence to enter upon the condition of Ireland, in which the cardinal presently interrupted him, and told him he knew well he was come from thence, and meant to return thither, and likewife the carriage of the nuncio; that the marquis of Ormond was too brave a gentle. man, and had merited too much of his mafter, to be deferted, and France was refolved not to do it's business by halves, but to give the king's affairs an entire relief in all places, that he fhould carry a good fupply of money with him into Ireland, and that arms and ammunition fhould be speedily fent after him, and fuch direction to their agent there as fhould draw off all the Irish from the nuncio, who had not entirely given themfelves up to the Spanish interest.

The noble perfon had that which he moft defired, he was prefently converted, and undertook to the queen that he would presently convert all at Jerfey, and that the prince fhould obey all her commands, and entered into confultation with her upon the election of an ambaffador, and what inftructions fhould be prepared for him, which he took upon himself to prepare. Monfieur Bellievre was named by the queen, whom the cardinal had defigned for that office; the cardinal approved the inftructions, and caufed fix thousand piftoles to be paid to him who was to go to Ireland; and though it was a much

lefs

lefs fum than he had promifed him felf, from the magnificent expreffions the cardinal had used to him, yet it provided well for his own occafions. So he left the queen with his ufual profeffions and confidence, and accompanied thofe lords to Jerfey, who were to attend upon his highness with her majefty's orders for the prince's repair into France, for the advancement whereof the cardinal was fo folicitous, that he writ a letter to the old prince of Conde, which he knew he would forthwith fend to the queen, as he did; in which he faid that he had received very certain advertisement out of England, that there were some persons about the prince of Wales in Jersey, who had undertaken to deliver his highness up into the hands of the parliament for twenty thousand piftoles, and this letter was forthwith fent by the queen to overtake the lords, that it might be fhewed to the prince, and that they who attended upon him might difcern, what would be thought of them, if they diffuaded his highness from giving a prefent obedience to his mother's commands. As foon as they came to Jerkey, he used all the means he could to perfuade his friend to concur in his advice for the prince's immediate repair into France; he told him of all that had paffed between the cardinal and him, not leaving out any of the expreffions of the high value his eminence had of his particular perfon; that an ambaffador was chofen by his advice, and his inftructions drawn by him, from no part of which the ambaffador durft fwerve, and, which is very wonderful, he did really believe for that time, that he had both nominated the ambaffador, and

that his inftructions would be exactly obferved by him (fo great a power he had always over himself, that he could believe any thing which was grateful to him); that a war would be presently proclaimed upon their refufal to do what the ambaffador required; and that there wanted nothing to the expediting this great affair but the prince's immediate repairing into France without further delay, there being no other question concerning that matter, than whether his highness should stay in Jerfey, where there could be no queftion of his fecurity, until he could receive express direction from the king his father; and therefore he conjured his friend to concur in that advice, which would be very grateful to the queen, and be attended with much benefit to himfelf; telling him how kind her majefty was to him, and how confident the was of his fervice, and that if he fhould be of another opinion, it would not hinder the Prince from going, who he knew was refolved to obey his Mother; and fø concluded his difcourfe with thofe arguments which he thought were like to make most imprefion in him, and gave him the inftructions by which the ambassador was to be guided. His friend, who in truth loved him very heartily, though no man better knew his infirmities, told him, whatever the prince would be difpofed to do, he could not change his opinion in point of counfel, until the King's pleafure might be known; he put him in mind how he had been before deceived at Oxford by the comte de Harcourt, who was an ambaffador likewife, as was then thought, named by ourfelves, and whofe inftructions he had likewife drawn, and yet he could

not but well remember how foully that business had been managed, and how disobligingly himfelf had been treated by that ambaffador; and therefore he could not but wonder that the fame artifices fhould again prevail with him, and that he could imagine that the inftructions he had drawn would be at all confidered or purfued, further than they might contribute to what the cardinal for the prefent defigned; of the integrity whereof they had no evidence, but had reafon enough to suspect. And so neither's perfuafions working upon the other, the prince fhortly removed into France, and he purfued his journey for Ireland with as much of the French money as was left, whereof the lord lieutenant never received one thoufand piftoles towards the fupport of his majefty's affairs.

When he landed in Ireland, he found the whole treaty of peace difavowed and made void by the Irish, under the command of the nuncio, who was declared both general at land and admiral at fea of that kingdom. Here was a new field for action, which this perfon presently entered into, made a journey upon very little encouragement or fecurity in his own perfon to the nuncio, was received and entertained by him very rudely, till he found it neceffary, with great difficulty, to make what hafte he could again to Dublin, where he continued to have many imaginations of uniting parties, and dividing the Irish amongft themfelves, until he plainly difcerned that there was no way left to preferve that kingdom from being irrecoverably loft to the crown, but by putting it into the hands of the parliament, which ftill made profeffion of all duty to the king; and

1

9

when that was unavoidably to be done, and the commiffioners from the parliament arrived to receive it, he found means again to transport himself into France, where he immediately found himself engaged in fever al quarrels upon the account of what had formerly paffed in England, which without any kind of fcruple he appeared ready to answer with his fword in his hand, his courage having always faithfully feconded him in all his defigns. When thefe contests were over, he repaired again to his new friend the cardinal, who received him not with the esteem he formerly had done, and only as a man who had proposed to himself to live upon them; yet he gave him very good words, promifed him fome command in the army, he propofing to himfelf no other courfe of life for his fubfiftence and preferment, than in the war; and in the mean time gave him a very mean fupply for his prefent fubfiftence, nor did he find any better reception from those of whom he expected to be admitted as a full fharer in all they enjoyed. This mortification would have broken any other man's fpirits, but it gave him only fome fits of indignation, without working in the leaft degree upon the vigour of his mind, refolv ing to take the firft opportunity to make himself to be more confidered, and an opportunity shortly offered itfelf, which could have hardly been propitious to any man born under another conftellation.

The diforders of Paris had forced the king to retire from thence to St. Germains, and all overtures towards accommodation being hopelefs, forces were raised on both fides, fome of the princes of the blood being in the head of those in

Paris,

Paris, and others with the king; and when both armies were one day drawn up at a small distance from each other, the perfon we are difcourfing of, having with fome difficulty procured a horfe, had put himself as a volunteer into the king's troops, and a perfon of the other fide coming out fingle out of the troops in a bravado to change a piftol (as the phrafe is) with any fingle man who should be willing to encounter him, he, without fpeaking to any body, moved his horfe very leifurely towards him, the other feeming to ftand ftill and expect him, but he did in truth dexterously retire so near his own troops, that before the time he could come to charge him, the whole front of that fquadron di charged all their carbines upon him, whilft the other retired into his place. By this difhonourable proceeding, he received a fhot in the thigh with a brace of bullets, and keeping till his horfe, needed no excufe for making what hafte he could back, when he could no longer fit his horfe. This action being performed fo gallantly in the view of the king, the cardinal, and the prince of Condè, all men enquired who the gentleman was, and very few knew more than that he was an Englishman; but his name was quickly known and publifhed, and direction given for his accommodation and recovery, in fuch a manner, as expreffed that the king thought himself concerned that he fhould want nothing, and from this action and accident hè made another glorious flight into the world, for he was no fooner recovered of his wounds, and went to make his acknowledgment to the king and the cardinal, but he found the cardinal's countenance

very ferene towards him, and him, felf quickly poffeffed of an honourable comntand of horse, with fuch liberal appointments as made his condition very eafy, the Cardinal taking all occafions to do him ho nour, and he very well knowing how to cultivate thofe inclinations.

If he had been born to be happy, or had had a temper to have received the approaches of good fortune, when she made most hafte towards him, no man had ever prepared fuch an afcent to himself to any height he could propofe; he was the difcourfe of the whole court, and had drawn the eyes of all men upon him; his quality, his education, the handsomeness of his perfon, and even the beauty of his countenance (being not at that timeabove thirty years of age, and looking much younger) his alacrity and fiercenefs in action against the enemy, his foftnefs and civility in all kind of converfations, his profound knowledge in all kind of learning, and in all languages, in which he enlarged or reftrained himfelf, as he faw opportunity, made him grateful to all kind of perfons. His first troop of horfe confifted moft of English, who reforted to him in as great numbers as he could wifh, and who thought their fortunes made by their dependance upon him; and he was well contented they fhould do fo, not concealing any imagination of his own of the valt height his ftars would carry him to, imputing ftill all fuccefs to his own rare contrivance, and dexterity in the management, and encouraged them to hope all for fortunes under his conduct, which brought great joy and fatisfaction to them both; they, congratulating with themselves for the great blef

fing that had befallen, that they had committed their fortunes into the hands of a person who could fo eafily, and was refolved fo amply to provide for them, and fo they celebrated him in all places as the wolder of the world; and he, too much delighting in that kind of celebration, requited them only in giving them equal teftimony as brave men, excellent officers, who having the choice of all offices and preferments, made it their choice, out of their mere love and efteem of his perfon, to grow up under his shadow, and in the mean time that they would wait with patience and industry, that they might take their turn with him. But patience and industry were virtues that neither of them were acquainted with, they were pleased with him because his profeffions and promises were very early, and fo like preferments, that they concluded, that he that faid more than they could wish in the firft and second weeks, would give them poffeffion of fomething within three or four months. And he again believed that all their profeffions and zeal proceeded purely out of an innate affection to his perfon, would never be weary of their dependance, or that he should still be able to keep it warm with the fame fire by which he had kindled it. So that they being men of licence and expence, who expected prefent liberal fupport, he having given them caufe to expect much more, and he having not in his nature the leaft in clination to bounty or generofity, they grew quickly weary of each other, they abandoning him as a perfon who promifed vaftly, lightly, and unreasonably, and who would not perform, if it were in his power to do it as eafily as to

promife; and he looking upon it as

a grca advance to be rea

n:

trích

its mout

1

his fortune

u importu dependance. t' cornet for

prefs was an of

s his own creft, and in

ece of iron, under it, these words, Ferro vivendum eft tibi, quid præflantia plume ?-alluding

to the nature of the oftrich to live upon iron, which was now his fortune to do, without any benefit from the beauty of her feathers, as he was to expect none from the luf-、 tre of his pen, in which he believed he excelled all men. The invention had sharpness in it, and added to his reputation, even when it appeared to be full blown.

Whilft the civil wars of France continued, and every day difcovered treachery and falfehood in the court, amongst those who were least fufpected, his credit grew to that degree, both with the queen and the cardinal, that he was admitted into the greatest truft, and was in truth ready for the boldeft undertakings, in which he had fometime fuccefs, which he never forgot, but he never remembered want of it, or when he had fucceeded very ill; and was as prepared for any new undertaking. And in truth, the changes he met with, and even the reparations he fometimes received, might well work upon a nature lefs fanguine than his. Upon the king's firit coming to Paris after the murther of his father, at which time he flood poffeffed of the office of fecretary of state, he had fome very good friends about the young king, who did wish that he might receive all gracious treatment from his majefty, as a man who had behaved himself faithfully and fignally in

the