The Catholic World Volume Ii Part 89

V.

About the month of April, 1668, the king received a piece of news which awakened in his heart at once remorse and hope. A natural son whom he loved tenderly--a young man of great {582} intelligence and acquirements--had abjured Protestantism and consecrated himself to G.o.d's service in the Society of Jesus. This personage, who was destined to play a part in Charles's conversion as important as it was mysterious, is not unknown to our readers alone: no memoir of the time makes any mention of him. We must go back a little way to find out who he was.

The son of Lucy Walters, the intriguing and factious Duke of Monmouth, born in 1649, is generally regarded as the first fruit of Charles's illicit amours; but this is a mistake. It was not in the Netherlands, nor in Paris, but in the isle of Jersey, that the heir to the English crown began the career of licentiousness which ultimately proved so disastrous to his reign. This little island, rich and populous, had always remained faithful to the royal house; and it was probably with the hope of obtaining succor for the royal cause that Charles, while Prince of Wales, went there in 1647. But unfortunately he encountered, under the roof of one of the most ill.u.s.trious, families of Great Britain, a temptation which extinguished all his warlike ardor. The young soldier reposed in the gardens of Armida, and gave not a thought to the terrible morrow which might follow his careless sleep.

[Footnote 88]

[Footnote 88: In the multiplicity of more important events, English historians have lost site of this abortive Jersey expedition; but if they do not confirm, they at least do not contradict our statement.

After the battle of Naseby, Prince Charles fled to the Scilly Isles and afterward to Jersey. The next three years he pa.s.sed chiefly at the Hague. He does not reappear in history until 1648, when he made a fruitless demonstration with a royalist fleet at the mouth of the Thames. In the meanwhile he used to pay occasional visits to his mother at Paris, and what more likely than at her instigation he should have made a trip to Jersey in the hope of doing something for his father?]

The child born of this connection, who afterward was called James Stuart, was taken, in infancy, we know not by what name, to the continent. He was educated by the best masters in France and Holland, and as he grew up manifested great quickness of intellect, together with the most estimable qualities of the heart. Charles was proud of him and loved him; but when he came to the throne he durst not publicly recognize him. He was afraid of his parliament and afraid of the factions which encompa.s.sed him. Beside, the child's mother was still living, and no doubt had obtained from the monarch a promise not to compromise the honor of her n.o.ble family by acknowledging the son until there should no longer be any danger of her being suspected as the mother. So, when the young man, then about eighteen years of age, was summoned to London in 1665, he was commanded to present himself under the name of Jacques de la Cloche du Bourg de Jersey; and though he received from his father the most unequivocal marks of affection, he soon grew tired of his false position, and begged permission to return to the continent and resume his studies. Charles reluctantly consented. He gave his son at parting a doc.u.ment written in French with his own hand and impressed with the royal seal, which is still preserved at the Gesu in Rome. It runs thus:

"Charles, par la grace de Dieu Roy d'Angleterre, de France, d'Ecosse et d'Hibernie, confessons et tenons pour nostre fils naturel le sieur Jacques Stuart qui, par nostre ordre et commandement a vescu en France et auttres pays jusques a mil six cent soixante cinq ou nous avons daigne prendre soin de Luy. Depuis, la meme annee, s'etant treuve a Londres de nostre volonte expresse et pour raison.

Luy avons commande de vivre sous auttre nom encore, scavoir, de la Cloche du Bourg de Jarzais. [Footnote 89] Auquel, pour raisons importantes qui regardent la paix du Royaume que nous avons toujours recherchee, deffendons de parler qu' apres nostre mort [_i.e._, of the secret of his birth]. En ce temps, Luy soit lors permis de presenter au parlement cette nostre {583} declaration que, de plein gre et avec equite, nous Luy donnons a sa requeste, et en sa langue, pour lui oster occasion de la monstrer a qui que ce soit pour en avoir l'interpretation.--A Wthall, le 27 de septembre 1665. Escry et signe de nostre main, et cachete du cachet ordinaire de nos lettres sans auttre facon.

L. S. CHARLES."

[Footnote 89: Charles wrote indifferently Jarzais, Jersais, or Jerse]

(TRANSLATION.)

We Charles, by the grace of G.o.d king of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland, acknowledge and hold as our natural son Sir James Stuart, who by our order and commandment has lived up to the year 1665 in France and other countries, where we have seen fit to take care of him. Thence after, on the same year, he resided in London by our express will and for good reasons, we having commanded him to live under a new name, to wit, La Cloche du Bourg de Jarzais. Whom, however, for important reasons touching the peace of the realm, whereof we are ever regardful, we forbid to speak _concerning the secret of does birth_ until after our death. At that time be it then permitted him to present to parliament this our declaration, which of our own free will and in justice we grant him at his request and in his language, in order to remove all occasion of his exhibiting it to any one whatsoever for its better interpretation. At Whitehall, the 27th of September, 1665. Written and signed by our hand and sealed with the ordinary seal of our letters, without other fas.h.i.+on.

L. S. CHARLES

With this acknowledgment of parentage, the young man returned to the Netherlands; but he soon reflected that in the event of his father's death the doc.u.ment was not likely to be of much service to him, for it mentioned no provision for his support. The English Parliament would be very apt, on one pretext or another, to refuse him any sum whatever. So he prevailed upon Charles to give him another paper, a.s.signing to him 500 a year, "subject to the good pleasure of the next successor to the crown and of the Parliament." Coupled with this legacy were the conditions that James should live in London and remain faithful to the Anglican Church. This doc.u.ment, dated Feb. 7, 1667, is also preserved at the Gesu:

"Charles, by the grace of G.o.d king of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland. The Sieur James Stuart, whom we have heretofore recognized as our natural son, living under the name of La Cloche--having represented to us that, should he survive our death, he would be without means of support, if not recognized by parliament, beside other difficulties which might occur in this affair; for this reason, bending to his entreaties, we have seen good to a.s.sign him and to leave him from our domain, if such be the good pleasure of our successor to the crown and of our parliament, the sum of 500 sterling per annum. Which legacy it will not be lawful for him to enjoy, except in so far as he shall reside in London, living according to the religion of his fathers and the Anglican liturgy.

At Whitehall, the 7th Feb. 1667. Written and sealed by our proper hand.

L. S. CHARLES"

When the king imposed the second condition he little imagined that his son was already on the point of abandoning the Established Church; but so it was; and on the 29th of the next July he was received into the Catholic communion at Hamburg. Very soon afterward he determined to enter the Society of Jesus; but there was one great obstacle in the way. He could not be received without telling the secret of his birth, for illegitimacy was an impediment from which it was necessary to obtain a dispensation. And if he told it, with no other {584} proof to show than the two papers just cited, which it would be impossible for an Italian Jesuit to verify, who would believe him? In this perplexity he had recourse to the ex-queen Christina of Sweden, who was then at Hamburg. There was a dash of romance in the story which pleased the eccentric princess; she was well acquainted personally with Charles II., and having obtained from him a confirmation of all that James Stuart had told her, she gave the young man a letter which secured a ready belief for the account that he gave of himself at Rome. This letter, written in Latin, is also among the doc.u.ments lately discovered at the Gesu:

"James Stuart, who was born in the isle of Jersey, and of his own free will a.s.sumed the name of La Cloche du Bourg, is the natural son of Charles II., king of England, and so much has been secretly confirmed to us by his Britannic majesty. Renouncing the sect of Calvin, to which his birth and education had up to this time attached him, he joined the Holy Roman Church at Hamburg July 29, 1667. In faith of which, contrary to our custom, we have written by our own hand this declaration, to the end that James Stuart can, in an extraordinary circ.u.mstance, open his conscience entirely to his confessor and receive from him the necessary counsels for the salvation of his soul.

L. S. CHRISTINA ALEXANDRA."

James Stuart was accordingly received into the Society in April, 1668, under the name of Jacques de la Cloche. The inventory of his personal effects, to which the novice, according to custom, affixed his signature on entering, gives us a curious idea of the wardrobe of a king's son. Here it is: "One hat; one ecclesiastical habit and mantle; one pair of breeches and a waistcoat of black cloth; one vest trimmed with yellow fur; a sword-belt of green leather; white silk stockings; two s.h.i.+rts and one unders.h.i.+rt; one pair of linen drawers," etc.

VI.

It was on the 11th day of April, 1668, that James Stuart commenced his religious life. On the 23d of April, 1668, the Marquis de Ravigny, the French amba.s.sador at London, sent to the court of St. Germain an account of a conversation he had just had with Charles II. The King of England had said to him: "I am very desirous of effecting a strong union with France, but I must have help; for there are many people about me who are not of that way of thinking. As to myself, I have always been so disposed, as you know better than anybody..." Charles, after having repeated these words several times, had added more than once--"Leave it to me. I will speak with you about it before many days." M. de Ravigny, whose efforts toward the political unity of the two cabinets had, up to this time, been without result, received the overture with apparent coldness. Louis XIV. was equally incredulous, and M. de Lionne replied to the representative of France in England in these terms: "The king is of the opinion that your response was exceedingly judicious, when the King of Great Britain signified his desire of making a strong alliance with him, and hinted to you to make advances. His majesty has already made so many, and has been so poorly responded to, when requested to enter into the matter, that the prudence and dignity of his majesty forbid his committing himself further... ."

Charles waited to receive the propositions of the court of St.

Germain; but the court of St. Germain was dumb. Driven to declare himself, therefore, he renewed the a.s.surances he had already given, and the letter of the French amba.s.sador, bearing date of May 21, 1668, describes the interview, and closes with these significant words: "It looks as though this will {585} come to something; for this reason I most humbly beg your majesty to send further instructions."

Thus, only a few days after the humble novice of the Quirinal had a.s.sumed the robes of his order, Charles and Louis were busily engaged in cementing that family pact which broke the Triple Alliance, and delayed, for many years, the formation of that formidable coalition under which France finally succ.u.mbed. Are we too bold in suspecting something more than a simple coincidence in the simultaneousness of these two events?

Hume, in his "History of the House of Stuart," attributes the action of the English monarch to his admiration for the gaiety, wit, and elegance of the French court. Let those who will, accept this frivolous explanation! The curious conjuncture of dates, together with a vast a.s.semblage of other facts looking in the same direction, have convinced us that the true motive of this sudden change was the religions convictions of the king. The conscience of Charles had long been troubled. Even before a.s.suming the crown, he had resolved to introduce larger religious liberty into the realm. Baffled in all his attempts, completely, disconcerted, he learns one day that his eldest son--a mind thoroughly serious and earnest--had separated himself utterly from the errors of Protestantism, and had deliberately devoted himself to a life of prayer, of silence, and of mortification. Then Charles took heart, and convinced that he could not attain his object without the help of France, he resolutely set aside all the obstacles of national sentiment, and entered at once upon the completion of the compact. While this was pending, the British sovereign was employed, for the three months which followed the entrance of his son upon the novitiate of the Jesuits, in strengthening himself against the insurrections and the civil war to which his conversion was certain to give rise. It is not, however, by political precautions alone that heresy is made to yield to the true faith. There must also be the discreet theologian, the wise master, the spiritual guide--a.s.sistance difficult to avail one's self of when Anglican intolerance watches menacingly at the gates of all the royal palaces! Such a guide, such an instrument of the divine pity, the prince felt that he possessed to-day in the novice of St. Andre. Resuming the dress of a gentleman, James Stuart, known by n.o.body at court, might readily obtain access to the king without exciting suspicion. To him Charles would joyfully become a disciple, joyfully become a penitent; from him he could receive the necessary religious instruction and absolution for his sins. In concert with the two queens, he therefore decided to write to the father-general of the Jesuits and request the immediate return of the novice to England. The prince wrote to Rome five autograph letters, all in French; four to P. Oliva, one to his son. The different envelopes have perfectly preserved the stamp of the royal seal. It is for the reader now to determine whether the author of these pages--so truthful, so ingenuous--was, as has been a thousand times a.s.serted, only an accomplished cheat. It is for the reader to declare whether the brother of James II. merits those odious epithets of deist and atheist with which Protestantism has so freely bespattered him, doubtless in recompense for the scorn and aversion which Charles always felt in his deepest heart for the Establishment of Henry VIII.

Scarcely five months had elapsed since James Stuart began to practise the rules of St. Ignatius, when a stranger placed in the hands of Paul Oliva, father-general of the order, the following letter:

TO THE REVEREND FATHER-GENERAL OF THE JESUIT FATHERS:

REVEREND FATHER,--We write this to your reverence as to a person whom we believe to be most prudent and judicious, inasmuch as the {586} princ.i.p.al charge which you have of an inst.i.tute so famous will not permit us to think otherwise. We address you in French, a language common to all persons of quality, wherewith we believe that your reverence is not unacquainted, preferring this language to bad Latin, in which we could with difficulty write so as to be understood; it being our princ.i.p.al aim in this that no Englishman may intrude himself as a translator--a thing which would otherwise be exceedingly prejudicial to us, for the reason that we wish this letter to be a secret between you and us.

And to commence, your reverence ought to know that for a long time, amid the embarra.s.sments of the crown, we had prayed G.o.d to grant us the opportunity of finding at least one person in our realm in whom we could confide touching the affair of our salvation without giving our court grounds for suspecting that we are Catholic. And although there have been here a mult.i.tude of priests, both in the service of the queen (a portion of whom have dwelt in our palace of St. James and at Somerset House) and also scattered throughout our whole city of London; nevertheless we could not avail ourselves of any because of the suspicion we should give to our court by conversation with such people, who, whatever disguises of clothing they may a.s.sume, are always known for what they are. Yet despite so many difficulties, it seems as if the providence of G.o.d had provided for and seconded our desires, by causing to be born to us in the Catholic religion a son to whom alone we could confide ourselves in an affair so delicate. And although many persons, perhaps better versed than himself in the mysteries of the Catholic religion, might be found for our service in this exigency; nevertheless we could not make use of others as well as of him, who would be always capable of administering to us in secret the sacraments of the confession and of the communion which we desire to receive as soon as possible.

This our son is a young gentleman whom we know you have received with you at Rome under the name of the Sieur La Cloche de Jersay, for whom we have always had a peculiar tenderness, as much because he was born to us when we were scarcely sixteen or seventeen years old, of a young lady of the highest rank in our realm (rather from the frailty of our early youth than from a bad heart), as also because of the excellent nature we have ever remarked in him and of that eminence in learning wherein he has advanced through our means.

For this makes us all the more esteem his conversion to the Catholic religion, since we know that he has been led to it through judgment, reason, and knowledge. Many important reasons touching the peace of our realm have prevented us, up to the present time, from publicly recognizing him as our son; but this will be for a brief time only, because we presently design to make a kind of public recognition of him ere many years, having, however, provided him, in 1665, with the necessary a.s.surances, in case we should come to die, so that he may make use of them in due time and place. And as he is not known here in anywise, saving by the queens--this affair having been managed with great secresy--we could in all safety converse with him, and exercise in secret the mysteries of the Catholic religion, without exciting in any one of our court the suspicion that we are Catholic, which we could not do with any other missionary; in addition to the confidence that we should have in opening to him our conscience in all freedom and sincerity as to a part of ourselves. Thus we see that, although he was born in our tender youth against the ordinances of G.o.d, the same G.o.d has seen fit to preserve him for our salvation, since it pertains to himself alone to know how to bring good out of evil.

We believe that the need we have {587} of him has been sufficiently explained to your reverence, and if your reverence write us, you will intrust your letters to our son alone, when he comes to us. For although we do not doubt but that you would find secret ways enough to do it, nevertheless you would disoblige us excessively by intrusting your letters to anybody but to this our son, for many considerable reasons whereof your reverence can conjecture apart, but especially from the mischief which it would bring upon us, as we were subjected to great hazard on account of our receiving a letter which we had from Rome in reply to one we had written to the deceased Pope; and although it was presented to us with all necessary circ.u.mspection and by a Catholic person, nevertheless it could not be managed with sufficient prudence to prevent the suspicion of our most keen-sighted courtiers. But having found means to stifle the suspicion which was abroad respecting our being Catholic, we were obliged, through fear of renewing it in men's minds, to consent on several occasions to many things that turned to the disadvantage of numerous Catholics in our kingdom of Ireland. This is the reason why--although we had written with all possible secresy to His Holiness respecting our conversion to the Catholic Church at the same time that we besought His Holiness to make our very dear cousin, my Lord d'Aubigny, a cardinal, whereof we were refused for good reasons--we have not been able to pursue our point.

And although the Queen of Sweden is very wise and discreet, nevertheless it is enough that she is a woman to lead us to fear that she cannot keep a secret, and, as she believes that she alone knows the origin of our well-beloved son, we have written her again and have confirmed her in that opinion. This is done in order that your reverence shall manifest to her, upon occasion, that you have no knowledge of his birth, if she should inquire of you. As also, we pray your reverence not to make known to her or to anybody else, be it whom it may, the design we have of becoming Catholic, or that we send for our son for this object. If the Queen of Sweden asks where he is gone, your reverence will find some pretext, either that he is gone on a mission to our island of Jersey or to some other part of our realm, or still another pretext, until we make our desires and wishes in this matter again known to you.

We pray you, then, to send to us as soon as possible our very dear and well-beloved son--that is to say, at the first time that this season or the next permit. We believe that your reverence is too zealous for the salvation of souls, and has too much respect for crowned heads, not to accord to us a request so just. We had had some thought of writing to His Holiness and disclosing to him what we have in soul, and by the same means to pray him to send our son to us. But we have believed that it would be sufficient for us this time to make a declaration to your reverence, reserving for another occasion--which we shall bring to pa.s.s as soon as possible--the writing and declaring ourselves to the Pope by a very secret courier sent post by us.

If our dear and well-beloved son, is not a priest, and if he cannot become one without making publicly known his true name and origin, or from other circ.u.mstances (which we say because we do not know your mode of acting in these matters), in that case let him rather not be made a priest at Rome than that he communicate aught of what he is to the bishops or priests; but let him pa.s.s through Paris and present himself to our very dear cousin the King of France, or, if he prefer, to our very honored sister the d.u.c.h.ess d'Orleans, to whom he can make manifest on our part our good desire in all safety. They know well enough what is the wish of our soul, and will readily recognize our very dear and well-beloved son by the tokens which we gave to him in London in 1665, and, perceiving that he is Catholic, they would endeavor {588} and would be able to make him a priest without any one's knowing what he is, and with all possible secresy as we believe. If, however, without so many crooks and turns, he prefer to come to us without being a priest--which is, perhaps, the better course--then we would do the same thing by means of the queen our very honored mother, or of the queen-consort, who would have at their service bishops, missionaries, or others to perform the ceremony without any one's perceiving or knowing anything about it.

We say this in the event of his encountering difficulties in effecting this at Rome.

And although we wish our very dear son to come to us, it is, nevertheless, not our design to draw him away from your society. On the contrary, we should rejoice if he remain in it all his life if G.o.d inspire him to that vocation, and, after having put our conscience in order by his means, we shall not prevent him from returning to Rome, to live according to the society to which he has attached himself; and even during the time that he shall be at our service we shall not prevent him, if he so will, from pursuing, with those of your body that are in our realm, the life commenced in conformity with the religious vocation which he has embraced, provided that it be not in London, but in some city or village not far off from our city of London, to the end that when we need him he can come with the greatest prompt.i.tude and facility. And the reason why we do not wish him to reside in London among your people is because of the danger of his being suspected as a Jesuit, from his being seen to enter those places which are the residences of your people, already too well known by many--a thing that would turn to our prejudice. Now we are well content, after being absolved by him of heresy, and after we are reconciled to G.o.d and to the Church, that he return to Rome to lead the religious life which he has begun, awaiting further orders from us--a scheme which seems to us quite to the point, and we believe that your reverence will be of our opinion and counsel in this last particular. Thus doing, when he shall have been here some weeks or months, we will send him back to Rome under the government of your reverence, to the end that, under your care, he may the better fit himself for our service. And during the short time that he shall be at London, when he speak to any one of yours let him guard himself well in discoursing upon the object of his coming. He can say that it is for some affair of importance in our court, of which only your reverence and himself should have cognizance.

In the meanwhile, though we cannot openly manifest to your ill.u.s.trious society the affection and the good-will we have toward it, this does not prevent your reverence from making known to us, by our very dear and well-beloved son, if there be any way in which we can aid it, which we should do all the more willingly because we know that everything which we can contribute will be employed in the service of G.o.d for the remission of our offenses. For the rest, we recommend to your prayers our realm and ourselves.

CHARLES, King of England.

At Whitehall, the 3d of August, 1668.

Enclosed in the communication addressed to the father-general was a second letter of the king's, which reads as follows:

TO OUR VERY HONORED SON THE PRINCE STUART, RESIDENT WITH THE JESUIT FATHERS UNDER THE NAME OF SIEUR DE LA CLOCHE, AT ROME:

MONSIEUR,--We have written very fully to your reverend father-general; he will tell you our pleasure. The Queen of Sweden has asked of us, as a loan, the sum of money that we had taken care to provide for your maintenance, which was sufficient for {589} many years. We have ordered what was necessary in the matter; and this is a reason why you need not put yourself to the trouble either of writing to her about it, or of speaking more thereof.

If the autumn season be too disagreeable to get out on your journey to us, and if you cannot venture upon it without putting yourself in imminent danger of falling ill, wait till the commencement of next spring, having especial care for the preservation of your health, and keeping yourself in all quiet, writing us nothing, for we are not a little suspected of being Catholic.

The queens are very eager to see you, as we have communicated to them privately the news of your conversion to the Roman religion.

They have counselled us to tell you that we do not forbid your living in the inst.i.tute to which you have attached yourself, and we should be rejoiced if you remain in it all your life; but desire you to measure well your powers and your const.i.tution, which has appeared to us very feeble and delicate. One can be a good Catholic without being a religious, and you ought to consider that we design, before many years, to publicly recognize you as our son. But as neither parliament nor the state of affairs has permitted it up to the present moment, we have always been constrained to defer it. You ought, moreover, to consider that you can aspire to the same t.i.tles from us as the Duke of Monmouth, and perhaps to more ample ones.

Beside, we are without children by the queen and those of the Duke of York are very feeble; while, for every reason and because of the rank of your mother, you can lay claim on ourselves and on parliament to be preferred to the Duke of Monmouth. In that case, being young, as you are, if liberty of conscience and if the Catholic religion be restored to this realm, you would have some hope of the crown. For we can a.s.sure you that if G.o.d permit that we and our very honored brother the Duke of York die without children, the crown will belong to yourself and parliament cannot legitimately oppose it, unless that the fact of your being a Catholic exclude you; as liberty of conscience is not yet established, and since, at present, only Protestant kings are eligible. This, then, we are advised by the queens to tell you. If, in the meantime, all things considered, you prefer to serve G.o.d in the Society of Jesus, we do not wish to offer any resistance to the will of G.o.d, whom we have already grieved too much by our offences. We do not, therefore, forbid your pursuing that vocation, if G.o.d inspire you to it; but we desire only that you think well of it.

We do not wish to write to the Pope until we have spoken to you by our own mouth. We had written to the late Pope, to the end that he should make our very dear and well-beloved cousin, my Lord d'Aubigny, a cardinal; whereof we have not had the satisfaction that we demanded. However, we are not offended in this. His Holiness having made known to us manifold reasons why he could not conscientiously create a cardinal in our realm, the affairs of religion and other things being as they are.

Not long since we wrote to the Queen of Sweden, and advised her not to write to you, and to treat you henceforth as simply a gentleman, without manifesting that she has any knowledge of your birth. This is a reason why you should not take it amiss if her majesty treat you after that manner. It is a no light burden to us to see you always constrained to live unknown, but have patience yet a little, for before many years we shall try to so conduct affairs and parliament that all the world will know who you are. You will no longer live in these hindrances and restraints, and it will depend only on yourself to live in the liberty and the pleasure of a person of your birth, unless that G.o.d strongly inspire you and that you should wish to continue absolutely the {590} religious life which you have commenced.

Although we cannot, and ought not, to openly show the good-will that we have for the Society of Jesus, who have received you, yet in the meanwhile if we cannot publicly favor them with our royal munificence, there may still be some place, room, or occasion wherein they might need our aid, and where we could contribute somewhat. We would do it all the more because we know that all will be employed for the service of G.o.d and the remission of our offences, and because, also, we could desire that no one of your lineage should remain with them without founding something as a memorial suitable to one of your extraction. We will talk about this matter in London, if you persist in your design of living with them.

In the meanwhile, believe that we have always had you in our peculiar affection, not only because you were born to us in our tenderest youth, when we were scarcely sixteen or seventeen, but particularly because of the excellent nature that we have always remarked in you, because of that eminence of knowledge in which you have been advanced through our means, because you have always borne yourself as a virtuous man, and because you have been especially obedient to our commands: the which, joined to the paternal love that we have felt toward you, strongly governs our desires in wis.h.i.+ng all kinds of benefits for you, beside the pity that moves us in seeing you so unknown and disregarded--a thing which shall continue as brief a s.p.a.ce as possible.

It is not easy for us to send privately to Rome a sum of money adequate for a person of your birth and sufficient to put you in the condition and estate of appearing before us, being, as we are, neither willing nor able to noise it abroad that we have any one at Rome with whom we have communication. It is not possible that you are not everywise modest enough to come to us, if not in the condition of one of your rank, at least as a simple gentleman when you put foot in England. Finally, pray G.o.d for ourselves, the queen, and our realm.

I am your affectionate father, CHARLES King of Eng., Fr., Scot, and Ire.

At Whitehall, 4th of Aug., 1668.