Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/106

92 cardinals Ludovisio and Bandini; and Buckingham, to complete the intercession, sent Bennet, a catholic priest, on the same errand.

The pope was not likely to grant the favour to James without a quid pro quo, and therefore, as might have been expected, replied that the canons of the church could only be suspended for the benefit of the church; that the king of England had been very liberal of his promises to the late king of Spain, but had performed nothing; he must now give proof of his sincerity by relieving the English catholics from the pressure of his penal laws, and the request would be accorded. This was a demand in limine, which would have shown to any prudent monarch the dangerous path he was entering upon; but James trusted to his tortuous art of king-craft, and rashly set to work to undo all that he had done throughout his reign against the catholics. He caused an order under the great seal to be issued, granting pardons to all recusants who should apply for them within five years; and the judges were commanded to discharge from prison all such as gave security for then: compliance with these terms.

There was a glad and universal embrace of the proffered lenity by the catholics. The doors of the prisons were opened, and the astonished puritans saw thousands on thousands of the dreaded papists once more coming abroad. There was instantly a cry of terror and indignation from John O'Groats to the Land's End. The pulpits resounded with the execrations of enthusiastic preachers on the traitorous dealing of the court, and the depicted horrors of catholic and Spanish ascendancy. James trembled, but ordered the lord-keeper Williams and the bishop of London to assure the public that he was only seeking to gain better treatment for the protestants abroad, whom the continental princes declared they would punish with the same rigour as James had punished the catholics in England, unless the British severity was somewhat mitigated. That, moreover, there was no danger; for the recusants, though out of prison, had still the shackles about their heels, and could at any moment be remanded. This, without satisfying the puritans, undid all confidence amongst the catholics. They recalled the habitual duplicity of James, and felt no longer any security; and when Gondomar boasted in Spain that four thousand catholics had been released in England, those catholics only remarked, "Yes; but we have still the shackles about our heels, and may at any moment be thrust again into our dungeons."

To silence the vehement outcries of the preachers against his release of the catholics, he issued orders that no preachers should indulge in abuse of either catholics or puritans, fondly hoping that the latter part of the prohibition would appease the reformers. But the puritans were too knowing to be caught with so poor a bait; and they were too able to reply to any attacks on them to need any other protection from mere invective. They therefore denounced more loudly than ever the royal leaning to popery. Harassed on this side, James was as unmercifully goaded on another. Abroad, the protestants cursed his miserable neglect, or more miserable support of his son-in-law; who, with his wife, James's daughter, was existing on a Dutch pension at the Hague; and the catholics ridiculed him as freely. They introduced him into burlesque plays in the theatres, and at Antwerp, according to Howell's Letters, a player enacting a courtier, rushed hastily on the stage, crying—"News! news!" On being asked what news, he replied "that the count palatine was likely to have a tremendous force in the field; for the king of Denmark had engaged to send him a thousand, the Dutch ten thousand, and the king of England a hundred thousand." "Thousands of what?" demanded those who acted the spectators. "Oh!" replied the courier, "the king of Denmark's are red herrings, those of the Dutch are Dutch cheeses, and the king of England's are ambassadors." They exhibited all kinds of caricatures of the unfortunate monarch. In one he had his pockets and his purse turned inside out, in another ho was fighting with an empty scabbard instead of a sword, in a third with a sword that a whole crowd tugging at could not draw, and in a fourth James was carrying a cradle after his daughter, the ex-queen of Bohemia, who was wandering homeless with her child on her back.

His only consolation was that the Spanish match now seemed really to progress. On the 5th of January, 1623, the twenty articles securing the freedom of her worship to the Infanta in England, the cessation of persecution of the catholics, and the exercise of their religious rites in their own houses, were signed by James and prince Charles. The dower of the princess was to be two millions of ducats. The espousals were to take place at Madrid by proxy, within forty days from the receipt of the dispensation; and the princess was to set out for England within three weeks, under the care of Don Duartre of Portugal. The time for the final consummation of the marriage, and the intervals betwixt the several payments of the dower, were all fixed, and Gondomar and Bristol congratulated themselves on the completion of their arduous negotiation.

At this crisis, however, arrived two Englishmen at the earl of Bristol's residence at Madrid, under the names of John and Thomas Smith. To the ambassador's astonishment and chagrin, on appearing before him, they turned out to be no other than the prince of Wales and Buckingham, who had arrived in disguise, and with only three attendants. But how this extraordinary and imprudent journey had come about and been carried out, requires detail. It was said to have orientated with Gondomar; that it had been planned on his visit to London the preceding summer, and had since been stimulated by his letters. He is said to have represented to the prince, who complained of delay, that all obstacles would vanish at once if he were to suddenly appear and press his own suit. The idea caught the imagination of the prince, and was warmly seconded by Buckingham, who not only longed to seek adventures amongst the beauties of Madrid, but also hoped to snatch the accomplishment of the match out of the hands of Bristol, whom he hated. If it were really the scheme of the wily Spaniard, he must have prided himself greatly on its success; a success, however, which produced its own ruin.

When the plan was first opened to James by Charles and Buckingham, he gave in to them without much hesitation, so much did he desire to have the affair settled. But on thinking it over alone, he was immediately sensible of the hazards and the impolitic character of the enterprise. He therefore desired the prince and the favourite to give it up, pointing