Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/142

128 year's service. So the next morning, being Tuesday, there was distributed among them eleven thousand pounds in money, and twenty thousand pounds worth of jewels."

The fact was, however, that the French retinue having the jewels in their hands, would not give them up, but carried off both them and all the queen's clothes, as perquisites, leaving her actually without a change of linen, and not without much difficulty being persuaded to give an old satin gown for her immediate use. Besides this, they had incurred many debts in her name, which she afterwards told Charles were not on her account at all.

A more absolute set of harpies certainly never alighted on a palace, and they had all the filth of harpies too. Spite of the king's orders, they still continued, on one excuse or other, to remain, till Charles's patience was exhausted, and he wrote from Oaking on the 7th of August, to Buckingham, to "force them away, driving them away like so many wild beasts, until he had shipped them. And so," said the king, "the devil go with them." But they were not so readily got rid of. The next day a great array of carriages, carts, and barges surrounded Somerset Horse, to take them off; but they refused to go, saying they had not been dismissed with the proper punctilios. The king thereupon sent trumpeters and heralds, backed by a troop of yeomanry, with orders that if they would not go out of themselves, to pack them neck and shoulders. The trumpeters proclaimed his majesty's pleasure at the gates, and the yeomen were ready to force them out; but they then thought better of it and went, but with many old outcries and grimaces. Madame St. George, gesticulating violently, and pouring forth a torrent of abuse on the barbarous English, tearing her from her mistress, a stone was flung by one of the mob, which knocked off her cap. The nobleman who was conducting her to a barge, drew his sword, and ran the man through, to the great indignation of the people, and to the additional dislike of the French.

Thus was the king relieved of sixty nuisances and perpetual firebrands in his house. The only French attendants left were the queen's nurse, her dresser, and Madame de la Tremouille, who afterwards became lady Strange, and eventually the countess of Derby, so celebrated for her defence of Latham House. For Madame de la Tremouille, the king ordered apartments in St. James's palace to be prepared; but the housekeeper sent word that "her majesty's French retinue had so defiled that palace, that it would be long before it could be purified."

This unceremonious ejection made a strange sensation in the French court, whither the crowd of fugitives betook themselves, with loud representations and misrepresentations of their injuries, and of the king's barbarous treatment of the queen. Louis threatened war, and his two formal and foolish ambassadors, Tillers and Blainville, only kept up the feeling of animosity. Sir Dudley Carleton, whom Charles despatched to Paris to explain the whole affair, was at first refused admittance to the king's presence, and the queen's mother and Richelieu gave him a very cold reception. But at length it was resolved to send marshal de Bassompierre to London, as ambassador, to hear from Henrietta herself the statement of her injuries. Bassompierre was a witty, accomplished, and gay courtier, having the reputation of considerable profligacy, but clear-sighted, and as his conduct showed in the whole affair, a very capable and straightforward man. To make the embassy as offensive as possible, father Sancy, whom Charles had expelled, was sent back in the character of Bassompierre's chaplain. The ambassador complained of the arrangement, and of the mischief it was likely to do. Accordingly, no sooner did Bassompierre arrive, in September, than the king sent to him his master of the ceremonies, Sir Lewis Lewknor, to insist that Sancy should be immediately ordered back again. Bassompierre, though himself unwillingly having him in his train, stood upon his right, as ambassador, to name his own chaplain.

Buckingham then waited on Bassompierre from the king, and desired that none of the matters in question should be entered upon at his public reception, for otherwise he would not receive him. He informed the ambassador that the king felt he could not go into the questions in dispute without losing his temper, which before the chief persons of the realm would not be beseeming, and that the queen might on their mention, commit some extravagance which would make things worse. Bassompierre was, therefore, received by the king and queen with much honour at Hampton Court; and the king informed him that as the queen was anxious to inquire all about her family, he had arranged that she should go to London, where she could converse at her pleasure with him. The feelings of the queen were so difficult to restrain, that saying a few words to the ambassador, tears rushed into her eyes, and she retired with Madame de la Tremouille to hide her emotion.

Bassompierre, in fact, found the queen in the highest state of exasperation both against the king and Buckingham; but he was not long in perceiving that Henrietta had been mis-advised, and led wrong by those who had been about her; and he set about earnestly and honestly to smooth her excitement and reconcile her with both parties. Buckingham had sided with the king, and in one of Henrietta's perverse moments, had told her to beware how she behaved, for in England queens had had their heads cut off before now. This was deeply resented by Henrietta, and the parties appeared irreconcilable. Yet Bassompierre determined to make peace, though for some time it appeared a doubtful attempt. Charles at their first private interview became extremely excited, and asked Bassompierre whether he was come to declare war against him. "I am not a herald, to declare war," calmly replied the ambassador, "but a marshal of France to make it when declared."

Charles then laid before Bassompierre a statement of his causes of complaint against the French attendants whom he had sent away. These were, that they had used their influence to create in the queen a repugnance to all that the king proposed or desired, and to foment a constant state of discord betwixt their majesties. That the priests had got to know everything that passed, and told it to others, and had done their best to strengthen the hands of the opposition in parliament against the king. That they had endeavoured to inspire the queen with a contempt of England, of its language and habits, and had used her very apartments for a rendezvous of the Jesuits and fugitives, and a place of refuge for the persons and effects of individuals who had violated the laws. That the bishop and his faction