Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/154

 other things as ‘tis probable, but such I have not seen, nor know anything else of the author. [I adopt the phraseology of Anthony a Wood.]  

Monsieur Marchant de Saint-Michel was High-Sheriff of Anjou, in the reign of Louis XIII. He was a man of wealth, as was his brother, a Reverend Canon. The latter being, of course, a celibate, the son of the former, as the heir of both, was a youth of “great expectations.” Young St Michel entered the German military service, and at the age of twenty-one became a convert to Protestantism, for which reason he was disinherited by his father and also by his uncle. He then found a home in England, as gentleman carver to Queen Henrietta Maria. But a friar thought fit to rebuke him for not going to mass. St Michel struck the friar, and lost his appointment. Nevertheless, he married a daughter of Sir Francis Kingsmill, the widow of an Irish esquire, and settled at Bideford in Devonshire, where he had children, of whom a son and a daughter are identified. St Michel was persuaded to return to France and to take a house in Paris for himself and his family. He served in the French army; and once on returning home, he was distracted to find that his wife and two children had been inveigled into the convent of the Ursulines. One of these children was the lovely Elizabeth (born in 1640), then twelve or thirteen years of age, and “extreme handsome.” He succeeded in rescuing his family, unperverted by Romanism, and again betook himself to England, apparently settling in London. At the age of fifteen, Elizabeth was married to Samuel Pepys, gentleman, now known to fame as the “diarist.” She is called, in the register of St Margaret’s, " Elizabeth Marchant de Saint Mitchell, of Martins-in-the-ffeilds, spinster; " the date of her marriage is 1st December 1655. Her brother, Balthazar St Michel, thus became a protege of her husband, the really able naval administrator. His debut in naval warfare delighted Pepys: he writes —

" June 8, 1666. — To my very great joy, I find Baity come home without any hurt after the utmost imaginable danger he hath gone through in the Henery, being upon the quarter-deck with Harman all the time. ... I am mightily pleased in him, and have great content in, and hopes of his doing well."

Again —

"21st November 1669. — Sir Philip Howard expressed all kindness to Baity when I told him how sicke he was. He says that before he comes to be mustered again, he must bring a certificate of his swearing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and having taken the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England. This, I perceive, is imposed on all."

Balthazar was made Muster-Master in 1668, and in this office he was allowed to employ a deputy in 1669, and to accept an appointment in the Admiralty. The latter year was the date of the lamented Mrs Pepys’ death, whose epitaph, written by her husband, is on a monument in the Church of St Olave, Hart Street: —

Her father and mother seem to have survived her; for in 1672 Balthazar alludes to his mother as but recently a widow. I quote from his letter to Pepys, dated, “Deale, August 14th, 1672.” — “Hond. Sir, you dayly and howerly soe comble me