CASTLE.] ANECDOTES-KING CHARLES AT RAGLAN. 165 Of the Marquess's farther proficiency in the art and mystery of a courtier, during the royal visit, we find this specimen : "The Marquess had a mind to tell the King, as handsomely as he could, of some of his, as he thought, faults; and thus he continues his plot: Against the time that his Majesty was wont to give his lordship a visit, as commonly he used to do after dinner, his lordship had the book of John Gower lying before him on the table. The King casting his eye upon the book, told the Marquess he had never seen it before. 'Oh!' said the Marquis, 'it is the book of books, which if your Majesty had been well versed in, it would have made you a king of kings.' 'Why so, my Lord?' said the King. Why,' said the Marquess, 'here is set down how Aristotle brought up and instructed Alexander the Great in all the rudiments and principles belonging to a prince.' And under the persons of Alexander and Aristotle, he read the King such a lesson, that all the standers by were amazed at his boldness; and the King supposing that he had gone farther than his text would have given him leave, asked the Marquess, 'If he said his lesson by heart, or whether he spoke out of the book?' The Marquess replied, 'Sir, if you could read my heart, it may be you might find it there; or, if your Majesty please to get it by heart, I will lend you my book.' Which latter proffer the King accepted of, and did borrow it. Nay,' said the Marquess, 'I will lend it you upon these conditions: First, That you read it; secondly, That you make use of it.' But perceiving how that some of the new-made lords fretted, and bit their thumbs at certain passages in the Marquess's discourse, he thought a little to please his Majesty, though he pleased not them, the men who were so much displeased already protesting unto his Majesty, that no man was so much for the absolute power of a king as Aristotle. Desiring the book out of the King's hand, he told the King that he would show him one remarkable passage to that purpose, turning to that place that had this verse :— "A king can kill, a king can save, "Whereupon there were divers new-made lords who slunk out of the roome, which the King observing, told the Marquess- My lord, at this rate, you will drive away all my Nobility!' "The Marquess replied-'I protest unto your Majesty, I am as new a made lord as any of them all; * but I was never called knave and rogue so much in all my life, as I have been since I received this last honour, and why should not they bear their shares?'" * Literally, having been created Marquess very recently. But the Marquess, like many of the King's party, seems to have wanted that undoubting confidence of success, which not unfrequently secures it. How different from the determined tone of a Cromwell is this:-" When the King first entered the gates of Raglan, the Marquess delivered his Majesty the keys, according to the ordinary custom; the King restoring of them to the Marquis, the Marquis said, 'I beseech your Majesty to keep them, and you please, for they are in a good hand; but I am afraid that ere it be long, I shall be forced to deliver them into the hands of those who will spoil the compliment.'" And so it happened. The plans taken by the King, while residing in Raglan Castle, to persuade the Marquess of Worcester to farther advances of money, afford a subject for a humiliating chapter in the royal history. The aged Marquess had three ruling principles-loyalty to the King, attachment to the Roman Catholic religion, and fondness for money. His loyalty had been already extensively drawn upon, and there remained now to be tried an attempt upon his proselytizing zeal. He had now to be flattered with the idea that he might possibly persuade the King to profess the tenets of his ancestors. Charles, indeed, had not made great progress in Protestant doctrines; and the Marquess, confident in his theological powers, imagined he would find an easy convert. Here is Dr. Bayly's account of the matter: "Thus affected was that noble and, indeed, in his way, heavenly disposed, Henry, late Marquess of Worcester, to play the greatest prize that ever was played between any two that ever entered within those lists. Three diadems were to encounter with the tripple crowne, and the tripple crowne with three sceptres. Opportunity, that lucky gamester, that hardly loses a game in twenty, was on the Marquess' side; time and place directed him how to take points in his own tables; the King at that time being in the Marquess's own house at Raglan, and necessitated to borrow money to buy bread, after so great a loss in battle. The King being thus put to play the aftergame with the old Marquess, was a little mistrustful that he had not played the foregame with him so well, as that he had not thereby prejudiced the latter: for, though the Marquess and his son were the two ablest and most forward'st shoulderers up of the declining throne, especially the chip of the old block, whose disposition expressed itself most noble in not caring who had loved the King, so that he might be but permitted to love Alexander; whom he affected not only with the loyal respects of a subject towards his soveraigne, but also with such passionate ways of expressions and laboriousnesse in all good offices, as are wont to be predominant in those in whom simpathy is the only ground of their affections; yet there were not wanting some kind of men who made the averseness of this nobleman's religion an occasion of improving their own CASTLE.] ANECDOTES-KING CHARLES AT RAGLAN. 167 envies. Which, though it could never lose him the least ground in his master's good opinion of him-who never would judge no more a saint by his face than a devil by his feet, but both according to their several ingagements—yet there were some things which happened, as having relation to this family, which were not altogether pleasing. However, though his Majesty came thither ushered by necessity, yet he came neither unwelcomed nor uninvited; and entertained as if he had been more than a king, by reason of some late atchievements, rather than otherwise: and though money came from him like drops of blood, yet he was contented that every drop within his body should be let out at his command, so that he might performe so meritorious a piece of worke as, he thought, the being an instrument of bringing the father of his country to be the son of his church, would be unto his soul's health. The Marquess having these resolutions within himselfe, thought to give them breath at the same time that his Majesty should make his motion for a further supply of money, which he daily and hourly expected; but was deceived in his expectations; for the relation having already reach'd the King's ear, how an accident had made me no less fortunate to his lordship, than in being the means of preserving his lordship's person, and no inconsiderable fortune then in the same venture with him; and how that I preserved both the one and the other, in concealing both, for the space that the moon useth to be twice in riding of her circuit,* (the particulars hereof, here to insert, would tend rather to much arrogance than any purpose, wherefore I further forbear,) until such time as the trust which Providence had reposed in me was crowned by the same hand with such successe as brought the Marquess safe to his own house in peace; which I had no sooner brought to passe, but the Marquess drew from me a solemn engagement never to leave him so long as we both should live; which I was so careful for to observe, that I neither left him in life nor death, faire weather nor foule, until such time as he left me, and I laid him under the ground in Windsor Castle, in the sepulchre of his fathers." The author of the notice of the Marquess of Worcester in "Lodge's Portraits," says, that "the adventure here alluded to by Dr. Bayly is and must remain unknown." It is, however, made sufficiently clear in the "First Apophthegm," where Bayly tells us that he met the Marquess in the Welsh mountains, "flying a danger with a softer pace than it made after him." Bayly, whose knowledge of the country must necessarily have been great, had it in his power to conceal the Marquess. This was their first meeting, and they ever after were inseparable. In nearly the words already used, Bayly in this passage also says, "From which time forward, This quaint phrase may mean two days or two months. until the time that I laid him in his grave in Windsor Castle, I never parted from him." He continues-" And it was a strange thing, that during the time that I was thus a bond-servant to his lordship, which was for the space of twelve monethes thrice told, the difference in religion never wrought the least difference in his disposals of trusts of the highest nature upon me; but his speeches often shewed his heart, and his often lending me his ear, that they were both as much mine as any man's. Of which, it seems, his Majesty being informed, I must be the beetle-head that must drive this wedge into the royall stock ; and was also told, that no man could make a divorce between the Babilonish garment and the wedge of gold sooner than myself. To be brief-—I was ingaged in the business; I could neither deny the employment, nor well tell how to go about it, I, not knowing the Marquess' drift all this while, thought the Marquess had feared nothing more than what I myself was most afraid of, viz., that I should be made an instrument to let the same horse bleed, whom the King himself had found so free, that he was unwilling to give him the least touch with his spur. Howsoever, I went about it, and thus began to tell his lordship :-' My Lord, the thing that I feared is now fallen upon me; I am made the unwelcome messenger of bad news-the King wants money!' At which word the Marquess interrupted me, saying, 'Hold, sir, that's no news; go on with your business.' 'My Lord,' said I, there is one comfort yet, that as the King is brought low, so are his demands; and, like his army, are come down from thousands to hundreds and from paying the souldiers of his army to buying bread for himself and his followers. My Lord, it is the King's own expression, and his desire is but three hundred pound.' Whereupon my Lord made a long pause before he gave me one word of answer. knew by experience that in such cases it was best leaving him to himself, and to let that nature, which was so good, worke itselfe into an act of the highest charity—like the diamond, which is only pollished with its own dust. At last he called me nearer to him, and asked me, 'If the King himself had spoken to me concerning any such business?' To which I answered, ‘That the King himself had not; but others did in the King's hearing.' Whereupon he said, 'Might I but speak unto him-but I was never thought worthy to be consulted with, though in matters meerly concerning the affaires of my own country-I would supply his wants, were they never so great, or whatsoever they were.' Whereupon I told his lordship that, 'If the King knew as much, he might quickly speak with him.' Then said the Marquess, 'The way to have him know so much is to have somebody to tell him of it.' I asked his lordship, 'If he would give me leave to be the informer.' He told me, 'He spake it to the same purpose.' I hastened from him, with as much feare of I CASTLE.] THE KING'S VISIT-RAISING SUPPLIES. 169 being called back again, as I did towards the King, with a longing desire of giving his Majesty so good an account of my so much doubted embassie. "Half going and half running through the gallerie, I was stopt in my way by one Lieutenant-Collonel Lyllard, who told me, that if ever I had a mind to do my Lord Marquess and the garrison any good, now was the time: for even now one of the King's ships had run herself on ground under the town of Chepstow. Calling unto me the captain of her (one Captain Hill), who related unto me that upon the surrender of Bristol he was forced to fly into the sanctuary of the King's quarters, having formerly revolted from the Parliament, or rather returned to her due obedience. Telling me, moreover, that she was fraught with store of goods and rich commodities, as sugar, tobacco, linnen of all sorts, &c., and that the law in such a case appropriated the King to such a part of her lading; which I better understood then than I can relate unto you now; and that she had many fair brass and iron guns in her, with proportionable ammunition, usefull for the garrison; and that, for a word of speaking, I might have all this of the King for the use of the garrison. I (considering that it would be nevertheless the King's for being converted to such an use, as also the business I was about) made no doubt but that I could easily beg all this for the Marquess, in consideration of the great charges his lordship had been at in entertaining his Majesty so long. Neither was I deceived, for the King granted it willingly. "But as to the matter in hand, I told his Majesty apart, that I had moved his lordship in matter of money; but found him a little discouraged, in regard that his Majestie having been twice at Raglan a moneth at a time, and that at neither of those times he ever vouchsafed his lordship so much honour as once to call him to councel, though it was in his own house, and must needs be acknowledged to be one who knew the countrey, and the constitution of the inhabitants, better than any other man that was about his Majestie had reason to understand. Wherefore I told the King, I thought his lordship leant my motion a deffer ear than he would have done, if his lordship had not been thought so uselesse a creature; and that I perceived his lordship had a desire to have some conference with his Majestie; which being obtained, I believed his Majestie's request would be easilie granted, and his expectations answered in a higher measure than it may be his Majestie did believe. The King said, 'With all my hart: and as to the other business which so much troubles my lord, in troth I have thought it a neglect in us heretofore; but the true reason why I did forbear to do so was, because I thought my Lord of Worcester did not desire it, by reason of his retiredness, unwieldiness of body, and unwillingness of mind to stir abroad; and therefore I thought it a contentment to him to be let alone.' I told his Majestie, that I did verilie believe that his Majestie |
