in any manner whatsoever, do any thing but what was prescribed to me by my master; but that, since, as my friend, he asked my advice as to some expedient, I told him, that it depended on the king to give or to take away, to shorten or to lengthen, the audience, in what manner he would; and that he might (after having allowed me to make him my bow, and received, with the king's letters, my first compliments, when I should come to open to him the occasion of my coming) interrupt me, and say, 'Sir, you are come from London, and you have to return thither; it is late; this matter requires a longer time than I could now give you. I shall send for you, one of these days, at an earlier hour, and we will confer about it at our leisure, in a private audience. In the meanwhile, I shall satisfy myself with having seen you, and heard of the king, my brother-in-law, and the queen, my mother-in-law; and I will not prolong the impatience, which the queen, my wife, has to hear of them also from you.' Upon which, I shall take my leave of him, to go and make my bow to the queen. After I had told him this, the duke embraced me, and said, 'You know more of these things than we; I have offered you my assistance, in the affair you are come to negotiate, but now I recall the promise I gave you, for can do very well without me;' and so left me, laughing, to go and tell the king this expedient, who accepted it, and punctually observed it. The duke returned to introduce me to the audience, and the Earl of Carlisle walked behind me. I found the king on a stage, raised two steps, the queen and he in two chairs, who rose at the first bow I made them on coming in. The company was magnificent, and the order exquisite.

you

"I made my compliment to the king, gave him my letters, and, after having said my words of civility, as I was proceeding to those of business, he interrupted me in the same form as I had proposed to the duke. I then saw the queen, to whom I said little, because, said one, the king had given her leave to go to London, where she could see me at leisure. I then withdrew."

This is a curious instance of Charles's want of selfcommand. A man who announces to an inferior, that he shall certainly fly in a passion at what that inferior has officially to communicate, and asks the favour of him to help him out of so unbecoming a situation, certainly does not appear to be endowed with the appropriate qualities for governing. Bassompierre's address, presence of mind, and good breeding, are very favourably relieved by the conduct of the king.

Thursday, the 15th, on which the Earl of Britswater came with the king's coaches to fetch me to Hampton Court; then the Duke shewed me into a gallery, where the king was waiting for me; who gave me a long audience, and well disputed. He put himself into a great passion; and I, without losing my respect to him, replied to him in such wise, that, at last, yielding hìm something, he conceded a great deal to me. I witnessed, there, an instance of great boldness, not to say impudence, of the Duke of Boukingkam, which was, that, when

he saw us the most warmed, he ran up suddenly, and threw himself between the king and me, saying, 'I am come to keep the peace between you two.' (Je viens faire la hola entre vous deux.) Upon which, I took off my hat, and, as long as he staid with us, I would not put it on again, notwithstanding all the intreaties of the king, and of himself, to do so; but, when he went, I put it on without the king's desiring me. When I had done, and that the duke could speak to me, he asked me why I would not put on my hat while he was by, and that I did so freely, when he was gone. I answered, that I had done it to do him honour, because he was not covered, and that I should have been, which I could not suffer; for which he was much pleased with me, and often mentioned it in my praise. But I had also another reason for doing so; which was, that it was no longer an audience, but a private conversation, since he had interrupted us by coming in as a third upon us. After my last audience was over, the king brought me through several galleries to the queen's apartments, where he left me, and I her, after a long conversation; and I was brought back to London by the same Earl of Britswater."

Here we see, that Charles was a man of his word; and, having promised to be in a passion, he took care not to disappoint the ambassador-extraordinary, of so edifying a spectacle, nor to deprive him of so great an advantage, as a cool man always has over an angry one.

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'Saturday, the 24th, I went to see the queen, where the king came, with whom she picked a quarrel. The king took me to his chamber, and talked a great deal with me, making complaints to me of the queen, his wife.

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Sunday, the 25th, the Earls of Pembrac and Montgomery came to see me; then I went for the duke, whom I took to the queen's, and made his peace with her, which I had brought about with infinite trouble. The king came in afterwards; and he, also, was reconciled with her, and caressed her very much-thanked me for having reconciled the duke and his wife-then took me to his chamber, where he shewed me his jewels, which are very fine."

It will, doubtless, be gratifying to the members of the Corporation of London, to see the respect in which their civic feasts were held two hundred years ago.

"Next day, Monday, the 9th, which is the election of the mayor, I came in the morning to Sommerset, to meet the queen, who had come there to see him go on the Thames, on his way to Westminster to be sworn in, with a magnificent display of boats. There the queen dined, and afterwards got into her coach, and placed me at the same door with her. The Duke of Boukinkam also, by her command, got into her coach, and we went into the street called Shipside, to see the ceremony, which is the greatest that is made at the installation of any magistrate in the world. While waiting for it to pass, the queen played at primero with the duke, the Earl of Dorchet, and me;

After

and, afterwards, the duke took me to dine with the lord mayor, who, that day, gave a dinner to more than eight hundred persons. dinner, the duke, and the Earls of Montgomery and Hollande, having brought me home, I went to walk in the Morffield.

Sunday, 18th, the Danish ambassador came to visit me; after which, I went to the king at Withal, who placed me in his barge, and took me to the duke's at Jorschau, who gave him the most magnificent entertainment I ever saw in my life. The king supped at one table with the queen and me, which was served by a compleat ballet at each course, with sundry representations, changes of scenery, tables and music. The duke waited on the king at table, the Earl of Carlile on the queen, and the Earl of Hollande on me. After supper, the king and we were led into another room, where the assembly was, and one entered it by a kind of turnstile, as in convents, without any confusion; there was a magnificent ballet, in which the duke danced; and, afterwards, we danced country-dances till four in the morning; thence were shewn into vaulted apartments, where there were five different collations.

"Sunday, 29th, the Earl of Carlile and Lucnar came with the king's coaches to fetch me to take leave of their majesties, who gave me a public audience in the great saloon of Whital, and afterwards returned with him (the king) to his bedchamber, where he made me come in, afterwards; I went to sup in the apartment of the Earl of Carlile, who treated me magnificently. Lucnar came to bring me a very rich present from the king, of four diamonds set in lozenge, and a great stone at the end; and the same evening sent again to fetch me to hear an excellent English play.

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Saturday, 5th, I arrived at Dover with an equipage of four hundred persons, who were to cross with me, including seventy priests, whom I had delivered from prison in England. I had resolved to bear the expenses of all those who were going to France with me, thinking that I might have embarked the same day that I arrived at Dover; but a storm detained me fourteen days at Dover, which cost me 14,000 crowns. I arrived at Dover to dinner, and had my equipage embarked, thinking to cross the sea, but it was adverse.""

He went back to Canterbury, at Buckingham's request, to have another interview with him.

"I found, on my return to Dover, that my suite had sailed; but they ran such chances, that, for five days, they could not reach Calais, and were obliged to throw my two carriages into the sea, in which there unluckily was more than 40,000 francs' worth of articles of dress which I had bought in England to give away. I lost, moreover, twenty-nine horses who died of thirst during these five days, because they had made no provision of fresh water for their passage, which, in fine weather, does not last above three hours. I found it impossible to embark before Friday the 18th, when I sailed with a high wind, and got to dine at Calafs where I stayed the next day, to recover myself from sea-sickness."

In these days of steam and travelling velocity, it is worth while to remind ourselves of the inconveniences we are deli

vered from. A man would now be half-way over the Atlantic in the time that his great-grandfather was waiting to cross from Dover to Calais.

The papers relating to this embassy occupy the second volume of the Ambassades. They are, generally, formal diplomatic instructions or reports, and furnish little insight into the peculiarities which distinguished the English from the French court. Bitter were the complaints of the queen at the dismissal of her French priests and domestics; but, though we should have admired Charles rather more if he had been master of his temper, we certainly find reason to think he had sufficient cause for clearing the kingdom of these nuisances, public and private. Bassompierre attributes the whole proceeding to Buckingham, who, he says, filled all the offices about the queen with his own relations and creatures. What were the views of the family of France, and of the pope, who dictated the articles of the marriage, it is easy to see, in the letters of Henrietta to her brother, and to the pope, before her marriage; in both of which she declares, "upon my faith and my word, that if it pleases God to bless my marriage in such sort as to give me lineage, I will make no choice of any but Catholic persons to nurse and bring up the children that may be born of it; nor to render them any kind of service: in which I very humbly sup-plicate your holiness to have all possible confidence."

In reply to the complaints of the queen and her family, we find a statement of the "reasons alleged by the English for the dismissal of the French," in which it is stated, that

"They had so captivated her will and affections as to lead her, constantly, to resist the commands of the king, and to keep at a distance all her English subjects. That she would not even learn the language; and that they formed a private and distinct faction. Finally, they had gained so much upon the gentle temper of the queen, as to persuade her, under colour of a devotion nowise excuseable, and entirely unbeseeming the dignity of so great a queen, and, especially, of England, to make a pilgrimage to Tyburn, a place where malefactors are publicly and commonly executed; whither she was accompanied by the Bishop of Mende and several of the principal ministers of her suite, and where they all knelt down and offered prayers to those whom they very falsely called saints and martyrs, but who had, in fact, received the due reward of their crimes, having been executed for treason, or other violations of the laws, and in no respect on account of religion."

That Charles should wish to drive these pestilent priests from his palace and kingdom, is, assuredly, no wonder.

In a letter to the king of France, Bassompierre gives the following details of his reception at Hampton Court.

"The Duke of Buckingham prevailed on the king to grant me, a

private audience, at Hampton Court, which lasted nearly two hours, in which I perceived so much harshness, and so little desire to content your majesty, that I know not how to express my astonishment; for after listening to me for a considerable time he said, that I did not execute the commission he was informed I had received, namely, to declare war against him from your majesty. I told him, that I did not hold the office of herald, to declare war, but that of Marshal of France, to conduct it, whenever your majesty should resolve upon it: but that, up to the present time, you had behaved towards him as a brother."

Charles then alleged all the causes he had for dissatisfaction with the queen and suite, at whose instigation she conducted herself most unbecomingly towards him and his subjects, and concluded by declaring, that nothing would induce him to reinstate her officers; and "that he would treat her like a queen, but that he chose that she should behave to him as she ought, and defer to and obey him, as his wife, in all things but her religion, which he would not meddle with.”

Towards the end of this despatch, we find that Buckingham was, in fact, regarded by the French as the virtual king of England. The duke having assured Bassompierre that he would do his utmost to bring the king to accede to his demands:

"I laughed," says he, "at his wishing to make me believe he had so little power over the king's mind, since it is he who governs absolutely."

The ambassador was extremely ill-satisfied with his reception. He begins a letter to the Bishop of Mende thus:

"Sir, I found humility among the Spaniards, and civility and courtesy among the Swiss, in my embassies to those nations; but the English would abate nothing of their natural pride and arrogance."

He comments severely on the king's rudeness, and contrasts it with Buckingham's courtesy. We meet with many indications of the mortification felt by the omnipotent favourite, at the prohibition he had received against appearing again at the Court of France. Bassompierre evidently thought him a thorough courtier, and did not believe one word he said. We have seen that the charge of "insular pride" is two hundred years old, at least; we meet with two others, which, like the first, remain in full force,-caprice and dullness.

"I shall never despair of my affairs while I have to treat with the English, for, when they seem at the worst, it is then, I find, that I ought to think them most promising.

"I shall see what will come of this in a few days, which I shall pass, like the preceding, in the most melancholy manner, in this country. A man who were well-received would be ennuyé here, much more I."