CHAPTER VIII.

QUEEN HENRIETTA.

A MODERN historian, speaking of the lively consort of Charles I., styles her "that pernicious woman; Warburton is severe even to rancour, in his strictures upon her conduct: in short, poor Henrietta is exposed to nearly equal censures from both friend and foe of her husband. The daughter of Henri IV. was, it is true, the most unfit of princesses to be, in that age, queen of England. The English disliked her country, despised her manners, and abhorred her religion, all of which appeared to herself perfection. Her numerous foreign attendants; the spies who lurked about her, in the guise of ambassadors; the evil counsellors who enjoyed her unlimited confidence under the character of chaplains and confessors, did unspeakable mischief to the royal cause. Their insolent behaviour was among the most palpable means of disgusting the people, of inflaming the misunderstandings between the court and the country, and hence, of hurrying on the nation into the vortex of civil war. Charles, while he had an extreme contempt for all those parties, was fretted so much by

nothing else as by their impertinences, and proved both by the manner in which he at length freed himself from the annoyance; yet the people, instead of pitying him, believed him to be in league with his tormentors. He was tender of his consort's honour, and intent on what he deemed her happiness; but the moral English nation visited this virtuous behaviour as a crime, because the fair object of it was a daughter of France, and a bigoted Roman Catholic. He was as firm and enlightened a foe to her religion, as any in his dominions; but she was his wife; she was known to have great influence over the monarch, and to use it unsparingly could he, whatever were his professions, be, in heart, less than a papist? Finally, the parliament, as if at once to direct against her the full measure of the popular dislike, rewarded the most commendable action of her life by impeaching her of high treason!-But we are anticipating the course of events.

Before the queen's departure from England, in the spring of 1642, it had become obvious to both parties, though both were far from making the avowal, that the sword must ultimately decide their differences. At that time, however, Charles had not the means of raising a single regiment. The great object of Henrietta was, therefore, to strengthen her husband's interest in Holland, whither she had retired; and, in particular, to procure arms and ammunition, to be transported to England as his necessities might require. Her activity and address surmounted the repugnance which was naturally felt by the States

(with whose assertion of their freedom England had warmly sympathised), to favour any design which might impede the struggles of the English in winning their own. It was to little purpose that the parliament sent over an ambassador, armed with declarations. and remonstrances, to desire at least a complete neutrality. The States affected compliance; but the queen's preparations went on as before. It was chiefly owing to her exertions, that Charles had been enabled to bring an army into the field. She had repeatedly sent him arms and ammunition, and, what he equally wanted, officers of experience to train and discipline his forces. At length, after a year's absence from England, she herself sailed, with a convoy of four vessels supplied by her son-in-law, the Prince of Orange; eluded the vigilance of Batten, the parliament's vice-admiral, who had received orders to intercept her; and landed safely at Burlington, in Yorkshire, on the 22d day of February, 1643.

The Earl of Newcastle, with a detachment of those forces, which, on account of the favour he was in with her majesty, and because they had, from time to time, been reinforced by her means, was styled by the parliament "the Queen's army of Papists," had drawn toward the coast, for the purpose of conducting her to York. Designing, however, to rest, a day or two, from the fatigues and anxieties of the voyage, she took up her residence in a house on the quay. The second night Batten arrived, unperceived, with his fleet, anchored in the road, and, enraged at his disappointment, exposed the

adventurous princess to a new danger, by an outrage the particulars of which are preserved in her own spirited narrative. "About five of the clock in the morning, the ships began to ply us so fast with their ordnance that they made us all rise out of our beds and leave the village. One of them did me the favour to flank upon the house where I lay, and before I was out of my bed the cannon bullets whistled so loud about me that all the company pressed me earnestly to go out of the house, their cannon having totally beaten down all the neighbour houses, and two cannon bullets falling from the top to the bottom of the house where I was; so that, clothed as well as in haste I could be, I went on foot some little distance out of the town, under the shelter of a ditch, like that of Newmarket, whither before I could get, the cannon bullets fell thick about us, and a servant was killed within seventy paces of me. We in the end gained the ditch, and stayed there two hours, whilst their cannon played all the while on us. The bullets flew, for the most part, over our heads; some few only grazing on the ditch, covered us with earth, &c., till the ebbing of the tide, and the threats of the Holland admiral, put an end to that danger." Information of these particulars was sent to the parliament, and the Lords voted an order to the Earl of Warwick to inquire into their truth; but no further notice was taken of the outrage. On the contrary, it was for this act of romantic obedience to the sentiments of the heart and the laws of society, that the Queen of England was charged by the Commons