Our house was very clean, only one maid in it besides the master; we had a very good supper provided, and being very weary went early to bed. The owner of this house entertained us with the story of the late Marquis of Worcester, who had been there some time the year before: he had of his own and other friends' jewels to the value of 8000 pounds, which some merchants had lent upon them. My Lord appointed a day for receiving the money upon them and delivering the jewels; being met, he shows them to all these persons, then seals them up in a box, and delivered them to one of these merchants, by consent of the rest, to be kept for one year, and upon the payment of the 8000 pounds by my Lord Marquis to be delivered him.
After my Lord had received the money, he was entertained at all these persons' houses, and nobly feasted with them near a month: he went from thence into France. When the year was expired, they, by letters into France, pressed the payment of this borrowed money several times, alleging they had great necessity of their money to drive their trade with; to which my Lord Marquis made no answer; which did at last so exasperate these men, that they broke open the seals, and opening the box found nothing but rags and stones for their 8000 pounds at which they were highly enraged, and in this case I left them.
At the beginning of February we took ship, and our kind host, with much satisfaction in our company, prayed God to bless us and give us a good voyage, for, said he, 'I thank God you are all gone safe aboard from my house, notwithstanding I have buried nine persons out of my house within these six months'; which saying much startled us, but, God's name be praised, we were all well, and so continued.
Here now our scene was shifted from land to sea, and we left that brave kingdom, fallen, in six or eight months, into a most miserable sad condition, as it hath been many times in most kings' reigns, God knows why! for I presume not to say; but the natives seem to me a very loving people to each other, and constantly false to all strangers, the Spaniards only excepted. The country exceeds in timber and sea- ports, and great plenty of fish, fowl, flesh, and, by shipping, wants no foreign commodities. We pursued our voyage with prosperous winds, but with a most tempestuous master, a Dutchman, which is enough to say, but truly, I think, the greatest beast I ever saw of his kind.
When we had just passed the Straits, we saw coming towards us, with full sails, a Turkish galley well manned, and we believed we should be all carried away slaves, for this man had so laden his ship with goods for Spain, that his guns were useless, though the ship carried sixty guns. He called for brandy; and after he had well drunken, and all his men, which were near two hundred, he called for arms and cleared the deck as well as he could, resolving to fight rather than lose his ship, which was worth thirty thousand pounds. This was sad for us passengers; but my husband bade us be sure to keep in the cabin, and the women not to appear, which would make the Turks think that we were a man-of-war, but if they saw women they would take us for merchants and board us. He went upon the deck, and took a gun and bandoliers, and sword, and, with the rest of the ship's company, stood upon deck expecting the arrival of the Turkish man-of-war. This beast, the Captain, had locked me up in the cabin; I knocked and called long to no purpose, until, at length, the cabin-boy came and opened the door; I, all in tears, desired him to be so good as to give me his blue thrum cap he wore, and his tarred coat, which he did, and I gave him half a crown, and putting them on and flinging away my night clothes, I crept up softly and stood upon the deck by my husband's side, as free from sickness and fear as, I confess, from discretion; but it was the effect of that passion, which I could never master.
By this time the two vessels were engaged in parley, and so well satisfied with speech and sight of each other's forces, that the Turks' man-of-war tacked about, and we continued our course. But when your father saw it convenient to retreat, looking upon me, he blessed himself, and snatched me up in his arms, saying, 'Good God, that love can make this change!' and though he seemingly chid me, he would laugh at it as often as he remembered that voyage. And in the beginning of March we all landed, praised be God, in Malaga, very well, and full of content to see ourselves delivered from the sword and plague, and living in hope that we should one day return happily to our native country; notwithstanding, we thought it great odds, considering how the affairs of the King's three kingdoms stood; but we trusted in the providence of Almighty God, and proceeded.
We were very kindly entertained by the merchants, and by them lodged in a merchant's house, where we had not been with our goods three days, when the vessel that brought us thither, by the negligence of a cabin-boy, was blown up in the harbour, with the loss of above a hundred men and all our lading.
After we had refreshed ourselves some days, we went on our journey towards Madrid, and lodged the first night at Velez Malaga, to which we were accompanied by most of the merchants. The next day we went to Grenada, having passed the highest mountains I ever saw in my life, but under this lieth the finest valley that can be possibly described, adorned with high trees and rich grass, and beautified with a large deep clear river. Over the town and this standeth the goodly vast palace of the King's, called the Alhambra, whose buildings are, after the fashion of the Moors, adorned with vast quantities of jasper- stone; many courts, many fountains, and by reason it is situated on the side of a hill, and not built uniform, many gardens with ponds in them, and many baths made of jasper, and many principal rooms roofed with the mosaic work, which exceeds the finest enamel I ever saw. Here I was showed in the midst of a very large piece of rich embroidery made by the Moors of Grenada, in the middle as long as half a yard of the true Tyrian dye, which is so glorious a colour that it cannot be expressed: it hath the glory of scarlet, the beauty of purple, and is so bright, that when the eye is removed upon any other object it seems as white as snow.
The entry into this great Palace is of stone, for a Porter's-lodge, but very magnificent, through the gate below, which is adorned with figures of forestwork, in which the Moors did transcend. High above this gate was a bunch of keys cut in stone likewise, with this motto: 'Until that hand holds those keys, the Christians shall never possess this Alhambra.' This was a prophecy they had, in which they animated themselves, by reason of the impossibility that ever they should meet. But see, how true there is a time for all things! It happened that when the Moors were besieged in that place by Don Fernando and his Queen Isabella, the King with an arrow out of a bow, which they then used in war, shooting the first arrow as their custom is, cut that part of the stone that holds the keys, which was in fashion of a chain, and the keys falling, remained in the hand underneath. This strange accident preceded but a few days the conquest of the town of Grenada and kingdom.
They have in this place an iron grate, fixed into the side of the hill, that is a rock: I laid my head to the key-hole and heard a noise like the clashing of arms, but could not distinguish other shrill noises I heard with that, but tradition says it could never be opened since the Moors left it, notwithstanding several persons had endeavoured to wrench it open, but that they perished in the attempt. The truth of this I can say no more to; but that there is such a gate, and I have seen it.
After two days we went on our journey; and on the 13th of April 1650, we came to the Court of Madrid, where we were the next day visited by the two English ambassadors, and afterwards by all the English merchants.
Here I was delivered of my first daughter, that was called Elizabeth, upon the 13th of July. She lived but fifteen days, and lies buried in the Chapel of the French Hospital. Your father had great difficulty to carry on his business, without encroaching upon the Extraordinary Ambassador's negotiation, and the performance of his Majesty's commands to show his present necessities, which he was sent to Philip IV. for, in hopes of a present supply of money, which our King then lacked; but finding no good to be done on that errand, he and I, accompanied by Dr. Bell, of Jesus College in Cambridge, who had been his tutor, went a day's journey together towards St. Sebastian, there to embark for France.
While we stayed in this Court we were kindly treated by all the English; and it was no small trouble to your father's tutor to quit his company, but, having undertaken the charge of that family of the ambassador's as their chaplain, he said, he held himself obliged in conscience to stay, and so he did. In a few months after he died there, and lies buried in the garden-house, where they then lived.
Whilst we were in Madrid, there was sent one Askew, as resident from the then Governor of England; he lay in a common eating-house where some travellers used to lie, and being one day at dinner, some young men meeting in the street with Mr. Prodgers, a gentleman belonging to the Lord Ambassador Cottington, and Mr. Sparks, an English merchant, discoursing of news, began to speak of the impudence of that Askew, to come a public minister from rebels to a Court where there were two Ambassadors from his King. This subject being handled with heat, they all resolved to go without more consideration into his lodgings immediately and kill him: they came up to his chamber door, and finding it open, and he sat at dinner, seized him, and so killed him, and went their several ways. Afterwards they found Mr. Sparks in a church for rescue, notwithstanding it was contrary to their religion and laws, and they forced him out from thence, and executed him publicly, their fears of the English power were then so great.
There was at that time the Lord Goring, son to the Earl of Norwich: he had a command under Philip the Fourth of Spain, against the Portuguese: he was generally esteemed a good and great commander, and had been brought up in Holland in his youth, of vast natural parts; for I have heard your father say, he hath dictated to several persons at once that were upon despatches, and all so admirably well, that none of them could be mended. He was exceeding facetious and pleasant company, and in conversation, where good manners were due, the civilest person imaginable, so that he would blush like a girl. He was very tall, and very handsome: he had been married to a daughter of the Earl of Cork, but never had a child by her. His expenses were what he could get, and his debauchery beyond all precedents, which at last lost him that love the Spaniards had for him; and that country not admitting his constant drinking, he fell sick of a hectic fever, in which he turned his religion, and with that artifice could scarce get to keep him whilst he lived in that sickness, or to bury him when he was dead.
We came to St. Sebastian's about the beginning of September, and there hired a small French vessel to carry us to Nantz: we embarked within two days after our coming to this town. I never saw so wild a place, nor were the inhabitants unsuitable, but like to like, which made us hasten away, and I am sure to our cost we found the proverb true, for our haste brought us woe. We had not been a day at sea before we had a storm begun, that continued two days and two nights in a most violent manner; and being in the Bay of Biscay, we had a hurricane that drew the vessel up from the water, which had neither sail nor mast left, and but six men and a boy. Whilst they had hopes of life they ran swearing about like devils, but when that failed them, they ran into holes, and let the ship drive as it would. In this great hazard of our lives we were the beginning of the third night, when God in mercy ceased the storm of a sudden, and there was a great calm, which made us exceeding joyful; but when those beasts, for they were scarce men, that manned the vessel, began to rummage the bark, they could not find their compass anywhere, for the loss of which they began again such horrible lamentations as were as dismal to us as the storm past.
Thus between hope and fear we passed the night, they protesting to us they knew not where they were, and truly we believed them; for with fear and drink I think they were bereaved of their senses. So soon as it was day, about six o'clock, the master cried out, 'The land! the land!' but we did not receive the news with the joy belonging to it, but sighing said, God's will be done! Thus the tide drove us until about five o'clock in the afternoon, and drawing near the side of a small rock that had a creek by it, we ran aground, but the sea was so calm that we all got out without the loss of any man or goods, but the vessel was so shattered that it was not afterwards serviceable: thus, God be praised! we escaped this great danger, and found ourselves near a little village about two leagues from Nantz. We hired there six asses, upon which we rode as many as could by turns, and the rest carried our goods. This journey took us up all the next day, for I should have told you that we stirred not that night, because we sat up and made good cheer; for beds they had none, and we were so transported that we thought we had no need of any, but we had very good fires, and Nantz white wine, and butter, and milk, and walnuts and eggs, and some very bad cheese; and was not this enough, with the escape of shipwreck, to be thought better than a feast? I am sure until that hour I never knew such pleasure in eating, between which we a thousand times repeated what we had spoken when every word seemed to be our last.
As soon as it was day, we began our journey towards Nantz, and by the way we passed by a little poor chapel, at the door of which a friar begged an alms, saying, that he would show us there the greatest wonder in the world. We resolved to go with him. He went before us to the altar, and out of a cupboard, with great devotion, he took a box, and crossing himself he opened it, in that was another of crystal that contained a little silver box; he lifting this crystal box up, cried, 'Behold in this the hem [Footnote: Thus in the MS.; but query if a mistake of the transcriber.] of St. Joseph, which was taken as he hewed his timber!' To which my husband replied, 'Indeed, Father, it is the lightest, considering the greatness, that I ever handled in my life.' The ridiculousness of this, with the simplicity of the man, entertained us till we came to Nantz. We met by the way good grapes and walnuts growing, of which we culled out the best.
Nantz is a passable good town, but decayed: some monasteries in it, but none good nor rich. There was in a nunnery, when I was there, a daughter of Secretary Windebank. There is English provisions, and of all sorts, cheap and good. We hired a boat to carry us up to Orleans, and we were towed up all the river of Loire so far. Every night we went on shore to bed, and every morning carried into the boat wine and fruit, and bread, with some flesh, which we dressed in the boat, for it had a hearth, on which we burnt charcoal: we likewise caught carps, which were the fattest and the best I ever eat in my life. And of all my travels none were, for travel sake as I may call it, so pleasant as this; for we saw the finest cities, seats, woods, meadows, pastures, and champaign that I ever saw in my life, adorned with the most pleasant river of Loire; of which, at Orleans, we took our leaves. Arriving, about the middle of November 1650, at Paris, we went, so soon as we could get clothes, to wait on the Queen-Mother and the Princess Henrietta. The Queen entertained us very respectfully, and after many favours done us, and discoursing in private with your father about affairs of state, he received her Majesty's letters to send to the King, who was then on his way to Scotland. We kissed her hand and went to Calais, with resolution that I should go to England, to send my husband more money, for this long journey cost us all we could procure: yet this I will tell you, praised be God for his peculiar grace herein, that your father nor I ever borrowed money nor owed for clothes, nor diet, nor lodging beyond sea in our lives, which was very much, considering the straits we were in many times, and the bad custom our countrymen had that way, which did redound much to the King's dishonour and their own discredit.
When we came to Calais, my husband sent me to England, and staying himself there, intending, as soon as he had received money, to go and live in Holland until such time as it should please Almighty God to enable him again to wait on his Majesty, now in Scotland, both to give him an account of his journey into Spain, as of the rest of his employments since he kissed his hand. But God ordered it otherwise; for the case being that the two parties in Scotland being both unsatisfied with each other's ministers, and Sir E. Hyde and Secretary Nicholas being excepted against, and left in Holland, it was proposed, the state wanting a Secretary for the King, that your father should be immediately sent for, which was done accordingly, and he went with letters and presents from the Princess of Orange, and the Princess Royal.
Here I will show you something of Sir Edward Hyde's nature: he being surprised with this news, and suspecting that my husband might come to a greater power than himself, both because of his parts and integrity, and because himself had been sometimes absent in the Spanish Embassy, he with all the humility possible, and earnest passion, begged my husband to remember the King often of him to his advantage as occasion should serve, and to procure leave that he might wait on the King, promising, with all the oaths that he could express to cause belief, that he would make it his business all the days of his life to serve your father's interest in what condition soever he should be in: thus they parted, with your father's promise to serve him in what he was capable of, upon which account many letters passed between them.
When your father arrived in Scotland, he was received by the King with great expressions of great content; and after he had given an account of his past employment, he was by the King recommended to the York party, who received him very kindly, and gave him both the broad seal and signet to keep.
They several times pressed him to take the Covenant, but he never did, but followed his business so close, with such diligence and temper, that he was well beloved on all sides, and they reposed great trust in him. When he went out of Holland, he wrote to me to arm myself with patience in his absence, and likewise that I would not expect many letters as was his custom, for that was now impossible; but he hoped, that when we did meet again, it would be happy and of long continuance, and bade me trust God with him, as he did me, in whose mercy he hoped, being upon that duty he was obliged to, with a thousand kind expressions.
But God knows how great a surprise this me, being great with child, and two children with me not in the best condition to maintain them, and in daily fears of your father upon the private account of animosities amongst themselves in Scotland; but I did what I could to arm myself, and was kindly visited both by my relations and friends.
About this time my cousin Evelyn's wife [Footnote: Evelyn frequently mentions his "cousin Richard Fanshawe," in his Diary. On the 6th of February, 1651-2, he says, "I went to visit my cousin Richard Fanshawe, and divers other friends"; and on the 6th of March, in that year, he observes, "My cousin Richard Fanshawe came to visit me, and inform me of many considerable affairs." On the 23rd of November, 1654, he went to London to visit his "cousin Fanshawe."—Diary, vol. ii. pp. 48, 49, 98. Lady Brown, Mr. Evelyn's mother-in-law, died at Woodcot, in Kent, towards the end of October 1652.—Ibid. p. 61.] came to London, and had newly buried her mother, my Lady Brown, wife to Sir Richard Brown, that then was resident for the King at Paris. A little before she and I and Doctor Steward, a Clerk of the closet to King Charles the First, christened a daughter of Mr. Waters, near a year old. About this time, Lord Chief Justice Heath died at Calais, and several of the King's servants at Paris, amongst others Mr. Henry Murray, of his bedchamber, a very good man.
I now settled myself in a handsome lodging in London. With a heavy heart I stayed in this lodging almost seven months, and in that time I did not go abroad seven times, but spent my time in prayer to God for the deliverance of the King and my husband, whose danger was ever before my eyes. I was seldom without the best company, and sometimes my father would stay a week, for all had compassion on my condition. I removed to Queenstreet, and there in a very good lodging I was upon the 24th of June delivered of a daughter: in all this time I had but four letters from your father, which made the pain I was in more difficult to bear.
I went with my brother Fanshawe to Ware Park, and my sister went to Balls, to my father, both intending to meet in the winter; and so indeed we did with tears; for the 3rd of September following was fought the battle of Worcester, when the King being missed, and nothing heard of your father being dead or alive, for three days it was inexpressible what affliction I was in. I neither eat nor slept, but trembled at every motion I heard, expecting the fatal news, which at last came in their news-book, which mentioned your father a prisoner.
Then with some hopes I went to London, intending to leave my little girl Nan, the companion of my troubles, there, and so find out my husband wheresoever he was carried. But upon my coming to London, I met a messenger from him with a letter, which advised me of his condition, and told me he was very civilly used, and said little more, but that I should be in some room at Charing-cross, where he had promise from his keeper that he should rest there in my company at dinner-time: this was meant to him as a great favour. I expected him with impatience, and on the day appointed provided a dinner and room, as ordered, in which I was with my father and some of our friends, where, about eleven of the clock, we saw hundreds of poor soldiers, both English and Scotch, march all naked on foot, and many with your father, who was very cheerful in appearance, who after he had spoken and saluted me and his friends there, said, 'Pray let us not lose time, for I know not how little I have to spare. This is the chance of war; nothing venture, nothing have; so let us sit down and be merry whilst we may.' Then taking my hand in his and kissing me, 'Cease weeping, no other thing upon earth can move me: remember we are all at God's disposal.'
Then he began to tell how kind his Captain was to him, and the people as he passed offered him money, and brought him good things, and particularly Lady Denham, at Borstal-house, who would have given him all the money she had in her house, but he returned her thanks, and told her he had so ill kept his own, that he would not tempt his governor with more, but if she would give him a shirt or two, and some handkerchiefs, he would keep them as long as he could for her sake. She fetched him two smocks of her own, and some handkerchiefs, saying she was ashamed to give him them, but, having none of her sons at home, she desired him to wear them.
Thus we passed the time until order came to carry him to Whitehall, where, in a little room yet standing in the bowling-green, he was kept prisoner, without the speech of any, so far as they knew, ten weeks, and in expectation of death. They often examined him, and at last he grew so ill in health by the cold and hard marches he had undergone, and being pent up in a room close and small, that the scurvy brought him almost to death's door.
During the time of his imprisonment, I failed not constantly to go, when the clock struck four in the morning, with a dark lantern in my hand, all alone and on foot, from my lodging in Chancery Lane, at my cousin Young's, to Whitehall, in at the entry that went out of King Street into the bowling-green. There I would go under his window and softly call him: he, after the first time excepted, never failed to put out his head at the first call: thus we talked together, and sometimes I was so wet with the rain, that it went in at my neck and out at my heels. He directed me how I should make my addresses, which I did ever to their general, Cromwell, who had a great respect for your father, and would have bought him off to his service upon any terms.
Being one day to solicit for my husband's liberty for a time, he bade me bring the next day a certificate from a physician, that he was really ill. Immediately I went to Dr. Bathurst, that was by chance both physician to Cromwell and to our family, who gave me one very favourable in my husband's behalf. I delivered it at the Council Chamber, at three of the clock that afternoon, as he commanded me, and he himself moved, that seeing they could make no use of his imprisonment, whereby to lighten them in their business, he might have his liberty upon four thousand pounds bail, to take a course of physic, he being dangerously ill. Many spake against it, but most Sir Henry Vane, who said he would be as instrumental, for aught he knew, to hang them all that sat there, if ever he had opportunity, but if he had liberty for a time, that he might take the engagement before he went out: upon which Cromwell said, 'I never knew that the ENGAGEMENT [Footnote: Cromwell probably meant to pun upon this word.—In Ireland, "engagement" means an ISSUE; "an engagement in the neck," arm, &c., i.e., an issue in those places.] was a medicine for the scorbutic.' They, hearing their General say so, thought it obliged him, and so ordered him his liberty upon bail. His eldest brother, and sister Bedell, and self, were bound in four thousand pounds; and the latter end of November he came to my lodgings, at my cousin Young's. He there met many of his good friends and kindred; and my joy was inexpressible, and so was poor Nan's, of whom your poor father was very fond. I forgot to tell you, that when your father was taken prisoner of war, he, before they entered the house where he was, burned all his papers, which saved the lives and estates of many a brave gentleman.
When he came out of Scotland, he left behind him a box of writings, in which his patent of Baronet was, and his patent of additional arms, [Footnote: A coat of augmentation was granted to Richard Fanshawe, Esq., Remembrancer of the Exchequer, and to his family, by patent, dated at Jersey, 8th of February, 2 Car. II. 1650, being "Cheeky Argent and Azure, a Cross Gules." Grants of that kind to persons who distinguished themselves in the service of the King were very common, and consisted, in most cases, either of the lion of England, a fleur- de-lis, or, as in the instance of Mr. Fanshawe, of the Cross of St. George. Sir Richard was created a Baronet on the 2nd of September 1650.] which was safely sent after him, after the happy restoration of the King. You may read your father's demeanour of himself in this affair, wrote by his own hand, in a book by itself amongst your books, and it is a great masterpiece, as you will find.
Within ten days he fell very sick, and the fever settled in his throat and face so violently, that, for many days and nights, he slept no more but as he leaned on my shoulder as I walked: at last, after all the Doctor and Surgeon could do, it broke, and with that he had ease, and so recovered, God be praised! In 1652, he was advised to go to Bath for his scorbutic that still hung on him, but he deferred his journey until August, because I was delivered on the 30th of July of a daughter.
At his return, we went to live that winter following at Benfield, in Hertfordshire, a house of my niece Fanshawe's. In this winter my husband went to wait on his good friend the Earl of Strafford, in Yorkshire; and there my Lord offered him a house of his in Tankersly Park, which he took, and paid 120 l. a year for. When my husband returned, we prepared to go in the spring to this place, but were so confined, that my husband could not stir five miles from home without leave. About February following, my brother Neuce died, at his house at Much Hadham, in Hertfordshire. My sister, Margaret Harrison, desired to go to London, and there we left her: she soon after married Mr. Edmund Turner, afterwards Sir Edmund.
In March we with our three children, Anne, Richard, and Betty, went into Yorkshire, where we lived a harmless country life, minding only the country sports and country affairs. Here my husband translated Luis de Camoens; and on October 8th, 1653, I was delivered of my daughter Margaret. I found all the neighbourhood very civil and kind upon all occasions; the place plentiful and healthful, and very pleasant, but there was no fruit: we planted some, and my Lord Strafford says now, that what we planted is the best fruit in the North.
The house of Tankersly and Park are both very pleasant and good, and we lived there with great content; but God had ordered it should not last, for upon the 20th of July 1654, at three o'clock in the afternoon, died our most dearly beloved daughter Ann, whose beauty and wit exceeded all that ever I saw of her age. She was between nine and ten years old, very tall, and the dear companion of my travels and sorrows. She lay sick but five days of the smallpox, in which time she expressed so many wise and devout sayings, as is a miracle for her years. We both wished to have gone into the same grave with her. She lies buried in Tankersly church, and her death made us both desirous to quit that fatal place to us; and so the week after her death we did, and came to Hamerton, and were half a year with my sister Bedell. Then my husband was sent for to London, there to stay, by command of the High Court of Justice, and not to go five miles from that town, but to appear once a month before them. We then went again to my cousin Young's, in Chancery Lane: and about Christmas my husband got leave to go to Frog-Pool, in Kent, to my brother Warwick's; where, upon the 22nd of February 1655, I was delivered of a daughter, whom we named Ann, to keep in remembrance her dear sister, whom we had newly lost. We returned to our lodgings in Chancery Lane, where my husband was forced to attend till Christmas 1655; and then we went down to Jenkins, to Sir Thomas Fanshawe's; but upon New Year's Day my husband fell very sick, and the scorbutic again prevailed, so much that it drew his upper lip awry, upon which we that day came to London, into Chancery Lane, but not to my cousin Young's, but to a house we took of Sir George Carey, for a year. There by the advice of Doctor Bathurst and Doctor Ridgley, my husband took physic for two months together, and at last, God be praised! he perfectly recovered his sickness, and his lip was as well as ever.
In this house, upon the 12th day of July in 1656, I was delivered of a daughter, named Mary; and in this month died my second daughter, Elizabeth, that I had left with my sister Boteler, at Frog-Pool, to see if that air would recover her; but she died of a hectic fever, and lies buried in the church of Foots Cray. My husband, weary of the town, and being advised to go into the country for his health, procured leave to go in September to Bengy, in Hertford, to a little house lent us by my brother Fanshawe.
It happened at that time there was a very ill kind of fever, of which many died, and it ran generally through all families: this we and all our family fell sick of, and my husband's and mine after some months turned to quartan agues; but I being with child, none thought I could live, for I was brought to bed of a son in November,[Footnote: "This son, Henry, lies buried in Bengy church."] ten weeks before my time; and thence forward until April 1658, I had two fits every day, that brought me so low that I was like an anatomy. I never stirred out of my bed seven months, nor during that time eat flesh, nor fish, nor bread, but sage posset drink, and pancake or eggs, or now and then a turnip or carrot. Your father was likewise very ill, but he rose out of his bed some hours daily, and had such a greediness upon him, that he would eat and drink more than ordinary persons that eat most, though he could not stand upright without being held, and in perpetual sweats, and that so violent that it ran down day and night like water. This I have told you that you may see how near dying we were; for which recovery I humbly praise God. He got leave in August to go to Bath, which, God be praised! perfectly recovered us, and so we returned into Hertfordshire, to the Friary of Ware, which we hired of Mrs. Heydon for a year. This place we accounted happy to us, because in October we heard the news of Cromwell's death, upon which my husband began to hope that he should get loose of his fetters, in which he had been seven years; and going to London, in company with my Lord Philip, Earl of Pembroke, he lamented his case of his bonds to him that was his old and constant friend. He told him that if he would dine with him the next day, he would give him some account of that business. The next day he said to him, 'Mr. Fanshawe, I must send my eldest son into France; if you will not take it ill that I desire your company with him and care of him for one year, I will procure you your bonds within this week.' My husband was overjoyed to get loose upon any terms that were innocent, so, having seen his bonds cancelled, he went into France to Paris, from whence he by letter gave an account to Lord Chancellor Clarendon of his being got loose, and desired him to acquaint his Majesty of it, and to send him his commands, which was about April 1659. He did to this effect, that his Majesty was then going a journey, which afterwards proved to Spain; but upon his return, which would be about the beginning of winter, my husband should come to him, and that he should have, in present, the place of one of the Masters of Request, and the Secretary of the Latin Tongue. Then my husband sent me word of this, and bade me bring my son Richard, and my eldest daughters with me to Paris, for that he intended to put them to a very good school that he had found at Paris. We went as soon as I could possibly accommodate myself with money and other necessaries, with my three children, one maid, and one man. I could not go without a pass, and to that purpose I went to my cousin Henry Nevill, [Footnote: He was her cousin, being the second son of Sir Harry Nevill the younger, of Billingbere, in Essex, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Smythe, of Ostenhanger, sister to the first Viscount Strangford.] one of the High Court of Justice, where he was then sitting at Whitehall. I told him my husband had sent for me and his son, to place him there, and that he desired his kindness to help me to a pass: he went in to the then masters, and returned to me, saying, 'that by a trick my husband had got his liberty, but for me and his children, upon no conditions we should not stir.' I made no reply, but thanked my cousin, Henry Nevill, and took my leave. I sat me down in the next room, full sadly to consider what I should do, desiring God to help me in so just a cause as I then was in. I began and thought if I were denied a passage then, they would ever after be more severe on all occasions, and it might be very ill for us both. I was ready to go, if I had a pass, the next tide, and might be there before they could suspect I was gone: these thoughts put this invention in my head.
At Wallingford House, the Office was kept where they gave passes: thither I went in as plain a way and speech as I could devise, leaving my maid at the gate, who was much a finer gentlewoman than myself. With as ill mien and tone as I could express, I told a fellow I found in the Office that I desired a pass for Paris, to go to my husband. 'Woman, what is your husband, and your name?' 'Sir,' said I, with many courtesies, 'he is a young merchant, and my name is Ann Harrison.' 'Well,' said he, 'it will cost you a crown:'—said I, 'That is a great sum for me, but pray put in a man, my maid, and three children.' All which he immediately did, telling me a malignant would give him five pounds for such a pass.
I thanked him kindly, and so went immediately to my lodgings; and with my pen I made the great H of Harrison, two ff, and the rrs, an n, and the i, an s, and the s, an h, and the o, an a, and the n, a w, so completely, that none could find out the change. With all speed I hired a barge, and that night at six o'clock I went to Gravesend, and from thence by coach to Dover, where, upon my arrival, the searchers came and demanded my pass, which they were to keep for their discharge. When they had read it, they said, 'Madam, you may go when you please;' but says one, 'I little thought they would give a pass to so great a malignant, especially in so troublesome a time as this.'
About nine o'clock at night I went on board the packet-boat, and about eight o'clock in the morning landed safe, God be praised! at Calais. I went to Mr. Booth's, an English merchant, and a very honest man. There I rested two days; but upon the next day he had advice from Dover, that a post was sent to stay me from London, because they had sent for me to my lodgings by a messenger of the Court, to know why, and upon what business, I went to France. Then I discovered to him my invention of the changing my name, at which as at their disappointment we all laughed, and so did your father, and as many as knew the deceit. We hired a waggon-coach, for there is no other at Calais, and began our journey about the beginning of June 1659.
Coming one night to Abbeville, the Governor sent his Lieutenant to me, to let me know my husband was well the week before, that he had seen him at Paris, and had promised him to take care of me in my going through his government, there being much robbery daily committing; that he would advise me take care of the garrison soldiers, and giving them a pistole a piece, they would convey me very safely. This, he said, the Governor would have told me himself, but that he was in bed with the gout; I thanked him, and accepted his proffer. The next morning he sent me ten troopers well armed, and when I had gone about four leagues, as we ascended a hill, says some of these, 'Madam, look out, but fear nothing.' They rid all up to a well-mounted troop of horse, about fifty or more, which, after some parley, wheeled about into the woods again. When we came upon the hill, I asked how it was possible so many men so well armed should turn, having so few to oppose them; at which they laughed, and said, 'Madam, we are all of a company, and quarter in this town. The truth is, our pay is short, and we are forced to keep ourselves this way; but we have this rule, that if we in a party guard any company, the rest never molest them, but let them pass free.'
I having passed all danger, as they said, gave them a pistole each man, and so left them and went on my journey, and met my husband at St. Dennis, God be praised! The 20th day of October, my then only son died of the small-pox; he lies buried in the Protestant Church, near Paris, between the Earl of Bristol and Doctor Steward. Both my eldest daughters had the small-pox at the same time, and though I neglected them, and day and night attended my dear son, yet it pleased God they recovered and he died, the grief of which made me miscarry, and caused a sickness of three weeks.
After this, in the beginnings of November, the King came to visit his mother, who was at her own house at Combes, two leagues from Paris, and thither went my husband and myself. I had not seen him in almost twelve years: he told me that if it pleased God to restore him to his kingdoms, my husband should partake of his happiness in as great a share as any servants he had. Then he asked me many questions of England, and fell into discourse with my husband privately two hours, and then commanded him to follow him to Flanders. His Majesty went the next day, my husband that day month, which was the beginning of December. I went with our family to Calais, and my husband sent me privately to London for money in January. I returned him one hundred and fifty pounds, with which he went to the King, and I followed to Newport, Bruges, and Ghent, and to Brussels, where the King received us very graciously, with the Princess Royal and the Dukes of York and Gloucester. After staying three weeks at Brussels, we went to Breda, where we heard the happy news of the King's return to England. In the beginning of May we went with all the Court to the Hague, where I first saw the Queen of Bohemia, who was exceeding kind to all of us. Here the King and all the Royal Family were entertained at a very great supper by the States; and now business of state took up much time.
The King promised my husband he should be one of the Secretaries of State, and both the now Duke of Ormond, and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, were witnesses of it, yet that false man made the King break his word for his own accommodation, and placed Mr. Norris, a poor country gentleman of about two hundred pounds a year, a fierce Presbyterian, and one that never saw the King's face: but still promises were made of the reversion to your father.
Upon the King's restoration, the Duke of York, then made Admiral, appointed ships to carry over the company and servants of the King, who were very great. His Highness appointed for my husband and his family a third-rate frigate, called the Speedwell; but his Majesty commanded my husband to wait on him in his own ship. We had by the States' order sent on board to the King's most eminent servants, great store of provisions: for our family we had sent on board the Speedwell a tierce of claret, a hogshead of Rhenish wine, six dozen of fowls, a dozen of gammons of bacon, a great basket of bread, and six sheep, two dozen of neats' tongues, and a great box of sweetmeats. Thus taking our leaves of those obliging persons we had conversed with in the Hague, we went on board upon the 23rd of May, about two o'clock in the afternoon. The King embarked at four of the clock, upon which we set sail, the shore being covered with people, and shouts from all places of a good voyage, which was seconded with many volleys of shot interchanged: so favourable was the wind, that the ships' wherries went from ship to ship to visit their friends all night long. But who can sufficiently express the joy and gallantry of that voyage, to see so many great ships, the best in the world, to hear the trumpets and all other music, to see near a hundred brave ships sail before the wind with vast cloths and streamers, the neatness and cleanness of the ships, the strength and jollity of the mariners, the gallantry of the commanders, the vast plenty of all sorts of provisions; but above all, the glorious majesties of the King and his two brothers, were so beyond man's expectation and expression! The sea was calm, the moon shone at full, and the sun suffered not a cloud to hinder his prospect of the best sight, by whose light, and the merciful bounty of God, he was set safely on shore at Dover in Kent, upon the 25th [Footnote: Probably a mistake for the 26th] of May, 1660.
So great were the acclamations and numbers of people, that it reached like one street from Dover to Whitehall: we lay that night at Dover, and the next day we went in Sir Arnold Braem's [Footnote: Of a Dutch family settled at Bridge, in Kent. The house at Dover, in which Lady Fanshawe lay, was built by Jacob Braem, and is, or was in Hasted's time, the Custom-house. The family is now extinct.] coach towards London, where on Sunday night we came to a house in the Savoy. My niece, Fanshawe, then lay in the Strand, where I stood to see the King's entry with his brothers; surely the most pompous show that ever was, for the hearts of all men in this kingdom moved at his will.
The next day I went with other ladies of the family to congratulate his Majesty's happy arrival, who received me with great grace, and promised me future favours to my husband and self. His Majesty gave my husband his picture, set with small diamonds, when he was a child: it is a great rarity, because there never was but one. We took a house in Portugal Row, Lincoln's-inn Fields. My husband had not long entered upon his office, but he found an oppression from Secretary Nicholas, to his great vexation, for he, as much as in him lay, engrossed all the petitions, which really, by the foundation, belonged to the Master of the Requests; and in this he was countenanced by Lord Chancellor Clarendon, his great patron, notwithstanding he had married Sir Thomas Aylesbury's daughter, that was one of the Masters of the Requests.
This year I sent for my daughter Nan from my sister Boteler's, in Kent, where I had left her; and my daughter Mary died in Hertfordshire in August, and lies buried in Hertford church, in my father's vault.
In the latter end of the summer I miscarried, when I was near half gone with child, of three sons, two hours one after the other. I think it was with the hurry of business I then was in, and perpetual company that resorted to us of all qualities, some for kindness and some for their own advantage.
As that was a time of advantage, so it was of great expense, for on April the 23rd, 1661, the King was crowned, when my husband, being in waiting, rode upon his Majesty's left hand [Footnote: Evelyn says, that at the coronation of Charles the Second were "Two persons, representing the Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine, viz., Sir Richard Fanshawe and Sir Herbert Price, in fantastic habits."-Diary, vol. ii. p. 168.] with very rich footcloths, and four men in very rich liveries; and this year we furnished our house and paid all our debts which we had contracted during the war.
The 8th day of May following, the King rode to the Parliament, and then my husband rode in the same manner. His Majesty had commanded my husband to execute the place of the Chancellor of the Garter, both because he understood it better than any, and was to have the reversion of it. The first feast of St. George, my husband was proxy for the Earl of Bristol, and was installed for him Knight of the Garter. The Duke of Buckingham put on his robes, and the Duke of Ormond his spurs, in the stall of the Earl of Bristol.
Now it was the business of the Chancellor to put your father as far from the King as he could, because his ignorance in state affairs was daily discovered by your father, who showed it to the King; but at that time the King was so content that he should almost and alone manage his affairs, that he might have more time for his pleasure, that his faults were not so visible as otherwise they would have been, and afterwards proved. But now he sends to your father and tells him that he was, by the King's particular choice, resolved on to be sent to Lisbon with the King's letter and picture to the Princess, now our Queen, which then, indeed, was an employment any nobleman would be glad of; but the design from that time forth was to fix him here.
When your father was gone on this errand, I stayed in our house in Portugal Row, and at Christmas I received the New Year's gifts belonging to his places, which is the custom, of two tuns of wine at the Custom-house, for Master of Requests, and fifteen ounces of gilt plate at the Jewel-house, as Secretary of the Latin Tongue.
At the latter end of Christmas my husband returned from Lisbon, and was very well received by the King; and upon the 22nd of February following I was delivered of my daughter Elizabeth.
Upon the 8th of June,[Footnote: Query, 8th] 1662, my husband was made a Privy Councillor of Ireland; and some time after my Lord and Lady Ormond went into Ireland, and upon my taking leave of her Grace, she gave me a turquoise and diamond bracelet, and my husband a fasset [Footnote: A diamond cut into facets; a brilliant.] diamond ring. I never parted from her upon a journey but she ever gave me some present. When her daughter, the Lady Mary Cavendish, was married, none were present but his grandmother and father, and my husband and self; they were married in my Lord Duke's lodging in Whitehall, and given by the King, who came privately without any train. [Footnote: According to Collins' Peerage, Mary, second daughter of James Duke of Ormond, married William Cavendish, ninth Duke of Devonshire, at Kilkenny in Ireland, on the 27th of October, 1662. Lady Fanshawe's statement proves that he was mistaken.]
As soon as the King had notice of the Queen's landing, he immediately sent my husband that night to welcome her Majesty on shore, and followed himself the next day; and upon the 21st of May the King married the Queen at Portsmouth, in the presence-chamber of his Majesty's house.
There was a rail across the upper part of the room, in which entered only the King and Queen, the Bishop of London, the Marquis de Sande, the Portuguese Ambassador, and my husband: in the other part of the room there were many of the nobility and servants to their Majesties. The Bishop of London declared them married in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and then they caused the ribbons her Majesty wore to be cut in little pieces, and, as far as they would go, every one had some.[Footnote: As it must be inferred that Lady Fanshawe derived her information from her husband, who, she says, was present, her account of the ceremony is deserving of attention, because some doubts have been entertained as to the manner in which it was solemnised.-See Bishop Kennett's Historical Register, p. 693.]
Upon the 29th of May their Majesties came to Hampton Court, where was all that pretended to her Majesty's service, and all the King's servants, ladies and other persons of quality, who received her Majesty in several rooms, according to their several qualifications.
The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the Duchess of Ormond and her daughter, the now Lady Cavendish, and myself, went to wait on her Majesty as soon as her Majesty was dressed; where I had the honour from the King, who was then present, to tell the Queen who I was, saying many kind things of me to ingratiate me with her Majesty, whereupon her Majesty gave her hand to me to kiss, with promises of her future favour. After this we remained in Hampton Court, in the Requests' lodgings, my husband being then in waiting until the 10th day of August, upon which day he received his despatches for Ambassador to Portugal.
His Majesty was graciously pleased to promise my husband his picture, which afterwards we received, set with diamonds, to the value of three or four hundred pounds, his Majesty having been pleased to give my husband, at his first going to Portugal, his picture at length, in his garter-robes: my husband had also by his Majesty's order, out of the wardrobe, a crimson velvet cloth of state, fringed and laced with gold, with a chair, a footstool, and cushions, and two other stools of the same, with a Persian carpet to lay under them, and a suit of fine tapestry hanging for that room, with two velvet altar-cloths for the chapel, and fringed with gold, with surplices, altar cloths, and napkins, of fine linen, with a Bible, in Ogleby's print and cuts, two Common Prayer-books, in folio and quarto, with eight hundred ounces of gilt plate, and four thousand ounces of white plate; but there wanted a velvet bed, which he should have had by custom.
Thus having perfected the ceremonies of taking leave of their Majesties, and receiving their commands, and likewise taking our leaves of our friends, as I said, upon Sunday the 10th of August we took our journey to Portugal [Footnote: Evelyn says, "5th of August 1662, to London, and next day to Hampton Court, and took leave of Sir R. Fanshawe, now going Ambassador to Portugal."—Diary, vol. ii. p. 195.] carrying our three daughters with us, Katherine, Margaret, and Ann.
This night we lay at Windsor, where, on Monday the 11th, in the morning, we went to prayers to the King's Chapel with Doctor Heavers, my husband's Chaplain. On our return we were visited by the Provost of Eton, and divers others of the clergy of that place, and Sir Thomas Woodcock, the chief commander of that place, in the absence of Lord Mordaunt, Lord Constable of Windsor Castle.
Upon the desire of some there, my husband left some of his coats-of- arms, which he carried with him for that purpose, as the custom of ambassadors is, to dispose of where they lodge.[Footnote: This custom is still retained in the instances of the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland.]
That night we lay at Bagshot; Tuesday the 12th, we dined atBasingstoke, and lay at Andover; Wednesday the 13th, we dined atSalisbury, and there lay that night, and borrowed in the afternoon theDean of Westminster's coach, being willing to ease all our own horsesfor half a day, having a long journey to go.
We went in the Dean's coach to see Wilton, being but two miles from Salisbury. We found Lord Herbert at home; he entertained us with great civility and kindness, and gave my husband a very fine greyhound bitch: his father, the Earl of Pembroke, being then at London. We visited the famous church, and at our return to our lodgings, were visited by the Right Reverend Father in God, Doctor Henchman, the Bishop of that place, and Doctor Holles, the Dean of that place, and Doctor Earle, Dean of Westminster, since, by the former Bishop's remove to the See of London, now Bishop of Salisbury.
On Thursday the 14th, my husband and I, with our children, having begged of the Bishop his blessing at his own house, dined at Blandford, in Dorsetshire. Sir William Portman hath a very fine seat within a mile of it. We lodged that night at Dorchester: on Friday the 15th we lay at Axminster, and Saturday the 16th at Exeter, and went to prayers at the Cathedral church, accompanied by the principal divines of that place. On Sunday the 17th, we stayed all that day, and on Monday the 18th, we lay at a very ill lodging, of which I have forgotten the name; and on Tuesday the 19th, we went to Plymouth, where, within six miles of the town, we were met by some of the chief merchants of that place, and of the chief officers of that garrison, who all accompanied us to the house of one Mr. Tyler, a merchant.
Upon our arrival, the Governor of that garrison, one Sir John Skelton, visited us, and did us the favour to keep us company, with many of his officers, during our stay in that town. Sir John Hele, as soon as he heard of our being there, sent my husband a fat buck; and my cousin Edgcombe, of Mount Edgcombe, a mile from Plymouth, sent him another buck, and came, as soon as he heard we were there, from a house of his twelve miles from Mount Edgcombe, to which he came only to keep us company. From whence, the next day after his arrival, he with his Lady, and Sir Richard Edgcombe, his eldest son, and others of his children, came to visit us at Plymouth; and the day after we dined at Mount Edgcombe, where we were very nobly treated. At our coming home, they would need accompany us over the river to our lodgings. The next day the Mayor and Aldermen came to visit my husband; and the next day we had a great feast at Mr. Seale's house, the father of our landlord. Our being so well lodged and treated by the inhabitants of this town was upon my father's score, whose deputies some of them were, he being one of the Farmers of the Custom-house to receive the King's customs of that port.
On Sunday the 30th, the wind coming fair, we embarked, accompanied by my cousin Edgcombe and all his family, and with much company of the town, that would show their kindness until the last. Taking our leave of our landlord and landlady, we gave her twenty pieces of gold to buy her a ring, and they presented my children with many pretty toys. Thus, on Monday, at nine o'clock in the morning we were received on board the Ruby frigate, commanded by Captain Robinson. We had very many presents sent us on board by divers gentlemen, among which my cousin Edgcombe sent us a brace of fat bucks, three milk goats, wine, ale and beer, with fruit of several sorts, biscuit and sweetmeats.
On Monday the 31st of August 1662, we set sail for Lisbon, and landed the 14th of September, our style, between the Conde de St. Laurence's house and Belem, God be praised! all in good health. As soon as we had anchored, the English Consul, with the merchants, came on board us; but we went presently to a house of the Duke of Aveiros, where my husband was placed by his Majesty when he was there before, in which he had then left his chief Secretary and one other, with some others of his family. The first that visited incognito there, for he was not to own any till he had made his entry, was the King of Portugal's Secretary, Antonio de Sousa: there came about that time also the Earl of Inchiquin, and Count Schomberg, to visit us. The 28/18th day, my husband went privately on board the frigate, in which he came with all his family; to whom the King sent a nobleman to receive him on shore, with his own and Queen-mother's, and very many coaches of the nobility. As soon as they met, there passed great salutations of cannons from the ships to the frigate in which my husband came, and from our ships to the King's forts, and from all the forts innumerable shots returned again.
So soon as my husband landed, he entered the King's coach, and the nobleman that fetched him, whose name I have forgot. Before him went the English Consul, with all the merchants; on his right hand went four pages; on the left side the coach, by the horses' heads, eight footmen all clothed in rich livery; in the coach that followed went my husband's own gentlemen, after the coach of state empty, and those that did him the favour to accompany him: thus they went to the house where my husband lodged. The King entertained him with great plenty of provisions in all kinds, three suppers and three dinners, and all manner of utensils belonging thereunto, as the custom of that country is.
Their Majesties did for some time furnish the house, till my husband could otherwise provide himself in town. The Abadessa of the Alcantara, niece to the Queen-mother, natural daughter of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, sent to welcome me into the country a very noble present of perfumes, waters, and sweetmeats; and during my abode at Lisbon we often made visits and interchanged messages, to my great content, for she was a very fine lady. On the 19/29th, one Mr. Bridgewood, a merchant, sent me a silver basin and ewers for a present.
On the 10th of October, stilo novo, my husband had his audience of his Majesty in his palace, at Lisbon; going in the King's coach with the same nobleman and in the same form as he made his entry. The King received him with great kindness and respect, much to his satisfaction. On the 11th, Don Joam de Sousa, the Queen's Vidor, came from her Majesty to us both to welcome us into the country. On the 13th, her Majesty sent her chief coach, accompanied by other coaches, to fetch my husband to the audience of her Majesty, where she received him very graciously; and the same day he had audience of Don Pedro, the King's brother, at his own palace. Saturday, the 14th, her Majesty sent her best coach for me and my children. When we came there, the Captain of the Guard received me at the foot of the stairs; all my people going before me, as the custom is. On each side were the guards placed, with halberds in their hands, as far as the presence-chamber door. There I was received by the Queen's Lord Chamberlain, who carried me to the door of the next room, where the Queen was. Then the Queen's principal lady, as our groom of the stole, received me, telling me she had command from the Queen to bid me welcome to that Court, from the ships to the frigate in which my husband came, and from our ships to the King's forts, and from all the forts innumerable shots returned again.
So soon as my husband landed, he entered the King's coach, and the nobleman that fetched him, whose name I have forgot. Before him went the English Consul, with all the merchants; on his right hand went four pages; on the left side the coach, by the horses' heads, eight footmen all clothed in rich livery; in the coach that followed went my husband's own gentlemen, after the coach of state empty, and those that did him the favour to accompany him: thus they went to the house where my husband lodged. The King entertained him with great plenty of provisions in all kinds, three suppers and three dinners, and all manner of utensils belonging thereunto, as the custom of that country is.
Their Majesties did for some time furnish the house, till my 'husband could otherwise provide himself in town. The Abadessa of the Alcantara, niece to the Queen-mother, natural daughter of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, sent to welcome me into the country a very noble present of perfumes, waters, and sweetmeats; and during my abode at Lisbon we often made visits and interchanged messages, to my great content, for she was a very fine lady. On the 19/29th, one Mr. Bridgewood, a merchant, sent me a silver basin and ewers for a present.
On the 10th of October, stilo novo, my husband had his audience of his Majesty in his palace, at Lisbon; going in the King's coach with the same nobleman and in the same form as he made his entry. The King received him with great kindness and respect, much to his satisfaction. On the nth, Don Joam de Sousa, the Queen's Vidor, came from her Majesty to us both to welcome us into the country. On the 13th, her Majesty sent her chief coach, accompanied by other coaches, to fetch my husband to the audience of her Majesty, where she received him very graciously; and the same day he had audience of Don Pedro, the King's brother, at his own palace. Saturday, the 14th, her Majesty sent her best coach for me and my children. When we came there, the Captain of the Guard received me at the foot of the stairs; all my people going before me, as the custom is. On each side were the guards placed, with halberds in their hands, as far as the presence-chamber door. There I was received by the Queen's Lord Chamberlain, who carried me to the door of the next room, where the Queen was. Then the Queen's principal lady, as our groom of the stole, received me, telling me she had command from the Queen to bid me welcome to that Court, and to accompany me to her Majesty's presence. She sat in the next room, which was very large, in a black velvet chair, with arms, upon a black velvet carpet, with a state of the same. She had caused a low chair, without arms, to be set at some distance from her, about two yards on her left hand, on which side stood all the noblemen; on her right, all the ladies of the Court.
After making my reverences due to her Majesty, according to custom, and said those respects which became me to her Majesty, she sat down; and when I presented my daughters to her, she having expressed much grace and favour to me and mine, bade me sit down, which at first I refused, desiring to wait on her Majesty, as my Queen's mother; but she pressing me again, I sat down; and then she made her discourse of England, and asked questions of the Queen's health and liking of our country, with some little hints of her own and her family's condition, which having continued better than half an hour, I took my leave. During my stay at Court I several times waited on the Queen-Mother; truly she was a very honourable, wise woman, and I believe had been very handsome. She was magnificent in her discourse and nature, but in the prudentest manner; she was ambitious, but not vain; she loved government, and I do believe the quitting of it did shorten her life.
After saluting the ladies and noblemen of the Court, I went home as I came. The next day the Secretary of State and his Lady came to visit me: she had, at my arrival, sent me a present of sweetmeats. My husband had left in this person's family one of his pages to improve himself in writing and reading the Spanish tongue, until his return again to that Court, when he went the last year to England, in consideration of which we presented his Lady with a piece of India plate, of about two hundred pounds sterling. They were both very civil, worthy persons, and had formerly been in England, where the King, Charles the First, had made his son an English Baron.[Footnote: No record is known to exist of any foreigner having been created a Peer by Charles the First: nor does it appear likely from the names of persons created Baronets by Charles the First, that Lady Fanshawe could mean Baronet. The splendid and elaborate work entitled the "Memorias Genealogicas da Casa de Sousa," does not advert to the circumstance.] She told me in discourse one day this of a French Ambassador, that had lately been in that Court, and lodged next to her:—
There was a numerous sort of people about the Ambassador's door, as is usual amongst them. A poor little boy, that his mother had animated daily to cry for relief so troublesomely, that at last the Ambassador would say, 'What noise is that at the gate of perpetual screaming? I will have it so no more:' upon which they carried the child to his mother, and bade her keep him at home, for it screamed like a devil, and if it returned, the porter swore he would punish him severely. Not many days after, according to his former custom, the child returned, louder than before, if possible; the porter keeping his word, took the boy and pulled off his rags, and anointed him all over with honey, leaving no part undone, and very thick, and then threw him into a tub of fine feathers, which as soon as he had done, he set him on his legs and frightened him home to his mother, who seeing this thing, for none living could guess him a boy, ran out into the city, the child squeaking after her, and all the people in the streets after them, thinking it was a devil or some strange creature.
But to return to the business: we were visited by many persons of the Court, some upon business, and others upon compliment, which is more formal than pleasant, for they are not generally a cheerful people. About February the King intended to go into the field and lead his army himself: during this resolution my husband prepared himself to wait on his Majesty, which cost him much, these kind of expenses in that place being scarce and very dear; but the Council would not suffer him to go, and so that ended. The King loved hunting much, and ever when he went would send my husband some of what he killed, which was stag and wild boar, both excellent meat. We kept the Queen's birthday with great feasting: we had all the English merchants.
There was, during my stay in this town, a Portugal merchant jealous of his mistress favouring an Englishman, whom he entertained with much kindness, hiding his suspicion. One evening he invited him to see a country-house and eat a collation, which he did; after which the merchant, with three or four more of his friends, for a rarity showed him a cave hard by the house, which went in at a very narrow hole, but within was very capacious, in the side of a high mountain. It was so dark that they carried a torch. Says one to the Englishman, 'Did you ever know where bats dwell?' he replied no; 'Then here, Sir,' say they, 'you shall see them;' then, holding up the light to the roof, they saw millions hanging by their legs. So soon as they had done, they, frightening the birds, made them all fly about them, and putting out the light ran away, and left the Englishman there to get out as well as he could, which was not until the next morning.
This winter I fell sick of an aguish distemper, being then with child; but I believe it was with eating more grapes than I am accustomed to, being tempted by their goodness, especially the Frontiniac, which exceed all I ever eat in Spain and France.
The beginning of May 1663, there happened in Lisbon an insurrection of the people of the town, about a suspicion, as they pretended, of some persons disaffected to the public; upon which they plundered the Archbishop's house, and the Marquis of Marialva's house, and broke into the treasury; but after about ten thousand of these ordinary people had run for six or seven hours about the town, crying 'Kill all that is for the Castile,' they were appeased by their Priests, who carried the Sacrament amongst them, threatening excommunication, which, with the night, made them depart with their plunder. Some few persons were lost, but not many.
Upon the 10th of June came news to this Court of the total rout of Don John of Austria at the battle of Evora;[Footnote: Pepys, speaking of this battle, in which the Portuguese completely defeated the Spaniards, says—"4th July, 1663. Sir Allen Apsley showed the Duke the Lisbon Gazette, in Spanish, where the late victory is set down particularly, and to the great honour of the English beyond measure. They have since taken back Evora, which was lost to the Spaniards, the English making the assault, and lost not more than three men."-Diary, vol. ii-p. 68.] after which our house and tables were full of distressed, honest, brave English soldiers, who by their own and their fellows' valour had got one of the greatest victories that ever was.
These poor but brave men were almost lost between the Portuguese poverty and the Lord Chancellor Hyde's neglect, not to give it a worse name.[Footnote: It appears however, from Sir Robert Southwell's Account of Portugal (p.138), that Charles II was so pleased with the gallantry of his troops at the battle of Evora, (or, as it is more commonly called by historians, of Ameixal,) that he caused a gratuity of 40,000 crowns to be distributed among them. It would seem that the "neglect" of which Lady Fanshawe complains, was entirely on the side of the Portuguese. Sir Robert Southwell mentions some curious anecdotes on this subject, particularly with reference to the statement in the Lisbon Gazette, alluded to in the preceding note.] While my husband stayed there, he did what he could, but not proportionably either to their merits or wants.
About this time my husband sent great assistance to the Governor of Tangiers, the Earl of Peterborough then being Governor, whose letters of supplication and thanks for kindness and care, my husband and I have yet to show.
June the 26th, I was delivered of a son ten weeks before my time: he lived some hours, and was christened Richard by our Chaplain, Mr. Marsden, who performed the ceremony of the Church of England at his burial, and then laid him in the Parish Church in which we lived, in the principal part of the chancel.
The Queen sent to condole with me for the loss of my son, and theMarquees de Castel Melhor, the Marquees de Nica, the Condessa de VillaFranca, (Donna Maria e Antonia,) with many other ladies, and severalgood gentlewomen that were English merchants' wives.
Several times we saw the Feasts of Bulls, and at them had great voiders of dried sweetmeats brought us upon the King's account, with rich drinks.
Once we had some dispute about some English Commanders that thought themselves not well enough placed at the show, according to their merit, by the King's officers, which did so ill represent it to my husband that he was extremely concerned at it. Upon notice being given to the Chief Minister, the Conde de Castel Melhor came from the King to my husband, after having examined the business, and desired that there might be no misunderstanding between the King and him, that the business was only the impertinence of a servant, and that it might so pass. My husband was well satisfied, and presented his most humble acknowledgments to the King for his care and favour to him, as well as the honour he had received. The Conde de Castel Melhor, when he had finished his visit to my husband, came to my apartment, and told me he hoped I took no offence at what had passed at the feast, because the King had heard I was sad to see my husband troubled; assuring me that his Majesty and the whole Court desired nothing more than that we should receive all content imaginable. I gave him many thanks for the honour of his visit, and desired him to present my humble service to the King, assuring him, that my husband and I had all the respect imaginable for his Majesty; true it was, according to the English fashion, I did make a little whine when I saw my husband disordered, but I should ever remain his Majesty's humble servant, with my most humble thanks to his Excellency. And so he returned well satisfied.
The 14th, the Chief Ministers met my husband in order to his return home for England, and expressed a great trouble to part from him; they from the King presented my husband with twelve thousand crowns in gold plate, with many compliments and favours from the King, whom my husband waited on the next day to receive his Majesty's commands for his Master in England. After giving his Majesty many thanks for the many honours he had received from his Majesty's kind acceptance of his service, he thanked his Majesty for his present, saying that he wished his Majesty's bounteous kindness to him might not prejudice his Majesty, in this example, by the next coming ambassador; to which his Majesty replied, 'I am sure it cannot, for I shall never have such another ambassador.' Then my husband took his leave, performing all those ceremonies with the same persons and coaches as he made at his entry.
Upon the 19th of August my husband and I took our leaves of the Queen- Mother, at her house, who had commanded all her ladies to give attendance, though her Majesty was then in a retired condition.
Her Majesty expressed much resentment at our leaving the Court; and after our respects paid to her Majesty, and I receiving her Majesty's commands to our Queen, with a present, I took my leave with the same ceremony of coaches and persons as I had waited on her Majesty twice before.
Upon the 20th, my husband took his leave of Don Pedro, his Majesty's brother. The 21st of August, the Secretary of State came to visit me from the King and Queen, wishing me a prosperous voyage, and presented me with a very noble present. The same day I took my leave of my good neighbour the Condessa de Palma, as I had done of all the ladies of my acquaintance before, who all presented me with fine presents, as did my good neighbour the Countess Santa Graca, who had with her, when I went to take my leave, many persons of quality, that came on purpose there to take their leaves of me, and from whom I received great civility, and the Countess gave me a very great banquet.
On the 23rd of August 1663, we, accompanied by many persons of all sorts, went on board the King of England's frigate, called the Reserve, commanded by Captain Holmes, where, as soon as I was on board, the Conde de Castel Melhor sent me a very great and noble present, a part of which was the finest case of waters that ever I saw, being made of Brazil wood, garnished with silver, the bottles of crystal, garnished with the same, and filled with rich amber-water.
Lisbon with the river is the goodliest situation that ever I saw; the city old and decayed; but they are making new walls of stone, which will contain six times their city. Their churches and chapels are the best built, the finest adorned, and the cleanliest kept, of any churches in the world. The people delight much in quintas, which are a sort of country houses, of which there are abundance within a few leagues of the city, and those that belong to the nobility are very fine, both houses and gardens. The nation is generally very civil and obliging. In religion divided, between Papists and Jews. The people generally not handsome. They have many religious houses, and bishopricks of great revenue; and the religious of both sexes are for the most part very strict.