"O must the wretched exile ever mourn,
Nor after length of rolling years return?"
DRYDEN.
Lady Purbeck was not to be left in peace in Paris. As Garrard had
said, a writ was issued commanding her to return to England upon her
allegiance, and it was sent to Paris by a special messenger who was
ordered to serve it upon her, if he could find her. The matter was
placed in the hands of the English Ambassador, and he describes what
followed in a letter[95] from Paris to the Secretary of State in
England:--
"Rt. Honble.
"Your honours letters dated the 7th March--I received the 21 the same
style by the Courrier sent to serve his Majesties writt upon the Lady
Viscountesse Purbecke. They came to me about 11 of the clock in the
Morning. Upon the instant of his coming to me I sent a servant of myne
own to show him the house, where the Lady lived publiquely, and in my
neighbourhood."
The business in hand, it will be observed, was not to arrest Lady
Purbeck, but simply to serve the writ upon her: a duty which proved
not quite so simple as might be supposed. On arriving at the house in
which Lady Purbeck was living, "the Courrier taking off his Messengers
Badge knocked at the doore to gett in. There came a Mayd to the doore
that would not open it, but peeped through a grating and asked his
businesse. He sayd, he was not in such hast but he could come againe
to-morrow. But the Mayd and the rest of the household having charge
not to open the doore, but to suche as were well knowne, the Messenger
could not gett in."
This first failure would not in itself have much alarmed the
Ambassador; but he says: "In the afternoone, I understood that the
Lady had received notice 15 days before, that a privy seale was to
come for her, which had caused her ever since to keep her house
close."
This made him nervous, and he tried to push the matter with greater
speed.
"We endeavoured by severall ways," he wrote, "to have gotten the
Messenger into the house. But having considered and tryed till the
next day in the afternoone, we grew very doubtfull that the Messenger
might be suspected and that the Lady might slip away from that place
of her residence that night."
Unless the writ could be properly served upon her, proceedings against
her could not be carried out in England, and, once out of the house in
which she now was known, or at least believed, to be, so slippery a
lady, as she had already proved herself, would be very difficult to
find. To effect an entrance into the house and to serve the writ upon
her personally was evidently impossible, and the only alternative was
to make sure that she was in the house and then to put the writ into
it in such a way that she could not avoid learning of its presence.
Therefore, says the Ambassador, "I directed this Bearer to put the Box
with the Privy Seale in it through some pane of a lower window into
the house and leaving it there to putt on his Badge, and knocking at
the doore of the house, if they would not suffer him to enter, then to
tell that party, whoe should speak to him at the dore, that he was
sent from the K. of Grate Britaine to serve his Majesties Privy Seale
upon the Lady Viscountess Purbeck, and that in regard he could not be
admitted in, he had left the Privy seale in a Box in such a place of
the house, and that in his Majesties name he required the Lady Purbeck
to take notice thereof at her perill." So far as getting the Privy
Seal inside the house was concerned, all went well. "The Messenger
being there, found an upper windowe neath the casements open, and
threw up the Box with the Privy seale in it through that windowe into
a Chamber, which some say is the Ladies Dining Roome, others, that it
is a Chamber of a Man servant waiting upon her."
The writ was now safely lodged in the house; but the Ambassador had
ordered the messenger to take care to call the attention of some one
in it to the fact that the writ was there. Unfortunately, says the
Ambassador, this part of his instructions had been neglected. "The
Courrier returnes to me. And finding that he had forgotten to speake
at the dore as I had directed him, I caused him presently to returne
and to discharge himself in such sort as is above mentioned, which he
will depose he did."
This was done, but even then something was still left undone; for it
yet remained to be proved that Lady Purbeck was actually in the house
at the time when the writ was thrown into it. The Ambassador conceived
the idea of obtaining such proof by means of a female witness. For
this purpose, he very ingeniously contrived to find a sister of one of
Lady Purbeck's servants, and, no doubt by the promise of a heavy
bribe, he persuaded her to go to the house, to ask to be admitted in
order to speak with her sister, to find out, when there, if Lady
Purbeck was in the house, and, if possible, to see her. This ruse was
singularly successful, for, as will be seen, the first person whom the
girl saw was Lady Purbeck herself.
"A woman being sent to the house under Colour of speaking with a
sister of hers the Ladies servant, the Ladye herselfe came downe to
the dore, and opening it a little, soe that the woman saw her, she
sayd her sister should have leave to go home to her that night. And
therefore the Lady was in the house at the same time that the place of
her residence was served. She hath lived in that house about a month,
and there are (as I am informed) no other dwellers in it but herself."
The writ had now been served, although not into the very hands of Lady
Purbeck yet it was hoped sufficiently in order to satisfy the law. But
all was not yet smooth. The Ambassador wrote:--
"The morrow after this was done, about midnight, there came some
officers with two coaches and 50 archers to divers houses to search
for the Lady being directed and instructed by a warrant from the
Cardinal that whereas there was a Messenger sent from England to offer
some affront to your Lady Purbeck in diminution of this Kings
jurisdiction, that therefore they should find out the sayd Lady and
protect her."
This intervention on the part of the French Government made Lord
Scudamore fear lest _l'affaire Purbeck_ might lead to international
complications, and he presently adds: "Coming to the knowledge of this
particular this Morning I thought good to hasten the Messenger out of
the way."
Fortunately for Lady Purbeck, she was not without a friend in Paris.
About a year before she went there, a curious character had arrived in
the person of Sir Kenelm Digby, a son of the Sir Everard Digby who had
been executed for having been concerned in the Gunpowder Plot. Sir
Kenelm was well known, both at home and abroad. He had stayed at
Madrid with his relative, the Earl of Bristol, at the time when
Prince Charles had gone to Spain to woo the Infanta. He had been a
brilliant ornament at the Court of Charles I.; but, like all the
relations of Bristol, he had been hated by Buckingham. Armed with
letters of marque, he had raised a fleet and ravaged the Mediterranean
in the character of a privateer. He was literary, philosophical,
metaphysical and scientific. When he came to Paris his beautiful wife
had been dead a couple of years, and the smart courtier had thrown off
his hitherto splendid attire, had clothed himself in black of the very
plainest, and had allowed his hair and beard to grow as they would,
ragged and untrimmed. Shortly before the arrival of Lady Purbeck in
Paris, Sir Kenelm had declared himself a Catholic; and the fact that
both he and Lady Purbeck had submitted themselves to the Catholic
Church may have formed a bond of union between them. Sir Kenelm soon
contrived to interest Cardinal Richelieu in Lady Purbeck's case, and
not only Richelieu but also the King and the Queen of France.
A certain "E.R." wrote[96] to Sir R. Puckering: "The last week we had
certain news that the Lady Purbeck was declared a papist." And then he
went on to say that Louis XIIIth and the Queen of France, as well as
Cardinal Richelieu, had sent messages or letters to Charles I.,
begging him to pardon Lady Purbeck and to allow her to return to
England. He also said that the French Ambassador at St. James's was
"very zealous in the business." Shortly afterwards he added: "It is
said she is altogether advised by Sir Kenelm Digby, who indeed hath
written over letters to some of his noble friends of the privy
council, wherein he hath set down what a convert this lady is become,
so superlatively virtuous and sanctimonious, as the like hath never
been seen in men or women; and therefore he does most humbly desire
their lordships to farther this lady's peace, and that she may return
into England, for otherwise she does resolve to put herself into some
monastery. I hear his Majesty does utterly dislike that the lady is so
directed by Sir Kenelm Digby, and that she fares nothing better for
it."
Of course anybody would naturally sneer at the suggestion that the
convert to a religion other than his own could possibly be remarkable
for either virtue or sanctity: but there is no visible reason for
sympathising with the sneers of (E.R.), or for doubting Sir Kenelm
Digby's evidence respecting Lady Purbeck.
It may be a question whether Lady Purbeck ever intended "to put
herself into some monastery," in the sense of becoming a nun. She did,
however, put herself into a monastery in a very different way. It was,
and still is, the custom in some convents to take in lodgers or
boarders, either for a short time, for a long time, or even for life.
The peace, the quiet, the regularity, and the religious services and
observances at such establishments are attractive to some people,
especially to those who are in trouble or difficulty. The
disadvantages are that, although the lodgers are perfectly free to go
where they please and to do what they please, they can generally only
get their meals at rigidly appointed hours, that the convent doors are
finally closed at a fixed time, usually a very early one; and that
after that closing time there is no admittance. Practically the latter
arrangement precludes all possibility of society in an evening, and
the present writer knows several Catholics of the most unimpeachable
orthodoxy, zeal, piety and virtue, who have tried living in convents
and monasteries, as boarders, both in Rome and in London, and have
given it up simply on account of those inconveniences. It was,
therefore, very unjust to speak ill of Lady Purbeck for not having
lived in a convent "according to that strictness as was expected,"
because she left it. But this was done in the following letter:[97]
"The Lady Purbeck is come forth of the English Nunnerie. For, the Lady
Abbess being from home, somebody forgott to provide the Lady Purbeck
her dinner, and to leave the roome open where she used to dine at
night, expostulating with the Abbess, they agreed to part fairely,
which the Abbess was the more willing unto in regard the Lady Purbeck
did not live according to that strictness as was expected. Car.
Richelieu helped her into the Nunnerie."
It may be inferred from this letter that Lady Purbeck left the convent
for the simple reason that she was not comfortable in it--even the
"superlatively virtuous" do not like to be dinnerless--and that,
either because she was unpunctual, or because she was inclined to make
complaints, the Abbess was relieved when she took her departure. But
by Scudamore's own showing they parted "fairely;" or, as we should now
say, good friends.
Among Sir Kenelm Digby's English correspondents, while he was in
Paris, was Lord Conway, a soldier as devoted to literature as to arms,
and a general who always seemed fated to fight under disadvantages.
Shortly after the time with which we are at present dealing, he was
defeated when in command of the King's troops at Newcastle. Meanwhile,
Sir Kenelm was endeavouring to "fit him withal," in the matter of
"curious books," from Paris. As the letter[98] from Sir Kenelm to Lord
Conway, about to be quoted, has something in it about Lord Wimbledon,
it may be well to note that he was a brother of Lady Elizabeth Hatton
and therefore an uncle of Lady Purbeck.
After observing that England has been singularly happy in producing
men like King Arthur and others who performed actions of only moderate
valour or interest, which subsequent ages mistook for great
achievements, he says:--
"But none will be more famous and admirable to our Nevewes(?) than the
noble valiant and ingenious Peer, the Lord Wimbledone, whose
epistle[99] exceedeth all that was ever done before by any so
victorious a generall of armies or so provident a governor of townes,
I only lament for it that it was not hatched in a season when it might
have done the honor to Baronius,[100] his collections, to have bin
inserted among them.
"Here is a Lady that he hath reason to detest above all persons in the
worlde, if robbing a man of all the portion of witt, courage,
generousnesse, and other heroicall partes due to him, do meritt such
an inclination of the minde towardes them that have thus bereaved
them: for surely the Genius that governeth that family and that
distributeth to each of them their shares of natures guiftes was
either asleepe, or mistooke (or somewhat else was the cause) when he
gave my Lady of Purbecke a dubble proportion of these and all other
noble endowments, and left her poore Uncle, so naked and unfurnished:
Truly my lord to speake seriously I have not seen more prudence,
sweetinesse, goodnesse, honor and bravery shewed by any woman that I
know, than this unfortunate lady sheweth she hath a rich stock of.
Besides her naturall endowments, doubtlessly her afflictions adde
much: or rather have polished, refined and heightened what nature gave
her: and you know vexatio dat intellectum. Is it not a shame for you
Peeres (and neare about the king) that you will let so brave a lady
live as she doth in distress and banishment: when her exile serveth
stronger but to conceive scandalously of our nation, that we will not
permit those to live among us who have so much worth and goodnesse as
this lady giveth show off....
"Yo. Lo: most humble and affectionate
"servant,
"KENELM DIGBY."
Sir Kenelm, like Scudamore, was on a friendly footing with Lady
Purbeck's chief enemy, Archbishop Laud, but in a very different sense.
When Sir Kenelm was a boy Laud had been his tutor, and a friendship
had sprung up between the master and the pupil which was not broken by
the conversion of the pupil to a religion greatly disliked by the
master. Subsequently, Sir Kenelm gave evidence in favour of his old
tutor, before the Committee appointed to prepare the prosecution of
Laud at his trial, and he sent kind messages to Laud in the Tower.
Unlike Scudamore, however, he was no admirer of Laud's religion or of
his ecclesiastical policy, if indeed of any of his policy.
Although Sir Kenelm Digby, the King and the Queen of France, Cardinal
Richelieu, and the French Ambassador at the Court of St. James's did
their best to obtain forgiveness for Lady Purbeck, Charles I. was long
obdurate. At first, as we have seen, he had sent a writ commanding her
to return at once to her native country for punishment. When he had
withdrawn that writ, he for some time refused to allow her to return
at all, for any purpose. But troubles were brewing for Charles
himself, and, after Lady Purbeck had spent an exile of some length in
Paris, she was permitted to come to England, without any liability to
stand barefoot in a white sheet for the amusement of the congregation
in a fashionable London church on a Sunday morning.
FOOTNOTES:
[95] _S.P. For._, Charles I., France. Scudamore to Coke, 25th
March--4th April, 1636. This letter was addressed to Sir John Coke,
the Secretary of State.
[96] _Court and Times of Charles I_. By D'Israeli, Vol. II., p. 242.
[97] _S.P._, Charles I., France. Scudamore to Windebank, I/121 July,
1636.
[98] _S.P. Dom._, Charles I., Vol. CCCXLIV., No. 58. Sir Kenelm Digby
to Edward Lord Conway and Kilultagh, 21/31 January, 1637.
[99] Wimbledon was Governor of Portsmouth and the letter in question
was probably one mentioned by Walpole in his _Royal and Noble
Authors_, to the Mayor of Portsmouth "reprehending him for the
Townsmen not pulling off their hats to a Statue of the King Charles,
which his Lordship had erected there." Such an "epistle" might well
excite the derision and contempt of Sir Kenelm.
[100] The author of _Annales Ecclesiastici_.