*Postscript*
My grandfather took his bride home in the summer of the year 1603, andthere they lived in great happiness and contentment, rarely stirringabroad save to make brief and sudden visits to London and to their manyfriends. My father, their sole child, was born in October of the year1604, and when he came to the age of eleven, he was sent to the schoolat Winchester, whence in due order he proceeded to the New College atOxford.
All these years did my grandfather hold himself aloof from the Court,being much troubled in his mind about the foolish and heady courses ofKing James. My lady grandmother told me, I remember, how that on theday when he had news of the beheading of his old captain Sir WalterRaleigh, he shut himself up in his chamber, and for very sorrow wouldneither see nor speak with any of his household. And methinks I hearstill his full round voice rehearsing to me the famous verses which SirWalter wrote, the night before his death, in the Bible of the Dean ofWestminster. "He lived and died a gentleman, boy," said he to me; "andif you would know the true signification of that word 'gentleman,' readCastillo's _Book of the Courtier_, in Mr. Hoby's translation, though intruth you will find all and more in the 15th Psalm."
In the summer of the year 1623 there came to him a gentleman post-hastefrom London, bearing a letter from a very great person bidding himjourney without delay to Westminster. Being beholden to the writer, hemust needs comply, though apprehensive of trouble in his quiet life.And after two days a messenger brought from him a letter wherein hewrote that he had been commanded to cross over to France, and ride withall imaginable speed into Spain, on an errand of great moment. Mygrandmother was sorely disquieted at this news, more especially becausehe told her no more, nor indeed did she learn the cause of his goinguntil he returned in time to keep my father's birthday.
It was on this wise. There had been talk for many years of a marriagebetween the Infanta Maria, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, and ourPrince Charles (now King, though a prisoner), a match very little to theliking of our English people. But King James hoped by this alliance toaid the cause of his son-in-law the Elector Palatine, and he carried thebusiness so far as that nothing was wanting except the Pope'sdispensation, whereby alone could a Catholic princess wed with aheretic.
Now the Prince of Wales, at that time three and twenty years of age, wasa thoughtless unsteady youth, deserving well the fond name of BabyCharles bestowed upon him by his doting father. In consort with hisboon friend the Marquis (afterwards Duke) of Buckingham, he conceivedthe lunatic fancy of going himself to Madrid, with the intent to hastenthe match, and woo the Princess in person. Wherefore in February ofthat year the two headstrong young men, disguised with false beards, andcalling themselves Tom and John Smith, set forth from Newhall, crossedthe sea from Dover, and rode through France into Spain, where they werereceived, having thrown off their disguise, with due honour. But, beinglight-minded, they ran foul of the stiff ceremoniousness of the SpanishCourt and gave deep offence, the Prince by his levity, the Marquis byhis insolency. It was deemed fit that the Infanta should be approachedonly with the forms of State; yet the Prince, seeing her walk alone in agarden, leapt over the wall and made love to her, whereat she screamedand fled from this too ardent wooing. The Spaniards, moreover, held itunseemly that the Marquis, a subject, sat in his dressing-gown at thePrince's table, turned his back upon him in public places, and benthimself forward to stare unmannerly at the Infanta. And the Marquis wascontinually at odds with Olivarez, the Spanish minister, used himhaughtily, and browbeat him without measure whether in word or deed. Tobe brief, they played the fool.
In the summer, when a month had gone by without any word arriving fromthe Prince, who had been wont before to write often to his father, KingJames, then afflicted with the gout, and sick also in mind, conceivedthat his dear Baby Charles stood in peril of captivity, and went aboutwringing his hands, and crying with tears that his only sweet son wouldnever see his old dear dad again. Whereupon the great person aforesaidresolved to send some staid and discreet person privily to Madrid tohave an eye upon the Prince, and to bring him away, even by kidnapping,if he were in truth menaced by any danger. And bethinking him of mygrandfather, and how he had acquit himself well in many diversadventures, and moreover had had dealings with the Spaniards, he sentfor him and dispatched him forth on that errand.
As it fell out, my grandfather had his pains for nought. The Prince,with that deceitfulness which has brought his present woes upon him,having made promises which he knew he could never perform, departed fromMadrid, leaving, as the custom with royal persons is, a proxy to wed theInfanta, ten days after the Pope's dispensation should come to hand,although he was in truth already minded to break off the match. Uponhis return, the great person acquainted King James with what he haddone, and the King sent for my grandfather, and blessed him with manytears, and dubbed him knight.
Thereafter Sir Christopher dwelt only in the country, beholding withtroubled eyes the headlong gait of Baby Charles after that he becameKing.
In the year 1624 my father, having proceeded Master of Arts at Oxford,became parson of a parish in Wiltshire, and wedded the daughter of aneighbour gentleman, and in the next year I was born. When I wassixteen, and a scholar of Winchester, my grandfather related to me thepassages of his life which I have set forth in these writings. Fiveyears afterward, when the Rebellion was at its height, and my fatherheld obstinately for the King, he was haled before the Committee ofSequestration, and charged in that he had incited his parishioners toattend the King's rendezvous at Austin's Cross and also helped the royalgarrison at Longford Castle. By this Committee being ejected from hisliving, he returned to his father's house, and there abode. And in thenext year, on November 15, the very day when King Charles crept intoCarisbrooke Castle, my grandfather died, to the sorrow of us who had thechiefest cause to love him, and of the friends and neighbours among whomhe had lived in all honour and righteousness.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
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