they sent immediate notice of it to Whitehall, and to the General, Sir Thomas Fairfax. Thereupon there were orders issued out, that all the passages about London should be laid for him, especially the northern road, and those towards Wales; imagining he had either taken that way or towards Scotland." Orders were also issued to guard the different sea-ports, but James had already sailed from Gravesend when the despatches arrived. The pursuit, however, was not relinquished, till the fact of his having landed in Holland was established beyond all doubt.

After passing a night at Middleburg, the Duke proceeded to Dort, where he remained in his female attire till the return of a messenger whom he had despatched to his sister, the Princess of Orange. He was immediately supplied with proper habiliments, and a yacht was despatched to convey him to Maesland Sluice, where he was welcomed by the Princess and her husband with all possible kindness. Lord Byron, who had been recently raised to the peerage for his military services during the civil wars, was shortly afterwards appointed his governor. The Duke remained with his relations in Holland till the commencement of 1648, when he received a message from his mother to join her at Paris. He had advanced as far as Cambray on his route, when the news reached him of the tumults in Paris, and the flight of the royal family to St. Germains. He was proceeding to settle himself in an uncomfortable abode at Cambray, when he received a considerate message from the Archduke Leopold, recommending him to take up his abode for the present in the Benedictine monastery of St. Amand. He accepted the proposal, and had reason to be highly gratified at his reception by the kind-hearted monks. They retained him as their guest till February, 1649

when he received another summons from the Queen, to join her in the French capital. Here he was affectionately received by his remaining parent, and with flattering attention by the French King.

Towards the middle of 1649, we find him accompanying his brother Charles to Jersey, where he had resided about four months, when he received a summons from the Queen to return to France. He so far obeyed her injunctions as to quit Jersey, but, instead of joining her at Paris, he proceeded to Brussels, ostensibly with the intention of paying another visit to his sister the Princess of Orange. According to Lord Clarendon, the overseverity of his mother had diminished his respect and love for her, and was the occasion of his disobedience. On his reaching Brussels, to his great annoyance his sister refused to receive him till he should have made his peace with the Queen. Accordingly, he proceeded to Rhenen, a seat of his aunt the Queen of Bohemia, where he remained till the commencement of 1650, when an invitation at length reached him to visit his relations at the Hague. His arrival there was speedily followed by that of the ambassadors from the British Parliament, and, as it was the intention of the States to welcome them with all due honours, the Duke-in order to escape the mortification of being a witness of the ceremonyrepaired hastily to Breda. As soon as the unpalatable rejoicings were at an end, he again visited the Hague. Here he remained till the month of June, when a message reached him from his brother, Charles, desiring him to proceed to Paris, and make his peace with the Queen.

CHAPTER II.

James serves in the French Army under Turenne-His Military Services-Compliment paid to James by the Prince de Condé-He joins the Spanish Service-Indifferent Figure which he presented at the Court of his brother Charles-His Want of social Humour -Anecdotes-Accession of James to the Throne-His first Speech to the Privy Council-His Bigotry-Publicly attends Mass in the Queen's Chapel-The Duke of Norfolk refuses to attend himSpirited Opposition of the Duke of Somerset-The King's intemperate Zeal in religious matters-Rebuked by the Spanish Ambassador-By the Bishop of Oxford-Cutting Speech of the unfortunate Ayloffe-James discards his Mistress, Catherine Sedley— -His Love of Hunting-Ominous Coincidences at his Coronation -Takes up his Residence at St. James's.

FROM the year 1652 to 1658, the history of James is that of a soldier of fortune. In the former year, when he had attained the age of twenty, he obtained, to his great satisfaction, the permission of his mother to serve in the French army under the great Turenne, against the Spanish forces in Flanders. The principal difficulty he had to encounter, was in raising a sum of money sufficient to furnish him with an outfit; which, however, was at length obviated by one Gautier, a Gascon, advancing him three hundred pistoles. His brother Charles added a set of Polish coach-horses, with which he departed in high spirits to his first campaign. His companions were Sir George Berkeley and a Colonel Worden, who, together with three or four servants, composed his retinue.

A regular narrative of his life, during the next five years, would amount to little more than the dry record

of an uninteresting warfare. During a series of campaigns, he appears to have encountered the usual hazards of a soldier, and to have mingled in all the stirring scenes of a military life. Throughout, he is said to have exhibited a capacity of no common order, and especially to have distinguished himself by that constitutional fearlessness, which, with the single exception of his grandfather, was inherent in the race from which he sprang. The reputation, indeed, which he acquired, and more particularly the flattering encomiums of Turenne, procured for him a celebrity at the time, which almost threw the character of his brother Charles into the background. It was a saying of the celebrated Prince de Condé, that if ever there was a man without fear, it was the Duke of York.

James continued to serve under Turenne till the year 1655, when, in consequence of a treaty between Louis XIV. and Cromwell, he was banished from the French dominions. Shortly after this event, he made an offer of his services to the Spanish monarch, which were accepted. He joined his new friends in 1657, and particularly distinguished himself at the defence of Dunkirk, previous to the surrender of that town to the English, in 1658. During the period that he was employed in the Spanish service, he seems to have been allowed a body-guard of fifty men, handsomely accoutred, as well as two hundred pounds a month, to support the expenses of his table.*

After the Restoration, the conduct of James, at the gay Court of his brother Charles, was in no degree creditable to his own conduct; neither were his accomplishments such as to throw grace or brilliancy over the

VOL. III.

* Thurloe's State Papers, vol. vi. p. 363.

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sprightly circles in which he mixed. Unfortunately, neither his duties as a husband nor as a father; neither his respect for the rank which he held, nor the absorbing interest which he professed for his religion, were able to wean him from the then fashionable routine of unprofitable debaucheries, nor from being constantly engaged in some discreditable intrigue. James had as many mistresses as his brother Charles; and, moreover, entertained the same libertine opinions regarding female virtue. His amours, however, were without interest, and his mistresses without beauty. Charles the Second used to say, alluding to their unusual plainness, that the priests had inflicted his brother's mistresses on him as a penance.

James appears to have been totally deficient in those charming social qualities, in that agreeable kind of wit, for which his brother was so distinguished. Among Dr. Birch's MSS. however, in the British Museum, an anecdote is related of him which is not without humour. One day, while trying on a pair of new boots, he inquired of his chaplain how he liked them. The divine, observing that he could perceive no particular merit in either their shape or manufacture, inquired of James what price might have been given for them. Being told that they had cost about two or three guineas, he commenced inveighing against the bootmaker as a cheat; declaring his ability to purchase a better pair for thirty shillings. "Hold, Doctor," said James, "I would undertake to purchase a better sermon for sixpence, than ever you preached in your life; and yet it is not at that rate that you value, or that I pay for them."

Bevil Higgon, in his "Short View of English History," relates an anecdote of James, which he professes to prefer to all the wise apophthegms of Plutarch's worthies. James, it seems, shortly before his accession to the