The Same to (the Same).
“1636, May 23. London.—I am very weary and mean to come down presently. I was yesterday with the ‘B. B.,’ and for anything I find it is a lost business.”
At this date Newcastle was evidently in despair and was on the point of going home in very low spirits. Place-hunting is not invariably an exhilarating sport, and Newcastle was certainly a place-hunter at this period. Some words of one of his former contemporaries (Francis Bacon)—a place-hunter himself—are not inapplicable to his case. “The rising into place is laborious; and by pains men come to greater pains.... By indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.”
CHAPTER IV.
Everything is said to come to him who knows how to wait. Possibly this may not be a universal experience; but the Governorship of the Prince of Wales did come at last to the long-waiting Newcastle. The appointment was conveyed by the following very courteous letter, and it was accepted by a somewhat obsequious reply.
“Mr. Secretary Windebank to the Earl of Newcastle.[24]
“My Lord,
“His Majesty having a purpose, according to the precedents of former times, to settle the government of the person and family of the Prince answerable to his state and years; and having deliberately advised upon some person of honour and trust, to be near his Highness, and to be a chief director in so weighty a business; hath been pleased, in his gracious opinion of your Lordship, to make choice of you to be the only gentleman of his Bedchamber at this time, and hath commanded me to give you knowledge of this his princely resolution. And withal his Majesty’s pleasure is, that you prepare yourself to come to the Court in diligence, and to attend His Majesty before the Sunday fortnight after Easter, which will be the eighth day of April.
[24] Clarendon State Papers, Oxford, Clarendon Printing House, 1773, pp. 7, 8.
“And lastly his Majesty hath expressly commanded me to let your Lordship know, that you have no particular obligation to any whatsoever in this business, but merely and entirely to the King’s and Queen’s Majesties alone: who of their own mere and special grace and goodness have made this choice, and vouchsafed you this honour; the continuance and increase whereof, and of much happiness with it, I wish to your Lordship, and so rest your Lordship’s humble and faithful servant,
“Fran. Windebank.
“At the Court of Whitehall,
“19th March, 1637.”