The next day Conway went to Somerset House and informed the indignant attendants of Henrietta that they must leave the country, with two or three exceptions, which had been made at the Queen’s earnest entreaty. Presents to the amount of £22,000 were offered them, and they were told that if anything were owing to them, it should be discharged out of the Queen’s dowry, which had not yet been paid, owing to a misunderstanding between the two Courts. On various pretexts, however, they delayed their departure for several days, until at last Charles, thoroughly exasperated, wrote to Buckingham from Oaking as follows:
“Steenie,—I have received your letter by Dick Graeme. This is my answer: I command you to send all the French away to-morrow out of the town—if you can, by fair means, but stick not long in disputing; otherwise, force them away, driving them away like so many wild beasts, until you have shipped them, and so the devil go with them. Let me hear of no answer, but of the performance of my command.
“And so I rest your faithful, constant, loving friend,
“C. R.”[52]
The duke proceeded to give effect to his Majesty’s orders, and next day despatched to Somerset House a number of coaches, carts, and barges for the conveyance of the Queen’s retinue and their baggage. But the French with one voice declared their determination not to depart, saying that “they had not been discharged with the proper punctilios.” Thereupon a body of heralds and trumpeters, accompanied by a strong detachment of the Yeomen of the Guard, were marched down to Somerset House. The heralds and trumpeters formally proclaimed the King’s pleasure at the gates, after which the Yeomen advanced to execute it, their orders being, if the French continued refractory, “to thrust them all out head and shoulders.” These drastic measures, however, were not resorted to, as, recognising that further resistance was useless, they departed that same tide, and were conducted to Dover, where they embarked for France so soon as the wind served.
Charles’s high-handed action was, as might have been expected, deeply resented by the Court of France. “The King of England,” says Bassompierre, “sent the millord Carleton to make the King and the Queen-Mother agree to what he had done. He was very badly received.” Louis XIII told Carleton that his sister had been treated cruelly, and that he proposed to send an Ambassador of his own to England, in the person of the Maréchal de Bassompierre, to investigate the affair. When he had received his report, he would decide what action he would take in the matter; and from this resolution Carleton was unable to move him.
On August 24 the Court left Nantes to return to Paris. Shortly after its arrival in the capital, Charles sent Walter Montague to France to offer his felicitations to the Royal family on the marriage of Monsieur. Louis XIII, however, refused to receive him, and sent orders to him “to make the best of his way back,” and, at the same time, pressed Bassompierre to set out for England with as little delay as possible.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Bassompierre arrives in England—His journey to London—He is visited secretly by the Duke of Buckingham—He visits the duke in the same manner at York House—Charles I commands him to send Père de Sancy back to France—Singular history of this ecclesiastic—Refusal of Bassompierre—His first audience of Charles I and Henrietta Maria at Hampton Court—Firmness of Bassompierre on the question of Père de Sancy—He visits the Queen at Somerset House—His private audience of the King—He reproves the presumption of Buckingham—Admirable qualities displayed by Bassompierre in the difficult situation in which he is placed—He succeeds in effecting a reconciliation between the King and Queen—His able and eloquent speech before the Council—An agreement on the question of the Queen’s French attendants is finally arrived at—Lord Mayor’s Day three centuries ago—Bassompierre reconciles the Queen with Buckingham—Stormy scene between Charles I and Henrietta Maria at Whitehall—Bassompierre speaks his mind to the Queen—Intrigues of Père de Sancy—Peace is re-established—Magnificent fête at York House—Departure of Bassompierre from London—He is detained at Dover by bad weather—England and France on the verge of war—Buckingham decides to proceed to France on a special mission and proposes to accompany Bassompierre—Embarrassment of the latter—He visits the duke at Canterbury and persuades him to defer his visit—A disastrous Channel passage—Return of Bassompierre to Paris—Refusal of the Court of France to receive Buckingham—An English historian’s appreciation of Bassompierre.
On September 27 Bassompierre left Paris and proceeded to Richelieu’s house at Pontoise, where he dined with the Cardinal and discussed with him, Marillac, Schomberg, and d’Herbault various matters relating to his mission. He slept that night at Beauvais and then proceeded slowly towards Boulogne, stopping to inspect the Swiss troops who were in garrison in the towns on his route. He reached Boulogne on October 1, where he found his suite awaiting him, and the governor, the Duc d’Aumont, gave a banquet in his honour; and on the following day embarked for England, and, the wind being favourable and the sea calm, accomplished the dreaded passage in safety and made Dover the same afternoon.