It was most likely about or soon after the King’s last visit that the next circumstance occurred we shall have to record affecting the Earl of Glamorgan, which is related as follows by Dr. Bayly:—[23]
“My Lord Herbert, after that he had sufficiently exhausted his father, by all the means he could possibly use, for his Majesty’s relief, and had taken up all his father’s moneys far and near, where he could either prevail with force or argument, he chanced to hear of a sum of money to the value of £6000, which the Marquis had committed to the Lord John (his son), his care and trusty preservation abroad. This money my Lord Herbert happened to hear of, and acquaints the King therewith, engaging the King in the business, and tells the King, that if he would send for his brother the Lord John, to come unto him, and would say but thus and thus unto him, that he would undertake he might have the £6000. The King’s occasions were then urgent (being then before Gloucester, and hard pinched for lack of money); through my Lord Herbert’s persuasion, my Lord John was sent for, came, and the business took effect; the King promising to repay it by such a time. When time and suspicion persuaded the Marquis to call in his money, excuses made delays for a time, but at last all excuses being set apart, by importunity, the Marquis wished his son John to go and fetch the money, or else never to see his face any more; part of which injunction the Lord John performed, but never the other. Not long after the Lord Herbert coming to his father, his father received him with wonted, but unexpected, cheerfulness. It so happened that my Lord Herbert began to excuse himself unto his father, concerning this business; on whom the father bestowed this language:—‘Son, I pray save yourself the labour, for I do not blame you at all, neither am I angry with you; for I never trusted you with the money. I love no man the worse for following his profession; and you have made it your profession (all along) to deceive your father, to help the King; but I do not love a man that will take away another man’s profession from him, and deceive his own father of his money, and his brother of his calling.’”
In 1650, the chronicler of this anecdote dedicated his book to the subject of it, in the following strain:—“The many favours which I received from your noble family, especially from your Lordship, wrought upon a disposition, some-deal a pretender unto gratitude, how it might, in some measure or other, answer the respect and clear the heart, that had lain charged so long with benefits.” Such expressions seem to qualify the sense in which the affair just related should be taken, coming as it does from no unfriendly hand, and certainly could never have been indited in the way of serious censure on the prevailing character of Lord Herbert. While we cannot omit relating so striking a family incident, it evidently should not be too rigidly construed, when the recorder of it dedicates the recital to Lord Herbert himself at a future day, without offering any apology for introducing a narrative, which, to modern ears, reads exceedingly harsh and offensive; but it is clear that the Sub-Dean of Wells, never contemplated any unfavourable construction, relying probably on the generally well known character of his Lordship at the time of publication.
Footnotes
[7] Bayly.
[93] Symonds.
[93] Symonds.
[23] Bayly, Ap. XX.
[A] Elizabeth, his fourth daughter.