The King, meanwhile, was very anxious to effect the escape of his second son, whose life as heir presumptive was of great importance, and he confided the attempt to Colonel Charles Bampfylde, or Bamfield, an Irishman. The latter found a willing accomplice in Anne Murray, the daughter of the King’s old tutor and secretary, Thomas Murray, who afterwards became Lady Halkett, and the two conspirators laid their plans carefully, though it was May 1648 before the adventure could be accomplished.[[52]]
[52]. “Autobiography of Anne Murray (Lady Halkett).” Charles II. thanked her for this service when they met at Dunfermline.
The three children thus under ward at St James’s were instructed to play at hide and seek in the then neglected and thickly wooded garden of the ancient palace, and the young Duke James proved himself quite sufficiently adroit in seconding the plans of his preservers. Under cover of the spring twilight he contrived to slip through a gate purposely left open, which led to the Tilt-yard—for Bampfylde had managed to interest other sympathisers in the plot. James had remembered also to lock the balcony through which he emerged, and to throw away the key, besides taking the precaution of locking up his little dog in his room.[[53]] By Tilt-yard end, as it was called, Bampfylde was waiting for him with a wig and patches, and they hurried forthwith to Spring Gardens, “as if to hear the nightingales,” a favourite expedition of the London citizens at that season. Thence a coach conveyed them to the river, where they took boat at Ivy Bridge, and reached the “Old Swan.” Here Mistress Anne Murray was waiting for them, and she arrayed the boy in girl’s clothes in all haste, while he, poor child, impatiently adjured her: “Quickly, quickly, dress me!” This done, Bampfylde took his charge to the Lion Key, where a Dutch Pink, cleared the day before by Gravesend searchers, was expecting “Mr Andrews and his sister,” the latter supposed to be on her way to join her husband in Holland.
[53]. Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., Appendix.
Here the Prince, waiting in the cabin, in a moment of forgetfulness nearly wrecked the whole situation by putting his leg on the table to pull up his stocking, seeing which the barge-master suspected the sex of the pretended girl. However, Bampfylde’s threats and James’ promises of future provision prevailed, and the voyage was safely accomplished.[[54]]
[54]. Macpherson’s “Original Papers.”
The fugitives landed in due course at Middleburg, going thence to Dordrecht, and James, having despatched Bampfylde to The Hague to announce his successful escape, was met by his brother-in-law the Prince of Orange, and by him conducted to the Princess at Sluys. Bampfylde’s influence appears to have been bad from the beginning, as he tried to implicate the boy in an act of treason.[[55]] Six ships of the fleet then lying in the Downs deserted, and having secured Deal, Sandown and Walmer, sailed to Helvoetsluys, where James joined them, but Bampfylde worked on the sailors to declare for the young Duke without any mention of the King or the Prince of Wales. James, however, was wise enough to answer that he would be their admiral only with his father’s consent.
[55]. “History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon.
At The Hague he joined his elder brother, and early in the succeeding year set out for Paris, starting on 6th January 1649, just when the war of the Fronde was beginning. On this account his mother sent letters to meet him at Cambrai, bidding him delay his journey, and the Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Netherlands, offered him quarters in the Abbey of St Amand. Here he stayed for about a month, a visit which is supposed, in spite of his youth, to have laid the foundation of his subsequent conversion to the Church of Rome. The religious of this community no doubt did their best in controversy to influence the young English prince who might one day prove a valuable asset. At some time, probably soon afterwards, a nun is said to have advised him to pray every day if he was not in the right way, that God would show it to him, and this seems to have made a deep and lasting impression on his mind, judging from his allusion to it many years later.[[56]]
[56]. Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.”