[166] Observator, August 1, 1685; Gazette de France, November 2, 1686; Letter of Humphrey Wanley, August 25, 1698, in the Aubrey collection, given by Macaulay in his History of England.
[167] “If the Duke of Monmouth had been able to have concealed himself or to have escaped, his last action had given him such a good reputation amongst the English that he would have been able to have drawn many persons towards him every time that he might have shown himself to the people of England,” wrote the French ambassador to Louis XIV., July 19, 1685:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section England, 155.
[168] They are to be found in the Pepsyan Collection, and have been given by Macaulay in his History of England.
[169] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section England, 155; Despatches, June 23 and 28, and July 12, 19, 23, 25 and 26, 1685.
[170] Despatch from the French Ambassador, July 26, 1685: “He asked a second time to speak to him, but it was not allowed.”
[171] Burnet, i. 645; Macaulay.
[172] Official despatches from the French Ambassador in England, July 15-25 and July 16-26, 1685.
CHAPTER IX.
François de Vendôme, Duke de Beaufort—His Portrait—His Conduct during the War of the Fronde—Unimportance of this Individual—Motives cited by Lagrange-Chancel in support of his Theory—Their Improbability—Reasons which determined the Search for Proofs that leave no doubt of Beaufort’s Death at Candia.
Like Monmouth, a royal prince and the issue of an illegitimate connection, François de Vendôme had, like Monmouth, the rare privilege of being sufficiently beloved by the people for them, during a long time, to have doubted of his death. Ten years after the expedition to Candia, where he disappeared, the market-women were still in the habit of having masses said, not for the repose of his soul, but for the prompt return of his person;[173] and these persistent doubts have caused Beaufort to be included, like Monmouth, among those in whom people have beheld the mysterious prisoner of the Isles Sainte-Marguerite.