What a strange and tragic memory that meeting must have been for the little Duke of Gloucester. At last he saw his unknown father; and found him a sad, worn man, on the eve of dying a terrible death.
But the child's troubles were not to end here. The next year he and his sister were taken to Carisbroke Castle in the Isle of Wight, where their father had been confined for so long. And there Elizabeth fell into a consumption and died.
"Now is the little Duke left totally alone, to take comfort only in his solitary meditations,"[100] says his historian, who indulges in rather violent expressions against the Protectorate. For he goes on to call the Parliament "those monsters at Westminster." The so-called "monsters" were somewhat embarrassed by the possession of the young duke; and at last resolved to send him abroad to complete his education on certain conditions.
Henry was now eleven years old; and the prospect of comparative freedom was very welcome to him. "My father told me" (said he to one about him) "that God would provide for me, which he hath abundantly done, in that he delivereth me as a Lamb out of the pawes of the devouring Lyon."[101]
A tutor was chosen for the Prince; and an allowance of three thousand pounds a year was to be granted him if he fulfilled the following conditions:
I. He was to go to a Protestant School.
II. He was to correspond with the Parliament by letter, and his tutor was to render account of his proficiency and learning.
III. He was not to go near his mother or brothers, or have anything to do with them, "but in all things utterly disown them."
IV. That he should immediately return upon notice from the Parliament given to him for that purpose.
The third condition was one which the boy found it impossible to keep. For the moment he landed in France he went to see his mother and brothers, "takes the blessing of the one and salutes the other, and after a short stay for the future improvement of his learning, he goes to Leyden, and settles there to study."[102]