“The Same to the Same.
“1659, October 25.—I can write no more about the goods except that I and my wife give all our interest therein to you wholly and totally. There are many good pictures besides Vandykes and ‘Stennickes’. Pray leave your dovecot where you are now and live at Wel(beck), which will conduce much to your health and your Lady’s and the little Ladies.”
“The Same to (the Same).
“1659, November 15.—I give you hearty thanks for preserving the remnants of those goods.... The pictures there are most rare, and if you think they are a little spoiled I will send over the painter to you again.
“If ever I see you I will make W(elbeck) a very fine place for you. I am not in despair of it, though I believe you and I are not such good architects as your worthy grandfather. If I am blessed with the happiness of seeing you it will be many thousand pounds a year better for you than if I should die before.”
The change of title from Duke to Prince, if he ever made it, did not soften the hearts of Newcastle’s creditors. Their generosity steadily decreased, until the poor men appeared to be losing their nerve altogether. Newcastle, says his wife, “was put to great plunges and difficulties”. Her chief fear was that her husband “for his debts would suffer imprisonment, where sadness of mind, and want of exercise and air, would have wrought his destruction”. However, when the yet unrestored Charles II “was pleased to accept of a private dinner at” Newcastle’s house in Antwerp, “he did merrily and in jest” tell Lady Newcastle “that he perceived her Lord’s Credit could procure better Meat than His own”.
The Newcastles also gave Charles something more than “a private dinner”. Sir Charles Cotterell wrote to Nicholas:—[141]
“At the ball at Lord Newcastle’s was the Duchess of Lorraine and her son and daughter, with the King and his brothers and sister, several French people, and some of the town. The King was brought in with music, and all being placed, Major Mohun, the player, in a black satin robe and a garland of bays, made a speech in verse of his lordship’s”—Newcastle’s—“own poetry, complimenting the King in his highest hyperbole. Then there was dancing for two hours, and then my Lady’s Moor, dressed in feathers, came in and sang a song of the same authors, set and taught him by Nich. Lanier. Then was the banquet brought in, in eight great chargers, each borne by two gentlemen of the court, and others bringing wines, drinks, etc. Then they all danced again two hours more, and Major Mohun ended all with another speech, prophesying his Majesty’s Re-establishment.”
[141] S. P., Feb. 1657-8, pp. 296, 311, quoted in Mr. Firth’s splendid and admirably annotated ed. of The Life of Newcastle.