Here is a pathetic letter from Newcastle to the Prince of Wales:—[123]
“W. Marquis of Newcastle to (the Prince of Wales).
“1644(5) February 4. Hamburg.—After the great misfortunes and miseries I have suffered, the first joy and only comfort I received was to hear of your Highness’s health and your being a general, both which I congratulate with my soul, and I dare say your Highness believes me. And it is no small comfort to me and mine that we have lived to see you a man; and could I see but peace in our Israel, truly then I care not how soon death closes my eyes. But whilst I crawl here in this uneven world your Highness must be troubled with me as my first master, and now it is your turn to take care of me. Could your Highness forget me, I would forgive you, and my last breath would be a prayer for your happiness, and glory that I fell ruined in your service!”
[123] Portland MSS., at Welbeck Abbey.
One of the first things that Newcastle had had to do, on reaching Hamburg, was to raise money—no easy task under the circumstances. He was so short of cash that, as the Duchess tells us, “when his occasions drew him abroad,” he was obliged to travel in a wagon, “for want of a coach”. Having succeeded in borrowing some money, a little later, he bought nine horses for £160, and he also purchased a coach. Of his subsequent proceedings, the Duchess has this to tell us:—
“After my Lord had stay’d in Hamborough from July 1644, till February 16, he being resolved to go into France by Sea went from Hamborough to Amsterdam, and from thence to Rotterdam, where he sent one of his Servants with a Complement and tender of his humble Service to Her Highness, the then Princess Royal, the Queen of Bohemia, the Princess Dowager of Orange, and the Prince of Orange, which was received with much kindness and civility.”
After describing the rest of his journey, she says:—
“My Lord being arrived at Paris, which was in April, 1645, immediately went to tender his humble duty to Her Majesty, the Queen-Mother of England, where it was my Fortune to see him the first time, I being then one of the Maids of Honour to Her Majesty.”
Upon this seeing of Newcastle by one of the Maids of Honour to Her Majesty a good deal depended, and it will be best to deal with the matter in a fresh chapter.