Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

"been two days in the ftrawe, and was almoft "dead for want of nourishment, fhe having no"thing to give her but water, and not being "able, for the hardness of the times, to get any

thing. On this the Queen took a small chain "of gold from her neck, at which hung an "Agnus. She took off the Agnus, and put it in "her bofom; and making the woman be called "to her, gave her the chain, and bade her go "into the city to a goldfmith and fell it, and "with the money to provide for the good wo66 man in the ftrawe: and for this," adds Sir William, "her Confeffor did afterwards rebuke "her, because they were heretics. When this

thing was told to the King, he asked, jeftingly, "if her Confeffor had made the Queen do a ' penance for it, as fhe had done once before "for fome innocent act, when fhe was made to "walk to Tyburn; fome fay bare-foot."

In 1664, Henrietta went to Paris, where fhe found the Queen of France not very able, and perhaps lefs willing to aflift her fo that she fays of herself, fhe was obliged to ask alms of the Parliament of Paris for her fubfiftence: De de"mander une aumone au Parliament pour pouvoir "Subfifter."

Indeed this Queen, the daughter of Henry the Fourth, the beloved Monarch of France, was in

fuch

fuch diftrefs at Paris, that fhe and her infant daughter were obliged to lay in bed in their room. at the palace of the Louvre in that city, as they could not get wood to make their fire with. The celebrated Omer Talon in his Memoirs tells us, "Le Mecredi, 13 Janvier 1643. La Reine "d'Angleterre logée dans le Louvre, & reduite à "la dernière extremité, demande fecours au Parlement de Paris, qui lui ordonna 2000 livres pour fa fubfiftence."

66

The learned and excellent Pafcal, in the first edition of his celebrated work "Les Penfees für la Religion," printed about the year 1650, fays, Qui auroit eu l'amitié du Roi d'Angleterre

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(Charles I.), du Roi de Pologne (Cafimir V.), "&de la Reine de Sucde (Chriftina), auroit il "cru pouvoir manquer de retraite d'azyle au "monde ?----Could any person that poffeffed the

[ocr errors]

friendship of a King of England, a King of Poland, or a Queen of Sweden, have thought "it poffible that he could have been in want of "a place to put his head in?"

Madame de Baviere, in her Letters, fays, "Charles the Firft's widow made a clandeftine "marriage with her Chevalier d'Honneur, Lord "St. Alban's, who treated her extremely ill; fo "that whilft fhe had not a faggot to warm her"felf with, he had in his apartment a good fire, " and

Y 2

[ocr errors]

"and a fumptuous table. He never gave the Queen a kind word, and when she spoke to "him, he used to fay, Que me veut cette femme? "What does the woman fay ?"

JOHN SELDEN.

"THE King of Spain (fays Mr. Selden in his "Table-Talk') was outlawed in Westminster. "hall, I being of Counsel against him: A mer"chant had recovered cofts against him in a "fuit, which because he could not get, we ad"vifed him to have his Majefty outlawed for "not appearing, and fo he was. As foon as "Gondemar the Spanish Ambaffador heard "that, he presently fent the money; by reason "if his mafter had been outlawed, he could not "have the benefit of the law; which would "have been very prejudicial, there being then many fuits depending between the King of Spain and our English Merchants *."

[ocr errors]

.

Mr.

* When the Ambaffador of Peter the Great was arrested for debt in London, in the latter end of Queen Anne's time, the Monarch expreffed his aftonishment and indignation, that the perfons who had thus violated the respect due to the Reprefentative of a Crowned Head, were not immediately put to death. His aftonishment was confiderably increased, when he was told, that in England, whatever punifhment

(however

!

Mr. Selden, on the diffolution of the Parliament in 1629, was brought to the bar of the Court of King's Bench for what he had faid in Parliament; and refufing to fubmit to the jurif diction of the Court, he was committed to prifon, from whence he was foon released; and in 1631, he was again committed to cuftody with the Earls of Bedford and Clare, Sir Robert Cotton, and Mr. St. John, on account of having difperfed a libel, intitled, "A Propofition for, "his Majefty's Service, to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments *." It was afterwards proved, that Sir Robert Dudley, then refiding in the dominions of the Duke of Tufcany, was the writer.

Lord Clarendon fays of Mr. Selden, that he was a perfon whom no character can flatter, or tranfmit in any expreffions equal to his merit and his virtue. "If," adds he, "he had fome in"firmities with other men, they were weighed "down with wonderful and prodigious abilities "and excellencies in the other scale."

(however fhort of death) the Law fhould think fit to inflict upon the offenders, a procefs of fome length muft of neceffity be gone through, before they could be brought to juftice; and that the Sovereign of the Country himself had no power of difpenfing with thofe laws to which he was himself fubjected.

*See APPENDIX, No. II.
Y 3.

[ocr errors][merged small]

"Noy," fays Howell in his Italian Prospective, "a great cried-up Lawyer, put it into the "head of King Charles to impose an old tax "called Ship-money upon the fubject; which "the faid Lawyer did warrant upon his life to "be legal, for he could produce divers records "how many of his progenitors had done the

"fame."

66

"With infinite pains and indefatigable study," fays Howell in his Letters, "he came to his knowledge of the Law; but I never heard a more pertinent anagram than was made of his name, William Noy, I moyl in law.”

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

' Noy," adds Howell, "left an odd will, "which is fhort, and in Latin: Having bequeathed a few legacies, and left his fecond "fon one hundred marks a-year, and five hun"dred pounds in money to bring him up to his "father's profeffion," he concludes, "Reliqua "meorum omnia primogenito meo Edvardo, diffi

66

pando (nec melius unquam fperavi ego)---I leave "the rest of all my goods to my first born Ed"ward, to be confumed or fcattered; for I "never hoped better."

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »