Henrietta Maria

nverts who, y

me for mirac

earsay, but ob

nge their loaves h

Dry

al faith to enter what it was so confidently asserted was the one true fold. When this occurred Protestant feeling was apt to run high, and the King, to whose indulgence

n his position as envoy of England could save him or his dispatches from the emissaries of Richelieu or from the Bastille. Anne was implicated in these intrigues against her husband's country, and in an agony of terror, haunted by visions of the ignominious return to Spain with which she had several times been threatened, she sent to Montagu to learn the extent of her danger. The young Englishman, who had long worshipped the beautiful Queen,[185] gladly seized the opportunity of proving his devotion. Let the Queen have no fear, came back his chivalrous answer; she was not mentioned in the dispatches, and rather than that she should come to harm h

oes not seem to have been able to support this vexation with equanimity, and he sent a somewhat acrid reply to his son, whose apologetics were also refuted by Lucius, Lord Falkland. Montagu had often enjoyed the intellectual hospitality of Great Tew, where men of wit and learning were ac

happens in such cases, proved quite unavailing), he had met with an adventure which connects h

e poor nuns "impostorious," an epithet applied to them by honest John Evelyn, who knew them but by repute; but Montagu, as an Englishman of noble birth high in the favour of the Queen of France, was treated with special distinction, Father Surin, the exorcist, who had been told by the Archbishop of Tours "so to manage matters that the English lord might receive edification,"[187] even permitting him to hold the hand of one of the most distinguished of the patients, Mother des Anges, from whom eventually four demons were chased. On this occasion she was possessed by an evil spirit named Balaam, who had boasted that on his exit he would print his name upon his victim's hand. But the good Father, "judging it more proper that a religious person should bear on her hand the name of a saint than that of a devil,"[188] forced him to another course of action. As Montagu gazed upon the poor struggling woman, who required several persons to hold her in her paroxysm, he beheld, as he had been led to expect, the name of Joseph write itself on the back of her hand in small red dots. This strange occurrence,

dly needed his father's stern reminder that though "the King's benignitie and goodnesse is always to interpret the best," yet "

whom, it seems, he had never personally much liked. Not even the memo

m to a degree of intimacy and confidence which more than made up for the coldness of the King. It was felt, indeed, that for a while he had better remain upon the Continent, and he spent a pleasant time in Paris, where he showed his zeal for his new-found faith by professing himself ready to die for it, and by accompanying the King of France to Mass with a rosary hung round his neck. Thence he passed on to

them for his own. He does nothing but praise the honours which you have done him, and I believe that he for his part would gladly lose his life for your service.... I am very glad that Wat has been able to do y

e Pope, who "was as much a pretender to be oecumenical patron of poets as Head of the Church,"[194] liked a convert who was also a wit, while Cardinal Francesco honoured his visitor with so warm a friendship that henceforth the two men carried on a frequent correspondence.[195] Still, despite these distractions, Montagu's eyes all the time were fixed upon England. His return thithe

as the Queen flattered in every way, but skilful efforts were made to win the noble ladies who surrounded her. The Anglicans were not blind to the danger, as appears from the fact that John Cosin, who spent most of his life in fighting the Catholics and in being accused of Popery by the Puritans, published a little book of Hours of Prayer, which the latter called by the pretty name of "Mr. Cozens his cozening devotions," to counteract the influence of the Hor?, used by Henrietta's Catholic ladies. But the attacking party had certain advantages to which those of the defence could

aps to reclaim them, she attempted argument with no less a person than Con himself. The result was not very surprising. Lady Newport was no match for the subtle and insinuating envoy, and the upshot of her discussions with him was that one night,

and of Walter Montagu were freely mentioned in connection with the conversion, and though well-informed persons believed that Con alone was to blame, these two gentlemen did not escape a considerable measure of unpopularity. Laud, who, though he was anxious not to offend the Queen, was becoming alarmed at the

rits that "the fright made Wat keep his chamber longer than his sickness would have detained him, and Don Tobiah was i

he Archbishop and received him with the modified favour which was all she ever had to bestow upon him. Everything seemed to be as before, only perhaps Laud kept a more watchful eye upon the recusants, and two years later he was

om following in her steps. "The great women fall away every day,"[200] sighed a good Protestant, writing to a friend in May, 1638. That his pla

urt, of whom the chief was the Duchess of Buckingham, were seen to receive all the ceremonies of baptism (except the water) at the hands of a Capuchin Father, and afterwards the sacrament of confirmation at those of the Bishop of Angoulême, the Grand Almoner of the Queen. All w

ceedings and of the indifference of Charles to their clamour. "They will have to calm themselve

after the beginning of the Scotch troubles and two yea

f any ill thing that you express it by naming me, for that's the only way I can hope sh

.P. Dom., 1

rs par laquelle il lui reccommandoit de faire en sorte que le Sieur de Montagu re??t edificati

8]I

la sortie. Je tenois la fille par la main quand elle fit le grand cris [sic] et quand le prestre nous nous dit qu'il falloit chercher le signe et ie vis escrire peu a p

eenth century, of Mother Louise Eugénie de la Fontaine of the Order of the Visitation: "Mère des Anges etoit une àme dont les conduites extraordinaires de Dieu sur elle donnoient beaucoup d'admiration. Chacun scait que dans les fameuses possessions de Loudun ces saintes filles eprouvèrent cet effroyable fléau. La mère des Anges (que le feu Père Surin conduisit et admiroit) en etoit une; il chas

u, November 30th, 1635.

of the affaire printed in Europea

his father the Lord Privie Seale with his answere thereunto. Also a

de France reine d'Angleterre à sa soeur C

Ligenda (1

berini, extending over many years, are

. Roman Tr

Vol. VII, p. 379. See the account of the matter from Laud's poi

he Earl of Stafford's Lette

rner MS

afford's Letters and

Add. MS., 27,