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THE LIFE OF
LOED HEEBEET OF CHEEBUEY.

THE LIFE
OP
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,
AND
CONTINUED TO HIS DEATH.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED,
739 & 741 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
INTRODUCTION.
EDWARD, LOUD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBUBY, who tells
his'own story in this volume, is interesting to ns not for
himself only, but as the eldest brother of George Her-
bert, the poet. He was raised to the peerage in 1631,
two years before the death of his brother George.
George Herbert's "Temple" appeared in the year of
his death, 1633. Edward Lord Herbert survived his
brother fifteen years, and died in 1648. In the next
following year, 1649, appeared Edward Herbert's
"History of the Life and Reign of Henry YIII."
In this Autobiography the stories of duels, or in-
tended duels, illustrate in a whimsical way the hot-
blooded and punctilious Welshman. Duelling was in
high favour in Edward Herbert's clays, and his friend,
John Selden, wrote a book upon it. There are touches
also of a comic vanity, which may be credited with
frankness. But Edward Herbert was an honest man
with some touch of his brother's genius, and capable
of sound utterance in verse and prose.
It is a noticeable fact that we have in the two
brothers, Edward and George Herbert, keen intel-
lectual power, with a divergence of opinion due to
opposite bias of mind, such as we often see in families.
148234
6 INTRODUCTION.
It is noticeable in our contemporary literature in two
brothers, both earnest intellectual men, J. H. Newman
and E. "W. Newman. G-eorge Herbert's bias was
towards authority; his elder brother's was towards in-
dependence in the reformation of opinion. "We are
made to differ, and the honest differences arise chiefly
through a provision that I take to be part of the
divine plan for assuring to the race of man advance to-
wards a higher life by active search for truth and daily
sifting of opinion. A little tilt in the axis of the
earth produces all the various use and beauty of the
seasons. A little tilt in the axis of opinion, of which
the two extremes represent absolute rest in authority
and eager constant search for opportunities of bene-
ficial change, causes all the diversities by which
one mind compels another to bring its opinions to
the test. All parties in the State or Church, or in the
most trivial forms of every-day discussion, work the
sieve that divides wheat from chaff, by to-and-fro
movements of thought. These movements are set in
action by this divine provision of a machinery that
brings into full play the wholesome spirit of inquiry.
So in politics wo have all degrees of bias between the
extreme Conservative and the extreme (or Radical) Re-
former; in religion, all degrees of bias between absolute
rest in the traditions of the Church and the authority
of its immediate head, and the wildest innovations of
what is called Free Thought. In the daily life of
home even, one brother or sister may, in the spirit of a
INTRODUCTION. 7
Reformer, suggest a new place for an occasional table
or an old arm-chair; another in the spirit of a Con-
servative may oppose to this suggestion the strong wish
that it should stand where it has always stood. These
currents of opinion are, I believe, as much a part of
God's wise ordinance as winds and currents of the air
or sea; even a more important part, as they sustain the
mind's health and the upward struggle of humanity by
no mere instinct, but by exercise of that in us through
which alone we can be said to be made in the image
of God. Acceptance of this truth by all of us would
not extinguish. the zeal of any earnest thinker for
the maintenance of what he himself holds to be impor-
tant. It would extinguish nothing but the bitterness
of strife. Hatred and malice would disappear out of
political and religious controversy, which they only
cloud, and we should no longer see the questions we
argue through an evil mist. "We should argue out
truth in clear air. "We are, happily, on the way now
to an understanding of this natural law, and gradually
learning to thank God that men's minds are not all
cast in the same mould, and to estimate the value of
these differences that compel us to bring all opinion to
the test.
Edward Herbert carried his independence of thought
in matters of religion, as this autobiography will show,
farther than any man of his time who was also, as he
was, sincerely religious. Henry Hallam, in comment-
ing upon what he says of his book, "De Yeritate,"
8 INTRODUCTION.
upon Truth, misses the point of it. Hallam sees con-
tradiction in the fact that he denied the possibility
of a particular revelation, and prayed that a revelation
might be made to himself alone to show whether he
should or should not publish his book. He denied re-
velation to a single people of the way to come to God;
but he looked upon. God as the Father of All, and,
therefore, held that each of His children might come
to Him with a prayer and feel Him near, and think an
answer possible.
H. M.
ORIGINAL DEDICATION.
TO THE MOST NOBLE
HENRY ARTHUR HERBERT,
EAKL OF POWIS,
VISCOUNT LTJDLOW, LOED HEEBEBT OF CHEBBUBY,
BABON POWIS AND LUDLOW,
AND
TEEASUEEB OF HIS MAJESTY'S HOUSEHOLD.
MY LOED,
PEEMIT me to offer to your lordship in this more durable
manner the very valuable present I received from your
hands. To your lordship your great ancestor owes his
revival; and suffer me, my lord, to tell the world what
does you so much honour, you have given him and me
leave to speak truth; an indulgence which, I am sorry to
say, few descendants of heroes have minds noble enough
to allow.
Hitherto Lord Herbert has been little known but as an
author. I much mistake, if hereafter he is not considered
as one of the most extraordinary characters which this
country has produced. Men of the proudest blood shall
not blush to distinguish themselves in letters as well as
arms, when they learn what excellence Lord Herbert
attained in both. Your lordship's lineage at least will
10 OBIGDSTAIi DEDICATION.
have a pattern before their eyes to excite their emulation;
and while they admire the piety with which yon have
done justice to your common ancestor, they cannot be
forgetful of the obligation they will have to your lord-
ship's memory for transmitting to them this record of
his glory.
I have the honour to be, my Lord, v
Your Lordship's most obedient
and most obliged Servant,
HOEAOE WALPOLE.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE FIEST EDITION.
SOME years ago tlie following pages would have been
reckoned one of the greatest presents which the learned
world could have received. The life of the famous Lord
Herbert of Cherbury, written by himself, would have
excited the curiosity of the whole republic of letters.
Perhaps a less proportion of expectation may attend
this its late appearance: not that the abilities of the
noble writer have fallen into disesteem; his reign of
Henry VIII. is allowed to be a masterpiece of historic
biography; but they were his speculative works, which,
raising a multitude of admirers or censors from their
acuteness and singularity, made Lord Herbert's a name
of the first importance. The many great men who illus-
trated the succeeding period, have taken off some of the
public attention; for it is only a genius of the first force
whose fame dilates with ages, and can buoy itself up
above the indifference which steals upon mankind, as an
author becomes less and less the subject of conversa-
tion. Speculative writers, however penetrating, however
sublime their talents, seldom attain the seal of universal
approbation, because, of all the various abilities which
Providence has bestowed on man, reasoning is not the
power which has been brought to standard perfection.
Poetry and eloquence have been so far perfected, that the
12 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIEST EDITION,
great masters in those branches still remain unequalled;
but where is that book of human argumentation, where
that system of human opinions, which has not been partly
confuted or exploded? Novelty itself in matters of
metaphysical inquiry often proves, in effect, a confuta-
tion of antecedent novelties. Opponents raise the cele-
brity of the doctrines they attack: newer doctrines stifle
that celebrity. This is a truth, which the bigots of Lord
Herbert's age would not have liked to hear; but what
has happened to many other great men, has been his fate
too: they who meant to wound his fame, extended it:
when the cry of enthusiasts was drawn off to fresher
game, his renown grew fainter. His moral character
recovered its lustre, but has fewer spectators to gaze
at it.
This introduction to his life may not be improper,
though at first it may mislead the reader, who will hence
perhaps expect from Ms own pen some account of a per-
son's creed, whom a few sottish zealots once represented
as having none at all. His lordship's thorough belief
and awful veneration of the Deity will clearly appear in
these pages; but neither the unbeliever nor the monk
will have farther satisfaction. This life of a philosopher
is neither a deduction of his opinions nor a table of phi-
losophy—I will anticipate the reader's surprise, though
it shall be but in a word: to his astonishment he will
find that the History of Don Quixote was the Life of
Plato.
The noble family which gives these sheets to the world,,
is above the little prejudices which make many a race
defraud the public of what was designed for it by those
who alone had a right to give or withhold. It is above
suppressing what Lord Herbert dared to tell. Foibles,,
passions, perhaps some vanity, surely some wrongheaded-
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. 13
ness; these lie scorned to conceal, for he sought truth,
wrote on truth, was truth: he honestly told when he had
missed or mistaken it. His descendants, not blind to his
faults, but through them conducting the reader to his
virtues, desire the world to make this candid observation
with them: "That there must have been a wonderful
fund of internal virtue, of strong resolution and manly
philosophy, which, in an age of such mistaken and bar-
barous gallantry, of such absurd usages and false glory,
could enable Lord Herbert to seek fame better founded,
and could make him reflect that there might be a more
desirable kind of glory than that of a romantic duellist."
None shut their eyes so obstinately against seeing what
is ridiculous, as they who have attained a mastery in it:
but that was not the case of Lord Herbert. His valour
made him a hero, be the heroism in vogue what it would;
his sound parts made him a philosopher. Few men in truth
have figured so conspicuously in lights so various; and
his descendants, though they cannot approve him in every
walk of glory, would perhaps injure his memory if they
suffered the world to be ignorant, that he was formed to
shine in every sphere into which his impetuous tempera-
ment or predominant reason conducted him.
As a soldier, he won the esteem of those great captains
the Prince of Orange and the Constable de Montmorency;
-as a knight, his chivalry was drawn from the purest
founts of the Fairy Queen. Had he been ambitious, the
beauty of his person would have carried him as far as any
gentle knight can aspire to go. As a public minister,
he supported the dignity of his country, even when its
prince disgraced it; and that he was qualified to write its
•annals as well as to ennoble them, the history I have
mentioned proves, and must make us lament that he did
not complete, or that we have lost, the account he pur-
14 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
posed to give of Ms embassy. These busy scenes were
blended with, and terminated by, meditation and philoso-
phic inquiries. Strip each period of its excesses and
errors, and it will not be easy to trace out, or dispose the
life of a man of quality into a succession of employments
which would better become him. Valour and military
activity in youth; business of state in the middle age;
contemplation and labours for the information of pos-
terity in the calmer scenes of closing life: this was Lord
Herbert :— the deduction he will give himself.
The MS. was in great danger of being lost to the world.
Henry Lord Herbert, grandson of the author, died in 1691
without issue, and by his will left his estate to Francis
Herbert, of Oakley Park (father of the present Earl of
Powis), his sister's son. At Lymore in Montgomeryshire
(the chief seat of the family after Cromwell had de-
molished Montgomery castle), was preserved the original
manuscript. Upon the marriage of Henry Lord Herbert
with a daughter of Francis Earl of Bradford, Lymore, with
a considerable part of the estate thereabouts, was allotted
for her jointure. After his decease, Lady Herbert usually
resided there; she died in 1714. The MS. could not then
be found; yet while she lived there, it was known to have
been in her hands. Some years afterwards it was discovered
at Lymore among some old papers, in very bad condition,
several leaves being torn out, and others stained to such a
degree as to make it scarcely legible. Under these circum-
stances, inquiry was made of the Herberts of Eibbisf ord
(descended from Sir Henry Herbert, a younger brother
of the author lord) in relation to a duplicate of the
Memoirs, which was confidently said to be in their
custody. It was allowed that such a duplicate had
existed; bat no one could recollect what was become of
it. At last, about the year 1737, this book was sent to the
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. 15
Earl of Powis by a gentleman, whose father had purchased
an estate of Henry Herbert of Eibbisf ord (son of Sir Henry
Herbert above mentioned), in whom was revived, in 1694,
the title of Cherbury, which had become extinguished in
1691. By him (after the sale of the estate) some few books,
pictures, and other things, were left in the house, and
remained there to 1737. This manuscript was amongst
them; which not only by the contents (as far as it wa3
possible to collate it with the original) but by the simili-
tude of the writing, appeared to be the duplicate so much
sought after.
Being written when Lord Herbert was past sixty, the
work was probably never completed. The spelling is in
general given as in the MS. but some obvious mistakes
it was necessary to correct, and a few notes have been,
added, to point out the most remarkable persons men-
tioned in the text. The style is remarkably good for
that age, which coming between the nervous and ex-
pressive manliness of the preceding century, and the
purity of the present standard, partook of neither. Hia
lordship's observations are new and acute; some very
shrewd, as that to the Due de Guise, p. 264; his discourse
on the Reformation very wise. To the French confessor
his reply, p. 301, was spirited; indeed his behaviour to
Luynes, and all his conduct, gave ample evidence of his
constitutional fire. But nothing is more marked than
the air of veracity or persuasion which runs through the
whole narrative. If he makes us wonder, and wonder
makes us doubt, the charm of his ingenuous integrity
dispels our hesitation. The whole relation throws sin-
gular light on the manners of the age, though the gleams
are transient. In those manners nothing is more striking
than the strange want of police in this country. I will
not point out instances, as I have already perhaps too
16. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
much opened the contents of a book which, if it gives
other readers half the pleasure it afforded me, they will
own themselves extraordinarily indebted to the noble
person, by whose favour I am permitted to communicate
to them so great a curiosity.
THE LIFE
OF
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY.
I DO believe that if all my ancestors had set down
their lives in writing, and left them to posterity, many
documents necessary to be known of those who both
participate of their natural inclinations and humours,
must in all probability run a not much different course,
might have been given for their instruction; and cer-
tainly it will be found much better for men to guide
themselves by such observations as their father, grand-
father, and great grandfather might have delivered to
them, than by those vulgar rules and examples, which
cannot in all points so exactly agree unto them.
Therefore, whether their life were private, and con-
tained only precepts necessary to treat with their children,
servants, tenants, kinsmen, and neighbours, or employed
abroad in the university, or study of the law, or in the
court, or in the camp, their heirs might have benefited
themselves more by them than by any else ; for which
reason I have thought fit to relate to my posterity those
passages of my life which I conceive may best declare
me, and be most useful to them. In the delivery of which,
I profess to write with all truth and sincerity, as scorn-
ing ever to deceive or speak false to any: and therefore
detesting it much more where I am under obligation of
18 THE LIFE OF
speaking to those so near me: and if this be one reason
for taking my pen in hand at this time, so as my age is
now past threescore, it will be fit to recollect my former
actions, and examine what had been done well or ill, to
the intent I may both reform that which was amiss, and
so make my peace with God, as also comfort myself in
those things which through God's great grace and favour,
have been done according to the rules of conscience, virtue,
and honour.
Before yet I bring myself to this account, it will be
necessary I say somewhat concerning my ancestors, as
far as the notice of them is come to me in any credible
way; of whom yet I cannot say much, since I was but
eight years old when my grandfather died, and that my
father lived but about four years after; and that for
the rest I have lived for the most part from home, it is
impossible I should have that entire knowledge of their
actions which might inform me sufficiently; I shall only
therefore relate the more known and undoubted parts of
their lives.*
My father was Eichard Herbert, Esq., son to Edward
Herbert, Esq., and grandchild to Sir Eichard Herbert,
Knt., who was a younger son of Sir Eichard Herbert, of
Colebrook, in Monmouthshire, of all whom I shall say a
little. And first of my father, whom I remember to have
been black-haired and bearded, as all my ancestors of his
side are said to have been, of a manly or somewhat stern
look, but withal very handsome and well compact in his
* Though his lordship, according to his scrupulous exactness, would
set down nothing relating to his ancestors but what was of undoubted
notoriety, yet it is probable that he had some memorials of his family
in writing; for Dugdale, in his Baronage, vol. ii. p. 256, edit, of 1676,
quotes a curious passage relating to the family's assumption of the
name of Herbert, from a manuscript book, which he had seen in the
hands of our author, Lord Herbert.
LOED HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 19
limbs, and of a great courage, whereof lie gave proof, when
lie was so barbarously assaulted by many men in the
churchyard at Lanervil, at what time he would have
apprehended a man who denied to appear to justice; for,
defending himself against them all, by the help only of one
John ap Howell Corbet, he chased his adversaries until
a villain, coming behind him, did over the shoulders of
others wound him on the head behind with a forest bill
until he fell down, though recovering himself again, not-
withstanding his skull was cut through to the Pia Mater of
the brain, he saw his adversaries fly away, and after walked
home to his house at Llyssyn, where, after he was cured,
he offered a single combat to the chief of the family, by
whose procurement it was thought the mischief was
committed; but he disclaiming wholly the action as not
done by his consent, which he offered to testify by oath,
and the villain himself flying into Ireland, whence he
never returned, my father desisted from prosecuting the
business any farther in that kind, and attained, notwith-
standing the said hurt, that health and strength that he
returned to his former exercises in a country life, and
became the father of many children.
As for his integrity in his places of Deputy Lieutenant
of the county, Justice of the Peace, and Gustos Robulorum,
which he, as my grandfather before him, held, it is so
memorable to this day, that it was said his enemies
appealed to him for justice, which they also found on all
occasions. His learning was not vulgar, as understanding
well the Latin tongue, and being well versed in history.
My grandfather was of a various life, beginning first at
court, where, after he had spent most part of his means,
he became a soldier, and made his fortune with his sword at
the battle of St. Quentin in France, and other wars, both
in the north, and in the rebellions happening in the times
20 THE LIFE O#
of Bang- Edward VI. and Queen Mary, with so good success,
that he not only caine off still with the better, but got
so much money and wealth as enabled him to buy the
greatest part of that livelihood which is descended to
me; although yet I hold some lands which his mother
the Lady Ann Herbert purchased, as appears by the deeds
made to her by that name, which I can shew; and might
have £.eld more, which my grandfather sold under foot
at an under-value in his youth, and might have been
recovered by my father, had my grandfather suffered
Mm.
My grandfather was noted to be a great enemy to the
outlaws and thieves of his time, who robbed in great
numbers in the mountains in Montgomeryshire, for the
suppressing of whom he went often both day and night
to the places where they were; concerning which, though
many particulars have been told me, I shall mention one
only. Some outlaws being lodged in an alehouse upon
the hills of Llandinarn, my grandfather and a few
servants coming to apprehend them, the principal out-
law shot an arrow against my grandfather, which stuck
in the pummel of his saddle j whereupon my grandfather
coming up to him with fris sword in his hand, and taking
him prisoner, he shewed him the said arrow, bidding him
look what he had done, whereof the outlaw was no farther
sensible than to say. he was sorry that he left his better
bow at home, which he conceived would have carried his
shot to his body; but the outlaw being brought to justice,
suffered for it.
My grandfather's power was so great in the country,
that divers ancestors of the better families now in Mont-
gomeryshire were his servants, and raised by him. He
delighted also much in hospitality, as having a very long
table twice covered every meal with the best mea ts that
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBtTRY, 21
could be gotten, and a very great family. It was an
ordinary saying in the country at that time, when they
saw any fowl rise, "Fly where thou wilt, thou wilt light
at Black-hall," which was a low building, but of great
capacity, my grandfather erected in his age; his father
and himself in former times having lived in Montgomery
castle. Notwithstanding yet these expenses at home, he
brought up his children well, married his daughters to
the better sort of persons near him. and bringing up his
younger sons at the university; from whence his son
Matthew went to the Low Country wars, and after some
time spent there, came home, and lived in the country at
Dolegeog, upon a house and fair living, which my grand-
father bestowed upon him. His son also, Charles Herbert,,
after he had passed some time in the Low Countries, like-
wise returned home, and was after married to an in-
heritrix, whose eldest son, called Sir Edward Herbert,
Knt., is the king's attorney-general. His son George,
who was of New College in Oxford, was very learned,
and of a pious life, died in a middle age of a dropsy.
Notwithstanding all which occasions of expense, my
grandfather purchased much lands without doing any-
thing yet unjustly or hardly, as may be collected by an
offer I have publicly made divers times, having given my t
bailiff in charge to proclaim to the country, that if any
lands were gotten by evil means, or so much as hardly,
they should be compounded for or restored again ; but to
this day, never any man yet complained to me in this
kind. He died at the age of fourscore or thereabouts,
and was buried in Montgomery church, without having
any monument made for him, which yet for my father i&
there set up in a fair manner.
My great-grandfather, Sir Richard Herbert, was steward
in the time of King Henry VIII., of the lordships and
22 THE LIFE OF
mafclies of North Wales, East Wales, and Cardiganshire,
and had power, in a marshal law, to execute offenders;
in the using thereof he was so just, that he acquired to
himself a singular reputation, as may appear upon the
records of that time, kept in the Paper-chamber at White-
hall, some touch whereof I have made in my History of
Henry VIII. ; of him I can say little more than that he
likewise was a great suppressor of rebels, thieves, and out-
laws, and that he was just and conscioiiable; for if a false
or cruel person had that power committed to his hands, he
would have raised a great fortune out of it, whereof he
left little, save what his father gave him, unto posterity.
He lieth buried likewise in Montgomery; the upper
monument of the two placed in the chancel being erected
for him.
My great-grandfather, Sir Eichard Herbert of Cole-
brook, was that incomparable hero who (in the History
of Hall and G-raf ton as it appears) twice passed through a
great army of Northern men alone, with his pole-axe in his
hand, and returned without any mortal hurt, which is
more than is famed of Amadis de G-aul, or the Knight of
the Sun.
I shall, besides this relation of Sir Eichard Herbert's
prowess in the battle at Banbury or Edgcote-hill, being
the place where the late battle was fought, deliver some
traditions concerning him, which I have received from
good hands: one is, that the said Eichard Herbert being
employed, together with his brother William, Earl of
Pembroke to reduce certain* rebels in North Wales, Sir
* It was an insurrection in the ninth year of Edward IV. headed by
Sir John Comers and Robert Riddesdale, in favour of Henry VI. This
William Earl of Pembroke, and his brother Sir Richard Herbert, being
sent against them, were to be joined by the Earl of Devonshire, but a
squabble happening between the two earls about quarters, the Earl of
Devonsliiie separated from Pembroke, who, engaging the enemy at
LOBD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 23
Richard Herbert besieged a principal person of them at
Harlech castle, in Merionethshire; the captain of this
place had been a soldier in the wars of France, whereupon
he said, he had kept a castle in France so long, that he
made the old women in Wales talk of him; and that he
would keep the castle so long that he would make the
old women in France talk of him; and indeed, as the
place was almost impregnable but by famine, Sir Eichard
Herbert was constrained to take him in by composition,
he surrendering himself upon condition that Sir Richard
Herbert should do what he could to save his life; which
being accepted, Sir Richard brought him to King Edward
IV., desiring his highness to give him a pardon, since he
yielded up a place of importance, which he might have
kept longer, upon this hope; but the king replying to
Sir Richard Herbert, that he had no power by his com-
mission to pardon any, and therefore might after the
representation hereof to his majesty, safe deliver him up
to justice; Sir Richard Herbert answered he had not yet
done the best he could for him, and therefore most
humbly desired his highness to do one of two things
—either to put him again in the castle where he was, and
command some other to take him out; or, if his high-
ness would not do so, to take his life for the said captain's,
that being the last proof he could give that he used his
uttermost endeavour to save the said captain's life.
The king, finding himself urged thus far, gave Sir
Richard Herbert the life of the said captain, but withal
he bestowed no other reward for his service.
Danesmoore, near Edgcote, in Northamptonshire, was defeated and
taken prisoner, with his brother and "both were put to death, with
Richard Widville Earl Rivers, father of the queen, by command of
the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick, who had revolted from
Edward.
24 THE LIFJS OF
The other history is, that Sir Richard Herbert, together
with his brother the Earl of Pembroke, being in Angle-
sea apprehending there seven brothers which had done
many mischiefs and murders. In these times, the Earl
of Pembroke, thinking it fit to root out so wicked a
progeny, commanded them all to be hanged ; whereupon,
the mother of them, coming to the Earl of Pembroke,,
upon her knees desired him to pardon two or at least-
wise one of her said sons, affirming that the rest were*
sufficient to satisfy justice or example, which request
also Sir Richard Herbert seconded; but the earl, finding
them all equally guilty, said he could make no dis-
tinction betwixt them, and therefore commanded them
to be executed together; at which the mother was so
aggrieved, that with a pair of woollen beads on her arms-
(for so the relation goeth), she on her knees cursed him,,
praying G-od's mischief might fall to him in the first,
battle he should make. The earl after this, coming with
his brother to Edgcote Field, as is before set down, after
he had put his men in order to fight, found his brother
Sir Richard Herbert in the head of his men, leaning
upon his pole-axe in a kind of sad or pensive manner;
whereupon the earl said. "What! doth thy great body"
(for he was higher by the head than anyone in the army)
"apprehend anything, that thou art so melancholy, or
art thou weary with marching, that thou dost lean thus
upon thy pole-axe?" Sir Richard Herbert replied that
he was neither of both, whereof he should see the proof
presently; "only I cannot but apprehend on your part,,
lest the curse of the woman with the woollen beads fall
upon you."
This Sir Richard Herbert lieth buried in Abergavenny,.
in a sumptuous monument for those times, which still
remains; whereas his brother, the Earl of Pembroke,,
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 25
being buried in Tintern Abbey, Ms monument;, together
with the church, lie now wholly defaced and ruined.
This Earl of Pembroke had a younger son, which had a
daughter which married the eldest son of the Earl of
Worcester, who carried away the fair castle of Ragland,
with many thousand pounds yearly, from the heir male
of that house which was the second son of the said Earl
of Pembroke and ancestor of the family of St. G-illians,
whose daughter and heir I after married, as shall be told
in its place.
And here it is very remarkable that the younger sons
of the said Earl of Pembroke and Sir R. Herbert left
their posterity after them, who in the person of myself
and my wife, united both houses again; wnich is the
more memorable, that when the said Earl of Pembroke
.and Sir R. Herbert were taken prisoners in defending the
just cause of Edward IV. at the battle abovesaid, the earl
never entreated that his own life might be saved, but his
brother's, as it appears by the said history. So that,
joining of both houses together in my posterity, ought to
produce a perpetual obligation of friendship and mutual
love in "them one to another, since by these two brothers
,so brave an example thereof was given, as seeming not
to live or die but for one another.
My mother was Magdalen Newport, daughter of Sir
Richard Newport and Margaret his wife, daughter and
Tieir of Sir Thomas Bromley, one of the Privy Council
and executor of King Henry VIII.; who, surviving her
husband, gave rare testimonies of an incomparable piety
to G-od and love to her children, as being most assiduous
•and devout in her daily both private and public prayers,
and so careful to provide for her posterity, that, though
it were in her power to give her estate (which was very
great) to whom she would, yet she continued still un-
26 THE LIFE OF
married, and so provident for them, that, after she had
bestowed all her daughters with sufficient portions upon
very good neighbouring families, she delivered up her
estate and care of housekeeping to her eldest son Francis,
when now she had for many years kept hospitality with
that plenty and order as exceeded all either of her
country or time; for, besides abundance of provision
and good cheer for guests, which her son Sir Francis
Newport continued, she used ever after dinner to distri-
bute with her own hands to the poor, who resorted to her
in great numbers, alms in money, to every one of them
more or less as she thought they needed it.
By these ancestors I am descended of Talbot, Devoreux,
Gray, Corbet, and many other noble families, as may be
seen in their matches, extant in the many fair coats the
Newports bear. I could say much more of my ancestors
of that side likewise, but that I should exceed my pro-
posed scope; I shall therefore only say somewhat more
of my mother, my brothers, and sisters.
And for my mother, after she lived most virtuously and
lovingly with her husband for many years, she after his
death erected a fair monument for him in Montgomery
church, brought up her children carefully and put them
in good courses for making their fortunes, and briefly
was that woman Dr. Donne hath described in his funeral
sermon of her printed. The names of her children were,
Edward, Eichard, William, Charles, G-eorge, Henry,
Thomas; her daughters were, Elizabeth, Margaret,
Frances; of all whom I will say a little before I begin a
narration of my own life, so I may pursue my intended
purpose the more entirely.
My brother Richard, after he had been brought up in
learning, went to the Low Countries, where he continued
many years with much reputation, both in the wars and
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 27
for fighting single duels, which were many, insomuch
that between both, he carried, as I have been told, the
scars of f our-and-twenty wounds upon him to his grave,
and lieth buried in Bergen-op-Zoom.
My brother "William being brought up likewise in
learning, went afterwards to the wars in Denmark,
where, fighting a single combat and having his sword
broken, he not only defended himself with that piece
which remained, but closing with his adversary, threw
him down, and so held him until company came in; and
then went to the wars in the Low Countries, but lived
not long after. My brother Charles was Fellow of New
College, in Oxford, where he died young, after he had
given great hopes of himself every way.
My brother George* was so excellent a scholar, that he
was made the public orator of the University in Cam-
bridge, some of whose English works are extant, which
though they be rare in their kind, yet are far short of
expressing those perfections he had in the 'Greek and
Latin tongue, and all divine and human literature. His
life was most holy and exemplary, insomuch that about
Salisbury, where he lived beneficed for many years, he
was little less than sainted. He was not exempt from
passion and choler, being infirmities to which all our
race is subject, but, that excepted, without reproach in
his actions.
Henry, after he had been brought up in learning as the
other brothers were, was sent by his friends into France,
* He had studied foreign languages in hopes of rising to be Secre-
tary of State, but being disappointed in his views at court, he took
orders, became prebend of Lincoln, and rector of Beraerton, near
Salisbury. He died between 1630 and 1640. His poems were printed
at London, 1635, under the title of "The Temple," and his "Priest
to the Temple" in 1652. Lord Bacon dedicated to him a translation
of some psalins into English verse.—V. General Diet.
28 THE LIFE OF
where he attained the language of that country in much
perfection, after which time he came to court, and was
made gentleman of the king's privy chamber, and master
of the revels; by which means, as also by a good
marriage, he attained to great fortunes for himself and
posterity to enjoy. He also hath given several proofs
of his courage in duels and otherwise, being no less
dexterous in the ways of the court, as having gotten
much by it.
My brother Thomas was a posthumus, as being born
some weeks after his father's death. He also being
brought up a while at school, was sent as a page to Sir
Edward Cecil.* lord general of His Majesty's auxiliary
forces to the princes in G-ermany, and was particularly
at the siege of Juliers, A.D. 1610, where he shewed such
forwardness as no man in that great army before him
was more adventurous on all occasions. Being returned
from thence, he went to the East Indies under the com-
mand of Captain Joseph, who. in his way thither, meeting
with a great Spanish ship, was unfortunately killed in
fight with them, whereupon his men being disheartened,
my brother Thomas encouraged them to revenge the loss,
and renewed the fight in that manner (as Sir John
Smyth, governor of the East India Company, told me
at several times) that they forced the Spanish ship to
run aground, where the English shot her through and
through so often that she run herself aground, and was
left wholly unserviceable.
After which time he, with the rest of the fleet, came
to Surat, and from thence went with the merchants to
the Great Mogul, where after he had stayed about a
twelvemonth, he returned with the same fleet back again
* Afterwards Viscount Wimbledon. See an account of him in
u The Royal and Noble Authors."
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 29
to England. After this he went in the navy which King
James sent to Argier under the command of Sir Robert
Mansell, where our men being in great want of money
and victuals, and many ships scattering themselves to try
whether they could obtain a prize whereby to relieve the
whole fleet, it was his hap to meet with a ship, which he
took, and in it to the value of eighteen hundred pounds,
which it was thought saved the whole fleet from
perishing.
He conducted also Count Mansfelt to the Low Countries
in one of the king's ships, which being unfortunately
cast away not far from the shore, the count, together
with his company, saved themselves in a long-boat or
shalop, the benefit whereof my said brother refused to
take for the present, as resolving to assist the master of
the ship, who endeavoured by all means to clear the ship
from the danger, but finding it impossible, he was the
last man that saved himself in the long-boat; the master
thereof yet refusing to come away, so that he perished
together with the ship. After this, he commanded one
of the ships that were sent to bring the prince from
Spain, where, upon his return, there being a fight
between the Low Countrymen and the Dunkirkers, the
prince, who thought it was not for his dignity to suffer
them to fight in his presence, commanded some of his
ships to part them; whereupon my said brother with
some other ships got betwixt them on either side, and
shot so long that both parties were glad to desist.
After he had brought the prince safely home, he was
appointed to go with one of the king's ships to the
Narrow Seas. He also fought divers times with great
courage and success with divers men in single fight,
sometimes hurting and disarming his adversary, and
sometimes driving him away. After all these proofs
30 THE LIFE O*
given of himself, he expected some great command, but
finding himself, as he thought, undervalued, he retired
to a private and melancholy life, being much discon-
tented to find others preferred A^ "Him ; in which sullen
humour having lived many years, he died and was buried
in London, in St. Martin's, near Charing Cross; so that
of all my brothers none survives but Henry.
Elizabeth, my eldest sister, was married to Sir Henry
Jones, of Albemarles, who had by her one son and two
daughters; the latter end of her time was the most sickly
and miserable that hath been known in our times, while
for the space of about fourteen years she languished
and pined away to skin and bones, and at last died
in London, and lies buried in a church near Cheapside.
Margaret was married to John Vaughan, son and heir
to Owen Vaughan of Llwydiart, by which match some
former differences betwixt our house and that were
appeased and reconciled: he had by her three daughters
and heirs, Dorothy, Magdalen, and Katherine, of which
the two latter only survive. The estate of the Vaughans
yet went to the heirs male, though not so clearly but that
the entail which carried the said lands was questioned.
Frances, my youngest sister, was married to Sir John
Brown, Knt., in Lincolnshire, who had by her divers
children, the eldest son of whom, though young, fought
divers duels, in one of which it was his fortune to kill one
Lee, of a great family in Lancashire. I could say many
things more concerning all these, but it is not my purpose
to particularise their lives: I have related only some
passages concerning them to the best of my memory,
being assured I have not failed much in my relation of
them. I shall now come to myself.
I was born at Eyton, in Shropshire (being a house
which, together with fair lands, descended upon the
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 31
NewportSyby my said grandmother), between the hours of
twelve and one of the clock in the morning; my infancy
was very sickly, my head continually purging itself very
much by the ears, whereupon also it was so long before I
began to speak, that many thought I should be ever dumb.
The very furthest thing I remember is, that when I
understood what was said by others, I did yet forbear to
speak, lest I should utter something that were imperfect
or impertinent.
When I came to talk, one of the furthest inquiries I
made was, how I came into this world? I told my nurse,
keeper, and others, I found myself here indeed, but from
what cause or beginning, or by what means, I could not
imagine; but for this, as I was laughed at by nurse and
some other women that were then present, so I was
wondered at by others, who said they never heard a child
but myself ask that question; upon which, when I came'
to riper years, I made this observation, which afterwards
a little comforted me, that as I found myself in possession
of this life, without knowing anything of the pangs and
throes my mother suffered, when yet doubtless they did
not less press and afflict me than her, so I hope my soul
shall pass to a better life than this without being sensible
of the anguish and pains my body shall feel in death.
For as I believe then I shall be transmitted to a more
happy estate by G-od's great grace, I am confident I shall
no more know how I came out of this world, than how I
came into it; and because since that time I have made
verses to this purpose, I have thought fit to insert them
here as a place proper for them. The argument is—
VITA.
PBTMTA fuit quondam genitali semine vita
Procurasse suas dotes, ubi plastica virtus
Gestiit, et vegeto molem perfundere succo,
32 THE LIFE OF
Externamque suo f ormam cohibere recessu,
Dum conspirantes possint accedere causaa,
Et totum tuto licuit proludere f oetum.
Altera materno tandem succrevit in arvo
Exiles sptmians ubi spiritus induit artus,
Exertusque simul miro sensoria textu
Cudit, et hospitium menti mon vile paravit,
Quse cselo delapsa suas mox inde capessat
Partes, et sortis tanquam praesaga futures
Corrigat ignavura pondus, nee inutile sistat.
Tertia nunc agitur, qua scena recluditur ingens,
Cernitur et f estum cceli, terraeque theatrum;
Congener et species, rerum variataque forma;
Et circumf erri, motu proprioque vagari
Contigit, et leges astemaque fasdera mundi
Yisere, et assiduo redeuntia sidera cursu.
Unde etiam vitss eausas, nexumque tueri
Fas erat et summum longk prsesciscere ISTumen;
Dum varios mirk motus contemperet orbis,
Et Pater, et Dominus, Gustos, et conditor idem
Audit ubique Deus; Quid ni modo Quarta sequatur?
Sordibus excussis cum mens jam purior instat,
Auctaque docti "ids variis, virtuteque pollens
Intendit vires, magis et sublimia spirat,
Et tacitus cordi stimulus suffigitur imo,
TJt velit heic quisquam sorti superesse caducse,
Expetiturque status faslicior ambitiosis
Bitibus, et sacris, et cultu religioso,
Et nova successit melioris conscia f ati
Spes superis hssrens, toto perfusaque cselo,
Et sese sancto demittit Numen amori,
Et data cselestis non fallax tessera vitas,
Cumque Deo licuit non uno jure pacisci,
Ut mihi seu servo reddatur debita merces,
Eilius aut bona adire paterna petam, milni sponsor
Sit fidei Numen; mox hanc sin exuo vitam,
Compos jam factus melioris, turn simul uti
Jure meo cupiam liber, meque asserit inde
LORD HERBERT OF CBEBBTJRY. 33
Ipse Dens (cujus non terns gratia tantum,
Sed cselis prostat) quid ni modo Quinta sequatur,
Et Sexta, et quicquid tandem apes ipsa requirat?
DE YITA OZELESTI CONJECTURA.
TOTO lustratus genio mihi gratulor ipsi,
Eati securus, dum nee terroribus ullis
Dejicior, tacitos condo vel corde dolores,
Sed laetus mediis serumnis transigo vitam,
Invitisque malis (quas terras undique cingunt)
Ardenti virtute viam super asthera quaerens,
Proxima cselestis prascepi praenria vitas,
Ultima praetento, divino nixus amore,
Quo simul exuperans creperaB ladibria sortis,
Barbara vesani linquo consortia sascli,
Auras iof enaas deflans, spiransque supernas,
Dum sanctis memet totum sic implico flammis,
Hisce ut suffultus penetrem laquearia cseli,
Atque novi latd speculer magnalia mundi,
Et notas animas, proprio jam lumine pulchras
Invisam, superumque clioros, mentesque beatas,
Quels aveam miscere ignes, ac vincula sacra,
Atque vice alternji transire in gaudia, caelum
Quaa dederit cunctis, ipsis aut indita nobis,
Vel quaa communi voto sancire licebit. ,
Tit Deus interea cumulans sua praemia, nostrum
Augeat inde decus, proprioque illustret amore,
Nee caeli caelis desint, aeternave vitae
Saecula, vel saeclis nova gaudia, qualia totum
JSvum nee minuat, nee terminat infinitum.
His major desit nee gratia Numinis ahna,
Qu83 miris variata modis hade gaudia crescant,
Excipiatque statum quemvis faslicior alter;
Et quae nee sperare datur sint praestita nobis,
Nee, nisi sola capit quae mens divina, supersint;
Quse licet ex sese sint perf ectissima longe,
Ex nobis saltern mag& condecorata videntur:
Cum segnes animas, eselum quas indit ab ortu,
Exaeuat tantum labor ac industria nostra
B—55
34 THE LIFE OF
Ac demum poliat doctrina, et moribus illis,
Ut redeant pulchras, dotem caeloque reportent;
Quum simul arbitriis usi, mala pellimus ilia,
Quae nee vel pepulit cselum, vel pelleret olim,
Ex nobis ita fit jam gloria Numinis ingens,
Auctior in caslos quoque gloria nostra redundat,
Et quse virtuti sint debita praemia, tandem
Vel Numen solito reddunt feelicius ipsum.
Amplior unde simul redhibetur Gratia nobis,
Ut vel pro voto nostro jam singula cedant.
Nam si libertas chara est, per amsena locorum
Conspicua inmimeris caelis discurrere fas est,
Deliciasque loci cujusvis carpere passim.
Altior est animo si contemplatio fixa,
Cuncta adaperta patent nobis jam scrinia caeli,
Arcanasque Dei rationes n6sse juvabit:
Hujus sin repetat quisquam consortia ssecli,
Mox agere in terris, ac procurare licebit
Bes heic humanas, et justis legibus uti!
Sin mage caslesti jam delectamur amore,
Solvimur in flammas, quas se lambuntqne foventqne
Mutub, et implicit! sanctis ardoribus, una
Surgimus amplexi, copul& junctique tenaci,
Partibus, et toto miscemur ubiqae vicissim;
Ardoresque novos accendit Numinis ardor.
Sin laudare Deum lubeat, nos laudat et ipse,
Concinit angelicusque chorus, modulamine suavi
Personat et cesium, prostant et publica nobis
Gaudia, et eduntur passim spectacula laeta;
Fitque theatralis quasi caeli machina tota.
Hanc mundi molem sin vis replicaverit ingens
Numinis, atque novas formas exculpserit inde
Dotibus ornatas aliis, magis atque capaces;
ISTostras mox etiam formas renovare licebit,
Et dotes sensusque alios assumere, tandem
Consummata magis quo gaudia nostra resurgant,
HSBC si conjecto mortali corpore fretus
Corpus et exuerim, Quid ni majora recludam?
LOBD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBTJBY. 35
And certainly, since in my mother's womb this Plastica,
or Formatrix, which formed my eyes, ears, and other
senses, did not intend them for that dark and noisome
place, but as being conscious of a better life, made them
as fitting- organs to apprehend and perceive those things
which should occur in this world; so I believe, since my
coming into this world my soul hath formed or produced
certain faculties which are almost as useless for this life
as the above-named senses were for the mother's womb:
and these faculties are hope, faith, love, and joy, since they
never rest or fix upon any transitory or perishing object
in this world, as extending themselves to something
further than can be here given, and indeed, acquiesce
only in the perfect, eternal, and infinite.
I confess they are of some use here, yet I appeal to
everybody whether any worldly felicity did so satisfy
their hope here, that they did not wish and hope for
something more excellent; or whether they had ever that
faith in their own wisdom, or in the help of man, that
they were not constrained to have recourse to some
diviner and superior power than they could find on earth,
to relieve them in their danger or necessity; whether
ever they could place their love on any earthly beauty,
that it did not fade and wither, if not frustrate or deceive
them; or whether ever their joy was so consummate in
anything they delighted in, that they did not want much
more than it, or indeed this world can afford, to make
them happy. The proper object of these faculties, there-
fore, though framed, or at least appearing in this world,
is G-od only, upon whom faith, hope, and love were never
placed in vain, or remain long unrequited.
But to leave these discourses, and come to my child-
hood again: I remember this defluxion at my ears above-
mentioned continued in that violence, that my friend*
3t> THE LIFE OP
did not think fit to teach me so much as my alphabet, till
I was seven years old, at which time my defiuxion ceased,
and left me free of the disease my ancestors were subject
unto, being the epilepsy. My schoolmaster, in the house
of my said lady grandmother, then began to teach me
the alphabet, and afterwards grammar, and other books
commonly read in schools, in which I profited so much,
that upon this therne Audaces for tuna juvat. I made an
oration of a sheet of paper, and fifty or sixty verses in
the space of one day.
I remember in that time I was corrected sometimes
for going to cuffs with two schoolfellows, being both
elder than myself, but never for telling a lie, or any
other fault; rny natural disposition and inclination being
so contrary to all falsehood, that being demanded whether
I had committed any fault whereof I might be justly
suspected, I did use ever to confess it freely, and there-
upon choosing rather to suffer correction than to stain
my mind with telling a lie, which I did judge then, no
time could ever deface; and I can affirm to all the world
truly, that from my first infancy to this hour I told not
willingly anything that was false, my soul naturally
having an antipathy to lying and deceit.
After I had attained the age of nine, during all which
time I lived in my said lady grandmother's house at
Eyton, my parents thought fit to send me to some place
where I might learn the Welsh tongue, as believing it
necessary to enable me to treat with those of my friends
and tenants who understood no other language; where-
upon I was recommended to Mr. Edward Thelwall, of
Place-ward, in Denbighshire.
This gentleman I must remember with honour, as
having of himself acquired the exact knowledge of
Greek, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish, and all other
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 37
learning, having for that purpose neither gone beyond
seas, nor so much as had the benefit of any universities:
besides, he was of that rare temper in governing his
choler, that I never saw him angry during the time of
my stay there, and have heard so much of him for many
years before. When occasion of offence wats given him,
I have seen him redden in the face, and after remain for
a while silent; but when he spake, his words were so
calm and gentle, that I found he had digested his choler,
though yet I confess I could never attain that perfection,
as being subject ever to choler and passion more than I
ought, and generally to speak my mind freely, and indeed
rather to imitate those who, having fire within doors,
choose rather to give it vent than suffer it to burn the
house.
I commend yet much more the manner of Mr. Thel-
wall; and certainly he that can forbear speaking for
some while, will remit much of his passion; but as I
could not learn much of him in this kind, so I did as
little profit in learning the Welsh or any other of those
languages that worthy gentleman understood, as having
a tertian ague for the most part of nine months, which
was all the time I stayed in his house.
Having recovered my strength again, I was sent, being
about the age of ten, to be taught by one Mr. Newton,
at Didlebury. in Shropshire, where, in the space of less
than two years, I not only recovered all I had lost in my
sickness, but attained to the knowledge of the G-reek
tongue and logic, in so much that at twelve years old
my parents thought fit to send me to Oxford, to Uni-
versity College, where I remember to have disputed at
my first coming in logic, and to have made in G-reek the
exercises required in that college, of tener than in Latin.
I had not been many months in the University, but
38 THE LIFE OF
news was brought me of my father's death, his sickness
being a lethargy, caros, or coma mgilans^ which con-
tinued long upon him; he seemed at last to die without
much pain, though in his senses. Upon opinion given by
physicians that his disease was mortal, my mother
thought fit to send for me home, and presently after
my father's death to desire her brother, Sir Francis New-
port, to hasten to London, to obtain my wardship for hi,s
and her use jointly, which he obtained.
Shortly after, I was sent again to my studies in Oxford,
where I had not been long but that an overture for a
match with the daughter and heir of Sir William Herbert,
of St. Gillian's, was made, the occasion whereof was this:
Sir William Herbert being heir male to the old Earl of
Pembroke above-mentioned, by a younger son of his (for
the eldest son had a daughter who carried away those
great possessions the Earl of Worcester now holds in
Monmouthshire, as I said before), having one only
daughter surviving, made a will whereby he estated all
his possessions in Monmouthshire and Ireland upon his
said daughter, upon condition she married one of the
surname of Herbert, otherwise the said lands to descend
to the heirs male of the said Sir William; and his
daughter to have only a small portion out of the lands he
had in Anglesea and Carnarvonshire: his lands being
thus settled, Sir William died shortly afterwards.
He was a man much conversant with books, and
especially given to the study of divinity, insomuch that
he wrote an Exposition upon the Revelation, which
is printed; though some thought he was as far from
finding the sense thereof as he was from attaining the
philosopher's stone, which was another part of his study:
howsoever, he was very understanding in all other things,
he was noted yet to be of a very high mind; but I can
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTIRY. 39
say little of him, as having never seen his person, nor
otherwise had much information concerning him. His
daughter and heir, called Mary, after her father died,
continued unmarried till she was one-and-twenty, none
of the Herberts appearing in all that time, who either in
age or fortune was fit to match her.
About this time I had attained the age of fifteen, and a
match at last being proposed, yet, notwithstanding the
disparity of years betwixt us, upon the eight-and-
twentieth of February, 1598, in the house of Eyton,
where the same man married iny father and mother,
christened and married me, I espoused her. Not long
after my marriage I went again to Oxford, together
with my wife and mother, who took a house and lived
for some certain time there: and now, having a due
remedy for that lasciviousness to which youth is na-
turally inclined, I followed my book more closely than
ever; in which course I continued till I attained about
the age of eighteen, when my mother took a house in
London, between which place and Montgomery Castle I
passed my time till I came to the age of one-and-twenty,
having in that space divers children, I having none now
remaining but Beatrice, Richard, and Edward.
During this time of living in the University or at
home, I did, without any master or teacher, attain the
knowledge of the French, Italian, and Spanish languages,
by the help of some books in Latin or English, trans-
lated into those idioms, and the dictionaries of those
several languages; I attained also to siDg my part at
first sight in music, and to play on the lute, with very
little or almost no teaching. My intention ID learning
languages being to make myself a citizen of the world
as far as it were possible, and my learning of music was
for this end, that I might entertain myself at home, and
40 THE LIFE OF
together refresh my mind after my studies, to which I
was exceedingly inclined, and that I might not need the
company of young men, in whom I observed in those
times much ill example and debauchery. ,
Being gotten thus far into my age, I shall give some
observations concerning ordinary education, even from
the first infancy till the departure from the University;
as being desirous, together with the narration of my life,
to deliver such rules as I conceive may be useful to my
posterity.
And first, I find, that in the infancy those diseases
are to be remedied which may be hereditary unto them
on either side; so that, if they be subject to the stone
or gravel, I do conceive it will be good for the nurse
sometimes to drink posset-drinks, in which are boiled
such things as are good to expel gravel and stone; the
child also himself, when he comes to some age, may
use the same posset-drinks of herbs, as milium soils,
saxifrigia, &c., good for the stone many are reckoned by
the physicians, of which also myself could bring a large
•catalogue, but rather leave it to those who are expert in
that art.
The same course is to be taken for the gout, for which
purpose I do much com mend the bathing of children's
legs and feet in the water wherein smiths quench their
iron, as also water wherein alum hath been infused, or
'boiled, as also the decoction of juniper-berries, bay-
fcerries, chamedris, chamcepetis. which baths also are
good for those that are hereditarily subject to the palsy,
for these things do much strengthen the sinews ; as also
•oleum castorii, and succoni, which are not to be used
without advice. They that are also subject to the spleen
from their ancestors, ought to use those herbs that are
splenetics j and those that are troubled with the falling
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 41
sickness, with cephaniques, of which certainly I should
have had need, but for the purging- of my ears above
mentioned.
Briefly, what disease soever it be that is derived frdfiX
ancestors of either side, it will be necessary first to give
such medicines to the nurse as may make her milk
effectual for those purposes, as also afterwards to give
unto the child itself such specific remedies as his age
and constitution will bear. I could say much more
upon this point, as having delighted ever in the know-
ledge of herbs, plants, and gums, and in few words the
history of nature, insomuch that, coming to apothecaries'
shops, it was my ordinary manner, when I looked upon
the bills .filed up, containing the physicians' prescriptions,
to tell every man's disease.
Howbeit, I shall not presume in these particulars to
prescribe to my posterity, though I believe I know the
best receipts for almost all diseases, but shall leave them
to expert physicians; only I will recommend again to
my posterity the curing of hereditary diseases in the very
infancy, since otherwise, without much difficulty, they
will never be cured.
When children go to school, they should have one to
attend them who may take care of their manners as well
as the schoolmaster doth of their learning, for among-
boys all vice is easily learned; and here I could wish it
constantly observed, that neither the master should
correct him for faults of his manners, nor his governor
for manners for the faults in his learning.
After the alphabet is taught, I like well the shortest-
and clearest grammars, and such books into which all
the Greek and Latin words are severally contrived, in
which kind one Comenus hath given an example. This-
being done, it would be much better to proceed with.
42 THE LIFE OF
•Greek authors titan with Latin; for as it is as easy to
learn at first the one as the other, it would be much
better to give the first impressions into the child's
memory of those things which are more rare than usual;
therefore I would have them begin at Greek first, and
-fche rather, that there is not that art in the world where-
in the Greeks have not excelled and gone before others;
•.so that when you look upon philosophy, astronomy,
mathematics, medicine, and briefly all learning, the
•Greeks have exceeded all nations.
"When he shall be ready to go to the University, it will
foe fit also his governor for manners go along with him,
it being the frail nature of youth as they grow to ripe-
ness in age, to be more capable of doing ill unless their
manners be well guided and themselves by degrees habi-
tuated in virtue, with which if once they acquaint
"themselves, they will find more pleasure in it than
•ever they can do in vice; since everybody loves vir-
tuous persons, whereas the vicious do scarce love one
another.
For this purpo^fe it will be necessary that you keep the
company of grave, learned men, who are of good reputa-
tion, and hear rather what they say, and follow what
they do, than follow the examples of young, wild, and
rash persons; and certainly of those two parts which
are to be acquired in youth, whereof one is goodness and
virtuous manners, the other learning and knowledge, I
fihall so much prefer the first before the second, as I shall
ever think virtue accompanied with ordinary discretion,
will make his way better both to happiness in this world
and the next, than any puffed knowledge which would
cause Mm to be insolent and vain-glorious, or minister as
it were arms and advantages to him for doing a mischief;
so that it is pity that wicked dispositions should have
IiOED HEEBEBT OF CHEEBTJEY. 43
knowledge to actuate their ill intentions, or courage to
maintain them—that fortitude which should defend all
a man's virtues being never well employed to defend Ms
humours, passions, or vices.
I do not approve for elder brothers that course of study
which is ordinarily used in the University, which is, if
their parents perchance intend they shall stay there four
or'five years, to employ the said time as if they meant to
proceed Masters of Art and Doctors in some science; for
which purpose their tutors commonly spend much time
in teaching them the subtleties of logic, which, as it is
usually practised, enables them for little more than to
be excellent wranglers, which art, though it may be
tolerable in a mercenary lawyer, I can by no means com-
mend in a sober and well-governed gentleman.
I approve much those parts of logic which teach men
to deduce their proofs from firm and undoubted prin-
ciples, and show men to distinguish betwixt truth and
falsehood, and help them to discover fallacies, sophisms,
and that which the schoolmen call vicious argumenta-
tions, concerning which I shall not here enter into a long
discourse. So much of logic as may serve for this
purpose being acquired, some good sum of philosophy
may be learned, which may teach him both the ground
of the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. After
which, it will not be amiss to read the "Idea Medicinsa
Philosophic^," written by Severnius Danus, there being
many things considerable concerning the Paracelsian
principles written in that book, which are not to be
found in former writers. It will not be amiss also to
read over Franciscus Patricius, and Tilesius, who have
examined and controverted the ordinary peripatetic
doctrine; all which may be performed in one year, that
term being enough for philosophy, as I conceive, and six
44 . $HE LIFE' OB?
montlis for logic; for I am confident a man may
quickly more than he needs of these two arts.
These being attained, it will be requisite to study geo-
graphy with exactness, so much as may teach a man the-'
situation of all countries in the whole world, together
with which it will be fit to learn something concerning:
the governments, manners, religions, either ancient or
new, as also the interests of states and relations in amity
or strength in w"bich they stand to their neighbours; It
will be necessary also, at the same time, to learn the use-
of the celestial globe, the studies of both globes being:
complicated and joined together. I do not conceive yefr>
the knowledge of judicial astrology so necessary, but
only for general predictions, particular events being'
neither intended by nor collected out of the stars.
It will be also fit to learn arithmetic and geometry in
some good measure, but especially arithmetic, it being
most useful for many purposes, and among the rest for
keeping accounts, whereof here is much use. As for the-
knowledge of lines, superficies, and bodies, though it be-
a science of much certainty and demonstration, it is not
much useful for a .gentleman, unless it be to understand!
fortifications, the knowledge whereof is worthy of those
who intend the wars; though yet he must remember,
that whatsoever art doth in way of defence, art likewise,
in way of assailing, can destroy. This study hath cost
me much labour, but as yet I could never find how any
place could be so fortified but that there were means in
certain opposite lines to prevent or subvert all that could
be done in that kind.
It will become a gentleman to have some knowledge in
medicine, especially the diagnostic part, whereby he may
take timely notice of a disease, and by that means timely
prevent it; as also the prognostic part, whereby he may
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY.
judge of the symptoms either increasing or decreasing in
the disease, as also concerning the crisis or indication
thereof. This art will get a gentleman not only much
knowledge, but much credit, since seeing any sick body,
Ihe will be able to tell in all human probability whether
Ihe shall recover, or if he shall die of the disease, to tell
what signs shall go before, and what the conclusion will
be. It will become him also to know not only the in-
gredients, but doses of certain cathartic or purging,
emetic or vomitive medicines, specific or choleric, melan-
cholic or phlegmatic constitutions, phlebotomy being
only necessary for those who abound in blood.
Besides, I would have a gentleman know how to make
these medicines himself and afterwards prepare them
with his own hands; it being the manner of apothecaries
so frequently to put in the succedanea, that no man is
sure to find with them medicines made with the true
drugs which ought to enter into the composition when it"
is exotic or rare; or when they are extant in the shop,
no man can be assured that the said drugs are not rotten,
or that they have not lost their natural force and virtue.
I have studied this art very much also, and have, in
xsases of extremity, ministered physic with that success
which is strange, whereof I shall give two or three
examples : Richard G-riffiths, of Sutton, my servant, being
sick of a malignant pestilent fever, and tried in vain all
our country physicians could do, and his water at last
stinking so grievously, which physicians note to be a sign
of extension of natural heat, and consequently of present
death, I was entreated to see him, when as yet he had
neither eaten, drank, slept, or known anybody for the
space of six or seven days; whereupon, demanding
whether the physicians had given him over, and it being
answered unto me that they had, I said it would not be
46 *HE LIFE OF
amiss to give him the quantity of a hazel-nut of a certain
rare receipt which I had, assuring, that if anything in the
world could, recover him. that would; of which I was so
confident, that I would come the next day at four of the
clock in the afternoon unto him, and at that time I
doubted not but they should find signs of amendment,
provided they should put the doses I gave them, being
about the bigness of a nut, down his throat ;• which being
done with much difficulty, I came the morrow after at
the hour appointed, when, to the wonder of his family, he-
knew me, and asked fof some broth, and not long after'
recovered.
My cousin Athelstan Owen, also or Bhue Sayson, having
an hydrocephale also in that extremity, that his: eyes-
began to start out of his head, and his tongue to come out
of his mouth, and his whole head finally exceeding its
natural proportion, insomuch that his physicians likewise
left him, I prescribed to him the decoction of two diuretie-
roots, which after he had drank four or five days, he
urined in that abundance that his head by degrees re-
turned to its ancient figure, and all other signs of health
appeared; whereupon also he wrote a letter to me, that
lie was so suddenly and perfectly restored to his former
health, that it seemed more like a miracle than a cure;
for those are the very words in the letter he sent
me.
I cured a great lady in London of an issue of blood',
when all the physicians had given her over, with so easy
a medicine, that the lady herself was astonished to find1
the effects thereof. I could give more examples in this
kind, but these shall suffi.ce; I will for the rest deliver a
rule I conceive for finding out the best receipts not only
for curing all inward, but outward hurts, such as are-
ulcers, tumours, contusions, wounds, and the like : yora
LORD HEBBEBT OP CHEBBUBY. 47"
must look upon all pharmacopoeias or antidotaries* of
several countries; of which sort I have in my library the
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis, Parisiensis, Amstelodamensis
that of Quercetan,t Bauderoni, Benadseus, Valerius-
Scordus, Pharmacopoeia Coloniensis, Augustana, Yene-
tiana, Yononiensis, Florentina, Eomana, Messanensis; in,
some of which are told not only what the receipts there-
set down are good for, but the doses of them.
The rule I here give is. that what all the said dispen-
satories, antidotaries, or pharmacopoeias prescribe as^
effectual for overcoming a disease, is certainly good; for
as they are set forth by the authority of the physicians of
these several countries, what they all ordain must neces-
sarily be effectual: but they who will follow my advice,
shall find in that little short antidotary called Amstelo-
damensis, not long since put forth, almost all that is
necessary to be known for curing of diseases, wounds, &c.
There is a book called Aurora Medicorum, very fit to be
read in this kind.
Among writers of physic, I do especially commend, after-
Hippocrates and G-alen, Fernelius,J Lud. Mercatus, and
Dan. Sennertus, and Heurnius. I could name many more,
but I conceive these may suffice. As for the chemic or-
* Antidotaries usually make a part of the old dispensatories; for
when poisons were in fashion, antidotes were equally so.
t Josephus Quercetanus published a Pharmacopoeia Doginaticorum
iestituta, 1607, 4to. Paris. Bricius Bauderonus, Pharmacopeia efr
Praxis Medica, 1620, Paris. Johannes Renadseus, Dispensatoriiun.
Medicum, et Antidotarium, 1609, 4to. Paris. Valerius Cordus, Dispen-
satorium, Antw. 1568.
t Johannes Fernelius (Physician to Henry II. of France) published-
Opera Medicinalia, et Universa Medidna, 1564 4to. et. 1577, foL Lud.
Mercatus (physician to Philip II. and III. of Spain) was author of
Opera Medica et Chirurgica, fol. Francof. 1620. Daniel Sennertus.
published lustitutiones Medicines, 1620; and Johanues Heurnius a
work of the same title, 1597, Lugduui.
4& THE LIFE OF
spagyric medicines, I cannot commend them to the use of
my posterity, there being neither emetic, cathartic, dia-
phoretic, diuretic medicines extant among them, which
are not much more happily and safely performed
by vegetables; but hereof enough, since I pretend
no further than to give some few directions to my pos-
terity.
In the meanwhile I conceive it is a fine study, and
worthy a gentleman, to be a good botanic, that so he may
, know the nature of all herbs and plants, being our fellow-
creatures, and made for the use of man; for which
purpose it will be fit for him to cull out of some good
herbal all the icones together, with the descriptions of
them, and to lay by themselves all such as grow in
England; and afterwards to select again such as usually
grow by the highway-side, in meadows, by, rivers, or in
marshes, or in corn-fields, or in dry and mountainous
places, or on rocks, walls, or in shady places, such as grow
by the sea-side; for this being done, and the said icones
being ordinarily carried by themselves, or by their
servants, one may presently find out every herb he meets
withal, especially if the said flowers be truly coloured.
Afterwards it will not be amiss to distinguish by them-
selves such herbs as are in gardens and are exotics, and
are transplanted hither.
As for those plants which will not endure our clime,
though the knowledge of them be worthy of a gentleman,
and the virtues of them be fit to be learned, especially if
they be brought over to a druggist as medicinal, yet the
icones of them are not so pertinent 'to be known as the
former, unless it be where there is less danger of adulter-
ating the said medicaments; in which case it is good to
Jiave recourse to not only the botanies, but also to Gesner's
Dispensatory, and to Aurora Medicorum above mentioned,
LORD HERBERT OP CHERBURY. 49
being books which make a man distinguish betwixt good
and bad drugs.
And thus much of medicine may not only be useful but
'delectable to a gentleman, since which way soever he
passeth, he may find something to entertain him. I
must no less commend the study of anatomy, which who-
soever considers, I believe will never be an atheist; the
frame of man's body and coherence of his parts being so
strange and paradoxal, that I hold it to be the greatest
miracle of Nature ; though when all is done, I do not find
;she hath made it so much as proof against one disease,
lest it should be thought to have made it no less than a
prison to the soul.
Having thus passed over all human literature, it will
be fit to say something of moral virtues and theological
learning. As for the first, since the Christians and the
heathens are in a manner agreed concerning the defini-
tions of virtues, it would not be inconvenient to begin
with those definitions which Aristotle in his Morals hath
given, as being confirmed for the most part by the Pla-
tonics, Stoics, and other philosophers, and in general by
the Christian Church, as well as all nations in the world
whatsoever; they being doctrines imprinted in the soul
in its first original, and containing the principal and first
notices by which man may attain his happiness here or
hereafter; there being no man that is given to vice that
doth not find much opposition both in his own conscience,
and in the religion and law as taught elsewhere ; and
this I dare say, that a virtuous man may not only go
securely through all the religions, but all the laws in the
world, and whatsoever obstructions he meets, obtain both
an inward peace and outward welcome among all with
whom he shall negotiate or converse. This virtue, there-
fore, I shall recommend to my posterity as the greatest
50 THE LIFE OF
perfection he can attain unto in this life, and the pledge
of eternal happiness hereafter; there being none that
can justly hope of an union with the supreme G-od, that
doth not come as near to Him in this life in virtue and
goodness as he can; so that if human frailty do interrupt
this union by committing faults that make him incapable
of his everlasting happiness, it will be fit, by a serious
repentance, to expiate and emaculate those faults, and
for the rest trust to the mercy of G-od, his Creator,
Redeemer, and Preserver, who being our Father, and
knowing well in what a weak condition through infirmi-
ties we are, will, I doubt not, commiserate those trans-
gressions we commit, when they are done without desire
to offend His divine majesty, and together rectify out
understanding through His grace; since we commonly
sin through no other cause but that we mistook a true
good for that which was only apparent, and so were
deceived by making an undue election in the objects pro-
posed to us; wherein, though it will be fit for every man
to confess that he hath offended an infinite Majesty and
Power, yet as upon better consideration he finds he did
not mean infinitely to offend, there will be just reason to
believe that G-od will not inflict an infinite punishment
upon him if he be truly penitent, so that His justice may
be satisfied, if not with man's repentance, yet at least
with some temporal punishment here or hereafter, such
&s may be proportionable to the offence ; though I can-
not deny but when man would infinitely offend God in a
despiteful and contemptuous way, it will be just that he
suffer an infinite punishment; but as I hope none are so
wicked as to sin purposedly and with an high hand
against the eternal majesty of God, so when they shall
commit any sins out of frailty, I shall believe either that
unless they be finally impenitent, and (as they say) sold
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 51
ingeniously over to sin, G-od's mercy will accept of their
endeavours to return into a right way, and so make their
peace with Him by all those good means that are possible.
Having thus recommended the learning of moral philo-
sophy and practice of virtue, as the most necessary know-
ledge and useful exercise of man's life, I shall observe,
that even in the employing of our virtues, discretion is
required; for every virtue is not promiscuously to be
used, but such only as is proper for the present occasion.
Therefore, though a wary and discreet wisdom be most
useful where no imminent danger appears, yet, where an
enemy draweth his sword against you, you shall have
most use of fortitude, prevention being too late, when the
danger is so pressing.
On the other side, there is no occasion to use your
fortitude against wrongs done by women or children, or
ignorant persons, that I may say nothing of those that
are much your superiors, who are magistrates, &c., since
you might by a discreet wisdom have declined the injury,
or when it were too late to do so, you may with more equal
mind support that which is done, either by authority ia
the one, or frailty in the other.
And certainly to such kind of persons forgiveness will
be proper; in which kind I am confident no man of my
time hath exceeded me; for though whensoever my
honour hath been engaged, no man hath ever been more
forward to hazard his life, yet where with my honour I
could forgive I never used revenge, as leaving it always to
God, who, the less I punish mine enemies, will inflict* so
* This is a very unchristian reason for pardoning our enemies, and
can by no means be properly called forgiveness. Is it forgiveness to
remit a punishment, on the hope of its being doubled? One of the
most exceptionable passages in Shakespeare is the horrid reflection of
Hamlet, that he will not kill the king at his prayers, lest he send him
to heaven.—And so am I revenged? Such sentiments should always
52 MS LOftS Of
much the more punishment on them; and to this f orgiv6-
ness of others three considerations have especially invited
me.
1. That he that cannot forgive others breaks the
bridge over which he must pass himself, for every man
had need to be forgiven.
2. That when a man wants or comes short of an entire
and accomplished virtue, our defects may be supplied
this way, since the forgiving of evil deeds in others
amouiiteth to no less than virtue in us; that therefore it
may be not unaptly called the paying our debts with
another man's money.
3. That it is the most necessary and proper work of
every man; for, though when I do not a just thing, or a
oharitable, or a wise, another man may do it for me, yet
no man can forgive my enemy but myself; and these
have been the chief motives for which I have been ever
inclined to forgiveness; whereof, though I have rarely
found other effect than that my servants, tenants, and
neighbours have thereupon more frequently offended me,
yet at least I have had within me an inward peace and
•comfort thereby, since I can truly say, nothing ever gave
my mind more ease than when I had forgiven my enemies,
which freed me from many cares and perturbations,
which otherwise would have molested me.
And this likewise brings in another rule concerning the
use of virtues, which is, that you are not to use justice
where mercy is most proper; as, on the other side, a foolish
.be marked and condemned, especially in authors, who certainly do not
mean to preach up malice and revenge. His lordship's other reasons
are better founded, though still selfish. He does not appear a humane
philosopher, till he owns that he continued to forgive, though lie
found that it encouraged new injuries. The beauty of virtue consists
in doing right, though to one's own prejudice.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 53
pity is not to be preferred before that which is just and
necessary for good example. So likewise liberality is not
to be used where parsimony or frugality is more requisite;
as, on the other side, it will be but a sordid thing in a
gentleman to spare where expending of money would
acquire unto him advantage, credit, or honour; and this
rule in general ought to be practised, that the virtue ¥6*
quisite to the occasion is ever to be produced, as the most
opportune and necessary.
That therefore wisdom is the soul of all virtues, giving
them, as unto her members, life and motion,. and so
necessary in every action, that whosoever by the benefit
of true wisdom makes use of the right virtue on all
emergent occasions, I dare say would never be constrained
to have recourse to vice, whereby it appears that every
virtue is not to be employed indifferently, but that only
which is proper for the business in question; among.
which yet temperance seems so universally requisite, that
some part of it at least will be a necessary ingredient in
all human actions, since there may be an excess even in
religious worship, at those times when other duties are
required at our hands. After all, moral virtues are
learned and directed to the service and glory of G-od, as
the principal end and use of them.
It would be fit that some time be spent in learning
rhetoric or oratory, to the intent that upon all occasions
you may express yourself with eloquence and grace; for
as it is not enough for a man to have a diamond, unless
it is polished and cut out into due angles, and a foil be
set underneath, whereby it may the better transmit and
vibrate its native lustre and rays; so it will not be suffi-
cient for a man to have a great understanding in all
matters, unless the said understanding be not only
polished and clear, but underset and holpen a little with
54 THE LIFE OF
those figures, tropes, and colours which rhetoric affords,
where there is use of persuasion.
I can by no means yet commend an affected eloquence,
there being nothing so pedantical, or indeed that would
give more suspicion that the truth is not intended, than
to use overmuch the common forms prescribed in schools.N
It is well said by them, that there are two parts of
eloquence necessary and recommendable; one is, to speak
hard things plainly, so that when a knotty or intricate
business, having no method or coherence in its parts,
shall be presented, it will be a singular part of oratory
to take those parts asunder, set them together aptly, and
so exhibit them to the understanding. And this part of
rhetoric I much commend to everybody, there being no
true use of speech but to make things clear, perspicuous,
and manifest, which otherwise would be perplexed,
doubtful, and obscure.
The other part of oratory is to speak common things
ingeniously or wittily, there being no little vigour and
force added to words, when they are delivered in a neat
and fine way, and somewhat out of the ordinary road,
common and dull language relishing more of the clown
than the gentleman. But herein also affectation must be
avoided; it being better for a man by a native and clear
eloquence to express himself, than by those words which
may smell either of the lamp or ink-horn; so that, in
general, one may observe that men who fortify and up-
hold their speeches with strong and evident reasons, have
ever operated more on the minds of the auditors, than
those who have made rhetorical excursions.
It will be better for a man who is doubtful of his pay
to take an ordinary silver piece with its due stamp upon
it, than an extraordinary gilded piece,which may perchance
contain a baser metal under it; and prefer a well-favoured,
LOED HEEBEET OF CHERBTJIiY. 55
wholesome woman, though with a tawny complexion,
before a besmeared and painted face.
It is a general note, that a man's wit is best showed in
Ms answer, and his valour in his defence; that therefore
as men learn in fencing how to ward all blows and
thrusts which are or can be made against them, so it will
be fitting to debate and resolve beforehand what you are
to say or do upon any affront given you, least otherwise
you should be surprised. Aristotle hath written a book
of rhetoric, a work, in my opinion, not inferior to his best
pieces, whom therefore with Cicero de Oratore, as also
Quintilian, you may read for your instruction how to
speak, neither of which two yet I can think so exact in
their orations, but that a middle style will be of more
efficacy, Cicero in my opinion being too long and tedious,
and Quintilian too short and concise.
Having thus by moral philosophy enabled yourself to
all that wisdom and goodness which is requisite to direct
you in all your particular actions, it will be fit now to
think how you are to behave yourself as a public person,
or member of the commonwealth and kingdom wherein
you live; as also to look into those principles and
grounds upon which government is framed, it being
manifest in nature that the wise doth easily govern the
foolish, and the strong master, the weak; so that he that
could attain most wisdom and power would quickly rule
his fellows; for proof whereof, one may observe that a
king is sick during that time the physicians govern him,
and in day of battle an expert general appoints the king
a place in which he shall stand, which was anciently the
office of the constables de/France.
In law also, the judge is in a sort superior to his king,
as long as he judgeth betwixt him and his people. In
divinity also, he to whom the king commits the charge of
56 (THE LIFE OF
Ms conscience is his superior in that particular. AH
which instances may sufficiently prove, that in many
cases the wiser governs or commands one less wise than
himself, unless a wilful obstinacy be interposed; in
which, case recourse must be had to strength where
obedience is necessary..
The exercises I chiefly used, and most recommend to my
posterity, were riding the great horse and fencing, in
which arts I had excellent masters, English, French, and
Italian; as for dancing, I could never find leisure enough
to learn it, as employing my mind always in acquiring of
some art or science more useful; howbeit, I shall wish,
these three exercises learned in this order:
That dancing may be learned first, as that which doth
fashion the body, gives one a good presence in and ad-
dress to all companies, since it disposeth the limbs to a
kind of souplesse (as the Frenchmen call it) and agility,
insomuch that they seem to have the use of their legs,
arms, and bodies, more than any others, who, standing
stiff and stark in their postures, seem as if they were
taken in their joints, or had not the perfect use of their
members. I speak not this yet as if I would have a youth
never stand still in company, but only that, when he hath
occasion to stir, his motions may be comely and graceful:
that he may learn to know how to come in and go out of
a room wl^ere company is; how to make courtesies hand-
somely, according to the several degrees of persons he
shall encounter; how to put off and hold his hat; all
which, and many other things which become men, are
taught by the more accurate dancing-masters in France.
The next exercise a young man should learn (but not
before he is eleven or twelve years of age) is fencing;
for the attaining of which the Frenchman's rule is ex-
cellent, b'on pied, l)on ceil, by which to teach'men how
LORD HEEBEKT OF CHEBJBUBY. 57
far they may stretch out their feet when they would
make a thrust against their enemy, lesfc either should
overstride themselves, or not striding far enough, fail to
"bring the point of their weapon home: the second part
of his direction adviseth the scholar to keep a fixed eye
upon the point of his enemy's sword, to the intent he may
both put by or ward the blows and thrusts made against
him. and together direct the point of his sword upon
some part of his enemy that lieth naked and open to him.
The good fencing-masters, in. France especially, when,
they present a foil or fleuret to their scholars, tell him it
hath two parts, one of which.he. calleth the fort, or
strong, and the other the foible, o>r weak. With the fort,
or strong, which extends from the part of the hilt next
the sword about a third part of the whole length
thereof, he teacheth his scholars to defend themselves,
and put by and ward the thrusts and blows of his enemy,
and with the other two third parts to strike or thrust, as
he shall see occasion; which rule also teacheth how to
.strike or thrust high or low as his enemy doth, and
briefly to take his measure and time upon his adversary's
motions, whereby he may both defend himself or offend
his adversary, of which I have had much experiment and
use, both in the fleuret, or foil, as also when I fought in
good earnest with many persons at one and the same
time, as will appear in the sequel of my life.
And, indeed, I think I shall not speak vain-gloriously
of myself, if I say that no man understood the use of his
weapon better than I did, or hath more dexterously pre-
vailed himself thereof on all occasions; since I found no
man could be hurt but through some error in fencing.
I spent much time also in learning to ride the great
horse, that creature being made above all others for the
service of man, as giving his rider all the advantages of
58 THE LIFE OF
which lie is capable, while sometimes he gives him
strength, sometimes agility or motion, for the overcoming
of his enemy, insomuch that a good rider on a good horse,
is as much above himself and others, as this world can
make him. The rule for graceful riding is, that a man
hold his eyes always betwixt the two ears, and his rod over
the left ear of his horse, which he is to use for turning him
every way, helping himself with his left foot, and rod
upon the left part of his neck, to make his horse turn on
the right hand, and with the right foot and help of his
rod also (if needs be), to turn him on the left hand; but
this is to be used rather when one would make a horse
understand these motions, than when he is a ready horse,
the foot and stirrup alone applied to either shoulder
being sufficient, with the help of the reins, to make him
turn any way.
That a rider thus may have the use of his sword, or
when it is requisite only to make a horse go sidewards,
it will be enough to keep the reins equal in his hand, and
with the flat of his leg and foot together, and a touch
upon the shoulder of the horse with the stirrup, to make
him go sideward either way, without either advancing
forward or returning backwards.
The most useful aer, as the Frenchmen term it, is
territerr: the courbettes, cabrioes, or un pas et un saut,
being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for
soldiers; yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with cour-
bettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a
fight or melee, for. as Labroue hath it in his book of
horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse
that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did with
his sword strike down two adversaries from their horses
in a tournay, where divers of the prime gallants of
France did meet; for taking his time when the horse was
LOBD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 59
in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow
then his sword fell with such weight and force upon the
two cavaliers one after another, that he struck them
from their horses to the ground.
The manner of fighting a duel on horseback I was
taught thus : We had each of us a reasonable stiff riding-
rod in our hands, about the length of a sword, and so
rid one against the other; he, as the more expert, sat still
to pass me, and then to get behind me, and after to turn
with his right hand upon my left side with his rod, that
so he might hit me with the point thereof in the body;
and he that can do this handsomely is sure to over-
come his adversary, it being impossible to bring his
sword about enough to defend himself or offend the
assailant; and to get this advantage, which they call
in French gagner la croupe, nothing is so useful as
to make a horse to go only sideward until his ad-
versary be past him, since he will by this means avoid
his adversary's blow or thrust, and on a sudden get
on the left hand of his adversary, in the manner I
formerly related: but of this art let Labroue and
Pluvinel * be read, who are excellent masters in that
art, of whom I must confess I learned much: though,
to speak ingenuously, my breaking two or three colts,
and teaching them afterwards those aers of which they
were most capable, taught me. both what I was to do, and
made me see mine errors, more than all their precepts.
* Antoine de Pluviuel, principal ecuyer de Louis treize, roi de
France. He published & very fine folio, in Frencli and Dutch,
entitled, "Instruction du Hoi en 1'exercice de monter a cheval."
Paris, 1619. It consists of dialogues between the young king, the
Due de Bellegarde, and himself; and is adorned with a great
number of beautiful cuts by Crispin Pass, exhibiting the whole
system of the manege, and with many portraits of the great and
remarkable men of that court.
60 THE LIFE OP
To make a horse fit for the wars, and embolden him
against all terrors, these inventions are useful; to beat
a drum out' of the stable first, and then give him his pro-
vender, then beat a drum in the stable by degrees, and
then give Mm his provender upon the drum: when he is
acquainted herewith sufficiently, you must shoot off a
pistol out of the stable, before he hath his provender;
then you may shoot off a pistol in the stable, and
so by degrees bring it as near to him as you can till
he be acquainted with the pistol, likewise remembering
still after every shot to give him more provender.
You must also cause his groom to put on bright
armour, and so to rub his heels and dress him: you must
also present a sword before him in the said armour, and
when you have done, give him still some more provender:
lastly, his rider must bring his horse forth into the open
field, where a bright armour must be fastened upon a
stake, and set forth in the likeness of an armed man as
much as possible; which being done, the rider must put
his horse on till he make him not only approach the said
image, but throw it down; which being done, you must
be sure to give him some provender, that he may be
encouraged to do the like against an adversary in battle.
It will be good also that two men do hold up a cloak
betwixt them in the field, and then the rider to put the
horse to it till he leap over, which .cloak also they may
raise as they see occasion, when the horse is able to leap
so high.
You shall do well also to use your horse to swimming,
which you may do either by trailing him after you at the
tail of a boat, in a good river, holding him by the head
at the length of the bridle, or by putting a good swimmer,
in a linen waistcoat and breeches, upon him.
It will be fit for a gentleman also to learn to swim
LORD HEEBEKT OF CHEBBUEY. 61
unle'ss lie be given to cramps and convulsions; howbeit,
I must confess, in my own particular, that I cannot
swim, for as I was once in danger of drowning by learning
to swim, my mother upon her blessing charged me never
to learn swimming, telling me farther, that she had heard
of more drowned than saved by it; which reason, though
it did not prevail with me, yet her commandment did.
It will be good also for a gentleman to learn to leap,
wrestle, and vault on horseback, they being all of them,
qualities of great use. I do much approve likewise of
shooting in the long bow, as being both an healthful
exercise, and useful for the wars, notwithstanding all
that our firemen speak against it; for, bring a hundred
archers against so many musketeers, I say if the archer
comes within his distance, he will not only make two
shoots, but two hits for one.
The exercises I do not approve of are riding of running
horses, there being much cheating in that kind; neither
do I see why a brave man should delight in a creature
whose chief use is to help him to run away. I do not
much like of hunting horses, that exercise taking up more
time than can be spared from a man studious to get
knowledge; it is enough, therefore, to know the sport,
if there be any in it, without making it an ordinary
practice; and indeed, of the two, hawking is the better,
because less time is spent in it; and upon these terms
also I can allow a little bowling, so that the company be
choice and good.
The exercises I wholly condemn are dicing and carding,
especially if you play for any great sum of money, or
spend any time in them, or use to come to meetings in
dicing-houses, where cheaters meet and cozen young
gentlemen of all their money. I could say much more
concerning all these points of education, and particularly
62 THE LIFE OF
concerning the discreet civility which is to be observed
in communication either with friends or strangers, but
this work would grow too big, and that many precepts
conducing thereunto may be had in " G-uazzo de la Civile
Conversation," and "G-aleteus de Moribus."
It would also deserve a particular lecture or rediercJie^
how one ought to behave himself with children, servants,
tenants, and neighbours ; and I am confident that precepts
in this point will be found more useful to young gentle-
men than all the subtleties of schools. I confess I have
collected many things to this purpose, which I forbear .to
eet down here, because (if G-od grant me life and health)
I intend to make a little treatise concerning these points.
I shall return now to the narration of mine own history.
When I had attained the age betwixt eighteen or nine-
teen years, my mother, together with myself and wife,
removed up to London, where we took house, and kept a
greater family than became either my mother's widow's
estate, or such young beginners as we were, especially
since six brothers and three sisters were to be provided
for, my father having made either no will, or such an
imperfect one, that it was not proved. My mother,
.although she had all my father's leases and goods, which
were of great value, yet she desired me to undertake thai
burden' of providing for my brothers and sisters; which,
to gratify my mother, as well as those so near me, I was
voluntarily content to provide thus far, as to give my six
brothers £30 apiece yearlyx during their lives, and my
eisters £1,000 apiece, which portions married them to
those I have above mentioned: my younger sister, indeed,
might have been married to a far greater fortune, had
not the overthwartness of some neighbours interrupted it.
About the year of our Lord 1600, I came to London,
shortly after which the attempt of the Earl of Essex,
LOBD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 63
related in our history, followed, which I had rather were
seen in the writers of that argument than here. Not
long after this, curiosity, rather than ambition, brought
me to court: and, as it was the manner of those times for
all men to kneel down before the great Queen Elizabeth,
who then reigned, I was likewise upon my knees in the
presence chamber, when she passed by to the chapel at
Whitehall.
As soon as she saw me she stopped, and swearing her
usual oath, demanded, "Who is this?" Everybody there
present looked upon me, but no man knew me, until Sir
James Croft, a pensioner, finding the queen stayed, re-
turned back and told who I was, and thafa I had married
Sir William Herbert of St. Gillian's daughter. The queen
hereupon looked attentively upon me, and swearing again
her ordinary oath, said it is pity he was married so young,
and thereupon gave her hand to kiss twice, both times
gently clapping me on the cheek. I remember little
more of myself, but that from that time until King
James's coming to the crown, I had a son, which died
shortly afterwards, and that I attended my studies
seriously, the more I learnt out of my books adding still
a desire to know more.
King James, being now acknowledged king, and coming
towards London, I thought fit to meet his Majesty at
Burley, near Stamford. Shortly after I was made Knight
of the Bath, with the usual ceremonies belonging to that
ancient order. I could tell how much my person was
commended by the lords and ladies that came to see the
solemnity then used, but I shall flatter myself too much
if I believed it.
I must not forget yet the ancient custom, being that
some principal person was to put on the right spur of
those the king had appointed to receive that dignity: the
64 THE LIFE OF
Earl of Shrewsbury, seeing my esquire there with my
spur in his hand, voluntarily came to me and said,
"Cousin, I believe yon will be a good knight, and there-
fore I will put on your spur;'; whereupon, after my most
humble thanks for so great a favour, I held up my leg
against the wall, and he put on my spur.
There is another custom likewise, that the knights the
first day wear the gown of some religious order, and the
night following to be bathed; after which they take an
oath never to sit in place where injustice should be done,
but they shall right it to the uttermost of their power; and
particularly ladies and .gentlewomen that shall be wronged
in their honour, if they demand assistance, and many other
points, not unlike the romances of knight-errantry.
The second day to wear robes of crimson taffety (in
which habit I am painted in my study), and so to ride
from St. James's to Whitehall, with our esquires before
us; and the third day to wear a gown of purple satin,
upon the left sleeve whereof is fastened certain strings
weaved of white silk and gold tied in a knot, and tassels
to it of the same, which all the knights are obliged to
wear until they have done something famous in arms, or
until some lady of honour take it off, and fasten it on her
sleeve, saying, "I will answer he shall prove a good
knight." I had not long worn this string, but a principal
lady of the court, and certainly, in most men's opinion,
the handsomest,* took mine off, and said she would pledge
her honour for mine. I do not name this lady, because
gome passages happened afterwards which oblige me to
silence, though nothing could be justly said to her pre-
judice or wrong.
* It is impossible, perhaps, at this distance of time, to ascertain who
this lady was; but there is no doubt of her being the same person
mentioned afterwards, whom he calls " the fairest of her time."
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 65
. Shortly after this I intended to go with Charles, Earl of
Nottingham, the lord admiral, who went to Spain to take
the king's oath for confirmation of the articles of peace
betwixt the two crowns ; howbeit, by the industry of
some near me, who desired to stay me at home, I was
hindered, and instead of going that voyage, was made
sheriff of Montgomeryshire, concerning which I will say
no more but that I bestowed the place of under-sherilr*,
as also other places in my gifts, freely, without either
taking gift or reward; which custom also I have observed
throughout the whole course of my life ; insomuch that
when I was ambassador in France, and might have had
great presents, which former ambassadors accepted, for
doing lawful courtesies to merchants and others, yet no
gratuity, upon what terms soever, could ever be fastened
upon me.
This public duty did not hinder me yet to follow my
beloved studies in a country life for the most part;
although sometimes also I resorted to court, without yet
that I had any ambition there, and much less was
tainted with those corrupt delights incident to the times;
for, living with my wife in all conjugal loyalty for the
space of about ten years after my' marriage, I whol:y
declined the allurements and temptations whatsoever,
which might incline me to violate my marriage bed.
About the year 1008. my two daughters, called Bea-
trice and Florance, who lived not yet long after, and one
son Richard being born, and come to so much maturity,
that, though in their mere childhood, they gave no Kt:le
hopes of themselves for the future time, I called them all
before my wife, demanding how she liked them, to which
she answering, well; I demanded then, whether she waa
willing to do so much for them as I would; whereupon
she replying, demanded what I meant by that. I told
c—55
66" THE LIFE OF
her that, for my part, I was but young for a man, and
she not old for a woman; that our lives were in -the
hands of G-od; that, if He pleased to call either of us
away, that party which remained might marry again,
and have children by some other, to which our estates
might be disposed; for preventing whereof I thought
fit to motion to her that, if she would assure upon the
son any quantity of lands from £300 a year to £1,000, I
would do the like: but my wife not approving hereof,
answered in these express words, that she would not
draw the cradle upon her head; whereupon, I desiring
her to advise better upon the business, and to take some
few days' respite for that purpose, she seemed to depart
from me not very well contented.
About a week or ten days afterwards, I demanded
again what she thought concerning the motion I made,
to which yet she said no more, but that she thought she
had already answered me sufficiently to the point. I
told her then that I should make another motion to her,
which was, that in regard I was too young to go be-
yond sea before I married her, she now would give me
leave for awhile to see foreign countries; howbeit, if she
would assure her lands as I would mine, in the manner
above-mentioned, I would never depart from her: she
answered that I knew her mind before concerning that
point, yet that she should be sorry I went beyond sea,
nevertheless, if I would needs go, she could not help it.
This, whether a licence taken or given, served my turn
to prepare without delay for a journey beyond sea, that
eo I might satisfy that curiosity I long since had to see
foreign countries. So that I might leave my wife so
little discontented as I could, I left her not only posterity
to renew the family of the Herberts of St. Gillian's, ac-
cording to her father's desire, to inherit his lands, but
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 67
the rents of all the lands she brought with her, reserving
mine own partly to pay my brothers' and sisters' portions,
and defraying my charges abroad. Upon which terms,
though I was sorry to leave my wife, as having lived
most honestly with her all this time, I thought it no such
unjust ambition to attain the knowledge of foreign coun-
tries, especially since I had in great part already attained
the languages, and that I intended not to spend any long
time out of my country.
Before I departed yet, I left her with child of a son,
christened afterwards by the name of Edward; and now
(,-oming to court, I obtained a licence to go beyond sea,
taking with me for my companion Mr. Aurelian Towns-
end, a gentleman that spoke the languages of French,
Italian, and Spanish in great perfection, and a man to
wait in my chamber, who spoke French, two lackeys, and
three horses. Coming thus to Dover, and passing the
seas thence to Calais, I journeyed without any memor-
able adventure, till I came to Faubourg St. Germain, in
Paris, where Sir G-eorge Carew, then ambassador for the
king, lived; I was kindly received by him, and often
invited to his table.
Next to his house dwelt the Duke of Ventadour, who
had married a daughter of Monsieur de Montmorency,
grand constable de France; many visits being exchanged
between that duchess and the lady of our ambassador, it
pleased the duchess to invite me to her father's house,
at the castle of Merlou, being about twenty-four miles
from Paris; and here I found much welcome, from that
brave old general,* who being informed of my name,
* Henry de Montmorency, second son of the great Constable Anne
de Montmorency, who was killed at the battle of St. Denis, 1567, and
brother of Duke Francis, another renowned warrior and statesman.
Henry was no less distinguished, in 1'oth capacities, and gained great
glory at the battles of Dreux and St. Denis. He was made constable
68 THE LIFE OF
said lie knew well of what family I was; telling, the
first notice he had of the Herberts was at the siege of St.
Quentin. where my grandfather, with a command of
foot under William, Earl of Pembroke, was.
Passing two or three days here, it happened one even-
ing that a daughter of the duchess, of about ten or eleven
years of age, going one evening from the castle to walk
in the meadows, myself, with divers French gentlemen,
attended her and some gentlewomen that were with her-
This young lady wearing a knot of ribbon on her head, a
French chevalier took it suddenly, and fastened it to his
hatband: the young lady, offended herewith, demands
her ribbon, but he refusing to restore it, the young lady
addressing herself to me, said, "Monsieur, I pray get my
ribbon from that gentleman." Hereupon going towards
him, I courteously, with my hat in my hand, desired him
to do me the honour, that I may deliver the lady her
ribbon or bouquet again; but he roughly answering me,
"Do you think I will give it you. when I have refused
it to her?" I replied, "Nay then, sir, I will make you
restore it by force ;" whereupon also, putting on my hat
and reaching at his, he to save himself ran away, and
after a long course in the meadow, finding that I had
almost overtook him, he turned short, and running to the
young lady, was about to put the ribbon on her hand,
when I, seizing upon his arm, said to the young lady, "It
was I that gave it." "Pardon me," quoth she, "it is he
that gives it me." I said then, " Madam, I will not con-
tradict you, but if he dare say that I did not constrain
by Henry IV., though he could neither read nor write, and died in the
habit of St. Francis, 1614. He was father of the gallant but unfortu-
nate Duke Henry, the last of that illustrious and ancient line, who
took for their motto, "Dieu aycle au premier Chretien." The Duchess
of Veiitadour, mentioned above, was Margaret, second daughter of the
constable, and wife of Anne de Levi, duke of Yentadour,
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 69
him to give it, I will fight with him." The French
gentleman answered nothing thereunto for the present,
and so conducted the young lady again to the castle.
The next day I desired Mr. Aurelian Townsend to tell
the French cavalier, that either he must confess that I
constrained him to restore the ribbon, or fight with me;
but the gentleman seeing him unwilling to accept of this
challenge, went out from the place, whereupon I follow-
ing him, some of the gentlemen that belonged to the
constable taking notice hereof, acquainted him therewith,
who sending for the French cavalier, checked him well
for his sauciness in taking the ribbon away from his
grandchild, and afterwards bade him depart his house;
and this was all that I ever heard of the gentleman, with
whom I proceeded in that manner, because I thought my-
self obliged thereunto by the oath * taken when I was
made Knight of the Bath, as I formerly related upon this
occasion.
I must remember also that three other times I en-
gaged myself to challenge men to fight with me, who I
conceived had injured ladies and gentlewomen; one was
in defence of my cousin Sir Francis Newport's daughter,
who was married to John Barker, of Hamon, whose
younger brother and heir f * * *
* * * * * * *
sent him a challenge, which to this day he never an-
* This oath is one remnant of a superstitious and romantic age, which
an age, calling itself enlightened, still retains. The solemn service at
the investiture of knights, which has not the least connection with
anything holy, is a piece of the same profane pageantry. The oath being
no longer supposed to bind, it is strange mockery to invoke Heaven
on so trifling an occasion. It would be more strange if every knight,
like the too conscientious Lord Herbert, thought himself bound to
cut a man's throat every time a miss lost her topknot!
t This space is left blank, because there is certainly something
wanting in the original.
70 THE LIFE OF
swered. and would have beaten him afterwards, but that
I was hindered by my uncle Sir Francis Newport.
I had another occasion to challenge one Captain
Vaughan, who I conceived offered some injury to my
sister, the Lady Jones, of Abarmarlas. I sent him a chal-
lenge, which he accepted, the place between us being
appointed beyond G-reenwich, with seconds on both sides;
hereupon I coming to the King's Head, in G-reenwich,
with intention the next morning to be in the place, I
found the house beset with at least a hundred persons,
partly sent by the lords of the privy council, who gave
order to apprehend me.
I hearing thereof, desired my servant to bring my
horses as far as he could from my lodging, but yet within
sight of me; which being done, and all this company
coming to lay hold on me, I and my second, who was my
cousin James Price, of Hanachly, sallied out of the doors,
with our swords drawn, and in > spite of that multitude
made our way to our horses, where my servant very
honestly opposing himself against those who would have
laid hands upon us, while we got upon horseback, was
himself laid hold on by them, and evil-treated; which I
perceiving, rode back again, and with my sword in my
hand rescued him, and afterwards seeing him get on
horseback, charged them to go anywhere rather than to
follow me. Biding afterwards with my second to the
place appointed, I found nobody there, which, as I heard
afterwards, happened because the lords of the council,
taking notice of this difference, apprehended him, and
charged him in his Majesty's name not to fight with me;
since otherwise I believed he would not have failed.
The third that I questioned in this kind was a Scotch
gentleman, who taking a ribbon in the like manner from
Mrs. Middlemore, a maid, of honour, as was done from the
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 71
young lady above-mentioned, in a back room behind Queen
Anne's lodgings in Greenwich, she likewise desired me
to get her the said ribbon. I repaired, as formerly, to him
in a courteous manner to demand it, but he refusing as
the French cavalier did, I caught him by the neck, and
had almost thrown him down, when company came in
and parted us. I offered likewise to fight with this gentle-
man, and came to the place appointed by Hyde Park;
but this also was interrupted by order of the lords of the
council, and I never heard more of him. »
These passages, though different in time, I have re-
lated here together both for the similitude of argument
and that it may appear how strictly I held myself to my
oath of knighthood, since for the rest I can truly say
that, though I have lived in the armies and courts of the
greatest princes in Christendom, yet I never had a
quarrel with man for mine own sake; so that, although
in mine own nature I was ever choleric and hasty, yet I
never, without occasion given, quarrelled with anybody,
and as little did anybody attempt to give me offence, as
having as clear a reputation for my courage as whosoever
of my time. For my friends often I have hazarded
myself, but never yet drew my sword for my own sake
singly, as hating ever the doing of injury, contenting
myself only to resent them when they were offered me.
After this digression I shall return to my history.
That brave constable in France, testifying now more
than formerly his regard of me, at his departure from
Merlou to his fair house at Chantilly, five or six miles
distant, said he left that castle to be commanded by ine,
as also his forests and chases, which were well stored
with wild boar and stag, and that I might hunt them
when I pleased. He told me also that, if I would learn
to ride the great horse, he had a stable there of soma
725 . THE LIFE OF
fifty, tlie best and choicest as was thought in France, and
that his ecuyer, called Monsieur de Disancour, nor in-
ferior to Pluvenel or Labrove, should teach me. I did
with great thankfulness accept his offer, as being very
much addicted to the exercise of riding great horses ; and
as for hunting in his forests, I told him I should use it
sparingly, as being desirous to preserve his game.
He commanded also his ecuyer to keep a table for me,
aad his pages to attend me, the chief of whom was
Konsfbur de Mennon, who, proving to be one of the best
Lorsemen in France, keeps now an academy in Paris;
and here I shall recount a little passage betwixt him and
his master, that the inclination of the French at that
time may appear; there being scarce any man thought
worth the looking on that had not killed some other in
duel.
Mennon desiring to marry a niece of Monsieur Disan-
cour, who it was thought should bt his heir, was thus
answered by him: "Friend, it is not time yet to marry.
I will tell you what you must do. If you will be a brave
man, you must first kill in single combat two or three
men, then afterwards marry and engender two or three
children, or the world will neither have got nor lost by
you ;" of which strange counsel Disancour was no other-
wise the author than as he had been an example, at least
of the former part, it being his fortune to have fought
three or four brave duels in his time.
And now, as every morning I mounted the great horse,
so in the afternoons I many times went a-hunting, the
manner of which was this. The Duke of Montmorency
having given oiders to the tenants of the town of Merlou
and some villages adjoining, to attend me when I went a-
hunting, they, upon my summons, usually repaired to
those woods where I intended to find my game, with
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 73
drums and muskets, to the number of sixty or eighty, and
sometimes one hundred or more persons; they entering
the wood on that side with that noise, discharging their
pieces and beating their said drums; we on the other side
of the said wood having placed mastiffs and greyhounds
to the number of twenty or thirty, which Monsieur de
Montmorency kept near his castle, expected those beasts
they should force out of the wood. If stags or wild
boars came forth, we commonly spared them, pursuing
only the wolves, which were there in great number, of
which are found two sorts: the mastiff wolf, thick and
short, though he could not indeed run fast, yet would
fight with our dogs ; the greyhound wolf, long and swift,
who many times escaped our best dogs, though when he
was overtaken, easily killed by us, without making much
resistance. Of both these sorts I killed divers with my
sword while I stayed there.
One time also it was my fortune to kill a wild boar in
this manner. The boar being roused from his den, fled
before our dogs for a good space, but finding them press
him hard, turned his head against our dogs, and hurt
three or four of them very dangerously. I came on
horseback up to him, and with my sword thrust him
twice or thrice without entering his skin, the blade being
not so stiff as it should be. The boar hereupon turned
upon me, and much endangered my horse, which I per-
ceiving, rode a little out of the way, and leaving my
horse with my lackey, returned with my sword against
the boar, who by this time had hurt more dogs; and
here happened a pretty kind of fight, for when I thrust
at the boar sometimes with my sword, which in some
places I made enter, the boar would run at me, whose
tusks yet by stepping a little out of the way I avoided,
but he then turning upon me, the dogs came in and drew
74 THE LIFE OF
frrrn off, so that he fell upon them, which I perceiving,
ran at the boar with my sword again, which made him
turn upon me, but then the dogs pulled him from me
again, while so relieving one another by turns we killed
the boar.
At this chase Monsieur Disancour and Mennon were
present, as also Mr. Townsend, yet so as they did en-
deavour rather to withdraw me from, than assist me in
the danger. Of which boar, some part being well
seasoned and larded, I presented to my uncle Sir Francis
Newport, in Shropshire, and found most excellent meat.
Thus having passed a whole summer partly in these
exercises, and partly in visits of the Duke of Mont-
morency at his fair house in Chantilly, which for its
extraordinary fairness and situation I shall here de-
scribe.
A little river descending from some higher grounds, in
a country which was almost all his own, and falling at •
last upon a rock in the middle of a valley, which, to keep
its way forwards, it must on one or other side thereof
have declined. Some of the ancestors of the Mont-
morencys, to ease the river of this labour, made divers
channels through this rock to give it a free passage,
dividing the rock by that means into little islands, upon
which he built a great strong castle, joined together with
bridges, and sumptuously furnished with hangings of
silk and gold, rare pictures and statues, all which
buildings, united as I formerly told, were encompassed
about with water, which was paved with stone (those
which were used in the building of the house were drawn
from thence).
One might see the huge carps, pike, and trout, which
were kept in several divisions, gliding along the waters
yery easily; yet nothing in my opinion added so much to
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 75
the glory of this castle as a forest adjoining close to it,
and upon a level with the house; for being of a very
large extent, and set thick both with tall trees and
underwood, the whole forest, which was replenished with
wild boar, stag, and roe-deer, was cut out into long walks
every way, so that, although the dogs might follow their
chase through the thickets, the huntsmen might ride
along the said walks, and meet or overtake their game in
some one of them, they being cut with that art, that
they led to all the parts in the said forest; and here also
I have hunted the wild boar divers times, both then and
afterwards, when his son, the Duke of Montmorency,
succeeded him in the possession of that incomparable
place.
And there I cannot but remember the direction the old
constable gave me to return to his castle out of this
admirable labyrinth; telling me, I should look upon
what side the trees were roughest and hardest, which
being found, I might be confident that part stood north-
ward, which being observed, I might easily find the east,
as being on the right hand, and so guide my way home.
How much this house, together with the forest, hath
been valued by great princes, may appear by two little
narratives I shall here insert. Charles V., the great
emperor, passing in the time of Francois I., from Spain
into the Low Countries, by the way of France, was enter-
tained for some time in this house by a Duke of Mont-
morency, who was likewise constable de France, after he
had taken this palace into his consideration, with the
forests adjoining, said he would willingly give one of his
provinces in the Low Countries for such a place, there
being, as he thought, nowhere such a situation.
Henry IV. also was desirous of this house, and offered
to exchange any of his houses, with much more lands than
76 THE LIFE OF
his estate thereabouts was worth; to which the Duke of
Montmorency made this wary answer: "Sieur, la maison
est a vous, rnais que je sois lc. concierge /' which in English
sounds thus: "Sir, the house is yours, but give me leave to
keep it for you."
When I had been at Merlou about some eight months
and attained, as was thought, the knowledge of horseman-
snip, I came to the Duke of Montmorency at St. Ilee.*"
and, after due thanks for his favours, took my leave of
him to go to Paris, whereupon, fche good old prince em-
bracing me. and calling me son, bade me farewell, assuring
nie nevertheless he should be glad of any occasion here-
after to testify his love and esteem for me; telling me
farther, he should come to Paris himself shortly, where
he hoped to see me. From hence I returned to Merlouf
where I gave Monsieur Disancour such a present as abun-
dantly requited the charges of my diet, and the pains of
his teaching.
Being now ready to set forbh, a gentleman from the
Duke of Montmorency came to me, and told me his master
would not let me go without giving me a present, which.
I might keep as an earnest of his affection; whereupon
also a genet, for which the duke had sent expressly into
Spain, and which cost him there five hundred crowns, as
I was told, was brought to me. The greatness of this
gift, together with other courtesies received, did not a
little trouble ine, as not knowing then how to requite
them. I would have given my horses I had there, which
were of great value, to him, but that I thought them too
mean a present; but the duke also suspecting that I
meant to do so, prevented me, saying that as I loved him,
I should think upon no requital while I stayed in France,
* Sic orig. But it is probably a blunder of the transcriber for
Chaiitilly.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBUJRY. 77
but when I came into England, if I sent him a mare that
ambled naturally, I should much gratify him. I told the
messenger I should strive both that way and every way
else to declare my thankfulness, and so dismissed the
messenger with a good reward.
Coming now to Paris, through the recommendation of
the lord ambassador, I was received to the house of that
incomparable scholar, Isaac Causabon, by whose learned
conversation I much benefited myself ; besides, I did ap-
ply myself much to know the use of my arms, and to ride
the great horse, playing on the lute, and singing accord-
ing to the rules of the French masters.
Sometimes also I went to the court of the French king,
Henry IY., who, upon information of me in the garden at
the Tuileries, received me with all courtesy, embracing
me in his arms, and holding me some while there. I went
sometimes also to the court of Queen Margaret, at the
hostel called by her name; and here I saw many balls or
masks, in all which it pleased that queen publicly to place
me next to her chair, not without the wonder of some,
and the envy of another, who was wont to have that
favour. I shall recount one accident which happened
while I was there.
All things being ready for the ball, and every one being
in their place, and I myself next to the queen, expecting
when the dancers would come in, one knocked at the door
somewhat louder than became, as I thought, a very civil
person. When he came in, I remember there was a
sudden whisper among the ladies, saying, "C'est Monsieur
Balagny," or, " It is Monsieur Balagny :" whereupon also I
saw the ladies and gentlewomen, one after another, invite
Mm to sit near them, and which is more, when one lady
had his company awhile, another would say, "You have
3njoyed him long enough. I must have him now ;" at
78 THE LIFE OF
which "bold civility of theirs, though I was astonished,
yet it added unto my wonder that his person could not be
thought at most but ordinarily handsome ; his hair, which
was cut very short, half grey, his doublet but of sackcloth
cut to his shirt, aitd his breeches only of plain grey cloth.
Informing myself by some standers-by who he was, I
was told that h"e "was~"one of the gallantest men in the
world, as having killed eight or nine men in single fight,
and that for this reason the ladies made so much of him.
it being the manner of all Frenchwomen to cherish
gallant men, as thinking they could not make so much
of any else with the safety of their honour. This cavalier,
though his head was half grey, he had not yet attained
the age of thirty years, whom I have thought fit to re-
member more particularly here, because of some passages
that happened afterwards betwixt him and me at the
siege of Juliers, as I shall tell in its place.
Having passed thus all the winter, until about the latter
end of January, without any such memorable accident as
I shall think fit to set down particularly, I took my leave
of the French King, Queen. Margaret, and the nobles and
ladies in both courts; at which time the Princess of Conti
desired me to carry a scarf into England, and present it
to Queen Anne on her part, which being accepted, myself
and Sir Thomas Lucy (whose second I had been twice in
France, against two cavaliers of our nation, who yet were
hindered to fight with us in the field where we attended
them), we came on our way as far as Dieppe, in Normandy,
and there took ship about the beginning of February,
when so furious a storm arose, that with very great danger
we were at sea all night.
The master of our ship lost both the use of his compass
and his reason; for not knowing whither he was carried
by the tempest, all the help he had was by the lightnings,
LOBD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBTJBY. 79
which together with thunder very frequently that night,
terrified him, yet gave the advantage sometimes to dis-
cover whether we were upon our coast, to which he
thought, by the course of his glasses, we were near ap-
proached; and now towards day we found ourselves, by
great providence of Grod, within view of Dover, to which
the master of our ship did make. The_men of Dover,
rising by times in the mornmgTo~see whether any ship
were coming towards them, were in great numbers upon
the shore, as believing the tempest, which had thrown
down barns and trees near the town, might give them
the benefit of some wreck, if perchance any ship were
driven thitherwards.
We coming thus in extreme danger, straight upon the
pier of Dover, which stands out in the sea, our ship was
unfortunately split against it; the master said, "Mas
amis, nous sommes perdus" or, "My friends, we are cast
away ;" when myself, who heard the ship crack against
the pier, and then found, by the master's words, it was
time for every one to save themselves, if they could, gofc
out of my cabin (though very sea-sick), and, climbing up
the mast a little way, drew my sword and flourished it;
they at Dover having this sign given them, adventured
in a shallop of six oars to relieve us, which, being come
with great danger to the side of our ship, I got into it
first, with my sword in my hand, and called for Sir
Thomas Lucy, saying that if any man offered to get in
before him I should resist him with my sword; where-
upon a faithful servant of his taking Sir Thomas Lucy
out of the cabin, who was half dead of sea-sickness, put
him into my arms, whom after I had received, I bade the
shallop make away for shore, and the rather that I saw
another shallop coming to relieve us; when a post from.
France, who carried letters, finding the ship still rent
80 THE LIFE OF
more and more, adventured to leap from the top of our
ship into the shallop, where, falling fortunately on some
of the stronger timber of the boat, and not on the planks,
which he must needs have broken, and so sunk us had he
fallen upon them, escaped, together with us two, unto the -
land.
I must confess, myself, as also the seamen that were in
the shallop, thought once to have killed him for this
desperate attempt; but finding no harm followed, we
escaped together unto the land, from whence we sent
more shallops, and so made means to save both men and
horses that were in the ship, which yet itself was. wholly
split and cast away, insomuch that, in pity to the master,
Sir Thomas Lucy and myself gave £30 towards his loss,
which yet was not so great as we thought, since the tide
now ebbing, he recovered the broken parts of his ship.
Coming thus to London, and afterwards to court, I
kissed his Majesty's hand, and acquainted him with some
particulars concerning France. As for the present I had
to deliver to her Majesty from the Princess of Conti,
I thought fit rather to send it by one of the ladies that
attended her, than to presume to demand audience of her
in person; but her Majesty not satisfied herewith, com-
manded me to attend her, and demanded divers questions
of me concerning that princess and the courts in France,
saying she would speak more at large with me at some
other time; for which purpose she commanded me to
wait on her often, wishing me to advise her what present
she might return back again.
Howbeit, not many weeks after, I returned to my wife
and family again, where I passed some time, partly in
my studies, and partly riding the .great horse, of which I
had a stable well furnished. No horse yet was so dear to
me as the genet I brought from France, whose love I had
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 81
so gotten that lie would suffer none else to ride Mm, nor
indeed any man to come near him, when I was upon him,
as being in his nature a most furious horse. His true
picture may be seen in the chapel chamber in my house,
where I am painted riding him. and this motto by me,
"Me totum bonitas bonuin suprema
Reddas; me intrepidum dabo vel ipse."
This horse, as soon as ever I came to the stable, would
neigh, and when I drew near him, would lick my hand,
and (when I suffered him) my cheek, but yet would
permit nobody to come near his heels at the same time.
Sir Thomas Lucy would have given me £200 for this
horse, which though I would not accept, yet I left the
horse with him when I went to the Low Countries, who
not long after died. The occasion of my going thither
was thus. Hearing that a war about the title of Cleave
Juliers, and some other provinces, betwixt the Low
Countries and Germany, should be made by the several
pretenders to it, and that the French King himself would
come with a great army into those parts; it was now the
year of our Lord 1610, when my Lord Chandois* and
myself resolved to take shipping for the Low Countries,
and from thence to pass to the city of Juliers, which the
Prince of Orange resolved to besiege.
Making all haste thither, we found the siege newly
begun; the Low Country army assisted by four thousand
English, under the command of Sir Edward Cecil. We
had not been long there when the Marshal de Chartres,
instead of Henry IV., who was killed by that villain
Ravaillac, came with a brave French army thither, in which
'Monsieur Balagny, I formerly mentioned, was a colonel.
* Grey Bridges, Lord Chandos, made a Knight of the Bath at the
creation of Charles, .Duke of York, 1604, and called, for his hospitality'
and magnificence, the King of Cotswold*
82 THE LIFE OF
My Lord Chandois lod'ged himself in the quarters where
Sir Horace Yere was; I went and quartered with Sir
Edward Cecil, where I was lodged next to him in a hut
I made there, going yet both by day and night to the
trenches, we making our approaches to the town on one
side, and the French on the other. Our lines were drawn
towards the point of a bulwark of the citadel, or castle,
thought to be one of the best fortifications in Christen-
dom, and encompassed about with a deep wet ditch. We
lost many men in making these approaches, the town and
castle being very well provided both with great and small
shot, and a garrison in it of about four thousand men,
besides the burghers.
Sir Edward Cecil (who was a very active general) used
often during the siege to go in person in the night time,
to try whether he could catch any sentinels perdus; and
for this purpose still desired me to accompany him; in
performing whereof, both of us did much hazard our-
selevs, for the first sentinel retiring to the second, and
the second to the third, three shots were commonly mads
at us before we could do anything, though afterwards
chasing them with our swords almost home unto their
guards, we had some sport in the pursuit of them.
One day Sir Edward Cecil and myself coming to the
approaches that Monsieur de Balagny had made towards
a bulwark or bastion of that city, Monsieur de Balagny.
in the presence of Sir Edward Cecil and divers English
and French captains then present, said, "Monsieur, on
dit que vov-s etes un des plus braves de votre nation, et je
suis Balagny; allons vo/r qui fera le miewxn ("They
say you are one of the bravest of your nation, and I am
Balagny; let us see who will do best"); whereupon leaping
suddenly out of the trenches with his sword drawn, I did
in the like manner as suddenly follow him, both of us in
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY.. 83
the meanwhile striving who should be foremost, which
being perceived by those of the bulwark and cortine
opposite to us, three or four hundred shot at least, great
and small, were made against us.
Our running on forwards in emulation of each other,
was the cause that all the shots fell betwixt us and the
trench from which we sallied. When Monsieur Balagny,
finding such a storm of bullets, said, "Par Dieu, il fait
lien chaud" ("It is very hot here"), I answered briefly
thus, " Vous en irez premier, autrement je riirai jamais"
(" You shall go first or else I will never go "). Hereupon he
ran with all speed, and somewhat crouching, towards the
trenches; I followed after leisurely and upright, and yet
came within the trenches before they on the bulwark or
cortine could charge again; which passage afterwards
being related to the Prince of Orange,- he said it was a
strange bravado of Balagny, and that we went to an un-
avoidable death.
I could relate divers things of note concerning myself,
during this siege, but do forbear lest I should relish too
much of vanity ; it shall suffice that my passing over the
ditch unto the wall first of all the nations there, is set
down by William Crofts, Master of Arts, and soldier,
who hath written and printed the history of the Low
Countries.
There happened during this siege a particular quarrel
betwixt me and the Lord of Walden,* eldest son to the
Earl of Suffolk, lord treasurer of England at that time,
which I do but unwillingly relate, in regard of the great
esteem I have of that noble family; howbeit, to avoid
* Theophilus, Lord Howard of Walden, eldest son of Thomas. Earl
of Suifolk, whom he succeeded in the title, and was Knight of the
Garter, constable of Dover Castle, and captain of the band of
Pensioners,
84 THE LIFE OF
misreports, I have thought fit to set it down truly. That
lord having been invited to a feast in Sir Horace Yere's
quarters, where (after the Low Country manner) there
was liberal drinking, returned not long after to Sir
Edward Cecil's quarters, at which time, I speaking
merrily to him, upon some slight occasion, he took that
offence at me which he would not have done at another
time, insomuch that he came towards me in a violent
manner, which I perceiving, did more than half-way
meet him ; but the company were so vigilant upon us
that before any blow passed we were separated; howbeit,
because he made towards me, I thought fit the next day
to send him a challenge telling him, that if he had any-
thing to say to me, I would meet him in such a place as
no man should interrupt us.
Shortly after this Sir Thomas Payton came to me on
his part, and told ine my lord would fight with me on
horseback with single sword; and, said he, "I will be his
second ; where is yours?" I replied that neither his lord-
ship nor myself brought over any great horses with us;
that I knew he might much better borrow one than my-
self; howbeit, as soon as he showed me the place, he
should find me there on horseback or on foot; whereupon
both of us riding together upon two geldings to the side
of a wood, Payton said he chose that place, and the time
break of day the nest morning; I told him I would fail
neither place nor time, though I knew not where to get a
better horse than the nag I rode on ; and as for a second, I
shall trust to your nobleness, who, I know, will s ;e fair
play betwixt us, though you come on his side: iut he
urging me again to provide a second. I told him I could
promise for none but myself, and that if I spoke to any
of my friends in the army to this purpose, I doubted lest
the business might be discovered and prevented.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 85
He was no sooner gone from me but night drew on,
myself resolving in the meantime to rest under a fair oak
all night; after this, tying my horse by the bridle unto-
another tree, I had not now rested two hours, when I
found some fires nearer to me than I thought was
possible in so solitary a place, whereupon also having the
curiosity to see the reason hereof, I got on horseback
again, and had not rode very far when, by the talk of
the soldiers there, I found I was in the Scotch quarter,
where finding in a stable a very fair horse of service, I
desired to know whether he might be bought for any
reasonable sum of money, but a soldier replying it was
their captain's, Sir James Areskin's chief horse, I de-
manded for Sir James, but the soldier answering he was
not within the quarter, I demanded then for his lieu-
tenant, whereupon the soldier courteously desired him to
come to me; this lieutenant was called Montgomery, and
had the reputation of a gallant man. I told him that I
would fain buy a horse, and if it were possible, the horse
I saw but a little before; but he telling me none was to
be sold there, I offered to leave in his hands one hundred
pieces, if he would lend me a good horse for a day or two,
he to restore me the money again when I delivered him
the horse in good plight, and did besides bring him some
present as a gratuity.
The lieutenant, though he did not know me, suspected
I had some private quarrel, and that I desired this horse
to fight on, and thereupon told me, "Sir, whosoever you are,
you seem to be a person of worth, and you shall have the
best horse in the stable; and if you have a quarrel and
want a second, I offer myself to serve you upon another
horse, and if you will let me go along with you upon these
terms, I will ask no pawn of you for the horse." I told
him I would use no second, and I desired him to accept
86 THE LIFE OF
one hundred pieces, which. I had there about me, in pawn
for the horse, and he should hear from me shortly again;
and that though I did not take his noble offer of coming
along with me, I should evermore rest much obliged to
him: whereupon giving him my purse with the money in
it, I got upon his horse, and left my nag besides with him.
Riding thus away about twelve o'clock at night to the
wood from whence I came, I alighted from my horse and
rested there till morning ; the day now breaking, I got on
horseback, and attended the Lord of Walden with his
second. The first person that appeared was a footman,
who I heard afterwards was sent by the Lady of Walden,
who, as soon as he saw me, ran back again with all speed.
I meant once to pursue him, but that I thought it better
at last to keep my place.
About two hours after Sir William St. Leiger, now lord
president of Munster, came to me, and told me he knew
the cause of my being there, and that the business was
discovered by the Lord Walden's rising so early that
morning, and the suspicion that he meant to fight with me,
and had Sir Thomas Payton with him, and that he would
ride to him, and that there were thirty or forty sent after
us to hinder us from meeting; shortly after many more
came to the place where I was, and told me I must not
fight, and that they were sent for the same purpose, and
that it was to no purpose to stay there, and thence rode
to seek the Lord of Walden. I stayed yet two hours longer,
but finding still more company came in, rode back again
to the Scotch quarters, and delivered the horse back again,
and received my money and nag from Lieutenant Mont
gomery, and so withdrew myself to the French quarters,
till I did find some convenient time to send again to the
Lord Walden.
Being among the French, I remembered myself of the
LORD HERBERT OF CHEEBURT. 87
bravado of Monsieur Balagny, and coming to Mm, told
him I knew how brave a man lie was, and that as he had
put me to one trial of daring, when I was last with hi™
in his trenches, I would put him to another; saying, I
heard he had a fair mistress, and that the scarf he wore
was her gift, and that I would maintain I had a worthier
mistress than he, and that I would do as imich for her
sake as he or any else durst do for his. Balagny here-
upon looking merrily upon me, said, "If we shall try
who is the abler man to serve his mistress, let both of us
get two wenches, and he that doth his business best, let
him be the braver man ; " and that for his part, he had
no mind to fight on that quarrel. I looking hereupon
somewhat disdainfully on him, said he spoke more like a
paillard than a cavalier; to which he answering nothing,
I rode my ways, and afterwards went to Monsieur Terant,
a French gentleman that belonged to the Duke of Mont-
morency, formerly mentioned; who telling me he had a
quarrel with another gentleman, I offered to be his
second, but he saying he was provided already, I rode
thence to the English quarters, attending some fit occa-
sion to send again to the Lord Walden : I came no sooner
thither, but I found Sir Thomas Somerset * with eleven
or twelve more in the head of the English, who were then
drawing forth in a body or squadron, who seeing me on
horseback, with a footman only that attended me, gave
me some affronting words, for my quarrelling with the
Lord of Walden ;. whereupon I alighted, and giving my
horse to my lackey, drew my sword, which he no sooner
saw but he drew his, as also all the company with him.
* He was third son of Edward, Earl of Worcester, Lord Privy
Seal to Queen Elizabeth and King James. Sir Thomas was Master of
the Horse to Queen Anne, was made Knight of the Bath in 1604, and
Viscount Somerset of Cassel, in Ireland.
88 THE LIFE OF
I running hereupon amongst them, put by some of their
thrusts, and making towards him in particular, put by a
thrust of his, and had certainly run him through, but
that one Lieutenant Prichard, at that instant taking me
by the shoulder, turned me aside; but I recovering my-
self again, ran at him a second time, which he perceiving
retired himself with the company to the tents which were
near, though not so fast but I hurt one'Proger, and some
others also that were with him; but they being all at last
got within the tents, I finding now nothing else to be
done, got to my horse again, having received only a slight
hurt on the outside of my ribs, and two thrusts, the one
through the skirts of my doublet, and the other through
my breeches, and about eighteen nicks upon my sword
and hilt, and so rode to the trenches before Juliers, where
our soldiers were.
Not long after this, the town being now surrendered,
and everybody preparing to go their ways, I sent again a
gentleman to the Lord of Walden to offer him the meet-
ing with my sword, but this was avoided not very hand-
somely by him (contrary to what Sir Henry Rich, now
Earl of Holland, persuaded him).
After having taken leave of his excellency, Sir Edward
Cecil, I thought fit to return on my way homewards as
far as Dusseldorp. I had been scarce two hours in my
lodgings when one Lieutenant Hamilton brought a letter
from Sir James Areskin (who was then in town like-
wise) unto me, the effect whereof was, that in regard his-
Lieutenant, Montgomery, had told him that I had the said
James Areskin's consent for borrowing his horse, he did
desire me to do one of two things, which was, either to
disavow the said words, which he thought in his con-
science I never spake; or if I would justify them, then
to appoint time and place to fight with him.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 83
Having considered awhile what I was to do in this
case, I told Lieutenant Hamilton that I thought myself
bound in honour to accept the more noble part of his
proposition, which was to fight with him, when yet per-
chance it might be easy enough for me to say that I had
his horse upon other terms than was affirmed; where-
upon also giving Lieutenant Hamilton the length of my
sword, I told him that as soon as ever he had matched it,
I would fight with him, wishing him further to make
haste, since I desired to end the business as speedily as
could be.
Lieutenant Hamilton hereupon returning back, met in
a cross-street (I know not by what miraculous adventure)
Lieutenant Montgomery, conveying divers of the hurt
and maimed soldiers at the siege of St. Juliers unto that
town, to be lodged and dressed by the surgeons there;
Hamilton hereupon calling to Montgomery, told him the
-effects of his captain's letter, together with my answer,
which Montgomery no sooner heard but he replied (as
Hamilton told me afterwards), " I see that noble gentle-
man chooseth rather to fight than to contradict me; but
my telling a lie must not be an occasion why either my
captain or he should hazard their lives : I will alight
from my hocse, and tell my captain presently how all
that matter passed ; " whereupon also he relating the busi-
ness about borrowing the horse, in that manner I formerly
set down, which as soon as Sir James Areskin heard, he
sent Lieutenant Hamilton to me presently again, to tell
me he was satisfied how the business passed, and that he had
nothing to say to me but that he was my most humble
servant, and was sorry he ever questioned me in that
manner.
Some occasions detaining me in Dusseldorp, the next
day Lieutenant Montgomery came to me, and told me he
90 THE LIFE OF
was in danger of losing bis place, and desired me to make
means to his excellency the Prince of Orange that he
might not be cashiered, or else that he was undone. I
told him that either I would keep him in Ms place, or
take him as my companion and friend and allow him
sufficient means till I could provide him another as good
as it; which he taking very kindly, but desiring chiefly
he might go with my letter to the Prince of Orange, I
obtained at last he should be restored to his place
again.
And now taking boat, I passed along the river of
Rhine to the Low Countries, where after some stay I
went to Antwerp and Brussels; and having passed some
time in the court there, went from thence to Calais,
where taking ship, I arrived at Dover, and so went to
London. I had scarce been two days there when the
lords of the council, sending for me, ended the difference
betwixt the Lord of Waldeii and myself. And now, if I
may say it without vanity. I was in great esteem both in
court and city; many of the greatest desiring my com-
pany, though yet before that time I had no acquaintance
with them.
Richard,* Earl of Dorset, to whom otherwise I was a
stranger, one day invited me to Dorset House, where
bringing me into his gallery, and showing me many
pictures, he at last brought me to a frame covered with
green taffeta, and asked me who I thought was there;
and therewithal presently drawing the curtain, showed
me my own picture; whereupon demanding how his
lordship came to have it, he answered that he had heard
so many brave things of me, that he got a copy of a
* Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, grandson of the treasurer, and
husband of the famous Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset and Pem-
broke
LOE.D HEIiBEBT OF CHE&BUBY. 91
picture which one Larkin, a painter, drew for me, the
original whereof I intended, before my departure to the
Low Countries, for Sir Thomas Lucy; but not only the
Earl of Dorset, but a greater person* than I will here
nominate, got another copy from Larkin, and placing it
afterwards in her cabinet (without that ever I knew any
such thing was done), gave occasion to those that saw it
after her death, of more discourse than I could have
wished; and indeed I may truly say that taking of my
picture was fatal to me, for more. reasons than I shall
think fit to deliver.
There was a lady also, wife to Sir John Ayres, knight,
who finding some means to get a copy of my picture from
Larkin, gave it to Mr. Isaac,f the painter in Blackfriars,
and desired him to draw it in little after his manner;
which being done, she caused it to be set in gold and
enamelled, and so wore it about her neck, so low that she
hid it under her breast, which, I conceive, coming after-
wards to the knowledge of Sir John Ayres, gave him
more cause of jealousy than needed, had he known
how innocent I was from pretending to anything which
might wrong him or his lady; since I could not so much
as imagine that either she had my picture, or that she
bare more than ordinary affection to me. It is true that
as she had a place in court, and attended Queen Anne,
and was besides of an excellent wit and discourse, she had
made herself a considerable person; howbeit little more
than common civility ever passed betwixt us, though I
confess I think no man was welcomer to her when I
came, for which I shall allege this passage :—
* Tliis was certainly Queen Anne, as appears from the very respect-
ful terms in which he speaks of her a little farther, and from other
passages, when he mentions the secret and dangerous enemies he had
on this account. _
t Isaac" Oliver.'
92 THE LIFE OB'
Coming one day into her chamber, I saw her through
the curtains lying upon her bed with a wax candle in
one hand, and the picture I formerly mentioned in the
other. T coming thereupon somewhat boldly to her, she
blew out the candle, and hid the picture from me : myself
thereupon being curious to know what that was she held
in her hand, got the candle to be lighted again, by
means whereof I found it was my picture she looked
upon with more earnestness and passion than I could
have easily believed, especially since myself was not en-
gaged in any affection towards her. I could willingly have
omitted this passage, but that it was the beginning of a
bloody history which followed: howsoever, yet I must
before the Eternal G-od clear her honour.
And now in court a great person sent for me divers
times to attend her, which summons though I obeyed, yet
God knowefch I declined coming to her as much as
conveniently I could, without incurring her displeasure;
and this I did not only for very honest reasons, but,
to speak ingenuously, because that affection passed
betwixt me and another lady (who I believe was the
fairest of her time) as nothing could divert it. I had not
been long in London when a violent burning fever seized
upon me, which brought me almost to my death, though
at last I did by slow degrees recover my health.
Being thus upon my amendment, the Lord Lisle,*
afterwards Earl of Leicester, seni> me word that Sir John
Ayres intended to kill me in my bed, and wished me to
keep a guard upon my chamber and person. The same
advertisement was confirmed by Lucy,t Countess of Bed-
* Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, younger brother of Sir Philip
Sidney.
f Lucy Harrington, wife of Edward, Earl of Bedford, a great
patroness of the wits and poets of that age.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTIRY. 93
ford, and the Lady Hobby * shortly after. Hereupon I
thought fit to entreat Sir William Herbert, now Lord
Powis, to go to Sir John Ayres, and tell him that I mar-
yelled much at the information given me by these great
persons, and that I could not imagine any sufficient
ground hereof; howbeit, if he had anything to say to me
in a fair and noble way, I would give him the meeting as
soon as I had got strength enough to stand upon my legs.
Sir William hereupon brought me so ambiguous and
doubtful an answer from him, that whatsoever he meant,
he would not declare yet his intention, which was really,
as I found afterwards, to kill me any way that he could,
since, as he said, though falsely, I had seduced'his wife.
Finding no means thus to surprise me, he sent me a letter
to this effect: that he desired to meet me somewhere, and
that it might so fall out as I might return quietly again.
To this I replied that if he desired to fight with me upon
equal terms. I should, upon assurance of the field and fair
play, give him meeting when he did any way specify the
cause, and that I did not think fit to come to him upon
any other terms, having been sufficiently informed of his
plots to assassinate me.
After this, finding he could take no advantage against
me, then, in a treacherous way, he resolved to assassinate
me in this manner. Hearing I was to come to Whitehall
on horseback, with two lackeys only, he attended my
coming back in a place called Scotland Yard, at the hither
end of Whitehall, as you come to it from the Strand, hiding
himself here with four men armed, on purpose to kill me.
I took horse at Whitehall Gate, and passing by that
place, he being armed with a sword and dagger, without
giving me so much as the least warning, ran at me
* Probably Anne, second wife of Sir Edward Hobby, a patron oi
Cainden.
94 THE LIFE OF
furiously, but instead of me, wounded my horse in the
brisket, as far as his sword could enter for the bone. My
horse hereupon starting aside, he ran him again in the
shoulder, which, though it made the horse more timorous,
yet gave me time to draw my sword. His men there-
upon encompassed me, and wounded my horse in three
places more; this made my horse kick and fling in that
manner as his men durst not come near me; which
advantage I took to strike at Sir John Ayres with all my
force, but he warded the blow both with his sword and
dagger; instead of doing him harm, I broke my sword
within a foot of the hilt. Hereupon some passenger that
knew me, and observing my horse bleeding in so many
places, and so many men assaulting me, and my sword
broken, cried to me several times, "Ride away, ride
away ;" but I, scorning a base flight upon what terms
soever, instead thereof, alighted as ^well as I could from
my horse.
I had no sooner put one foot upon the ground, but Sir
John Ayres pursuing me, made at my horse again, which
the horse perceiving, pressed on me on the side I alighted,
in that manner that he threw me down, so that I re-
mained flat upon the ground, only one foot hanging in the
stirrup, with that piece of a sword in my right hand.
Sir John Ayres hereupon ran about the horse, and was
thrusting his sword into me, when I, finding myself in
this danger, did with both my arms reaching at his legs,
pull them towards me, till he fell down backwards on his
head. One of my footmen hereupon, who was a little
Shropshire boy, freed my foot out of the stirrup; the
other, which was a great fellow, having run away as soon
as he saw the first assault. This gave me time to get
upon my legs, and to put myself in the best posture I
could with that poor remnant of a weapon.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRT. 95
Sir John Ayres by this time likewise was got up, standing
betwixt me and some part of Whitehall, with two men on
each side of him, and his brother behind him, with at
least twenty or thirty persons of his friends, or attendants
of the Earl of Suffolk. Observing thus a body of men
standing in opposition against me, though to speak truly
I saw no swords drawn but by Sir, John Ayres and his
men, I ran violently against Sir John Ayres; but he,
knowing my sword had no point, held his sword and
dagger over his head, as believing I could strike rather
than thrust; which I no sooner perceived but I put a
home-thrust to the middle of his breast, that I threw him
down with so much force, that his head fell first to the
ground, and his heels upwards. His men hereupon
assaulted me; when one, Mr. Mansel, a Glamorganshire
gentleman, finding so many set against me alone, closed
with one of them; a Scotch gentleman also closing with
another, took him off also. All I could well do to those
two which remained was to ward their thrusts, which I
did with that resolution, that I got ground upon them.
Sir John Ayres was now got up a third time, when I
making towards him with the intention to close, thinking
that there was otherwise no safety for me, put by a
thrust of his with my left ha:id, and so coming within
him, received a stab with his dagger on my right side,
which ran down my ribs as far as my hip, which I feeling,
did with my right elbow force his hand, together with
the hilt of the dagger, so near the upper part of my right
side, that I made him leave hold. The dagger now
sticking in me, Sir Henry Gary, afterwards Lord of Faulk-
land, and lord deputy of Ireland, finding the dagger thus
in my body, snatched it out. This while I, being closed
with Sir John Ayres, hurt him on the head, and threw
him down a third time, when, kneeling on the ground
9b* THE LIFE OF
and bestriding him, I struck at him as hard as I could
with my piece of a sword, and wounded him in four
several places, and did almost cut off his left hand.
His two men this while struck at me; but it pleased
G-od even miraculously to defend ine; for when I lifted
up my sword to strike at Sir John Ayres, I bore off their
blows half a dozen times. His friends now rinding him
in this danger, took him by the head and shoulders, and
drew him from betwixt my legs, and carried him along
with them through Whitehall, at the stairs whereof he
took boat. Sir Herbert Croft (as he told me afterwards)
met him upon the water, vomiting all the way, which I
believe was caused by the violence of the first thrust I
gave him. His servants, brother, and friends being now
retired also, I remained master of the place and his
weapons ; having first wrested his dagger from him, and
afterwards struck his sword out of his hand.
This being done, I retired to a friend's house in the
Strand, where I sent for a surgeon, who searching my
wound 011 the right side, and finding it not to be mortal,
cured nie in the space of some ten days, during which
time I received many noble visits and messages from some
of the best in the kingdom. Being noAV fully recovered
of my hurts, I desired Sir Robert Harley* to go to Sir
John Ayres, and tell him, that though I thought he had
not so much honour left in him, that I could be any way
ambitious to get it, yet that I desired to see him in the
field with his sword in his hand. The answer that he
sent me was, that I had seduced his wife, and that he
would kill me with a musket out of a window.
The lords of the privy council, who had first sent for
my sword, that they might see the little fragment of a
weapon with which I had so benaved myself, as perchance
* Knight of the Bath, and Master of the Mint.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBCTRY. 97
the like had not been heard in any credible way, did
afterwards command both him and me to appear before
them; bnt I absenting myself on purpose, sent one
Humphrey Hill with a challenge to him in an ordinary,
which he refusing to receive, Humphrey Hill put it upon
the point of his sword, and so let it fall before him and
the company then present.
The lords of the privy council had now taken order to
apprehend Sir John Ayres, when I, finding nothing else
to be done, submitted myself likewise to them. Sir
John Ayres had now published everywhere, that the
ground of his jealousy, and consequently of his assault-
ing me. was drawn from the confession of his wife, the
Lady Ayres. She, to vindicate her honour, as well as
fr^G me from this accusation, sent a letter to her aunt,
the Lady Crook, to this purpose: That her husband, Sir
John Ayres, did lie falsely, in saying that I ever seduced
her; but most falsely of all did lie when he said, he
had it from her confession, for she had never said any
such thing.
This letter the lady Crook presented to me most oppor-
tunely, as I was going to the council table before the
lords, who having examined Sir John Ayres concerning
the cause of the quarrel against me, found him still per-
sist in his wife's confession of the fact: and now he being
withdrawn, I was sent for, when the Duke of Lenox,*
afterwards of Eichmond, telling me that was the ground
of his quarrel, and the only excuse he had for assaulting
me in that manner, I desired his lordship to peruse the
letter, which I told him was given me as I came into the
room.
This letter being publicly read by a clerk of the
* Lodowic Stuart, Puke of Lenox and Richmond, was Lord Steward
of the Household, and Knight of the Garter.
D—55
98 THE LIFE OF
council, the Duke of Lenox then said, that he thought
Sir John Ayres the most miserable man living; for his
wife had not only given him the lie, as he found by her
letter, but his father had disinherited him for attempting
to kill me in that barbarous fashion, which was most
true, as I found afterwards. For the rest, that I might
content myself with what I had done, it being more
almost than could be believed, but that I had so many
witnesses thereof; for all which reasons he commanded
me, in the name of his Majesty, and all their lordships,
not to send any more to Sir John Ayres, nor to receive
any message from him, in the way of fighting; which
commandment I observed.
Howbeit I must not omit to tell, that some years after-
wards, Sir John Ayres returning from Ireland by Beau-
maris, where I then was,, some of my servants and
followers broke open the doors of the house where he
was, and would (I believe) have cut him into pieces, but
that I, hearing thereof, came suddenly to the house and
recalled them, sending him word also that I scorned to
give him the usage he gave me, and that I would set him
free out of the town ; which courtesy of mine, as I was
told afterwards, he did thankfully acknowledge.
About a month after that, Sir John Ayres attempted to
assassinate me; the news thereof was carried, I know
how, to the Duke of Montmorency, who presently de-
spatched a gentleman with a letter to me (which I keep),
and a kind offer, that if I would come unto him, I should
be used as his own son; neither had this gentleman, as I
know of, any other business in England. I was told
besides by this gentleman, that the Duke heard I had
greater and more powerful enemies than did publicly de-
clare themselves (which, indeed, was true), and that
lie doubted I might have a mischief before I was aware.
JL.OBD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBUBY. 99
My answer hereunto by letter was, that I rendered
most humble thanks for his great favour in sending to
me; that no enemies, how great or many soever, could
force me out of the kingdom; but if ever there were
occasion to serve him in particular, I should not fail to
come; for performance whereof, it happening there
were some overtures of a civil war in France the next
year, I sent over a French gentleman who attended me,
unto the Duke of Montmorency, expressly to tell him,
that if he had occasion to use my service in the designed
war, I would bring over one hundred horse, at my own
cost and charges to him; which that good old duke and
constable took so kindly, that, as the Duchess of Antedor.*
his daughter, told me afterwards, when I was ambassador,
there were few days, till the last of his life, that he did
not speak of me with much affection.
I can say little more memorable concerning myself
from the year 1611, when I was hurt, until the year of
our Lord 1614, than that I passed my time sometimes in
the court, where (I protest before G-od) I had more
favours than I desired; and sometimes in the country,
without any memorable accident; but only that it hap-
pened one time, going from St. Gillian's to Abergavenny,
in the way to Montgomery castle, Richard Griffiths, a
servant of mine, being come near a bridge over Husk,
not far from the town, thought fit to water his horse;
but the river being deep and strong in that place where
he entered it, he was carried down the stream. My ser-
vants that were before me, seeing this, cried aloud, Dick
Griffiths was drowning: which I no sooner heard, but I
put spurs to my horse, and coming up to the place, where
I saw him as high as his middle in water, leapt into the
river a little below him. and swimming up to him, bore
* Yentadour. * * ••«•••
100 THE LIFE OF
him up with one of my hands, and brought him unto the
middle of the river, where (through G-od's great provi-
dence) was a bank of sand.
Coming hither, not without some difficulty, we rested
ourselves; and advised whether it were better to return
back unto the side from whence, we came, or to go on
forwards; but Dick Griffiths saying we were sure to
swim if we returned back, and that, perchance, the river
might be shallow the other way, I followed his counsel,
and putting my horse below him, bore him up in the
manner I did formerly, and swimming through the river,
brought him safe to the other side. The horse I rode
upon, I remember, cost me £40, and was the same horse
which Sir John Ayres hurt under me, and did swim
excellently well, carrying me and his back above water;
whereas that little nag upon which Richard Griffiths rid,
swam so low that he must needs have drowned if I had
not supported him.
I will tell one history more of this horse, which I
bought of my cousin Fowler, of the Grange, because it is
memorable. I was -passing over a bridge not far from
Colebrook, which had no barrier on the one side, and a
hole in the bridge, not far from the middle: my horse,
though lusty, yet being very timorous, and seeing besides
but very little on the right eye, started so much at the
hole, that upon a sudden he had put half his body length-
wise over the side of the bridge, and was ready to fall
into the river, with his fore foot and hinder foot on the
right side, when I, foreseeing the danger I was in if I
fell down, clapped my left foot, together with the stirrup
and spur, flat-long to the left side, and so made him leap
upon all four into the river, whence, after some three or
four plunges, he brought me to land.
«• / The year 1614 was now entering, when I understood
J» •*.*** **» * *
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 101
that the Low Country and Spanish army would be in the
field that year : this made me resolve to offer my service
to the Prince of Orange, who, upon my coming, did
much welcome me, not suffering me almost to eat any-
where but at his table, and carrying me abroad the after-
noon in his coach, to partake of those entertainments he
delighted in when there was no pressing occasion. The
Low Country army being now ready, his excellency pre-
pared to go into the field; in the way to which he took
me in his coach, and sometimes in a waggon, after the
Low Country fashion, to the great envy of the English
and French chief commanders, who expected that honour.
Being now arrived near Emerick, one with a most
humble petition came from a monastery of nuns, most
humbly desiring that the soldiers might not violate their
honour, nor their monastery; whereupon, I was a most
humble suitor to his excellency to spare them, which he
granted; but, said he, we will go and see them ourselves,
and thus, his excellency, and I, and Sir Charles Morgan
only, not long after going to the monastery, found it
deserted in great part. Having put a guard upon this
monastery, his excellency marched with his army on till
we came near the city of Emerick, which, upon summon-
ing, yielded: and now leaving a garrison here, we resolved
to march towards Rice.*
This place, having the Spanish army, under the com-
mand of Monsieur Spinola, on the one side, and the Low
Country army on the other, being able to resist neither,
sent word to both armies, that whichsoever came first
should have the place. Spinola hereupon sent word to
his excellency, that if we intended to take Kice, he would
give him battle in a plain near before the town. His
excellency, nothing astonished hereat, marched on, his
* Rees, in the duchy of Cleve, near Emerick.
102 THE LIFE OF
pioneers making Ms way for the army still, through
hedges and ditches, until he came to that hedge and:
ditch which was next the plain; and here drawing his^
men into battle, resolved to attend the coming of Spinola.
into the field. While his men were putting in order, I
was so desirous to see whether Spinola with his army
appeared, I leapt over a great hedge and ditch, attended
only with one footman, purposing to change a pistol-shot
or two with the first I met. I found thus some single
horse in the field, who, perceiving me to come on, rid
away as fast as they could, believing, perchance, that,
more would follow me.
Having thus past to the further end of the field, and
finding no show of the enemy, I returned back, that 1
'might inform his excellency there was no hope of fight-
ing, as I could perceive. In the mean time, his excel-
lency having prepared all things for battle, sent out five
or six scouts to discover whether the enemy were coming,
according to promise; these men finding me now coming
towards them, thought I was one of the enemies, which
being perceived by me, and I as little knowing at that'
time who they were, rode up with my sword in my hand,,
and pistol, to encounter them; and now being come
within reasonable distance, one of the persons there
that knew me told his fellows who I was, whereupon.
I passed quietly to his excellency, and told him what I
had done, and that I found no appearance of an army.
His excellency then caused the hedge and ditch before
him to be levelled, and marched in front, with his army
into the middle of the field: from whence, sending some
of his forces to summon the town, it yielded without
resistance.
Our army made that haste to come to the place ap-
pointed for the battle, that all our baggage and provision
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 103
were left behind, insomuch that I was without any meat
but what my footman spared me out of his pocket; and
my lodging that night was no better, for extreme rain
falling at that time in the open field, I had no shelter,
but was glad to get on the top of a waggon which
had straw in it, and to cover myself with my cloak
as well as I could, and so endure that stormy night.
Morning being come, and no enemy appearing, I went
to the town of Rice, into which his excellency having
now put a garrison, marched on with the rest of his
army towards Wezel, before which Spinola with his army
lay, and in the way entrenched himself strongly, and at-
tended Spinola's motions. For the rest, nothing memor-
able happened after this betwixt those two generals, for
the space of many weeks.
I must yet not omit with thankfulness to remember a
favour his excellency did me at this time; for a soldier
having killed his fellow-soldier in the quarter where
they were lodged, which is an unpardonable fault, inso-
much that no man would speak for him; the poor fellow
comes to me, and desires me to beg his life of his excel-
lency; whereupon I demanding whether he had ever
heard of a man pardoned in this kind, and he saying no,
I told him it was in vain then for me to speak; when
the poor fellow writhing his neck a little, said, "Sir, but
were it not better you shall cast away a few words than
I lose my life?" This piece of eloquence moved me so
much that I went straight to his excellency, and told
him what the poor fellow had said, desiring him to
excuse me, if upon these terms I took the boldness to
speak for him.
There was present at that time the Earl of South-
ampton,* as also Sir Edward Cecil, and Sir Horace Yere,
* Henry Wriotliesley, third earl of Southampton. He had been
104 THE LIFE OF
.as also Monsieur de Chastillon, and divers other French
commanders; to whom his excellency, turning himself,
said in French, "Do you see this cavalier, with all that
courage you know, hath yet that good-nature to pray for
the life of a poor soldier? Though I had never pardoned
any before in this kind, yet I will pardon this at his
request." So commanding him to be brought me, and dis-
posed of as I thought fit, whom therefore I released and
set free.
It was now so far advanced in autumn, both armies
thought of retiring themselves into their garrisons, when
a trumpeter comes from the Spanish army to ours, with
a challenge from a Spanish cavalier to this effect, that if
any cavalier in our army would fight a single combat for
the sake of his mistress, the said Spaniard would meet
him, upon assurance of the camp in our army. This
challenge being brought early in the morning was
accepted by nobody till about ten or eleven of the clock,
when the report thereof coming to me, I went straight to
his excellency, and told him I desired to accept the
challenge. His excellency thereupon looking earnestly
upon me, told me he was an old soldier, and that he had
observed two sorts of men who used to send challenges in
this. kind. One was of those who having lost perchance
some part of their honour in the field against the enemy,
would recover it again by a single fight; the other was
of those who sent it only to discover whether our army
had in it men affected to give trial of themselves in this
kind; howbeit, if this man was a person without excep-
tion to be taken against him, he said there was none he
knew, upon whom he would sooner venture the honour of
Ms army than myself; and this also he spoke before
attainted with the Earl of Essex, but was restored by King Tames,
and made Knight of the Garter.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJEY. 105
divers of the English and French commanders I formerly
nominated.
Hereupon, by his excellency's permission, I sent a
trumpet to the Spanish army with this answer, That if
the person who would be sent were a cavalier without
reproach, I would answer him with such weapons as we
should agree upon, in the place he offered; but my
trumpeter was scarcely arrived, as I believe, at the
Spanish army, when another trumpeter came to ours
from Spinola, saying the challenge was made without
his consent, and that therefore he would not permit it.
This message being brought to his excellency, with
whom I then was, he said to me presently, "This is
strange; they send a challenge hither, and when they
have done, recall it: I should be glad if I knew the true
causes of it." "Sir," said I, "if you will give me leave,
I will go to their army and make the like challenge as
they sent hither; it may be some scruple is made con-
cerning the place appointed being in your excellency's
camp, and therefore I shall offer them the combat in
their own." His excellency said, "I should never have
persuaded you to this course, but since you voluntarily
offer it, I must not deny that which you think to be for
your honour."
Hereupon, taking my leave of him, and desiring Sir
Humphrey Tufton,* a brave gentleman, to bear me
company, thus we two, attended only with two lackeys,
rode straight towards the Spanish camp before "Wezel.
Coming thither without any disturbance by the way, I
was demanded by the guard at the entering into their
camp, with whom I would speak. I told them with the
Duke of Neubourg, whereupon a soldier was presently
* Third son of Sir John Tufton, and brother of Nicholas, Earl of
Thanet.
106 THE LIFE OF
• sent with us to conduct us to the Duke of Neubourg's
tent, who remembering me well, since he saw me at the
siege of Juliers, very kindly embraced me, and there-
withal demanding the cause of my coming thither. I
told him the effect thereof in the manner I formerly set
down, to which he replied only he would acquaint the
Marquis Spinola therewith, who coming shortly after to
, the Duke; of Neubourg's tent, with a great train of com-
manders and captains following him, he no sooner
entered but he turned to me and said that he knew well
the cause of my coming, and that the same reasons which
made him forbid the Spanish cavalier to fight a combat
in the Prince of Orange's camp, did make him forbid it
in his, and that I should be better welcome to him than
I would be, and thereupon entreated me to come and
dine with him. I finding nothing else to be done, did
kindly accept the offer, and so attending him to his
tent, where a brave dinner being put upon his table, he
placed the Duke of Neubourg uppermost at one end of
the table, and myself at the other, himself sitting below
us, presenting with his own hand still the best of that
meat his carver offered him. He demanded of me then in
Italian, c'Di che rnoriva Sigr. Francisco Vere ?"—" Of what
died Sir Francis Vere?" I told him, "Per aver niente a
fare."—" Because he had nothing to do." Spinola replied,
"E basta per un gerierale "—" And it is enough to kill a
general; " and indeed that'brave commander, Sir Francis
Vere, died not in time of war, but of peace.
Taking my leave now of the Marquis Spinola, I told
him that if ever he did lead an army against the Infidels,
I should adventure to be the first man that would die in
that quarrel, and together demanded leave of him to see
his army, which he granting, I took leave of him and
did at leisure view it, observing the difference in the
LORD HERBERT O* CHERBURY. 107
proceedings betwixt the Low Country army and fortifica-
tions as well as I could; and so returning- shortly after to
Ids excellency, related to him the success o£ my journey.
It happened about this time that Sir Henry Wotton
mediated a peace by the king's command, who coming
for that purpose to Wezel, I took occasion to go along
with him into Spinola's army, whence after a night's
•stay I went on an extreme rainy day through the woods
to Kaiserswerth, to the great wonder of mine host, who
said all men were robbed or killed that went that way.
Prom hence I went to Cologne, where among other things
I saw the monastery of St. Herbert; from hence I went
to Heidelberg, where I saw the Prince and Princess
Palatine, from whom having received much good usage,
I went to Ulm, and so to Augsburg, where extra-
ordinary honour was done me ;, for coming into an inn
where an ambassador from Brussels lay, the town sent
twenty great flagons of wine thither, whereof they gave
eleven to the ambassador, and nine to me; and withal
some such compliments that I found my fame had pre-
vented my coming thither.
From hence I went through Switzerland to Trent, and
from thence to Venice, where I was received by the
English ambassador, Sir Dudley Carl ton,* with much
honour. Among other favours showed me, I was
brought to see a nun in Murano, who being an admired
beauty, and together singing extremely well, was thought
one of the rarities not only of that place but of the time.
We came to a room opposite unto the cloister, whence
•she, coming on the other side of the grate betwixt us,
sung so extremely well, that when she departed neither
my lord ambassador nor his lady, who were then present,
* Ambassador to Venice, Savoy, and Holland, Secretary of State,
and Viscount Dorchester.
108 THE LIFE OF
t could find as much as a word of fitting language to
return her for the extraordinary music she gave us;
when I, being ashamed that she should go back without
some testimony of the sense we had, both of the harmony
of her beauty and her voice, said in Italian, "Moria pur
quando vuol, non bisogna mutar ni voce ni facia per esser
un angelo "—" Die whensoever you will, you neither need
to change voice nor face to be an angel." These words it
seemed were fatal, for going thence to Rome, and re-
turning shortly afterwards, I heard she was dead in the
meantime.
From Venice, after some stay, I went to Florence,
where I met the Earl of Oxford * and Sir Benjamin
Rudier.f Having seen the rarities of this place like-
wise, and particularly that rare chapel made for the
house of Medici, beautified on all the inside with a
coarser kind of precious stone, as also that nail which
was at one end iron and the other gold, made so by virtue
of a tincture into which it was put, I went to Siena,
and from thence, a little before the Christmas holidays,
to Rome. I was no sooner alighted at my inn but I
went straight to the English college, where demanding
for the regent or master thereof, a grave person not long
after appeared at the door, to whom I spake in this
manner. "Sir, I need not tell you my country when you
hear my language; I come not here to study contro-
versies, but to see the antiquities of the place. If with-
out scandal to the religion in which I was born and bred
up, I may take this liberty, I should be glad to spend
* Henry Vere, Earl of Oxford. He died at the Hague in 1625, of a
sickness contracted at the siege of Breda, where, being a very corpu-
lent man, he had overheated himself.
t Sir Benjamin Rudyard was a man in great vogue in that age, a
Wit, and poet, and intimate friend of William, Earl of Pembroke, with
whose poems Sir Benjamin's are printed.
LORD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBUBY. 109
some convenient time here ; if not, my horse is yet un-
saddled, and myself willing to go out of town."
The answer returned by him to me was, that he never
heard anybody before me profess himself of any other
religion than what was used in Rome. For his part he
approved much my freedom, as collecting thereby I was
a person of honour; for the rest, that he could give me
no warrant for my stay there, howbeit that experience
did teach that those men who gave no affronts to the
Roman Catholic religion received none, whereupon also
he demanded my name.
I telling him I was called Sir Edward Herbert, he re-
plied that he had heard men oftentimes speak of me both
for learning and courage, and presently invited me to
dinner. I told him that I took his courteous offer as an
argument of his affection, that I desired him to excuse
me if I did not accept it; the uttermost liberty I had (as
the times then were in England) being already taken in
coming to that city only, least they should think me a
factious person. I thought fit to tell him that I con-
ceived the points agreed upon on both sides, are greater
bonds of amity betwixt us than that the points disagreed
on could break them; that for my part I loved everybody
that was of a pious and virtuous life, and thought the
errors on what side soever, were more worthy pity than
hate; and having declared myself thus far, I took my
leave of him courteously, and spent about a month's
time in seeing the antiquities of that place, which first
found means to establish so great an empire over the
persons of men, and afterwards over their consciences;
the articles of confession and absolving sinners, being a
greater arcanum imperil for governing the world than
all the arts invented by statists formerly were.
After I had seen Rome sufficiently, I went to Tivoli,
110 THE LIFE OF
anciently called Tibur, and saw the fair palace and!
garden there, as also Frascati, anciently called Tuscu-
lanum. After that I returned to Rome, and saw the Pope
in consistory, which being done, when the Pope being-
now ready to give his blessing, I departed thence sud-
denly, which gave such a suspicion of nie that some were
sent to apprehend me, but I going a by-way escaped them,
and went to my inn to take horse, where I had not been
now half an hour, when the master or regent of the Eng-
lish college telling me that I was accused in the Inqui-
sition, and that I could stay no longer with any safety,
I took this warning very kindly; howbeit I did only for
the present change my lodging, and a day or two after-
wards took horse and went out of Rome towards Siena,
and from thence to Florence.
I saw Sir Robert Dudley, * who had the title of Earl or
Duke of Northumberland given him by the emperor, and
handsome Mrs. Sudel, whom he carried with him out of
England, and was there taken for his wife. I was in-
vited by them to a great feast the night before I went out,
of town: taking my leave of them both, I prepared for
my journey the next morning. When I was ready to-
depart, a messenger came to me, and told me if I would
accept the same pension Sir Robert Dudley had, being
two thousand ducats per annum, the Duke would enter-
tain me for his service in the war against the Turks..
This offer, whether procured by the means of Sir Robert
Dudley, Mrs. Sudel, or Sigr. Loty, my ancient friend, I
know not, being thankfully acknowledged as a great
honour, was yet refused by me, my intention being to-
serve his excellency in the Low Country war.
* See an account of this extraordinar}- person in the Catalogue of
Royal anil Noble Authors, vol. li. "Handsome Mrs. Stulel" was Mrs.
Southwell, daughter of Sir Robert Southwell, who had followed Sic
Bobert Dudley from England, under the disguise of a page.
LORD HERBEBT OF CETEBBTJBY. Ill
After I had stayed a while, from hence I went by
Ferrara and Bologna towards Padua, in which university
having spent some time to hear the learned readers, and
particularly Cremonini, I left my English horses and
Scotch saddles there, for on them I rid all the way from
the Low Countries; I went by boat to Venice. The lord
ambassador, Sir Dudley Carlton, by this time had a com-
mand to reside a while in the court of the Duke of Savoy,,
wherewith also his lordship acquainted me, demanding'
whether I would go thither; this offer was gladly ac-
cepted by me, both as I was desirous to see that court,
and that it was in the way to the Low Country, where I
meant to see the war the summer ensuing.
Coming thus in the coach with my lord ambassador to
Milan, the governor thereof invited my lord ambassador
to his house, and sometimes feasted him during his stay
there. Here I heard that famous nun singing to the
organ in this manner: another nun beginning first to
sing, performed her part so well, that we gave her much
applause for her excellent art and voice; only we thought
she did sing somewhat lower than other women usually
did. Hereupon also, being ready to depart, we heard
suddenly, for we saw nobody, that nun which was so
famous, sing an eight higher than the other had done:
her voice was the sweetest, strongest, and clearest, that
ever I heard; in the using whereof, also, she showed that
art as ravished us into admiration.
From Milan we went to Novara, as I remember, where
we were entertained by the governor, being a Spaniard,
with one of the most sumptuous feasts that ever I saw,
being but of nine dishes, in three several services; the
first whereof was, three ollas podridas, consisting of all
choice boiled meats, placed in three large silver chargers,
which took up the length of a great table j the meat in it
112 THE LIFE OF
being heightened up artificially pyramid-wise, to a
sparrow which was on the top. The second service was
like the former, of roast meat, in which all manner of
fowl, from the pheasant and partridge, to other fowl less
than them, were heightened up to a lark. The third was in
sweetmeats, dry of all sorts, heightened in like manner
to a round comfit.
From hence we went to Vercelli, a town of the Duke of
Savoy's, frontier to the Spaniard, with whom the Duke
was then in war; from whence, passing by places of
least note, we came to Turin, where the Duke of Savoy's
court was. After I had refreshed myself here some two
or three days, I took leave of my lord ambassador, with
intention to go to the Low Countries, and was now upon
the way thither, as far as the foot of Mount Cenis, when
the Count Scarnafigi came to me from the duke,* and
brought a letter to this effect: that the Duke had
heard I was a cavalier of great worth, and desirous to see
the wars, and that if I would serve him, I should make
my own conditions.
Finding so courteous an invitation, I returned back,
and was lodged by the Duke of Savoy in a chamber fur-
nished with silk and gold hangings, and a very rich bed,
and defrayed at the Duke's charges, in the English am -
bassador's house. The Duke also confirmed unto me
what the Count Scarnafigi had said, and together be-
stowed divers compliments on me. I told his highness,
that when I knew in what service he pleased to employ
me, he should find me ready to testify the sense I had of
his princely invitation.
It was now in the time of Carnival, when the Duke,
who loved the company of ladies and dancing as much as
any prince whosoever, made divers masks and balls, in which
* Charles Eiuanuel.
HERBERT OF CHEBBTJRY. 113
Ids own daughters, among divers other ladies, danced:
and here it was his manner to place me always with his
own hand near some fair lady, wishing us both to enter-
tain each other with some discourse, which was a great
favour among the Italians. He did many other ways
also declare the great esteem he had of me without coming
to any particular, the time of the year for going into the
field being not yet come; only he exercised his men
often, and made them ready for his occasions in the
spring.
The duke at last resolving how to use my service,
thought fit to send me to Languedoc, in France, to con-
duct four thousand men of the reformed religion, who
had promised their assistance in his war, unto Piedmont.
I willingly accepted this offer; so taking my leave of the
duke, and bestowing about £70 or £80 among his officers,
for the kind entertainment I had received, I took my leave
also of my lord ambassador, and Sir Albertus Moreton, who
was likewise employed there, and prepared for my jour-
ney, for more expedition of which I was desired to go
post. An old Scotch knight of the Sandelands hearing
this, desired to borrow my horses as far as Heidelberg,
which I granted, on condition that he would use them
well by the way, and give them good keeping in that
place afterwards.
The Count Scamafigi was commanded to bear me com-
pany in this journey, and to carry with him some jewels,
which he was to pawn in Lyons, in France, and with the
money gotten for them to pay the soldiers above nomina-
ted; for though the duke had put extreme taxations on
his people, insomuch that they paid not only a certain
sum for every horse, ox, cow, or sheep that they kept, but
afterwards for every chimney; and, finally, every single
person by the poll, which amounted to a pistole, or 14s. a
114 THE LIFE OF
head, or person. Yet he wanted money; at which I did
not so much wonder, as at the patience of his subjects; of
whom I demanded, how they could bear their taxations.
I have heard some of them answer, "We are not so
offended with the duke for what he takes from us, as
thankful for what he leaves us."
The Count Scarnafigi and I, now setting1 forth, rid post
all day without eating or drinking1 by the way, the count
telling me still we should come to a good inn at night.
It was now twilight, when the count and I came near a
solitary inn on the top of a mountain ; the hostess, hear-
ing the noise of horses, came out, with a child new-born
on her left arm, and a rush candle in her hand. She-
presently knowing the Count de Scarnafigi, told him,"Ah^
signer, you are come in a very ill time; the duke's sol-
diers have been here to-day, and have left me nothing."
I looked sadly upon the count, when he. coming near to
me, whispered me in the ear, and said, "It may be she
thinks we will use her as the soldiers have done: go you
into the house, and see whether you can find anything ;.
I will go round about the house, and perhaps I shall
meet with some duck, hen, or chicken." Entering thus
into the house, I found for all other furniture of it, the
end of an old form, upon which sitting down, the hostess
came towards me with a rush candle, and said. " I protest
before G-od, that is true which I told the count, here is
nothing to eat. But you are a gentleman; methinks it is
a pity you should want. If you please, I will give you
some milk out of my breasts, into a wooden dish I have
here."
This unexpected kindness made that impression on me,,
that I remember I was never so tenderly sensible of any-
thing. My answer was, "God forbid I should take^
away the milk from the child I see in thy arms; howbeit,
LORD HERBERT Off CHERBURY. 115
I shall take it all my life for the greatest piece of charity
that ever I heard of;" and therewithal giving her a
pistole, or a piece of gold of fourteen shillings, Scarnafigi
and I got on horseback: again, and rid another post, and
came to an inn where we found very coarse cheer, yet
hunger made us relish it.
In this journey I remember I went over Mount G-abelet
by night, being carried clown that precipice in a chair,
a guide that went before bringing a bottle of straw with
him, and kindling pieces of it from time to time, that we
might see our way. Being at the bottom of a hill, I got
on horseback and rid to Burgoine, resolving to rest there*
awhile; and the rather, to speak truly, that I had heard
divers say, and particularly Sir Jolin Finnet,* and Sir
Richard Newport, t that the host's daughter there was the
handsomest woman that ever they' saw in their lives.
Coming to the inn, the Count Scarnafigi wished me to
rest two or three hours, and he wquld go before to Lyons,
to prepare business for my journey to Languedoc.
The host's daughter being not .within, I told her
father and mother that I desired only to see their
daughter, as having heard her spoken of in England
with so much advantage, that divers told me they
thought her the handsomest creature that ever they saw.
They answered, she was gone to a marriage, and should
be presently sent for; wishing me, in the meanwhile, ix>
take some rest upon a bed, for they saw I needed it.
Waking now about two hours afterwards, I found her
sitting by me, attending when I would open mine eyes.
I shall touch a little of her description : her hair being of
a shining black, was naturally curled in that order that a
curious woman would have dressed it; for one curl rising*
* Master of the Ceremonies.
f Afterwards created a baron, and ancestor of the Earls of Bradford,
116 THE LIFE OF
by degrees above another, and every bout tied with a
small ribbon of a naccarine. or the colour that the
Knights of the Bath wear, gave a very graceful mixture,
while it was bound up in this manner from the point of
her shoulder to the crown of her head; her eyes, which
were round and black, seemed to be models of her whole
beauty, and in some sort of her air, while a kind of light
or name came from them, not unlike that which the
ribbon which tied up her hair exhibited. I do not re-t
member ever to have seen a prettier mouth, or whiter
teeth: briefly, all her outward parts seemed to become
each other; neither was there anything that could be
misliked, unless one should say her complexion was
too brown, which yet, from the shadow, was heightened
with a good blood in her cheeks.
Her gown was a green Turkey grogram, cut all into
panes or slashes, from the shoulder and sleeves unto the
foot, and tied up at the distance of about a hand's breadth
everywhere with the same ribbon with which her hair
was bound; so that her attire seemed as bizarre as her
person. I am too long in describing an host's daughter,
howbeit I thought I might better speak of her than of
divers other beauties held to be the best and fairest of
the time, whom I have often seen, fn conclusion, after
about an hour's stay, I departed thence, without offering so
much as the least incivility; and indeed, after so much
weariness, it was enough that her signt alone did some-
what refresh me.
From hence I went straight to Lyons: entering the
gate, the guards there, after their usual manner, de-
manded of me who I was, whence I came, and whither I
went; to which while I answered I observed one of them
look very attentively upon me, and then again upon a
paper he had in his hand. This having been done divers
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 117
times, bred in me a suspicion that there was no good
meaning in it, and I was not deceived in my conjecture;
for the queen-mother of France having newly made an
edict that no soldiers should be raised in France, the
Marquis de Rambouillet,* French ambassador at Turin,
sent word of my employment to the Marquis de St.
Chaumont, then governor of Lyons, as also a description of
my person. This edict was so severe, as they who raised
any men were to ]ose their heads.
In this unfortunate conjuncture of affairs, nothing fell
out so well on my part, as that I had not raised as yet
any men; howbeit, the guards requiring me to come
before the governor, I went with them to a church where
he was at vespers; this while I walked in the lower part
of the church, little imagining what danger I was in had
I levied any men. I had not walked there long, when a
single person came to me, apparelled in a black stuff suit,
without any attendants upon him, when I, supposing this
person to be any man rather than the governor, saluted
him without much ceremony.
His first question was, whence I came? I answered
from Turin; he demanded then whither I would go? I
answered, I was not yet resolved; his third question was,
what news at Turin? to which I answered that I had
no news to tell, as supposing him to be only some busy
or inquisitive person. The marquis hereupon called one
of the guards that conducted me thither, and after he
had whispered something in his ear, wished me to go
along with him, which I did willingly, as believing this
man would bring me to the governor. This man silently
* This gentleman, I "believe, was husband of Madame de Ram-
bouillet, whose assemblies of the wits and poets were so much cele-
brated in that age. They were parents of the famous Julie de An-
gennes, duchesse de Moiitausier, well known by Voiture's letters to
her.
118 THE LIFE OS
leading me out of the church, brought me to a fair house,
into which I was no sooner entered but he told me I was
commanded to prison there by him I saw im the church,
who was the governor. I replied, I did not know him to
be governor, nor that that was a prison, and that if I were
out of it again, neither the governor nor all the town
could bring me to it alive.
The master of the house hereupon spoke me very fair,
and told me he would conduct me to a better chamber
than any I could find in an inn, and thereupon conducted
me to a very handsome lodging not far from the river. I
had not been here half an hour when Sir Edward Sack-
ville* (now Earl of Dorset), hearing only that an English-
man was committed, sent to know who I was, and why I
was imprisoned. The governor not knowing whether to
lay the fault upon my short answers to him, or my com-
mission to levy men contrary to the queen's edict, made
him so doubtful an answer (after he had a little touched
upon both), as he dismissed him unsatisfied.
Sir Edward Sackville hereupon coming to the house
where I was, as soon as ever he saw me, embraced me,
saying, " Ned Herbert, what doest; thou here?" I an-
swered, "Ned Sackville, I am glad to see you; but I
protest I know not why I am here." He again said,
"Hast thou raised any men yet for the Duke of Savoy?"
I replied, " Not so much as one." Then said he, "I will
warrant thee; though I must tell thee the governor is
much offended at thy behaviour and language in the
church." I replied it was impossible for me to imagine
him to be governor that came without a guard, and in
such mean clothes as he then wore. "I will go to him
again, and tell him what you say, and doubt not but you
shall be suddenly freed."
* Well known by his duel with the Lord Bruce.
LOBD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBUBY. 119
Hereupon returning to the governor, he told of what
family I was, and of what condition, and that I had
raised no men,«and that I knew him not to be governor;
whereupon the marquis wished him to go back, that
he would come in person to free me out of the
house.
This message being brought me by Sir Edward Sack-
ville, I returned this answer only: that it was enough if
he sent order to free me. While these messages past, a
company of handsome young men and women, out of I
know not what civility, brought music under the window
and danced before me, looking often up to see me; but
Sir Edward Sackville being now returned with the order to
free me, I only gave them thanks out of the window, and
so went along with them to the governor.
Being come into a gre^t hall where his lady was, and
a large train of gentlewomen and other persons, the
governor, with his hat 4 in his hand, demanded of me
whether I knew him, when his noble lady answering for
me, said, " How could he know you, when you were in
the church alone, and in this habit, being for the rest
wholly a stranger to you?" Which civility of hers,
though I did not presently take notice of it, I did
afterwards most thankfully acknowledge, when I was
ambassador in France.
The governor's next questions were the very same he
made when he met me in the church; to which I made
the very same answers before them all, concluding, that
as I did not know him, he could think it no incongruity
if .1 answered in those terms. The governor yet was not
satisfied herewith, and his noble lady taking my part
again, gave him those reasons for my answering him in
that manner, that they silenced him from speaking any
further. The governor turning back, I likewise, after an
120 THE LIFE OF
humble obeisance made to his lady, returned with Sir
Edward Sackville to my lodgings.
This night I passed as quietly as I couldj but the.next
morning advised with him what I was to do. I told him
I had received a great affront, and that I intended to send
him a challenge in such courteous language that he could
not refuse it. Sir Edward Sackville by all means dis-
suaded me from it; by which I perceived I was not to
expect his assistance therein, and, indeed-, the next day he
went out of town.
Being alone now, I thought on nothing more than how
to send, him a challenge, which at last I penned to this
effect: That whereas he had given me great offence,
without, a cause, I thought myself bound as a gentleman
to resent it, and therefore desired to see him with his
sword in his hand in any place he should appoint; and
hoped he would not interpose his authority as an excuse
for not complying with his honour on this occasion, and
that so I rested his humble servant.
Finding nobody in town for two or three days by whom
I might send this challenge, I resolved, for my last means,
to deliver it in person, and observe how he took it, intend-
ing to right myself as I could when I found he stood
upon his authority.
This night it happened that Monsieur Terant, formerly
mentioned, came to the town; this gentleman knowing
me well, and remembering our acquaintance both at
France and Juliers, wished there were some occasion for
him to serve me. I presently hereupon, taking the chal-
lenge out of my pocket, told him he would oblige me ex-
tremely if he were pleased to deliver it; and that I hoped
he might do it without danger, since I knew the French to
he so brave a nation, that they would never refuse or dislike
anything that was done in an honourable and worthy way.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 121
Terant took the challenge from me, and, after he had
read it, told me that the language was civil and dis-
creet; nevertheless he thought the governor would not
return me that answer I expected. "Howsoever," said
he, " I will deliver it." Returning thus to my inn, and
intending to sleep quieter that night than I had done
three nights before; about one of the clock after mid-
night, I heard a great noise at my door, which awakened
me, certain persons knocking so hard as if they would
break it; besides, through the chinks thereof I saw
light.
This made me presently rise in my shirt, when, draw-
ing my sword, I 'went to the door and demanded who
they were; and together told them that, if they came to
make me prisoner, I would rather die with my sword in
my hand; and therewithal opening the door, I found
upon the stairs half a dozen men armed with halberts,
whom I no sooner prepared to resist, but the chief of
them told me that they came not to me from the governor,
but from my good friend the Duke of Montmorency, son
to the duke I formerly mentioned; and that he came to
town late that night, in his way from Languedoc (of
which he was governor) to Paris; and that he desired
me, if I loved him, to rise presently and come to him,
assuring me further that this was most true; hereupon
wishing them to retire themselves, I dressed myself ana
went with them.
They conducted me to the great hall of the governor,
where the Duke of Montmorency and divers other
cavaliers had been dancing with the ladies. I went pre-
sently to the Duke of Montmorency, who, taking me a
little aside, told me that he had heard of the passages
betwixt the governor and me, and that I had sent him a
challenge; howbeit, that he conceived men in his place
122 THE LIFE OF
were not bound to answer as private persons for those
things they did by virtue of their office; nevertheless,
that I should have satisfaction in as ample manner as I
could reasonably desire.
Hereupon, bringing me with him to the governor, he
freely told me, that now he knew who I was, he could do
no less than assure me that he was sorry for what was
done, and desired me to take this for satisfaction. The
Duke of Montmorency hereupon said presently, "C'est
assez ;" "it is enough." I then turning to him, demanded
whether he would have taken this satisf action in the like
case? He said, "Yes." After this, turning ^fco the gover-
nor, I demanded the same question; to which he answered,
that he would have taken the same satisfaction, and less
too. I kissing my hand, gave it to him, who embraced
me, and so this business ended.
After some compliments passed between the Duke of
Montmorency, who remembered the great love his father
1 ore me, which he desired to continue in his person, and
putting me in mind also of our being educated together
for a while, demanded whether I would go with him to
Paris. I told him that I was engaged to the Low
Countries; but that wheresoever I was, I should be his
most humble servant.
My employment with the Duke of Savoy in Languedoc
being thus ended, I went from Lyons to Geneva, where I
found also my fame had prevented my coming; for the
next morning after my arrival, the state taking notice of
me, sent a messenger in their name to congratulate my
being there, and presented me with some flagons of wine,
desiring me (if I stayed there any while) to see their
fortifications, and give my opinion of them; which I did,
and told them I thought they were weakest where they
thought themselves the strongest, which was on the
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 123
"hilly part, where, indeed, they had made great fortifica-
tions; yet, as it is a rale in war, that whatsoever may be
made by art, may be destroyed by art again, I conceived
they had need to fear the approach of an enemy on that
part rather than any other. They replied, that divers
great soldiers had told them the same; and that they
would give the best order they could to serve themselves
on that side.
Having rested here some while to take physic (my
health being a little broken with long travel), I depart ed,
after a fortnight's stay, to Basil, where taking a boat
upon the river, I came at length to Strasburg, and from
thence went to Heidelberg, where I was received again
by the Prince Elector and princess with much kindness,
and viewed at leisure the fair library there, the gardens,
and other rarities of that place; and here I found my
horses I lent to Sandelands in good plight, which I then
bestowed upon some servants of the prince, in way of
retribution for my welcome thither. From hence Sir
George Calvert* and myself went by water, for the most
part, to the Low Countries, where taking leave of each
other, I went straight fo his excellency, who did extraor-
dinarily welcome me, insomuch that it was observed that
he did never outwardly make so much of any one as my-
self.
It happened this summer that the Low Country army
was not drawn into the field, so that the Prince of Orange
passed his time at playing at chess with me after dinner;
or in going to Reswick with him to see his great horses;
or in making love, in which, also, he used me as his com-
panion, yet so that I saw nothing openly, more than might
argue a civil familiarity. When I was at any time from
* Afterwards Lord Baltimore. See an account of him in the "Cata-
logue of Royal and Noble Authors," vol. ii.
124 THE LIFE OF
Mm, I did, by Ms good leave, endeavour to raise a troop
of horse for the Duke of Savoy's service," as having ob-
tained a commission to that purpose for my brother
William, then an officer in the Low Country. Having
these men in readiness, I sent word to the Count Scarnafigi
thereof, who was now ambassador in England, telling him,
that if he would send money, my brother was ready to go.
Scai'nafigi answered me, that he expected money in
England; and that as soon as he received it, he would
send over so much as would pay a hundred horse: but a
peace betwixt Mm and the Spaniard being concluded not
long after at Asti, the whole charge of keeping this
horse fell upon me, without ever to this day receiving any
recompense.
"Winter now approaching, and nothing more to be done
for that year, I went to the Brill to take shipping for
England. Sir Edward Conway, who was then governor
at that place, and afterwards Secretary of State, taking
notice of my being there, came to me, and invited me
every day to come to him, while I attended only for a
wind; which serving at last for my journey, Sir Edward
Conway conducted me to the ship, into which as soon as I
was entered, he caused six pieces of ordnance to be dis-
charged for my farewell. I was scarce gone a league
into the sea, when the wind turned contrary, and forced
me back again.
Eeturning thus to the Brill, Sir Edward Conway
welcomed me as before; and now after some three or
four days, the wind serving, he conducted me again to
the sMp, and bestowed six volleys of ordnance upon me. I
was now about half way to England, when a most cruel
storm arose, which tore our sails and spent our masts, in-
somuch that the master of our ship gave us all for lost,
as the wind was extreme Mgh, and together contrary.
LOBD HEEBEET OF CHEEBTJEY. 125
We were carried at last, though with much difficulty,
back again to the Brill, where Sir Edward Conway did
congratulate my escape; saying, he believed, certainly,
that (considering the weather) I must needs be cast away.
After some stay here with my former welcome, the
wind being now fair, I was conducted again to my ship
by Sir Edward Conway, and the same volleys of shot
given me, and was now scarce out of the haven, when the
wind again turned contrary, and drove me back. This
made me resolve to try my fortune here no longer;
hiring a small bark therefore, I went to the sluice, and
from thence to Ostend, where finding company, I went to
Brussels.
In the inn where I lay, here an ordinary was kept, to
which divers noblemen and principal officers of the
Spanish army resorted : sitting among these at dinner,,
the next day after my arrival,"no man knowing me or in-
forming himself who I was, they fell into discourse of
divers matters, in Italian, Spanish, and French; and at
last three of them, one after another, began to speak of
King James, my master, in a very scornful manner. I
thoiight with myself then, that if I was a base fellow, I
need not take any notice thereof, since no man knew me
to be an Englishman, or that I did so much as understand
their language; but my heart burning within me, Ir
putting off my hat, arose from the table, and turning my-
self to those that sat at the upper end, who had said
nothing to the king my master's prejudice, I told them in
Italian, "Son Inglese," "I am an Englishman;" and
should be unworthy to live if I suffered these words to be
spoken of the king my master ; and therewithal turning
myself to those who had injured the king, I said, "You
have spoken falsely, and I will fight with you all." Those
at the upper end of the table finding I had so much reason
126 THE LIFE OF
on my part, did sharply check those I questioned, and, to
be brief, made them ask the king's forgiveness, wherewith
also the king's health being drunk round about the table.
I departed thence to Dunkirk, and thence to Graveling,
where I saw, though unknown, an English gentlewoman
enter into a nunnery there.
I went thence to Calais; it was now extreme foul
weather, and I could find no master of a ship willing to
adventure to sea. Howbeit, my impatience was such, that
I demanded of a poor fisherman there whether he would
go. He answered, his ship was worse than any in the haven.
as being open above, and without any deck, besides that
it was old; but, saith he, "I care for my life as little as
you do, and if you will go, my boat is at your service."
I was now scarce out of the haven, when a high-grown
.sea had almost overwhelmed us, the waves coming in
very fast into our ship, which we laded out again the
best we could; notwithstanding which we expected every
minute to be cast away. It pleased God yet before we
were gone six leagues into the sea, to cease the tempest,
and give us a fair passage over to the Downs, where
after giving God thanks for my delivery from this most
needless danger that ever I did run, I went to London.
I had not been here ten days when a quartan ague
seized on me, which held me for a year and a half with-
out intermission, and a year and a half longer at spring
and fall; the good days I had during all this sickness j.
employed in study, the ill being spent in as sharp and
long fits as I think ever any man endured, which
brought me at last to be so lean and yellow, that scarce
any man did know me.
It happened during this sickness, that I walked abroad
one day towards Whitehall, where meeting with one
Emerson, who spoke very disgraceful words of Sir Robert
LORD HERBERT OF OHERBTJRY. 127
Harley, being then my dear friend, my weakness could
not hinder me to be sensible of my friend's dishonour.
Shaking him therefore by a long beard he wore, I stepped a
little aside and drew my sword in the street, Captain
Thomas Scriven, a friend of mine, not being far off on
one side, and divers friends of his on the other side. All
that saw me wondered how I could go, being so weak and
consumed as I was, but much more that I would offer to
fight: howsoever, Emerson, instead of drawing his sword,
ran away into Suffolk-house, and afterwards informed
the lords of the council of what I had done; who not long
after sending for me, did not so much reprehend my
taking part with my friend, as that I would adventure to
fight, being in such a bad condition of health.
Before 1 came wholly out of my sickness, Sir George
Yilliers, afterwards duke of Buckingham, came into the
king's favour. This cavalier meeting me accidentally at
the Lady Stanhope's* house, came to me, and told me he
had heard so much of my worth, as he would think him-
self happy if by his credit with the king, he could do me
any service. I humbly thanked him, but told him that
for the present I had need of nothing so much as of
health, but that if ever I had ambition, I should take the
boldness to make my address by him.
I was no sooner per ectly recovered of this long sick-
ness, but the Earl of Oxford and myself resolved to raise
two regiments for the service of the Yenetians. While
we were making ready for this journey, the king having an
occasion to send an ambassador into France, required Sir
George Yilliers to present him with the names of the
fittest men for that employment that he knew; where-
upon eighteen names, among which mine was, being
* Catherine, daughter of Francis Lord Hastings, first wife of Philip,
Lord Stanhope, afterwards created Earl of Chesterfield.
128 THE LIFE OF
written in a paper, were presented to Mm. The king pre-
sently chose me, yet so as he desired first to have the
approbation of his Privy Council, who, confirming his
Majesty's choice, sent a messenger to1 my house among
gardens, near the Old Exchange, requiring me to come
presently to them; myself little knowing then the
honour intended me, asked the messenger whether I had
done any fault, that the lords sent for me so suddenly;
wishing him to tell the lords that I was going to dinner,
and would afterwards attend them.
I had scarce dined, when another messenger was sent;
this made me hasten to Whitehall, where I was no sooner
come, but the lords saluted me by the name of lord
ambassador of France. I told their lordships thereupon,
that I was glad it was no worse, and that I doubted, that
by their speedy sending for me, some complaint, though
false, might be made against me.
My first commission was to renew the oath of alliance
betwixt the two crowns, for which purpose I was extra-
ordinary ambassador, which being done. I was to reside
there as ordinary. I had received now about six or seven
hundred pounds towards the charges of my journey, and
locked it in certain coffers in my house, when, the night
following, about one of the clock, I could hear divers men
speak and knock at the door, in that part of the house
where none did lie but myself, my wife, and her atten-
dants; my servants being lodged in another house not
far off. As soon as I heard the noise, I suspected pre-
sently they came to rob me of my money; howsoever, I
thought fit to rise, and go to the window, to know who
they were.
The first word I heard was, " Barest thou come down,
Welshman?" which I no sooner heard, but, taking a
sword in one hand, and a little target in the other, I did
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 129
in my shirt run down the stairs, open the doors suddenly,
and charged ten or twelve of them with that fury that
they ran away, some throwing away their halberts, others
hurting their fellows, to make them go faster in a nar-
row way they were to pass; in which disordered manner
I drove them to the middle of the street by the Exchange,
where, finding my bare feet hurt by the stones I trod on,
I thought fit to return home, and leave them to their
flight. My servants, hearing the noise, by this time were
got up, and demanded whether I would have them pur-
sue those rogues that fled away; but I answering that I
thought they were out of their reach, we returned home
together.
While I was preparing mysejf for my journey, it hap-
pened that I passing through Jhe Inner Temple one day,
and encountering Sir Robert-Vaughan in this country,
some harsh words passed betwixt us, which occasioned
him, at the persuasion of others whom I will not nomi-
nate, to send me a challenge: this was brought me at my
house in Blackfriars, by Captain Charles Price, upon a
Sunday, about one of the clock in the afternoon. When
I had read it, I told Charles ^Price that I did ordinarily
bestow this day in devotion, nevertheless, that I would
meet Sir Robert Yaughan presently, and gave him there-
upon the length of my sword, demanding whether he
brought any second with -him; to which Charles Price
replying that he would be in the field with him, I told,
my brother, Sir Henry 'Herbert, then present, thereof,
who readily offering himself to be my second, nothing
was wanting now but the place to be agreed upon betwixt
us, which was not far from the waterside, near Chelsea.
My brother and I taking boat presently, came to tha
place, where, after we had stayed about two hours ia
vain, I desired my brother to go to Sir Robert Vaughan's
E—55
130 THE LIFE OF
lodging, and tell him that I now attended his coming
a great while, and that I desired him to come away
speedily ; -hereupon my brother went, and after a while
returning back again, he told me they were not ready
yet. I attended then about an hour and a half longer;
but as he did not come yet, I sent my brother a second
time to call him away, and to tell him I catched cold,
nevertheless, that I would stay there till sunset. My
brother yet could not bring him along, but returned him-
self to the place, where we stayed together till half-an-
hour after sunset, and then returned home.
The next day the Earl of Worcester, * by the king's
command, forbid me to receive any message or letter
from Sir Robert Yaughan, and advertised me withal, that
the king had given him charge to end the business be-
twixt us; for which purpose he desired me to come
before him the next day about two of the clock; at
which time, after the earl had told me, that being now
made ambassador, and a public person, I ought not to enter-
tain private quarrels; after which, without much ado, he
ended the business betwixt Sir Robert Vaughan and my-
self. It was thought by some, that this would make me
lose my place, I being under so great an obligation to the
king for my employment in France; but Sir George
Villiers,afterwards Duke of Buckingham, told me he would
warrant me for this one time, but I must do so no more.
I was now almost ready for my journey, and had
received already as choice a company of gentlemen for
my attendants,as, I think, ever followed an ambassador;
when some of my private friends told me that I was not
to trust so much to my pay from the exchequer, but that
it was necessary for me to take letters of credit with me,
* Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, Lord Privy Seal, and knight
of the Garter.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 131
for as much money as I could well procure. Informing
myself hereupon who had furnished the last ambassador,
I was told Monsieur Savage, a Frenchman. Coming to
his house, I demanded whether he would help me with
moneys in France, as he had done the last ambassador..
He said he did not know me, but would inform himself
better who I was. Departing thus from him, I went to
Signer Burlamacchi, a man of great credit in those times,
anoMemanded of Mm the same ; his answer was, that he
knew me to be a man of honour, and I had kept my /word .
with everybody; whereupon also, going to his study,
gave me a letter of credit to one Monsieur de Langherac,
in Paris, for £2,000 sterling. I then demanded what
security he expected for this money. He said he would
have nothing but my promise : I told him he had put a
great obligation upon me, and that I would strive to
acquit myself of it the best I could.
Having now a good sum of money in my coffers, and
this letter of credit, I made ready for my journey. The
day I went out of London, I remember, was the same in
which Queen Anne was carried to burial; which was a
sad "spectacle to all that had occasion to honour her. My
first night's journey was to Grravesend, where, being at
supper in my inn, Monsieur Savage, formerly mentioned,
came to me and told me, that whereas I had spoken to
him for a letter of credit, he had made one which he
thought would be to my contentment. I demanded to
whom it was directed; he said, " To Monsieur Tallemand
and Eambouillet in Paris." I asked then, what they were
worth. He- said, "Above £100,000 sterling." I demanded
for how much this letter of credit was ; he said for as
much as I should have need of. I asked what security
he required. He said, nothing but my word, which he
had heard was inviolable.
132 THE LIFE OF
From G-ravesend, by easy journeys, I went to Dover,
where I took shipping, with a train of a hundred and odd
persons, and arrived shortly after at Calais, where I re-
member my cheer was twice as good as at Dover, and my
reckoning half as cheap; from whence I went to
Boulogne, Monstreville, Abbeville, A miens, and in two
days, thence to St. Denis, near Paris, where I was met
with a great train of coaches, that were sent to receive
me; as also by the master of the ceremonies, und
Monsieur Mennon, my fellow scholar, with Monsieur
Disancour, who then kept an academy, and brought with
him a brave company of gentlemen on great horses, to
attend me into town.
It was now somewhat late when I entered Paris, upon
a Saturday night. I was but newly settled in my
lodging, when a secretary of the Spanish ambassador
there told me that his lord desired to have the first
audience from me, and therefore requested he might see
me the next morning. I replied, it was a day I gave
wholly to devotion; and therefore entreated him to stay
till some more convenient time. The secretary replied,
that his master did hold it no less holy; howbeit, that
his respect to me was such, that he'would prefer the
desire he had to serve me before all ojher considerations.
Howsoever, I put him off until Monday following.
Not long after, I took a house in Faubourg St.
Germain, Rue Tournon, which cost me £200 sterling
yearly. Having furnished the house richly, and lodged
all my train, I prepared for a journey to Tours and
Touraine, where the French court then was. Being come
hither in extreme hot weather, I demanded audience of the
king and queen,* which being granted, I did assure the
king of the great affection the king my master bore him,
* Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV.
LOBD HERBERT OF OHERBURY. 133
aot only out of the ancient alliance betwixt the two
crowns, but because Henry IV. and the king my master
had stipulated with each other, that whensoever any one
of them died, the survivor should take care of the "other's
child. I assured him further, that no charge was so
much imposed upon me by my instructions, as that I
should do good offices betwixt both kingdoms; and there-
fore, that it were a great fault in me, if I behaved myself
otherwise than with all respect to his Majesty.
vThis being done, I presented to the king a letter of
credence from the king my master. The king* assured
me of a reciprocal affection to the king my master; and
of my particular welcome to his court. His words were
never many, as being so extreme a stutterer, that he
would sometimes hold his tongue out of his mouth a good
while, before he could speak so much as one word; he
had, besides, a double row of teeth, and was observed
seldom or never to spit, or blow"his~nose, or to sweat
much, though he were very laborious, and almost inde-
fatigable in his exercises of hunting and hawking, to
which he was much addicted; neither did it hinder him,
though he was burst in his body, as we call it, or
hernious; for he was noted in those sports, though
oftentimes on foot, to tire not only his courtiers, but even
his lackeys, being equally insensible, as was thought,
either of heat or cold.
His understanding and natural parts were as good as
could be expected in one that was brought up in so much
ignorance, which was on purpose so done, that he might
be the longer governed; howbeit, he acquired in time a
great knowledge in affairs, as conversing for the most
part with wise and active persons. He was noted to have
two qualities incident to all who were ignorantly brought
* Louis XIII.f son of Henry IV.
134 THE LIFE OF
up—suspicion and dissimulation; for as ignorant persona
walk so much in the dark, they cannot be exempt from
the fear of stumbling1; and as they are likewise deprived
of, or deficient in those true principles by which they
should govern both public and private actions in a wise,
solid, and demonstrative way, they strive commonly to
supply these imperfections with covert arts, which, al-
though it may be sometimes excusable in necessitous
persons, and be indeed frequent among those who
negotiate in small matters, yet condemnable in princes,
who, proceeding upon foundations of reason and strength,
ought not to submit themselves to such poor helps; how-
beit. I must observe that neither his fears did take away
his courage, when there was occasion to use it, nor his
dissimulation extend itself to the doing of private mis-
chiefs to his subjects, either of one or the othe'r religion.
His favourite was one Monsieur de Luynes, who in his
nonage gained much upon the king, by making hawks
fly at all little birds in his gardens, and by making some
of those little birds again catch butterflies; and had the
king used him for no other purpose, he might have been
tolerated; but as, when the king came to a riper age,
the government of public affairs was drawn chiefly from
his counsels, not a few errors were committed.
The queen-mother, princes, and nobles of that kingdom
repined that his advices to the king should be so preva-
lent, which also at last caused a civil war in that king-
dom. How unfit this man was for the credit he had
with the king may be argued by this; that when there
was question made about some business in Bohemia, he
demanded whether it was an inland country, or lay upon
the sea: and thus much for the present of the king and
his favourite.
After my audience with the king, I had another from
LOBD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBTTBY. 135
the queen, being sister to the King of Spain; I had little
to say unto her, but some compliments on the king my
master's part, but such compliments as her sex and
quality were capable of. This queen was exceedingly
fair, like those of the House of Austria, and together of
so mild and good a condition, she was never noted to have
done ill offices to any, but to have mediated as much as
was possible for her, in satisfaction of those who had any
suit to the king, as far as their cause would bear. She
had now been married divers years without having any
children, though so ripe for them, that nothing seemed to
be wanting on her part. I remember her the more par-
ticularly, that she showed publicly at my audiences that
favour to me, as not only my servants, but divers others
took notice of it.
After this my first audience, I went to see Monsieur de
Luynes, and the principal ministers of state, as also the
princes and princesses, and ladies then in the court, and
particularly the Princess of Conti, from whom I carried
the scarf formerly mentioned; and this is as much as I
shall declare in this place, concerning my negotiation
with the king and state, my purpose being, if G-od sends
me life, to set them forth apart, as having the copies of
all my despatches in a great trunkin^my. house in London;
and considering that in the time of my stay there, there
were divers civil wars in that country, and that the prince,
now king, passed with my Lord of Buckingham and
others through France into Spain; and the business of
the Elector Palatine in Bohemia, and the battle of
Prague, and divers other memorable accidents, both of
state and war, happened during the time of my employ-
ment. I conceive a narration of them may be worth the
seeing, to them who have it not from a better hand; I
shall only therefore relate here, as they come into my
136 THE LIFE OF
memory, certain little passages which may serve in some
part to declare the history of my life.
Coming back from Tours to Paris, I gave the best order
I could concerning the expenses of my house, family, and
stable, that I might settle all things as near as was possible
in a certain course, allowing, according to the manner of
France, so many pounds of beef, mutton, veal, and pork,
and so much also in turkeys, capons, pheasants, part-
ridges, and all other fowls, as also pies and tarts, after the
French manner, and after all this a dozen dishes of
sweetmeats every meal constantly. The ordering of
these things was the heavier to me, that my wife flatly
refused to come over into France, as being now entered
into a dropsy, whdch also had kept'her without children
for many years. I was constrained therefore to make use
of a steward, who was understanding and diligent, but
no very honest man.^
My chief secretary was Willjam Boswell, now the
king's agent in the Low Countries; my secretary for the
French tongue was one Monsieur Ozier, who afterwards
was the king's agent in Franpe. The gentleman of my
horse was Monsieur de Meny, who afterwards commanded
a thousand horse in the wars of Germany, and proved
a very gallant gentleman. Mr. Crofts was one of my
principal gentlemen, and afterwards made the king's
cupbearer; and Thomas Caage, that excellent wit, the
king's carver; Edmund Taverner, whom I made my
under-secretary, was afterwards chief secretary to the
Lord Chamberlain; and one Mr. Smith, secretary to the
Earl of Northumberland. I nominate these, and could
many more, that came to very good fortunes afterwards,
because I may verify^that which I said before concerning
the gentlemen that attended me.
When I came to Paris the English and French were in
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 137
very ill intelligence with each other, insomuch that one
Buckly coming then to me, said he was assaulted and
hurt upon Pont Neuf, only because he was an Eng-
lishman; nevertheless, after I had been in Paris about
a month, all the English were so welcome thither, that no
other nation was so acceptable amongst them, insomuch
that my gentlemen having a quarrel with some de-
bauched French, who in their drunkenness quarrelled
with them, divers principal gentlemen of that nation
offered themselves to assist my people with their swords.
It happened one day, that my cousin, Oliver Herbert,
and George Eadney, being gentlemen who attended me,
and Henry Whittingham, my butler, had a quarrel with
some French, upon I know not what frivolous occasion.
It happened my cousin, Oliver Herbert, had for his
opposite a fencer belonging to the Prince of Conde, who
was dangerously nurt by him in divers places; but as
the house, or hostel, of t^e Prince of Conde was not far
off, and himself well beloved in those quarters, the French
in great multitudes arising, drove away the three above-
mentioned into, my house, pursuing them within the
gates. I perceiving this at a window, ran out with my
sword, which the people no sooner saw, but they fled
again as fast as ever they entered. Howsoever, the
Prince of Conde's fencer was in that danger of his life,
that Oliver Herbert was forced to fly France, which, that
he might do the better, I paid the said fencer two hundred
crowns, or £60 sterling, for his hurt and cures.
The plague now being hot in Paris, I desired the Duke
of Montmorency to lend me the Castle of Merlou, where
I lived in the time of his most noble father, which he
willingly granted. Removing thither, I enjoyed that
sweet place and country, wherein I found not a few that
welcomed me out of their ancient acquaintance.
138 THE LIFE OF
On the one side of me was the Baron de Montaterre, of
the reformed religion, and Monsieur de Bouteville on the
other, who, though young at that time, proved afterwards
to be that brave cavalier which all France did so much
celebrate. In both their castles, likewise, were ladies of
much beauty and discretion, and particularly a sister of
Bouteville, thought to be one of the chief perfections of
the time, whose company yielded some divertisement
when my public occasions did suffer it.
Winter being* now come, I returned to my house in
Paris, and prepared for renewing the oath of alliance be-
twixt the two crowns, for which, as I said formerly, I
had an extraordinary commission; nevertheless, the king
put off the business to as long a time as he well could. In
the meanwhile, Prince Henry of Nassau, brother to Prince
Maurice, coming to Paris, was met and much welcomed
by me, as being obliged to him no less than to his brother
in the Low Countries. This prince, and all his train
were feasted by me at Paris with a hundred dishes, cost-
ing, as I remember, in all £100.
The French king at last resolving upon a day for per-
forming the ceremony betwixt the two crowns above-
mentioned, myself and all my train put ourselves into
that sumptuous equipage, that I remember it cost me one
way or another above £1,000. And truly the magnificence
of it was such, as a little French book was presently
printed thereof. This being done, I resided here in the
quality of an ordinary ambassador.
And now I shall mention some particular passages con-
cerning myself, without entering yet any way into the
whole frame and context of my negotiation, reserving
them, as I said before, to a particular treatise. I spent
my time much in the visits of the princes, council of
state, and great persons of the French kingdom, who did
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 139
ever punctually requite my visits; tlie like I did also to
the chief ambassadors there, among whom the Venetian,
Low Country, Savoy, and the united princes in Germany,
ambassadors, did bear me that respect that they usually
met in my house to advise together concerning the great
affairs of that time; for as the Spaniard then was so
potent that he seemed to affect a universal monarchy,
all the above-mentioned ambassadors did, in one common
interest, strive to oppose him.
All our endeavours yet could not hinder but that he
both publicly prevailed in his attempts abroad, and pri-
vately did corrupt divers of the principal ministers of
state in this kingdom. I came to discover this by many
ways, but by none more effectually than by the means of
an Italian, who returned over, by letters of exchange, the
moneys the Spanish ambassador received for his occasions
in France; for I perceived that when the said Italian
was to receive any extraordinary great sum for the
Spanish ambassador's use, the whole face of affairs was
presently changed, insomuch that neither my reasons nor
the ambassadors above-mentioned, how valid soever, could
prevail; though yet afterwards we found means together
to reduce affairs to their former train, till some other
new great sum coming to the Spanish ambassador's hand,
and from thence to the aforesaid ministers of state, altered
all.
Howbeit, divers visits passed betwixt the Spanish am-
bassador and myself, in one of which he told me that
though our interests were divers, yet we might continue
friendship in our particular persons; "for," said he, " it
can be no occasion of offence betwixt us, that each of us
strive the best he can to serve the king his master." I
disliked not his reasons, though yet I could not omit to
tell him that I would maintain the dignity of the king
140 THE LIFE OF
my master the best I could; and this I said, because the
Spanish ambassador had taken place of the English IB
the time of Henry IV. in this fashion: they both meeting
in an antechamber to the secretary of state, the Spanish
ambassador, leaning to the wall in that posture that he
took the hand of the English ambassador, said publicly
"I hold this place in the right of the king my master."
which small punctilio being not resented by our ambas-
sador at that time, gave the Spaniard occasion to brag
that he had taken the hand from our ambassador.
This made me more watchful to regain the honour
which the Spaniard pretended to have gotten herein; so
that though the ambassador, in his visits, often repeated
the words above-mentioned, being in Spanish, " Que Cada
uno haga lo que pudiere por su arno," "Let every man do
the best he can for his master," I attended the occasion
to right my master.
It happened one day, that both of us going to the
French king for our several affairs, the Spanish ambas-
sador, between Paris and Estampes, being upon his way
before me in his coach, with a train of about sixteen or
eighteen persons on horseback, I following him in my
coach, with about ten or twelve horse, found that either
I must go the Spanish pace, which is slow, or if I hasted .
to pass him, that I must hazard the suffering of some
affront like unto that our former ambassador received;
proposing hereupon to my gentlemen the whole business,
I told them that I meant to redeem the honour of the
king my master some way or other, demanding further
whether they would assist me, which they promising, I
bid the coachman drive on.
The Spanish ambassador seeing me approach, and
imagining what my intention was, sent a gentleman to
me to tell me he desired to salute me; which I accepting,
HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 141
the gentleman returned to the ambassador, who, alighting
from his coach, attended me in the middle of the high-
way; which being perceived by me, I alighted also, when
some extravagant compliments having passed betwixt
us, the Spanish ambassador took his leave of me,
went to a dry ditch not far off upon some pretence, but
indeed to hold the upper hand of me while I passed
by in ray coach; which being observed by me, I left my
coach, and getting upon a spare horse I had there, rode
into the said dry ditch, and. telling him aloud that I knew
well why he stood there, bid him afterwards get to his
coach, for I must ride that way. The Spanish ambas-
sador, who understood me well, went to his coach
grumbling and discontented, although yet neither he
nor his train did any more than look one upon another
in a confused manner; my coach this while passing by
the ambassador on the same side I was, I shortly after
left my horse and got into it.
It happened this white, that one of my coach horses
having lost a shoe, I thought fit to stay at a smith's forge,
about a quarter of a mile before; this shoe could not be
put on so soon, but that the Spanish ambassador overtook
us, and might, indeed, hav,e passed us, but that he thought
I would give him another affront; attending, therefore,
the smith's leisure, he stayed in the highway, to our no
little admiration, until my horse was shod. We continued
our journey to Estampes, the Spanish ambassador follow-
ing us still at a good distance.
I should scarce have mentioned this passage, but that
the Spaniards do so much stand upon their pundonores;
for confirming whereof, I have thought fit to remember
the answer a Spanish ambassador made to Philip II., King
of Spain, who finding fault with him for neglecting a
business of great importance in Italy, because he could
142 THE LIFE OF
not agree with the French ambassador about some such
pundonore as this, said to him, "Como a dexado una cosa
di importancia per una ceremonia!" "How, have you
left a business of importance for a ceremony!" The
ambassador boldly replied to his master, " Como por una
ceremonia I Vuessa majesta misma no es sino una cere-
monia," "How, for a ceremony! Your majesty's self is
but a ceremony."
Howsoever, the Spanish ambassador taking no notice
publicly of the advantage I had of him herein, dis-
sembled it, as I heard, till he could find some fit occasion
to resent this passage, which yet he never did to this
day.
Among the visits I rendered to the grandees of France,
one of the principal I made was to that brave general the
Duke of Lesdigueres, who was now grown very old and
deaf. His first words to me were, "Monsieur, you must do
me the honour to speak high, for I am deaf." . My answer
to him was, "You was born to command and not to
obey; it is enough if others have ears to hear you." This
compliment took him much, and indeed I have a manu-
script of his military precepts and observations, which I
value at a great price.
I shall relate now some things concerning myself,
which, though they may seem scarce credible, yet, before
Grod, are true. I had been now in France about a year
and a half, when my tailor, Andrew Henly, of Basle, who
now lives in Blackfriars, demanded of me half a yard of
satin, to make me a suit, more than I was accustomed to
give, of which I required a reason, saying. I was not
fatter now than when I came to France; he answered, it
was true. "but you are taller ;" whereunto when I would
give him no credit, he brought his old measures, and
made it appear that they did not reach to their just
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 143
places. I told Mm I knew not how this happened, but
howsoever he should have half a yard more, and that
when I came into England I would clear the doubt;
for a little before my departure thence, I remember
William, Earl of Pembroke, and myself did measure
heights together, at the request of the Countess of Bed-
ford, and he was then higher than I by about the breadth
of my little finger. At my return, therefore, into England,
I measured again with the same earl, and, to both our
great wonders, found myself taller than he by the breadth
of a little finger; which growth of mine I could attribute
to no other cause but to my quartan ague formerly men-
tioned, which, when it quitted me, left me in more
perfect health than I formerly enjoyed, and indeed dis-
posed me to some follies which I afterwards repented
and do still repent of; but as my wife refused to come
over, and my temptations were great, I hope the faults I
committed are the more pardonable; howsoever, I can say
truly, that whether in France or England, I never used
my pleasures intemperately, and much less did accom-
pany them with that dissimulation and falsehood which
is commonly found in men addicted to love women.
To conclude this passage, which I unwillingly men-
tion, I must protest again, before Grod, that I never
delighted in that or any other sin, and that if I trans-
gressed sometimes in this kind, it was to avoid a greater
ill; for certainly if I had been provided with a lawful
remedy, I should have fallen into no extravagancy. I
could extenuate my fault by telling circumstances which
would have operated, I doubt, upon the chastest of man-
kind; but I forbear, those things being not fit to be
spoken of; for though the philosophers have accounted
this act to ~be inter honestafactu, where neither in jury nor
violence was offered, yet they ever reckoned it among the
144 THE LIFE OF
lurpia, dictu; I shall therefore only tell some other
things alike strange of myself.
I weighed myself in balances often with men lower
than myself by the head, and in their bodies slenderer,
and yet was found lighter than they, as Sir John Davers,
knight, and Richard Griffiths, now living, can witness,
with both whom I have been weighed. I had also, and
have still a pulse on the crown of my head. It is well
known to those that wait in my chamber, that the shirts,
waistcoats, and other garments I wear next my body
are sweet, beyond what either easily can be believed, or
hath been observed in any else, which sweetness also was
found to be in my breath above others,.before I used to
take tobacco, which towards my latter time I was forced
to take against certain rheums and catarrhs that trouble
me, which yet did not taint my breath £or any long time;
I scarce ever felt cold in my life, though yet so subject
to catarrhs, that I think no man ever was more obnoxious
to it; all which I do in a familiar way mention to my
posterity, though otherwise they might be thought scarce
worth the writing.
The effect of my being sent into France by the king my
master, being to hold all good intelligence betwixt both
crowns, my employment was botli noble and pleasing,
and my pains not great, France having no design at that
time upon England, and King James being that pacific
prince all the world knew. And thus, besides the times
I spent in treaties and negotiations, I had either with
the ministers of state in France, or foreign ambassadors
residing in Paris, I had spare time not only for my book,
but for visits to divers grandees, for little more ends than
obtaining some intelligence of the affairs of that king-
dom, and civil conversation, for which their free,
generous, and cheerful company was no little motive;
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 145
persons of all quality being so addicted to have mutual
entertainment with eacn other, that in calm weather one
might find all the noble and good company of Paris, of
both sexes, either in the Garden of the Tuilleries, or in
the park of Bois de Vincennes, they thinking it almost
an incivility to refuse their presence and free discourse
to any who were capable of coming to those places, either
under the recommendation of good parts, or but so much
as handsome clothes and a good equipage.
When foul weather was, they spent their time in visits
at each other's houses, where they interchanged civil
discourses, or heard music, or fell to dancing, using,
according to the manner of that country, all the reason-
able liberties they could with their honour; while their
manner was, either in the garden of the Tuilleries or
elsewhere, if anyone discoursing with a lady did see some
other of good fashion approach to her, he would leave her
and go to some other lady, he who conversed with her at
that time quitting her also, and going to some other, that
so addresses might be made equal and free to all without
scruple on any part, neither was exception made, or
quarrel begun, upon these terms.
It happened one day, that I being ready to return from
the Tuilleries, about eight of the clock in the summer,
with intention to write a dispatch to the king about
some intelligence I had received there, the queen, attended
with her principal' ladies, without so much as one
cavalier, did enter the garden; I stayed on one side of an
alley, there to do my reverence to her and the rest, and
so return to my house, when the queen, perceiving me,
stayed a while, as if she expected I should attend her;
but as I stirred not more than to give her that great
respect I owed her, the Princess of Conti, who was next,
called me to her, and said I must go along with her; but
146 THE LIFE OF
I, excusing myself upon occasion of a present dispatch
which I was to make unto his majesty, the Duchess of
Antador, who followed her, came to me, and said I must
not refuse her; whereupon, leading her by her arms,
according fco the manner of that country, the Princess of
Conti, offended that I had denied her that civility which
I had yielded to another, took me off, after she had
demanded the consent of the duchess; but the queen,
then also staying, I left the princess, and, with all due
humility, went to the queen, and led her by the arms;
walking thus to a place in the garden where some orange
trees grew, and here discoursing with her majesty bare-
headed, some small shot fell on both our heads. The
occasion whereof was this: the king being in the garden,
and shooting at a bird in the air, which he did with much
perfection, the descent of his shot fell just upon us. The
queen was much startled herewith, when I, coming
nearer to her, demanded whether she had received any
harm; to which she answering no, and therewith taking
two or three small pellets from her hair, it was thought
fit to send a gardener to the king, to tell him that her
majesty was there, and that he should shoot no more that
way, which was no sooner heard among the nobles that
attended him, but many of them, leaving him, came to
the queen and ladies, among whom was Monsieur le
Grand,* who, finding the queen still discoursing with me,
stole behind her, and letting f ali gently some comfits he
had in his pocket upon the queen's hair, gave her occasion
to apprehend that some shot had fallen on her again.
Turning hereupon to Monsieur le Grand, I said that I
marvelled that so old a courtier as he was could find no
means to entertain ladies but by making them afraid;
but the queen shortly after returning to her lodging, I
* Roger, Due de Bellegavde, grand escuyer.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 147
took my leave of her, and came home. All which passage
I have thought fit to set down, the accident above-
mentioned being so strange, that it can hardly be
paralleled.
It fell out one day that the Prince of Conde coming to
my house, some speech happened concerning the king my
master, in whom, though he acknowledged much learn-
ing, knowledge, clemency, and divers other virtues, yet
he said he had heard that the king was much given to
cursing. I answered that it was out of his gentleness;
but the prince demanding how cursing could be a
gentleness? I replied yes, for though he could punish
men himself, yet he left them to God to punish; which
defence of the king my master was afterwards much
celebrated in the French court.
Monsieur de Luynes* continuing still the king's
favourite, advised him to war against his subjects of the
reformed religion in France: saying, he would neither be
a great prince as long as he suffered so puissant a party
to remain within Ms dominions, nor could justly style
himself the most Christian king as long as he permitted
such heretics to be in that great number they were, or to
hold those strong places which by public edict were
assigned to them; and therefore that he should extirpate
them as the Spaniards had .done the Moors, who are all
banished into other countries, as we may find in their
histories.
This counsel, though approved by the young king
was yet disliked by other grave and wise persons about
him, and particularly by the chancellor Sillery and the
president Jannin, who thought better to have a peace
which had two religions, than a war that had none.
Howbeit, the design of Luynes was applauded, not only
* Charles ATbret, Due de Luynes.
143 THE LIFE OF
by the Jesuit party in France, but by some princes and
other martial persons, insomuch that the Duke of Guise*
coming to see me one day, said, that they should never be
happy in France, until those of the religion were rooted
out: I answered, that I wondered to hear him say so;
and the duke demanding why? I replied, that whensoever
those of the religion were put down, the turn of the
great persons, and governors of provinces of that king-
dom would be next; and that, though the present king
were a good prince, yet that their successors may be
otherwise, and that men did not know how soon princes
might prove tyrants when they had nothing to fear;
which speech of mine was fatal, since those of the
religion were no sooner reduced into that weak condition
in which now they are, but the governors of provinces
were brought lower, and curbed much in their power and
authority, and the Duke of Guise first of them all; so
that I doubt not but my words were well remembered.
Howsoever, the war now went on. with much fervour;
neither could I dissuade it, though using, according to
the instructions I had from the king my master, many
arguments for that pupose. I was told often, that if the
reformation in France had been like that in England,
where they observed we retained the hierarchy, together
with decent rites and ceremonies in the church, as also
holidays in the memory of saints, music in churches, and
divers other testimonies, both of glorifying God and
giving honour and reward to learning, they could much
better have tolerated it; but such a rash and violent
reformation as theirs was, ought by no means to be ap-
proved. Whereunto I answered, that though the causes
of departing from the Church of Rome were taught and
delivered by many sober and modest persons, yet that the
* Charles, son of Henry, Duke of Guise, who was killed at Blois.
LOBD HEBBEBT OP CHERBTJBY. 14&
reformation in great part was acted by the common
people, whereas ours began at the prince of state, and
therefore was more moderate; which reason I found did
not displease them. I added further then, that the re-
formed religion in France would easily enough admit an
hierarchy, if they had sufficient means among them to
maintain it, and that if their churches were as fair as
those which the Eoman Catholics had, they would us©
the more decent sorts of rites and ceremonies, and to-
gether like well of organs and choirs of singers, rather
than make a breach or schism on that occasion: as for
holidays, I doubted not but the principal persons and
ministers of their religion would approve it much better
than the common people, who, being labourers and
artizans for the most part, had the advantages for many
more days than the Roman Catholics for getting fcheir
living; howsoever, that those of the religion had been
good cautions to make the Roman Catholic priests, if not
better, yet at least more wary in their lives and actions;
it being evident that since the reformation began among
those of the religion, the Roman Catholics had divers
ways reformed themselves, and abated not only much of
their power they usurped over laics, but were more pious
and continent than f ormeiiy. Lastly, that those of the
religion acknowledged solely the king's authority in
government of all affairs; whereas the other side held
the regal power not only inferior in divers points, but
subordinate to the papal: nothing of which yet served
to divert Monsieur de Luynes or the king from their
resolutions.
The king having now assembled an army, and made
some progress against those of the religion, I had in-
struction sent me from the king my master to mediate a
peace, and if I could not prevail therein, to use some
150 THE LIFE OP
such words as may both argue Ms majesty's care of them
of the religion, and together, to let the French king
know, that he would not permit their total ruin and
•extirpation. The king was now going to lay siege to St.
Jean d'Angely, when myself was newly recovered of a
fever at Paris, in which, besides the help of many able
physicians, I had the comfort of divers visits from many
principal grandees of France, and particularly the Prin-
cess of Conti, who would sit by my bedside two or three
hours, and with cheerful discourse entertain me, though
yet I was brought so low, that I could scarce return any-
thing by way of answer but thanks.
The command yet which I received frojn fihe king my
master quickened me, insomuch that by slow degrees I
went into my coach together with my train, towards
St. Jean d'Angely. Being arrived within a small dis-
tance of that place, I found by divers circumstances that
the effect of my negotiation had been discovered from
England, and that I was not welcome thither; howbeit,
having obtained an audience from the king, I exposed
what I had in charge to say to him, to which yet I
received no other answer but that I should go to
Monsieur de Luynes, by whom I should know his
majesty's intention.
Repairing thus to him, I did find outwardly good re-
ception, though yet I did not know how cunningly he
proceeded to betray and frustrate my endeavours for
those of the religion: for, hiding a gentleman called
Monsieur Arnaud behind the hangings in his chamber,
who was then of the religion, but had promised a revolt
to the king's side, this gentleman, as he himself con-
fessed afterwards to the Earl of Carlisle, had in charge to
relate unto those of the religion how little help they
might expect from me, when he should tell them the
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 151
answers which Monsieur de Luynes made me. Sitting
thus in a chair before Monsieur de Luynes. he demanded
the effect of my business? I answered, that the king my
master commanded me to mediate a peace betwixt his
majesty and his subjects of the religion, and that I
desired to do it in all those fair and equal terms which
might stand with the honour of France and the good
intelligence betwixt the two kingdoms: to which he
returned this rude answer only: "What hath the king
your master to do with our actions 1 Why doth he meddle
with our affairs?"
My reply was, that the king my master ought not to
give an account; of the reason which induced him here-
unto, and for me it was enough to obey him ; howbeit, if
he did ask me in more gentle terms, I should do the best
I could to give him satisfaction; to which, though he
answered no more than the word Men, or well, I pur-
suing my instruction, said that the king my master,
according to the mutual stipulation betwixt Henry IT.
and himself, that the survivor of either of them should
procure the tranquillity and peace of the other's estate,
had sent this message, and that he had not only testified
this his pious inclination heretofore in the late civil wars
of France, but was desirous on this occasion also to show
how much he stood affected to the good of the kingdom;
besides, he hoped that when peace was established here,
that the French king might be the more easily disposed
to assist the Palatine, who was an ancient friend and
ally of the French crown.
His reply to this was, "We will have none of your
advices," whereupon I said that I took those words for
an answer, and was sorry only that they did not under-
stand sufficiently the affection and good-will of the king
my master, and since they rejected it upon those terms, I
152 THE LIFE OF
had in charge to tell him that we knew very well what
we had to do. Luynes, seeming offended herewith, said,
Nous ne vous craignons pas, or "We are not afraid of you.'*
I replied hereupon, that if you had said you had not
loved us I should have believed you, but should have re-
turned you another answer; in the meanwhile that I had
no more to say than what I told him formerly, which
was that we knew what we had to do.
This, though somewhat less than was in my instruc-
tions, so angered him, that in much passion he said, Par
2)ieut si vousrfetioz Monsieur V Amliassadeur, je vous tra/it-
terois d'un autre sorte—"By G-od, if you were not
Monsieur Ambassador, I would use you after another
fashion." My answer was, that as I was an ambassador,
so I was also a gentleman; and therewithal laying my
hand upon the hilt of my sword, told him there was that
which should make him an answer, and so arose from my
chair; to which Monsieur de Luynes made no reply, but
arising likewise from his chair, offered civilly to accom-
pany me to the door, but I telling him there was no
occasion for him to use ceremony after so rude an enter-
tainment, I departed from him.
From thence returning to my lodging, I spent three or
four days afterwards in seeing the manner of the French
discipline in making approaches to towns; at what time
I remember, that, going in my coach within reach of
cannon, those in the town imagining me to be an enemy,,
made many shots against me, which so affrighted my
coachman, that he durst drive no further, whereupon
alighting, I bid him put the horses out of danger, and
notwithstanding many more shots made against me, went
on foot to the trenches, where one Seaton, a Scotchman,,
conducting me showed me their works, in which I found
little differing from the Low Country manner.
LORD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBtTBY. 153
Having satisfied myself in this manner, I thought fit
to take my leave of the king, being at Cognac, the city
of St. Jean d'Angely being now surrendered unto him.
•Opining thus to a village not far from Cognac about ten
of the clock at night, I found all the lodgings possessed
by soldiers, so that, alighting in the market-place. I sent
my servants to the inns to get some provision, who,
bringing me only six rye loaves, which I was doubtful
whether I should bestow on myself and company or on
my horses, Monsieur de Fonts, a French nobleman of the
religion, attended with a brave train, hearing of my
being there, offered me lodging in his castle near ad-
joining.
I told him it was a great courtesy at that time, yet I
could not with my honour accept it, since I knew it
would endanger him, my business to those parts being in
favour of those of the religion, and the chief ministers of
state in France being jealous of my holding intelligence
with him; howbeit, if he would procure me lodging in
the town I should take it kindly. Whereupon, sending
his servants round about the town, he found at last, in
the house of one of his tenants, a chamber to which,
when he had conducted me, and together gotten some
little accommodation for myself and horses, I desired him
to depart to his lodgings, he being then in a place which
Tiis enemies, the king's soldiers, had possessed; all which
-was not so silently carried but that the said nobleman
was accused afterwards at the French court upon
suspicion of holding correspondence with me, whereof it
was my fortune to clear him.
Coming next day to Cognac, the Mareschal de St.
<3-eran, my noble friend, privately met me and said I was
not in a place of surety there, as having offended Mon-
ienr de Luynes, who was the king's favourite, desiring
154 THE LIFE OF
me witlial to advise what I had to do. I told him I was
in a place of surety wheresoever I had my sword by my
side, and that I intended to demand audience of the king,
which also- being obtained. I found not so cold a reception
as I thought to meet with, insomuch that I parted with
his majesty, to all outward appearance, in very good
terms.
From hence, returning to Paris shortly after, I found
myself welcome to all those ministers of state there, and
noblemen, who either envied the greatness or loved not
the insolencies of Monsieur de Luynes; by whom also I
was told that the said Luynes had intended to send a
brother of his into England with an embassy, the effect
whereof should be chiefly to complain against me, and to
obtain that I should be repealed, and that he intended to
relate the passages betwixt us at St. Jean d'Angely in
a much different manner from that I reported, and that
he would charge me with giving the first offence. After
thanks for this advertisement, J told them my relation of
the business betwixt us, in the manner I delivered, was
true, and that I would justify it with my sword; at
which, they being nothing scandalised, wished me good
fortune.
The ambassador into England following shortly after,
with a huge train, in a sumptuous manner, and an
accusation framed against me, I was sent for home, of
which I was glad, my payment being so ill, that I was
run far into debt with my merchants, who had assisted
me now with £3,000 or £4,000 more than I was able at
the present to discharge. Coming thus to court, the
Duke of Buckingham, who was then my noble friend,
informed me at large of the objections represented by the
French ambassador; to which, when I had made my
defence in the manner above related, 1 added, that I was
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBUBY. 155
ready to make good all that I had said with my sword;
and shortly after I did, in the presence of his majesty and
the Duke of Buckingham, humbly desire leave to send a
trumpet to Monsieur de Luynes, to offer him the combat
upon terms that passed betwixt us; which was not per-
mitted, otherwise than that they would take my offer
into consideration,
Howsoever, notice being publicly taken of this my
desire, much occasion of speech was given, every man
that heard thereof much favouring me; but the Duke
of Luynes' death following shortly after, the business
betwixt us was ended, and I commanded to return to my
former charge in France. I did not yet presently go, as
finding much difficulty to obtain the moneys due to me'
from the exchequer, and therewith, as also by my own
revenues, to satisfy my creditors in France. The Earl of
Carlisle* this while being employed extraordinary am-
bassador to France, brought home a confirmation of the
passages betwixt Monsieur de Luynes and myself, Mon-
sieur de Arnaud. who stood behind the hangings, as above
related, having verified all I said, insomuch that the king
my master was well satisfied of my truth.
Having by this time cleared all my debts, when de-
manding new instructions from the king my master, the
Earl of Carlisle brought me this message: That his
majesty had that experience of my abilities and fidelity,
that he would give me no instructions, but leave all
things to my discretion, as knowing I would proceed
with that circumspection, as I should be better able to
discern, upon emergent occasions, what was fit to be done,
than that I should need to attend directions from nence,
which, besides that they would be slow, might perbance
* James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, Knight of the Garter, Master of the
great "Wardrobe, and ambassador in Germany and Prance.
156 THE LIFE OF
be not so proper, or correspondent to the conjuncture of
the great affairs then in agitation, both in France and
Germany, and other parts of Christendom; and that these
things therefore must be left to my vigilance, prudence,
and fidelity. Whereupon I told his lordship, that I took
this as a singular expression of the trust his majesty re-
posed in me; howbeit, that I desired his lordship to
pardon me, if I said I had herein only received a greater
power or latitude to err; and that I durst not trust my
judgment so far as that I would presume to answer for
all events in such factious and turbulent times, and there-
fore again did humbly desire new instructions, which I
promised punctually to follow.
The Earl of Carlisle returning hereupon to the king,
brought me yet no other answer back than that I
formerly mentioned, and that his majesty did so much
confide in me that he would limit me with no other in-
structions, but refer all to my discretion; promising
together, that if matters proceeded not as well as might
be wished, he would attribute the default to any thing
rather than to my not performing my duty.
Finding his majesty thus resolved, I humbly took leave
of him and my friends at court, and went to Monsieur
Savage; when demanding of him new letters of credit,
his answer was, he could not furnish me as he had before,
there being no limited sum expressed there, but that I
should have as much as I needed; to which, though
I answered that I had paid all, yet, as Monsieur Savage
replied, that I had not paid it at the time agreed on, he
said he could furnish me with a letter only for £3,000,
and nevertheless, that he was confident I should have
more if I required it; which I found true, for I took up
afterwards upon my credit there as much more as made
in the whole £5,000 or £6,000.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTTRY. 157
Coming- thus to Paris, I found myself welcomed by all
fche principal persons, nobody that I found there being1
either offended with the passages betwixt me and Mon-
sieur de Luynes, or that were sorry for his death, in which
number the queen's majesty seemed the most eminent
person, as one who long since had hated him: whereupon
also I cannot but remember this passage, that in an
audience I had one day from the queen, I demanded of
her how far she would have assisted me with her good
offices against Luynes? She replied, that what cause so-
ever she might have to hate him, either by reason or by
force, they would have made her to be of his side; to
which I answered in Spanish, No ay feurce por las a
reynas (" There is no force for queens "), at which she
smiled.
And now I began to proceed in all public affairs ac-\
cording to the liberty with which my master was pleased
to honour me, confining myself to no rules but those of
my own discretion. My negotiations in the meanwhile
proving so successful, that, during the remainder of my
stay there, his majesty received much satisfaction con-
cerning my carriage, as finding I had preserved his honour
and interest in all great affairs then emergent in France,
Germany, and other parts of Christendom; which work
being of great concernment, I found the easier, that his
majesty's ambassadors and agents everywhere gave me
perfect intelligence of all that happened within their pre-
cincts; insomuch that from Sir Henry Wotton, his
majesty's ambassador at Venice, who was a learned and
witty gentleman, I received all the news of Italy; as also
from Sir Isaac "Wake, who did more particularly acquaint
me with the business of Savoy, Valentina,* and Switzer-
land; from Sir Francis Nethersole, his majesty's agent
* The Valteline.
158 THE LIFE OF
in Germany, and more particularly with the united
princes there, on the behalf of his son-in-law, the palatine
or king of Bohemia, I received all the news of Germany;
from Sir Dudley Carlton, his majesty's ambassador in the
Low Countries, I received intelligence concerning all the
affairs of that state; and from Mr. William Trumball,
his majesty's agent at Brussels, all the affairs on that
side; and lastly, from Sir Walter Aston, his majesty's
ambassador in Spain, and after him from the Earl of Bristol
and Lord Cottington, I had intelligence from the Spanish
court; out of all whose relations being compared to-
gether, I found matter enough to direct my judgment in
all public proceedings; besides, in Paris I had the chief
intelligence which came to either Monsieur de Langherac,
the Low Country ambassador; or Monsieur Postek, agent
for the united princes in Germany; and Sigr. Contarini,
ambassador for Venice; and Sigr. Guiscardi, my particu-
lar friend, agent for Mantua; and Monsieur Gueretin,
agent for the palatine or king of Bohemia; and Monsieur
Villers for the Swiss, and Monsieur Ainorant, agent for
Geneva: by whose means, upon the resultance of the
several advertisements given me, I found what I had to
do.
The wars in Germany were now hot, when several
French gentlemen came to me for recommendations to
the Queen of Bohemia, whose service they desired to ad-
vance, which also I performed as effectually as I could;
howbeit, as after the battle of Prague, the imperial side
seemed wholly to prevail, these gentlemen had not the
satisfaction expected.
About 'this time the Duke de Crouy, employed from
Brussels to the French Court, coming to see me, said, by
way of rhodomontade, as though he would not speak of
our isles, yet he saw all the rest of the world must bow
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 159
under the Spaniard; to which I answered, Grod be
thanked that they are not yet come to that pass, or when
they were, they have this yet to comfort them, that at
worst they should be but the same which you are now;
which speech of mine being afterwards, I know not how,
divulged, was much applauded by the French, as believing
I intended that other countries should be put under the
same severe government to which the Duke of Crouy and
those within the Spanish dominions were subject.
It happened one day that the agent from Brussels and
ambassador from the Low Countries came to see me, im-
mediately one after the other, to whom I said familiarly
that I thought that the inhabitants of the parts of the
seventeen provinces which were under the Spaniards,
might be compared to horses in a stable, which, as they
were finely curried, dressed, and fed, so they were well
ridden also, spurred, and galled; and that I thought the
Low Country men were like to horses at grass, which,
though they wanted so good keeping as the other had, yet
might leap, kick, and fling, as much as they would;
which freedom of mine displeased neither; or if the Low
Country ambassador did think I had spoken a little too
sharply, I pleased him afterwards, when, continuing my
discourse, I told him that the states of the united pro-
vinces had within a narrow room shut up so much war-
like provision both by sea and land, and together demon-
strated such courage upon all occasions, that it seemed
they had more need of enemies than of friends, which
compliment I found did please him.
About this time the French, being jealous that the king
my master would match the prince his son with the King
of Spain's sister, and together relinquish his alliance
with France, myself, who did endeavour nothing more
than to hold all good intelligence betwixt the two crowns,
160 THE LIFE OF
had enough to do. The Count de Gondomor passing now
from Spain into England, came to see me at Paris, about
ten of the clock in the morning, when, after some com-
pliments, he told me that he was to go towards England
the next morning, and that he desired my coach to ac-
company him out of town; I told him, after a. free and
merry manner, he should not have my coach, and that if
he demanded it, it was not because he needed coaches,
the pope's nuntio, the emperor's ambassador, the Duke of
Bavaria's agent, and. others, having coaches enough to
furnish him, but because he would put a isalousy betwixt
me and the French, as if I inclined more to the Spanish
side than to theirs.
Gondomor then looking merrily upon me, said, "I will
dine with you yet." I told him, by his good favour, he
should not dine with me at that time, and that when
I would entertain the ambassador of so great a king as
his, it should not be upon my ordinary, butrfthat I would
make him a feasfc worthy of so great a person; howbeity
that he might see after what manner I lived, I desired-
some of my gentlemen to bring his gentlemen into the
kitchen, where, after my usual manner, were three spits
full of meat, divers pots of boiled meat, and an oven with
store of pies in it, and a dresser board covered with all
manner of good fowl, and some tarts, pans with tarts in
them, after the French manner; after which, being con-
ducted to another room, they were shown a dozen or six-
teen dishes of sweatmeats, all which was but the ordinary
allowance for my table.
The Spaniards returning now to Gondomor, told him
what good cheer they found, notwithstanding which, I
told Gondomor again that I desired to be excused if I
thought this dinner unworthy of him, and that when
occasion were, I should entertain him after a much better
LORD HERBERT OF CHEBBTJBY. 161
manner. Gondomor hereupon coming1 near me, said he
esteemed me much, and that he meant only to put a trick
upon me, which he found I had discovered, and that he
thought that an Englishman had not known how to avoid,
handsomely a trick put upon him under show of civility;
and that I ever should find him. my friend, and would do
me all the good offices he could in England, which also-
he really performed, as the Duke of Lenox and the Earl
of Pembroke confirmed to me; Gondomor saying to
them, that I was a man fit for employment, and that he
thought Englishmen, though otherwise able persons,
knew not how to make a denial handsomely, which yet I
had done.
This Gondomor being an able person, and dexterous in
his negotiations, had so prevailed with King James, that his
majesty resolved to pursue his treaty with Spain, and for
that purpose to send his son Prince Charles in person to
conclude the match; when, after some debate whether
he should go in a public or private manner, it was at last
resolved that he, attended with the Marquis of Buck-
ingham, and Sir Francis Cottington his secretary, and
Endimion Porter, and Mr. Grimes, gentleman of the
horse to the marquis, should pass in a disguised and
private manner through France to Madrid. These five
passing, though not without some difficulty, from Dover
to Boulogne, where taking post horses, they came to
Paris, and lodged at an inn in Rue St. Jacques, where it
was advised amongst them whether they should send for
me to attend them. After some dispute, it was concluded
in the negative, since, as one there objected, if I came
alone in the quality of a private person, I must go on
foot through the streets, and because I was a person
generally known, might be followed by some one or other,
who would discover whither my private visit tended;
IT—55
162 THE LIFE OF
besides, that those in the inn must needs take notice of
my coming in that manner. On the other side, if I came
publicly with my usual train, the gentlemen with me
must needs take notice of the prince and the Marquis of
Buckingham, and consequently might divulge it, which
was thought not to stand with the prince's safety, who
endeavoured to keep his journey as secret as possible.
Howbeit, the prince spent the day following his arrival
in seeing the French Court and city of Paris, without that
anybody did know his persou; but a maid that had sold
linen heretofore in London, who, seeing him pass by, said,
"Certainly this is the Prince of Wales," but withal
suffered him to hold his way, and presumed not to follow
him. The next day after, they took post horses, and held
their ways towards Bayonne, a city frontier to Spain.
The first notice that came to me was by one Andrews,
a Scotchman, who, coming late the night preceding their
departure, demanded whether I had seen the prince?
When I demanding what prince 1 for, said I, the Prince
of Conde is yet in Italy; he told me the Prince of Wales,
which yet I could not believe easily, until with many
oaths he affirmed the prince was in France, and that he
had charge to follow his highness, desiring me in the
meanwhile, on the part of the king my master, to serve
his passage the best I could. This made me rise very
early the next morning, and go to Monsieur Puisieux.
principal secretary of state, to demand present audience;
Puisieux hereupon entreated me to stay an hour, since he
was in bed, and had some earnest business to despatch for
the king his master as soon as he was ready; I returned
answer that I could not stay a minute, and that I desired
I might come to his bedside; this made Puisieux rise
and put on his gown only,*and so earne to the chamber
»vhere I attended him. ,
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 103
His first words to me were, I know your business as
well as you; your prince is departed this morning post
to Spain: adding further, that I could demand nothing
for the security of his passage, but it should be presently
granted, concluding with these very words: Vous serez
servi au point nomine, or, "You shall be served in any
particular you can name." I told him that his free offer
had prevented the request I intended to make, and that
because he was so principal a minister of state. I doubted
not but what he had so nobly promised he would see
punctually performed; as for the security of his passage,
that I did not see what I could demand more, than that
he would suffer him quietly to hold his way, without
sending after, or interrupting him. He replied, that the
prince should not be interrupted, though yet he could do
no less than send to know what success the prince had in
his journey.
I was no sooner returned out of his chamber, but I
despatched a letter by post to the prince, to desire him to
make all the haste he could out of France, and not to
treat with any of the religion in the way, since his being
at Paris was known, and that though the French secre-
tary had promised he should not be interrupted, yet
that they would send after his highness, and when he
gave any occasion of suspicion, might perchance detain
him. The prince, after some examination at Bayonne
(which the governor thereof did afterwards particularly
relate to me, confessing that he did not know who the
prince was), held his way on to Madrid, where he and all
his company safely arrived.
Many of the nobility, and others of the English Court,
being now desirous to see the prince, did pass through
France to Spain, taking my house still in their way, by
whom I acquainted his highness in Spain how much it
104 THE LIFE OF
grieved me that I had not seen his highness when he was
in Paris, which occasioned his highness afterwards to
write a letter to me, wholly with his own hand, and sub-
scribe his name "Tour friend Charles," in which he did
abundantly satisfy all the unkindness I might conceive
on this occasion.
I shall not enter into a narration of the passages
occurring in the Spanish Court upon his highness'&
arrival thither, though they were well known to me, for
the most part, by the information the French queen was
pleased to give me, who, among other things, told me that
her sister did wish well unto the prince. I had from her
also intelligence of certain messages sent from Spain to
the pope, and the pope's messages to them; whereof, by
her permission, I did afterwards inform his highness.
I Many judgments were now made concerning the event
which this treaty of marriage was likely to have; the
Duke of Savoy said that the prince's journey thither was,
Un tiro di qvclli ca^allicri anticlii cliu andacano cosi per
il in-ondo a d Iff are li incanti—that it was a trick of
those ancient knight errants, who went up and down the
world after that manner to undo enchantments —lor as
that duke did believe that the Spaniard did intend finally
to bestow her on the imperial house, he conceived that he
did only entertain the treaty with England, because he
might avert the king my master from treating in any
other place, and particularly in France ; howbeit, by the
intelligence I received in Paris, which I am confident was
very good, I am assured the Spaniard meant really at that
time, though how the match was broken I list not here
to relate, it being a more perplexed and secret business
than I am willing to insert into the narration of my life.
New propositions being now made, and other counsel*
thereupon given, the prince, taking liis leave of the Spanish
XOBD HERBERT OF CHjffiRBTTRY. 165
Court, came to St. Andrew's in Spain, where shipping him-
self with his train, arrived safely at Portsmouth, about
the beginning of October, 1623; the news whereof being
shortly brought into France, the Duke of G-uise came to
me, and said he found the Spaniards were not so able men
as he thought, since they had neither married the prince
in their country, nor done anything to break his match,
elsewhere; I answered, that the prince was more dexterous
than that any secret practice of theirs could be put upon
him; and as for violence, I thought the Spaniard durst
not offer it.
The war against those of the religion continuing in
France, Pere Segnerand, confessor to the king, made a
sermon before his majesty upon the text, " That we should
forgive our enemies," upon which argument having said
many good things, he at last distinguished forgiveness,
and said, we were indeed to forgive our enemies, but not
the enemies of G-od, such as were heretics, and particularly
those of the religion; and that his majesty, as the most
Christian king, ought to extirpate them wheresoever they
could be found. This particular being related to me, I
thought fit to go to the queen-mother without further
ceremony, for she gave me leave to come to her chamber
whensoever I would, without demanding audience, and to
tell her, that though I did not usually intermeddle with
matters handled within their pulpits, yet because Pere
Segnerand, who had the charge of the king's conscience,
had spoken so violently against those of the religion, that
his doctrine was not limited only to France, but might
extend itself in its consequences beyond the seas, even to
the dominions of the king my master; I could not but
think it very unreasonable, and the rather, that as her
majesty well knew that a treaty of marriage betwixt our
prince and the princess her daughter was now begun, for
166 THE LIFE OF
which reason I could do no less than humbly desire that
such doctrines as these henceforth might be silenced, by
some discreet admonition she mighb please to give to Pere
Segnerand, or others that might speak to this purpose.
The queen, though she seemed very willingly to hear
me, yet handled the business so that P&re Segnerand waa
together informed who had made this complaint against
him, whereupon also he was so distempered, that by one
Monsieur Gaellac, a Provensal, his own countryman, he
sent me this message: that he knew well who had
accused him to her majesty, and that he was sensible
thereof; that he wished me to be assured, that whereso-
ever I was in the world, he would hinder my fortune.
The answer I returned by Monsieur G-aellac was that
nothing in all France but a friar or a woman durst have
sent me such a message.
Shortly after this, coming again to the queen-mother
I told her that what I said concerning Pere Ssgnerand
was spoken with a good intention, and that my words
were now discovered to him in that manner, that he sent
me a very affronting message, adding, after a merry
fashion, these words, that I thought Segnerand so
malicious, that his malice was beyond the malice of
women. The queen, being a little startled hereat, said,
A may famine, et parler ainsi ?" To me a woman, and
say so?" I replied gently, Je parle a vfitre majeste
eomme reyne^ et non pas commie femme, "I speak to your
majesty as a queen, and not as a woman," and so took my
leave of her.
What Pere Segnerand did afterwards, in way of per-
forming his threat, I know not; but sure I am, that hadl
I been .ambitious of worldly greatness, I might have;
often remembered his words; though, as I ever loved my
book? and a private life, more than any busy preferments,
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 167
I did frustrate and render vain his greatest power to
Irart me.
My book, De Veritate prout distinguitur a Hevelatione
verisimili, possiMU, et a falso, having been began by me
in England, and formed there in all its principal parts,
was about this time finished; all the spare hours which
I could get from my visits and negotiations being em-
ployed to perfect this work, which was no sooner done
but that I communicated it to Hugo Grotius, that great
scholar, who, having escaped his prison in the Low
Countries, came into Prance, and was much welcomed by
me, and Monsieur Tieleners also, one of the greatest
scholars of his time, who, after they had perused it, and
given it more commendations than is fit for me to repeat,
exhorted me earnestly to print and publish it; howbeit,
as the frame of my whole book was so different from any
thing which had been written heretofore, I found I must
either renounce the authority of all that had written
formerly concerning the method of finding out truth, and
consequently insist upon my own way, or hazard myself
to a general censure concerning the whole argument of
my book. I must confess it did not a little animate me
that the two great persons above mentioned did so highly
value it; yet, as I knew it would meet with much oppo-
sition, I did consider whether it was not better for me
a while to suppress it.
Being thus doubtful in my chamber, one fair day in
the summer, my casement being opened towards the
south, the sun shining clear and no wind stirring, I took
my book, De Veritate. in my hand, and, kneeling on my
knees, devoutly said these words : —
"0 THOU eternal God, Author of the light which now
shines upon me, and Giver of all inward illuminations, I
do beseech Thee, of Thy infinite goodness, to pardon a,
168 THE LIFE OF
greater request than a winner ought to make ; I am not
satisfied enough whether I shall publish this book De
Veritate. If it be for Thy glory, I beseech Thee give me
some sign from heaven; if not, I shall suppress it."
I had no sooner spoken these words, but a loud though
yet gentle noise came from the heavens (for it was like
nothing on earth), which did so comfort and cheer me,
that I took my petition as granted, and that I had the
sign I demanded, whereupon also I resolved to print my
book. This, how strange soever it may seem, I protest
before the Ebernal G-od is true, neither am I any way
superstitiously deceived herein, since I did not only
olearly hear the noise, but in the serenest sky that ever I
saw, being without all cloud, did to my thinking see the
place from whence it came.
And now I sent my book to be printed in Paris, at my
own cost and charges, without suffering it to be divulged
to others than to such as I thought might be worthy
readers of it; though afterwards reprinting it in England,
I not only dispersed it among the prime scholars of Europe,
but was sent to not only from the nearest but furthest
parts of Christendom, to desire the sight of my book, for
which they promised anything I should desire by way of
return ; but hereof more amply in its place.
The treaty of a match with France continuing still, it
was thought fit, for the concluding thereof, that the Earl
of Carlisle and the Earl of Holland should be sent extra-
ordinary ambassadors to France.*
Here Lord Herbert's curious work terminates, a fact
* First printed at Strawberry Hill in 1764; secondly at London,
1770; and thirdly at Edinburgh in 1809, from which last, some of the
particulars in the following pages arc taken.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 1691
much to be regretted, since it cannot be doubted but, that
to a mind thus active and observant, many more impor-
tant details must have presented themselves, especially
during the long and eventful struggle between the king-
and parliament; which it would have been particularly
interesting to have had recorded in his own lively and
attractive manner. Whether his proceeding no farther
arose from choice or necessity cannot now perhaps be-
distinctly ascertained, though it may be thought pro-
bable, from some expressions in a letter wlrich will be-
found in a subsequent page, that sudden infirmity may
have been the cause, as he there represents himself to be
in a state of great inability, at certainly not much more-
than two years, and perhaps not one, from the time of his-
commencing his history.
The occurrence with M. de Luynes, constable of France,,
of which he speaks at the close of his narrative, and in
which Lord Orford observes, "he returned the insolence
of the former with the spirit of a gentleman, without
committing his dignity of ambassador," probably induced
him to propose giving a history of the transactions which
took place during his residence at that Court ;* but as-
this proves to have been an intention never fulfilled, all
that perhaps remains from his pen on this subject are-
the following letters, written at that period, and which,,
as they have not yet been made public, it may be de-
sirable to preserve, as exemplifying his acute feeling for
the honour of the high station he had been called 1x>
occupy, as well as of his talent and vigilance in fulfilling
the duties of it.
The first of these respects chiefly the affairs of the
Protestants in Bohemia, addressed to the Marquis of
Buckingham, and appears to refer to a former letter,,
* Vide Life, p. 239.
170 THE LIFE OF
which had then perhaps been very recently written. It
is as follows:
TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Right Honourable and Right Worthy my Lord Marquis.
SINCE my writings this offer, I understood the Kinge passed neare
this place, in his way to Compiegne in Picardy; this made me repaire
to court, where I visited only Mr. de Luynes, who amouge other
speeches told mee they had given instructions to their arnbassadour in
England that if there were any overture made of a match for our
Prince with Madame Henrietta, the King's sister, that it should be
received with all honour and affection : and (if I bee not mistaken in
the meaning of his words) sayd so much was already insinuated by
their sayd ambassadour: I answerd him as civilly as I could, having
no instructions to speake of any such thing, and came to the busines
of Bohemia, wherein I desired to know how his Mr. stood affected. Hee
tould me that hee had not yet leasure to consider the consequences,
and that hee first desired to heare how the King my Mr- did declare
himself. I tould him, his Maty did advise what was fco be done ; that
in the ineane while he did profess that when hee seat his ambassadour
to compose the differences of the empire, that hee knew nothing of the
Palatine's election to the kingdom of Bohemia, or that tlie;v, was any
such designe; that besides his Matys protestation, which was an argu-
ment above all that could be made to tho contrary, there were many
reasons to persuade that even the Palatine's Highnes himselfe knew
nothinge of any such intention; as first, the unanimity of consent in
the Bohemians, which argues there was no faction or labouring- of
voices; secondly, the necessity, since they could not tell where else
to putt themselves under protection; thirdly, that if it had been the
Palatines Hi£ues desire, that certainly he would have used both that
and other means to prevent the election of K. Ferdinand to the
empire; this was the effect of the reasons I gave; to which I added,
that howsoever the King my Mr- did resolve, I hoped at least his
Mr-,would bee indifferent; thafc they had no greatnes to feare but
that of the house of Austria: that they might take this tyine to re-
cover the countryes detained from them; that lastly, there was no
other way, as matters now stand, to establish the peace of Christen-
dom, since he might bee sure the untamed Germans would never
submit themselves to other. Hee here seemed to harken more to my
reasons than to answer them; tould me all these matters should be
referd to the King being at Compiegne; whither he desired mee to
come, which I promised; as having the business of the king's
XORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. 171
renewinge Tiis offer to require; I have written these particularities to
Mr. Secretary Nanton, and attend your Ldsps further commandments,
with, the affection of
Your Ldsps most faith full
Servant and Honorer,
HERBERT.
M. de Lnynes doth much desire to hold correspondence with your
Ldsp, and desired mee to tell your Ldsp so much; I should bee glad to
have leave to use a little compliment to him on your Ldsps part.
Merlou, j qf October, SHI. no. 1619.
The next two letters are addressed to Ms Majesty
James I.:
My most gracious Soveraigne,
HAVINGE obtained the coppy of this King's letter to the Emperour,
transcribed, as it should seerne, in that haste, that it is a little imperfect,
and imparted to me as a secret of that trust, that the discovery of it-
must bee his ruin who did mee the favour; I have taken the boldnes
together with it to present unto your S. Majesty the condition on
which I received it, which I therefore submitt to your S. Ma*yes most
gracious consideration. As for the contents, your S. Maty may be
pleased to observe, it is so farre from sending succors, that they desire
first to weigh the Emperours propositions: besides, in my opinion,
they touch more the revolt in Austria, the ancient patrimony of that
House, then in Bohemia and the elective possessions; so that in this
sense I may hope to reconcile it with this King's message to mee by
the master"of his ceremonies, wherein hee promised to proceed in this
affair of Bohemia, with all respect unto your S. Majesty, of which I
beseech your S. Maty to take notice; for it will assuredly maintain all
good correspondence. The rest being but complement, I believe your
S. Maty can easily pass over, especially in a stile so secret and par-
ticular, as letters of this nature usually are; but that searchinge and
unfallible judgement of your S. Maty, that can penetrate and discerns
•even the most inscrutable hearts, can best determine of these things.
For my part, it is enough, that I pretend to nothing herein, but to that
trust and obedience, in which I shall remain for ever,
Yonr S. Maty«f
Most humble, most loyal, and most affectionate Subject and Servant,
Paris, f§ Jan. 1619. HERBERT.
172 THE LIFE OF
My viost good and gracious Soveraigne,
1 CANNOT refuse this gentleman the testimony hee desiies inee to give
your Sacred Majesty, that hee is your S. Maty*8 most faithfiill and most
affectionate servant, which I think myselfe the rather bound to say,
that for his beinge so, he seemes to have sufferd no little hard measures-
from the bigot ministers of this state. But hee will best tell your
S. Maty the evill usage they have given him, and my little power to
remedy it, notwithstanding my manuy remonstrances which might
have obtained, if not a better, yet at least a truer answer from Msr.
de Puisieux, who was not ashamed to say, that M«. de Bellingam
(this gentleman's pupil) did put him away, when not only heehimselfe
did know the contrary, but was assured wee knew it. But these are
the ordinary effronteries of two or three of these ministers of state, to
whom the .answer of the instructions I receive from your S. Maty is
referr'd, and with whom, unless I can take some such order as I have
already done with Pere Arnoux, I shall not be able to perform that
service, to your S. Maty in this place, which I desire. Ld. Buisson is
returned, and as Msr Le Prince did tell niee, hath made a proposition to
your S. Maty concerninge a marriage betwixt his Highnes and Madame
Henrietta, to which hee says your S. Maty did answer, that your S.
Maty did desire it too, but that your S. Maty was so farre ingaged with
Spaine, that your S. Maty could not treat thereof; This Msr. Le Prince
told niee, and I thought it my duty to let .your S. Maf-y know the
report; on which occasion, I cannot omitt to tell your S. Maty that
the match is generally desired by this nation and particularly by
Madame herselfe, who hath not only cast out many words to this
purpose but, where there hath been question of diversity of relligions,
hath sayd, that a wife ought to have no will, but that of her husbands;
which words, I confesse, have incited mee to do her tins good office:
for the rest, beinge so farre from having a voice, that I will not so
much as have a thought, which is not warranted by your !5. Matye*
authority, which I hold in that infinite reverence, that, I ain sorry I
can say no more, then that I will live and dy
Your S. Matyea
Most obedient, most loyall, and most affectionate Subject and Servant;
Paris, this *f Aug. 1620. HERBERT.
The next letter (partly in cipher) is as follows, ad-
dressed to Mr. Secretary Nairn ton;
:LOBD HERBERT OF CHERBTTBY. 173
Might Honourable,
I -WILL begin this dispatch wth giving yr Honr an aocompt that the
JErchines cono di Bologna is newly elected Pope: I cannot send yonr
Honr his description (with that certaintie I desire), only I flnde that this
state is well contented with the choice, or at least would have the
world think so.
There hath lately been held a consultation heer, at which were
present (Cy.) 69 ( i.e. French king), (Cy.) 99 (M. de Luynes), (Cy.) 74
<M. Le Prince), and three of the most ancient of (Cy.)H2 (i.e., council).
One of whom being demanded by (Cy.) 69 (the king), what hee thought
of a warrc heer against those of the Religion, answered that it was too
late to say any thing, if (Cy.) 69 (the king) had already taken his reso-
lution; yet because it was (Cy.) 69 (the king's) his pleasure, he should
speake, he could doe no lesse then relate unto (Cy.) 69 (the king) the
miseries he had observed in the civil warres. between Charles IX. and
Henry III. and those of the Religion; of which he never sawe other
conclusion, but yt when good subjects had byn lost on either side,
they became at last so weary of the warre and of their owne errours
that, among the many edicts which were accorded to those of the
Religion, the later was ever the better; that for his part, he desired
not to see those of the Religion either in a better or worse estate, then
the last edict of Nantes left them; and so he thought these times did
require. This opinion (Cy) 99 (M. de Luynes) would have seconded by
using some words tending to pacification; which (Cy) 69 (the king)
interupted, saying, "Vous ne sgavezpas, ceque vous ditez," whereupon
(Cy.) 74 (M. Le Prince) toke courage to poursue (after his wonted
manner) his arguments and violences against those of the Religion;
and now the question is, not whether a warre shall be made, but where,
when, and how.
Some persuaded the King to begin with the lesser townes in the way
to or near Rochelle (as Saumur, St. Jean d'Angely, &c.) but others
•oppose that, saying the King's principale qnarrell is against Rochelle
and the Assembly. But that is contradicted againe by others, who say
the place is of such strengthe that their army may sooner get an affront
there than any thing els, while they of the Religion wil have leisure
to assemble and fortifie themselves in other places of the kingdome;
therefore a third conseil hath byn thought of, which is, that an army
shall be sent to Prinas to chastise that towne for their late taking and
rasing their castle; and under that colour to keep from joyn ing tdgethei
those of ye Religion inDauphine and Languedoc, in which countreys the
principale forces of those of ye Religion doe consist; but this conseil
hath as well found his opposition, at least for the present; which
whether it proceeds from an expectation that Monsr. cles Biguieres
I74i THE .LIFE OP
will be lieer shortly (by whose meanes it is hoped, all These differences
may be accommodated) or that M. de Luynes averseness from entring
into any warre at home (as foreseeing that his enemies, who dare not
shew themselves openly in time of peace, will not feare to declare',
themselves in time of warre) be a sufficient cause of this stay, I cannot
well affirm.
J Sure it is, they have a faire occasion given them to oppresse the-
Religion in all those southern parts upon an accident which lately
happened: Monsr. de Chastillon relates it in this manner. His Ex-
cellency in the Low Countreys, thinking it Qt, in these troublesome-
times to fortifie his good towne of Aurange, sent lately thither six or
seven bras peeces together with some other provision of lesser armes ;,
which opportimitie, saith Mons. de Chastillon, himself thought to be
very proper to supplye with armes some townes and garrisons which
he and they of the Religion hold in those quarters; the armes which
they formerly had being (as he saith) either consumed with rust
or otherwise growne unserviceable; whereupon (he saith) it was.
necessary to provide armes for three or foure thousand men; the shippe-
wherein this munition was brought, did very unfortunately strike upon
some sands near Aries in Provence; the governor whereof manning-
out some schalloppes entred the shippe and perceiving it was laden
with armes, seased upon them for the King's use. Heerupon Monsr.
de Chastillon hath sent to complaine as well in his Excells. name a&
his own; but I think will hardly finde right for either, as matters now
stand : though he hath the commodity of the good offices which in
this behalf may be done by the new Low Countreys ambassadrs.
Who in their first and only audience they have yet obteyned have
byn so farre from saying any thing which might'tend to shew a desire
of continewing their trace with the Spaniard, that after some compli-
ments, they made it their principall busines to treat with this King
of an accomrnodement between themselves and the French concerning
some maritime affairs, which are yet in controversie. The King re-
ceived them gratiously; and after referring them for answer to his
conseil, entred into some such -familiar questions with them as gave
them contentment.
And now it is time to give your Hour an accoinpt of two passages,
which may give some small augure of this States better disposition to
our Religion and affaires. The first is, that whereas they of the Religion
on Sunday last coming from Charenton, were assaulted in their coaches
and on horseback with stones and durt en la Rue St. Anthonie, near a
chappel of ye Jesuits, this State hath taken order, not only vigour-
ously to punishe the offenders, but also to give a reprimende to the
seditiouse preachers, whose bitter and invective sermons are thought
the principall cause of this tumult. The second is, that the agent for
LORD HERBERT OP fHERBITRY. 175
the united Princes of Germanie hath desired to know the resolution of
this State, concerning the continewing or breaking of the union, and
received answer that this State did desire them by all meanes not to
break; promising very shortly to send one unto Huilbrun for the
further declaration of their minde heerin: the person nominated is
one Guieciard, who though he be not of the Religion, yet is held to be
bon Frangois.
The King (tis thought) goeth very shortly to Fontainbleau, where-
upon I have* pressed Monsr. de Cadenet for an answer to my last in-
structions, and am promised I shall have it very shortly. He saith
the hawks he brought from England, and which (as I take it) his Maty
gave him, put all ye court in admiration of their good flying. But the
King (as it seems) will shortly intend other things, and wants not ye
instigation of (Cy.) 74 (M. Le Prince) for making any wane, who offreth
a project for paying of ye King's army for three yeares: which this
invention, which is, to take backe againe ye venal offices from those
who bought them and rembourse them their moneyes, arid after to sell
them againe, which will at least triple the sum me: these are the
desyeres of that boulte feux (Cy.) 74 (M. le Prince) only to get the
authoritie of an army into his hands.
My health suffers mee not yet to goe abroad ; but I hope in God to
recover both it and my hand very shortly to doe his Maty service. So
with my due respects I conclude and rest
Your Honor's
Most faith full and-most
.- Affectionat servant,
Paris, 15 Febr. 1620, Sfr. Ang°. HERBERT.*
P. S. Monsr- de Guise desired me to send word to his Maty for the
message which his Maty was pleased to send him. I heare that the-
new Pope hath assumed the name of Gregorie.
The last of these letters was written during his second
embassy, to his Majesty James I.:
My most gracious Soveraigne,
Now that I thanke God for it, his Highenes, accordinge to my
continuall prayers, hath made a safe and happy returne unto your
Sacred Majestie's presence, I think rayselfe botmde, by way of
* The signature alone of this letter is in the handwriting of Lord
Herbert, and this evidently appears to have been written with great
difficulty.
176 THE LIFE OF
complete obedience to those commandements I received from your
'Sacred Majestie, both by Mr. Secretaire Calvertand my brother Henry,
.to give your Sacred Majestie an account of that sense which the generall
sort of people doth entertaine here, concerninge the whole frame and
•eontexte of his Higlmes voyage. It is agreed on all parts that his
Highnesmust have received much contentment, in seeinge two great
Tringdomes, and consequently in enjoyinge that satisfaction which
princes but rarely, and not without great perill obtain. His Higlmes
•discretion, diligence, and princely behavior every where, likewise is
much praysed. Lastly, since his Higlmes journey hath fallen out so
well, that his Higlmes is come back without any prejudice to his
person or dignitie : they say the snceesse hath sufficiently commended
the Counceil. This is the most common censure (even of the bigot
party, as I am informed) which I approve in all, bub in the last pointe
in the delivery whereof I finde somethinge to dislike, and therfore tell
•them, that thinges are not to be judged alone by the successe, and that
•when they would not looke so highe as God's providence, without
-which no place is secure, they might finde even in reason of state, so
much, as might sufficiently warr.Tflte his Higlines person, and libertie
to returne.
I will come from the ordinarie voice, to the selecter judgment of the
Ministers of State, and more intelligent people iii thfs klngdeme, who
though they notliinge vary from the above-recited opinion,, vet as more
profoundly lookinge into the state of tnis longe-treated-oi" ai.'.yirace be-
twixt your Sacred Majestie and Spaine iu the persons of his Higlmes
and the Infanta, they comprehende their sentence therof (as I am in-
formed) in three propositions.
First, that the protestation, which the Kinge of Spaine made to his
Higlmes upon his departure, whereby he promised to chase away,
and dis-favor all those who should oppose this marriage, dotlrextende
no further, than to the sayd kinges servants, or at furthest, not beyonde
the temporall princes his neighbours, so that the Pope, being not in-
cluded lierin, it is thought his consent must bee yet obtained, and con-
sequently that the business is in little more forwardnes than when it
first beganne.
Secondly, That the Pope will never yeeld his consent, unless your
Sacred Majestie grante some notable privileges and advantage to the
Roman Oath clique relligion in your Sacred Majestie's kingedomes.
Thirdly, That the sayd Kinge of Spaine would never insiste upon ob-
iaininge those privileges, but that hee more desires to forme a party in
your Sacred Majestie's kingedomes, which he may keep always obse-
quious to his will, then to maintain a freudly correspondence be-
twixt your Sacred Majestie and himselfe. I must not, in the last
place, omitte to acquaint your Sacred Majestie very particularly with
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 177
t&e sense which was expressed by the hons Francois, and body of
those of the Religion, who hartily wishe that the same greatnes which
the King of Spaine doth so affecte over all the worlde, and still main-
taines even in this country, which is to bee Protector of the Jesuited
and bigot partie, your Sacred Majestic would embrace in beeing De-
fender of our Faithe. The direct answer to which though I evade, and
therfore reply little more, then that this counceil was much fitter when
the Union in Germany did subsiste than at this tyme; yet do I think
jnyselfe obliged to represente the affection they beare unto your Sacred
Majestic. This is as much as is come to my notice, concerninge that
pointe your Sacred Majestie gave nice in charge, which therfore I have
plainly layd open before your Sacred Majestie's eyes, as uuderstandinge
well, that princes never receive greater wronge, then when the minis-
ters they putte in truste do palliate and disguise those thinges which
it concernes them to knowe. For the avoydinge wherof, let me take
the boldnes to assure your Sacred Majestie that those of this King's
counceil here will use all means they can, both to the King of Spaine,
and to the Pope (in whom they pretend to have very particular in-
terest) not only to interrupte but yf it be possible, to breake off your
.Sacred Majestie's allyance with Spaine. For which purpose the Count
de Tillieres hath stricte commande to give eether all punctuall advise,
that accordingly they may proceede. It rests that I most humbly
beseech your Sacred Majestie to take my free relation of these par-
ticulars in good part, since I am of no faction, nor have any passion or
Interest, but faithfully to performe that service and dutie which I owe
to your Sacred Majestie, for whose perfect health and happiness I
pray, with the devotion of
Your Sacred Majestie's
Most obedient, most loyall, and most affectionate subject and servant,
HERBERT.*
From Merlou Castle, the 31si of October, 1623. Stil. No.
In 1624 lie published at Paris "De Veritate," &c. In
the year 1625 he was made a Baron of Ireland, by the
title of Lord Herbert of Castle Ireland; and in 1631 he
was created a Peer of England, by that of Lord Herbert
of Cherbury, in Shropshire.
* Harleian MSS. This last has however been twice printed : first in
"The Cabala," and recently by Mr. Ellis in his interesting "Col-
lection of Original Letters."
178 THE LIFE OF
When the differences between King Charles and his
Parliament broke out, Lord Herbert joined his interest to
that of the latter. He seems previously to have made a
speech in behalf of the king, which gave great offence to
the house; but the year after he changed his politics, and
supported the Parliament, for which change he became a
great sufferer from the vengeance of the Royalists. He
attended the army of the Parliament to Scotland in 1639,
and obtained indemnification for his castle of Montgomery,
which had been demolished by their order.
His strong constitution appears to "have given way at a
comparatively early period, for in 1643, at the age of
about sixty-two, he speaks of his having become ex-
ceedingly debilitated, especially in the first of the fol-
lowing letters:
FROM EDWARD LORD HERBERT TO SIR HENRY
HERBERT.
Sir Henry.
THE business I intended by you I have dispatched another way. I am
thinMnge of a journey to the Spaw; but I doubt how I shall be able
to go, my body beinge more infirme then to endure any labour. And
let me assure you, I finde myselfe grown older in this one yeare than
in fifty-nine yeares before; which as it is true, t should bee glad
were knowne among the, best of those to whom you go. I shall pray
for a good and speedy end to all those troubles: and in particular, that,
God would guide those who are now met. And here, I must remember
that of all of us, there remains now but you and I to brother it. I
pray you remember my kind love to your lady, and all yours. So.
T rest,
Your faith full loving brother,
Mossley C., I4th June, 1643. HERBERT.
To the right worthy Sir Henry Herbert, Knight, at his
house near Bewdley, Ribsford, S.S.
FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Sir Henry,
FOR the good offices? you ever done mee, I thanke you. But why
thereupon you should fall upon your old whettiu-e I marvaile.. I had
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBtfEY. 179
rather, for my parte, forget all unkinde passages then remember them,
so as to send you a forgiveness for them. If Richard Whitingharn
sent you word (as he told mee) of the condition of the two parkes, you
would take nothing unkindly, especially when I wished him to tell
you, that if you sent a gelding thither, he should be welcome. But
here also you may remember the old answer. If you will not take it
unkindly that I denyed you a curtesay, I will not take it unkindly
that you asked it. Good brother, use no more close repetitions; and
now I grow old and infirme, do not afflictions and discomforts to
Your faithful lovinge brother,
June 24, 1643. E. HERBERT.
To the right worthy Sir H. Herbert, at Oxford.
FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Sir Henry,
THOUGH the messenger brought no letter from you to myselfe, yet
because hee tould mee you were well, the welcome news thereof in
these troublesome times invites me to congratulate it with you. If it
had pleased R. Witingham to have tould you that I had stone horses in
my lower parke, and no grasse in my upper parke (as he tould rnee he
would), there had been no occasion for you to demand that I could not
conveniently do: but if you send a gelding or two untill Michelmas,
they shall bee received. Wee are here almost in as great straits as if
the warre were amongst us. Shrewsbury, which is our ordinary maga-
zine, being exhausted of wine, vinegar, hops, paper, and pepper at four
shillings the pound; and shortly a want of all commodities that are
not native with us will follow, the intercourse between us and London
being interdicted. My dear and only brother, I wish you all health
and happiness, and so rest, though much broken in my health,
Your faithfull lovinge brother,
25th Aug., 1643. E.HERBERT.*1
My kind remembrance to your lady and children.
Lord Herbert died in 1648, at his house in Queen Street,
London, and was buried at St. G-iles's-in-the-Fields, with.
this inscription over his grave:
Hie inhumatur corpus Edvardi Herbert equitis Balnei, baronis d&
Cherbury et Castle-Island, auctoris libri, cnititulns est, "De Yeritate.'*
Redder ut herbse; vicesirno die Augusti anno Domini 1648,
* Warner's "Epist. Curio*.5'
180 THE LIFE OF
He had, says Lloyd, " designed a fair monument of his
own invention, to be set up for him in the church of
Montgomery, according to the model following: Upon
the ground a hath-piece of fourteen-foot square, on the
middest of which is placed a Doric column, with its right
of pedestal basis, and capitols of fifteen foot in height;
on the capitol of the colum is mounted an urn with a
heart flamboul, supported by two angels. The foot of
this column is attended with four angels, placed on
pedestals at each corner of the said hath-pace; two
having torches reverst. extinguishing the motto of mor-
tality, the other two holding up palms, the emblems of
victory."
In his lordship's " Occasional Verses " occurs the follow-
ing characteristic •'* Epitaph for Himself :"
"READEB,
"The monument which thou beholdest here
Presents Edward, Lord Herbert, to thy sight;
A man, who was so free from either hope or fear
To have or lose this ordinary light,
That when to elements his body turned were,
He knew that as those elements would fight,
So his immortal soul should find above
With his Creator, peace, joy, truth, and love I"
Lord Herbert was succeeded by his son Richard, Lord
Herbert, and he by Edward, who dying April 21, 1691,
was buried April 28, by the side of his grandfather.
His peculiar religious opinions give an additional in-
terest to the following prayer, which he appears to have
been in the habit of using, the copy being found in his
own handwriting:
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 181
A PRAYER, BY EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF
CHERBURY.
0 G-OD! Thou, by whose power and wisdome all things at
first were made, and by whose providence and goodness
they are continued and preserved, still behold, from thy
everlasting dwellinge above, me thy creature and in-
habitant of this lower world, who from this valley of
change and corruption, lifting up heart and eyes to Thee,
his eternal God and Creator, does here acknowledge and
confess these manifold blessings, these vast gifts be-
stowed on me ; as namely, that before I yet was, when I
could neyther know nor consent to be great and good,
Thy eternall providence had ordained me this being, by
which I was brought into this world, a living, free, and
reasonable creature, not senseless or bruitish, but capable-
of seeinge and understandinge thy wondrous works
herein; and not only so, but of usinge and enjoyinge
them, in that plentif ull measure wherein they have been
hitherto afforded me. 0 Lord, with all humbleness I con-
fess, that were there no other pledge of thy favour than
this alone, it were more than any of thy creatures in this
life can possibly deserve.
But thy mercies go farther yet. Thou hast not only
made me see, know, and partake thy works, but hasfc
suffered me to love Thee for the blessings shewed us in
them. I say, Thou hast admitted fraile dust and ashes
to so high a dignity as to love Thee, the infinite and
eternall Beauty. And not only disdainest it not, but ac-
ceptest, yea, and rewardest the same: and whence can
this come, but from thy everlasting goodness, which, had
it not vouchsafed to love me first, I could not have had
the power (than which man has no greater) of loving-
Thee againe. Yet here thy mercies stay not. Thou hasfe
182 THE LIFE OF
not only given mee to know and love Thee, but hast
written in my heart a desire even to imitate and bee like
Thee (as farre as in this fraile flesh I may), and not only
so, but many ways inabled me to the performance of it.
And from hence, Lord, with how much comfort do I
learne the high estate I received in my creation, as beinge
formed in thine owne similitude and likenesse. But, 0
Lord, thy mercies (for they are infinite) are not bounded
even here. Thou hast, then, not only given mee the
means of knowinge,- lovinge, and imitatinge Thee in
this life; but hast given mee the ambition of knowinge,
lovinge, and imitatinge Thee after this life; and for that
purpose hast begunne in mee a desire of happinesse, yea
of eternal bliss, and from thence proceeded to give mee
hope; and not only so, but also a faith which does
promisse and assure mee, that since this desire can
come from none but Thee, nothing Thou doest can be in
vain. What shall I say, then, but desire Thee, 0 Lord,
to fulfill it in thy good tyme, to mee thy unworthy
creature, who in this flesh can come no nearer Thee than
the desireing that mortality which both keeps mee from
thy abode, and makes me most unlike Thee here. Amen.*
Lord Herbert, not having mentioned the year of his
birth, it is necessary to remark, that as he states his age
to have been between eighteen and nineteen, on his
coming to London in 1600, and Wood, that he was entered a
gentleman commoner of the University College, Oxford, in
1595, his birth must certainly have taken place in 1581, so
that at his decease he had attained his sixty-seventh year.
The following is the catalogue of the works, which he
gave to the world in his lifetime, or which were published
posthumously by his friends:
* Warner's " Epist. Curios."
LOBD HEBBEBT OF CHERBURY. 183
{t De Veritate, prout distinguitur a Revelations, a
Terisimili, a possibili, et a falso. Cui Operi additi sunt
duo alii tractatus; primus, de Causis Errorum; alter, de
Religione Laici. Una cum Appendice ad Sacerdotes de
Religione Laici; et quibusdam poematibus." Paris
1624, and 1633, and London, 1645; a book so strongly
imbued with the light of revelation, relative to the
moral virtues and a future life, that no man ignorant of
the Scriptures, or of the knowledge derived from them,
could have written; and yeb most strangely intended to
impugn the validity of that revelation itself—designed
to question the necessity and truth of any communication
from the Deity, and yet professing td rely for its sanction
on a supposed miraculous interposition of that very
kind ;—contradictions so singular, as to point to this
work as one of those great errors of a great mind, into
which a too confident reliance on the powers of intellect
may lead on subjects of inquiry which are in themselves
of a nature purely religious. It was replied to by
Leland, Baxter, G-assendi, and Haliburton, as well as by
Locke, who, in his notice of this work, says Lord Orf ord,
"allows his Lordship to be a man of parts."* In 1639 a
French translation appeared at Paris; and Thomas
Master is said to have assisted Lord Herbert in latinising
it.
"De Religione G-entilium, Errorumque apud eos
causis." The first part was printed at London, 1645, 8vo.,
* Lord Orf ord's remark on this extraordinary singularity of Lord
Herbert's is as follows :—" There is no stronger characteristic of
human nature, than its being open to the grossest contradictions:
one of Lord Herbert's chief arguments against revealed religion is the
improbability that Heaven should reveal its will to only a portion of
the earth, which he terms particular religion. How could a man who
doubted of partial, believe individual revelation ? "—" Royal and Noble
Authors.1'
184 THE LIFE OF
and the whole in 1663, 4to., and reprinted in 1700, 8vo.
Mr. W. Lewis translated it into English, under this title,
"The Ancient Religion of the Gentiles, and Causes of
their Errors considered. The mistakes and failures of
the heathen priests and wise men in their notions of the
Deity, and matters of divine worship, are examined with
regard to their being destitute of divine revelation." 1705,
8vo. Lord Herbert sent the manuscript of this work to
G-erard Vossius, in the year 1645, as appears from his
letter and Yossius's answer. Siog. Diet, quoted by Mr.
Park
"Expeditio Buckingham! Ducis in Eeam Insulam."
Published by Tim. Baldwin, LL.D.V 1656, Lond., 8vo.
"Life and Reign of Henry the Eighth," Lond., 1649,
1672, and 1682. This latter edition was, according to Wood,*
collated by certain scholars of the University of Oxford,
with the original manuscript, deposited in the Bodleian
Library by the author in 1643. It was reprinted in
Kennet's "Complete History of England," vol. ii. The
following character of the work is given by Lord Orford:
"It was undertaken by command of King James I., and
is much esteemed; yet one cannot help regretting that a
man who found it necessary to take up arms against
Charles I., should have palliated fche enormities of
Henry VIII., in comparison of whom King Charles was
an excellent prince. It is strange, that writing a man's
life should generally make the biographer become en-
amoured of his subject; whereas, one should think that
the nicer disquisition one makes into the life of any man,
the less reason one should find to love or admire him."
In another place,f Lord Orf ord observes that the " Life of
Henry VIII." is allowed to be a master-piece of historic
* "Athense," Bliss's Edition, vol. iii. p. 241.
t "Advertisement to Lord Herbert's Life."
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBTJRY. 185
biography; and Bishop Nicholson, in his English His-
torical Library asserts, <; that the author has acquitted
himself with the like reputation as Lord Chancellor
Bacon gained by the ' Life of Henry VII.' having in the
politic and martial part been, admirably exact, from the
best records that remain,"
Lord Herbert had, however, a valuable assistant in the
person of Thomas Master, "esteemed," says Anthony
Wood, "a vast scholar, a general artist and linguist, a
noted poet, and a most florid preacher." He died in 1643,
at Oxford, of the same malignant fever which carried off
Cartwright and many others. Lord Edward honoured
his memory with a Latin epitaph, printed in his " Occa-
sional Verses," p. 94. He had also prefixed a Latin poem
to Master's "Mensa lubrica Montgom. illustriss. Domino
D. Edwardo Baroni de Cherbury," a poem descriptive of
Shovelboard play, printed for the second time at Oxford,
1658. What assistance he gave to his lordship may be
collected from the following extract :—
"He was a drudge to, and assisted much, Edward Lord
Herbert of Cherbury, when he was obtaining materials
for the writing of the life of Henry VIII. Four thick
volumes in folio of such materials I have lying by me,
in every one of which I find his handwriting, either in
interlining, adding, or correcting; and one of those four,
which is entitled l Collectaneorum Lib. Secundus,' is
mostly written by him, collected from Parliamentary
Rolls, the Paper Ofiice at Whitehall, Vicar-General's
Office, books belonging to the Clerks of the Council,
MSS. in Cotton's Library, Books of Convocation of the
Clergy, &c., printed authors, &c. And there is no doubt,
that, as he had an especial hand in composing the said
* Life of Henry VIII.' (which, as some say, he turned
mostly into Latin, but never printed),9so had lie, a,
186 THE LIFE OF
hand in Latinising that lord's book, 'De Yeritate,' or
others."*
Lord Herbert's Historical Collections are preserved in
the Library of Jesus College, Oxford, and several of his
letters among the Harleian manuscripts.
In 1688, "A. Dialogue on Education," 4to, was pub-
lished, and attributed to his lordship.
"Occasional Yerses of Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of
Cherbury and Castle-Island, who deceased in 1648."
Lond., 1665, 8vo. Published by Henry Herbert, his
younger son, and dedicated to Edward Lord Herbert, the
author's grandson.
In Joshua Sylvester's "Lachrymas Lachrymarum, or
The Spirit of Tears, distilled for the untimely death of
Prince Henry," Lond. 1613, 4to.; and in other publications,
several poems of Lord Herbert may also be found.
The two Latin poems, inserted in his Life, together with a
longer, entitled, "Hasred. ac Nepot. suis Prasceptaet Consilia,
E. B. H. de C. et C. J. de K.," were printed, in 1647, 4to. in
the unique tract, preserved in the Bridgewater Library.
As a poet, Lord Herbert does not rank high, and is
often almost unintelligible. Mr. Park observes, that
"his Lordship's scarce volume of Occasional Poems, con-
sists chiefly of metaphysical love verses; ingenious, but
unnatural; platoiiic in sentiment, but frequently gross in
expression; and marked by an eccentricity which per-
vaded the life and the character of Lord Herbert." Of the
following specimens, the first stanzas are pronounced by
the editor of the Specimens of Early English Poets
to be the most tolerable verses in the volume, and are
selected from thirty-five, of which the poem consists.
The two others are selected by Mr. Park, in his edition of
Lord Or ford's " Royal and Noble Authors." f
r ,** Wood's "Athene," Bliss's Edition, vol. iii. p. 86. f III. p. 23.
, » • *« t»» r »
LORD HEBBEBT OF CHEBBTTBY. 187
AN ODE
UPON THE QUESTION MOVED, WHETHER LOVE SHOULD CONTINUE
FOB EVER?
HAVING interred her infant birth,
The watery ground, that late did mourn,
Was strewed with flowers, for the return
Of the wished bridegroom of the earth.
The well-accorded birds did sing
Their hymns unto the pleasant time,
And in a sweet consorted chime,
Did welcome in the cheerful spring.
To which, soft whistles of the wind,
And warbling murmurs of a brook,
And varied notes of leaves that shook,
And harmony of parts did bind.
When with a love none can express
That mutually happy pair,
Melander and Celinda fair,
The season with their loves did bless.
Walking thus to wards a pleasant grove,
Which did, it seemed, in new delight
The pleasures of the time unite,
To give a triumph to their love,
They staid at last, and on the grass
Beposed so, as o'er his breast
She bowed her gracious head to rest.
Such a weight as no burthen was.
Long their fixed eyes to heaven bent,
Unchanged, they did never move;
As if so great and pure a love,
No glass but it could represent.
When with a sweet, though troubled Icok,
She first brake silence, saying "Dear friend*
Oh, that our love might take no end,
Or never had beginning took 1
188 THE LIFE OP
"I speak not tliis with a false heart;"
Wlierewith his hand she gently strained;
Or that would change a love maintained
With so much love on either part.
"Nay, I protest, though Death with his
Worst counsel should divide us here,
His terrors could not make me fear
To come where your lov'd presence is.
x' Only, if love's fire with the breath
Of life be kinduled, I doubt,
With our last air 'twill be breathed out,
And quenched with the cold of death."
Then with a look, it seemed denied
All earthly powers but hers, yet so
As if to her breath he did owe
This borrowed life, he thus replied:
"And shall our love, so far beyond
That low and dying appetite,
And which so chaste desires unite,
Not hold in an eternal bond?
*' Oh, no, beloved! I am most sure
Those virtuous habits we acquire,
As being with the soul entire,
Must with it evermore endure.
"Else should our souls in vain elect;
And vainer yet were heaven's laws,
When to an everlasting cause
They gave a perishing effect.
"Nor here on earth, then, nor above.
Our good affection can impair:
For, where God doth admit the fair,
Think you that he excludeth love?
LORD HERBERT CXF CHERBURY. 189
"These eyes again thine eyes shall see,
And hands again these hands infold;
And all chaste pleasures can be told,
Shall with us everlasting bt.
"For if no use of sense remain
When bodies once this life forsake,
Or they could no delight partake,
Why should they ever rise again?
"Let, then, no doubt, Celinda, touch,
Much less your fairest mind invade:
Were not our souls immortal made,
Our equal loves can make them such"
TO A YOUNG PALE BEAUTY.
PROM thy pale look, while angry Love doth seem
With more irnperiousness to give his law,
Than where he blushingly doth beg esteem;
We may observe tried beauty in such awe,
That the brav'st colour under her command
Affrighted, oft before you doth retire;
While, like a statue of yourself you stand
In such symmetrique form, as doth require
No lustre but its own; as then, in vain,
One should flesh-colouring to statues add,
So were it to your native white a stain
If it in other ornaments were clad,
Than what your rich proportions do give,
Which in a boundless fair being unconfined,
Exalted in your soul, so seem to live,
That they become an emblem of your mind;
That so, who to your orient white should join
Those fading qualities most eyes adore,
Were but like one who, gilding silver coin,
Gave but occasion to suspect it more.
190 THE LIFE OF
TO HIS WATCH, WHEN HE COULB NOT SLEEP.
Uncessant minutes, whilst you move you tell,
The time that tells our life, which, though it run
Never so fast or far, your new "begun
Short steps shall overtake: for though life well
May 'scape his own account, it shall not yours.
You are Death's auditors, that both divide
And sum whate'er that life inspired endures,
Past a beginning; and through you we bide
The doom of fate, whose unrecalled decree
You date, bring, execute; making what's new,
HI ; and good, old; for as we die in you,
You die in time, time in eternity.
His character, as drawn by Lord Orford at the com-
mencement of this volume, is so complete, that little need
be added to it. The following are the remarks of Granger,
in his " Biographical History of England :"
"Lord Herbert stands in the first rank of the public
ministers, historians, and philosophers of his age. It is
hard to say whether his person, his understanding, or hit?
courage, was the most extraordinary; as the fair, the
learned, and the brave, held him in equal admiration. But
the same man was wise, and capricious ; redressed wrongs,
and quarrelled for punctilios; hated bigotry in religion,
and was himself a bigot to philosophy. He exposed him-
self to such dangers as other men would have carefully
declined; and called in question the fundamentals of a
religion which none had the hardiness to dispute besides
himself."*
Some late writers f appearing to have entertained some-
thing like a doubt respecting Lord Herbert's personal
courage, from his differences never having actually ter-
minated in diiels, it may not perhaps be amiss to remark,
* Vol. ii. p. 145.
t Aikin's "Court of James I." vol. i. 372. Mills, "History of Chiv-
alry," vol. ii. 143.
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBT7RY. 191
that it is far more likely Ms commanding aspect, and the
knowledge his opponents possessed of the unconquerable
nature of his resolution, might have operated to prevent
his being encountered, than that this was occasioned by
any insidious feeling on his part, which indeed his whole
character seems to prove, particularly his surprising de-
fence of himself, on occasion of the attack made upon
him by Sir J. Ayres; so that the accuracy of Lord Orf ord's
remark may still be very safely relied on, when, in his
"Royal and Noble Authors," he describes Edward Lord
Herbert of Cherbury, as "one of the greatest ornaments of
the learned Peerage; a man of a martial spirit and a
profound understanding."
The following complimentary lines, which were ad-
dressed to him by Ben Jonson, sufficiently show that the
man of whom such things could be said before living
witnesses, must indeed have been no ordinary kind of
personage, even after making all due allowance for the
language of friendship, or even of gratitude:
TO SIR EDWARD HERBERT.
If men get name, for some one virtue; then,
What man art thou, that art so many men,
All-virtuous Herbert! On whose every part,
Truth might spend all her voice, fame all her art.
Whether thy learning they would take, or wit,
Or valour, or thy judgment seasoning it,
Thy standing upright to thyself, thy ends
Like straight, thy piety to God, and friends:
Their later praise would still the greatest foe,
And yet they all together, less than thee.
It appears probable that Lord Herbert's religious
opinions towards the close of his life differed from those
of his earlier years, for when on his death-bed he sent
for Lord Primate Usher of Ireland, and would have
192 THE LIFE OF LORD HEBBERT OF CHEBBUBY.
received the Sacrament, saying indifferently of it, that if
there was good in any thing it was in that, or if it did
no good it conld do no harm ; to which the Primate object-
ing, refused, though many blamed him: then having in-
quired the time, he said, an hour hence I shall depart,,
and turning his head on the other side he expired serenely.
He had prayers constantly twice a day in his house,
and on Sunday would have his chaplain read one of
Smyth's Sermons. His monumental* inscription was
from the pen of Lord Stanhope.f
* Page 330. t Aubrey's "Laves." Bodleian Letters,
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played in a series of adventures, marvelous as the most wonder-loving
youth could desire. The interest never flags* from the page on which
the three travelers set forth on their seemingly hopeless quest, to that
which records the close of their wanderings.
It may be added, for the satisfaction of the incredulous, that the
horrors of the " witch-hunt " are nowise exaggerated, but that, on the
contrary, much of its barbarity is suppressed, some of the actual pro-
ceedings among people of the Zulu race on such occasions being too
awful to set forth.
The work is one which will prov£ acceptable to older rtadt?? at
Wtll as to the boys for whom it is avowedly written.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York,
THE NEW AMERICAN NOVEL,
TRAJAN.
^ he History of a Sentimental Young Man, with
some Episodes in the Comedy of Many
Lives' Errors.
BY HENRY F. KEEN AN.
i VOL., i2mo., 650 PAGES. PRICE . . . $1.50.
The story is of international interest. The scene is laid
!n Paris during the exciting days that ushered in the Com-
mune, and while many real persons figure among the
characters, the plot hovers round a group of Americans,
thrown together by the vicissitudes of the hour.
Among the new novels of the season, Mr. Henry F. Keenan's
;i Trajan" must be promptly accorded the first place.—New York
Herald.
It is much the best novel that has appeared for years in the En-
rrlish or any other language.—Phila, Evening Bulletin.
"Trajan" is a classic, a real gem plucked from the mass of rubbish
with which the bookstores are crowded.—Boston Times.
Every careful bibliographer of the 2oth century ought to mention
*• Trajan " as a novel, to be read for scenes of the igth century in Paris
and New York.—Hartford Post.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York.
JUST PUBLISHED.
WHO IS GUILTY?
A NOVEL,
By PHILIP WOOLF, M. D. I vol., i6mo., cloth. Price $i.
An interesting tale, with a denoument that will astonish
the reader.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "AS IT WAS WRITTEN."
MRS. PEIXADA.
By SIDNEY LUSKA. i vol. i6mo. Price, $1.00,
"The s.tory begins with the very first page, and thjre
is no let up till the end is reached. Mr. Luska has the
happy faculty of holding his readers' attention through
eveiy page of his books.
"The author is a wonderful writer, a born story teller;
his stories will not only please the passing moment, but
last as an illustration of the best in American Literature.1"
—Evening Post, Hartford.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
7»9 and 741 Broadwav, New York.
By Author of "THE BAR-SINISTER."
THE Iff MAN AT
By Mrs. J. H. WALWORTH, author of "The Bar-
Sinister," "Without Blemish," "Old
Fulkerson's Clerk," "Scruples,"
etc., etc.
1 Vol., 16mo, extra cloth. Price $1.25.
The volume is not only highly artistic and interesting, but of
great value as a picture of life in an out of the way quarter of the
country. . . It is decidedly one of the good books of the season.
Boston Herald.
To say that the story is interesting does not tell all. It is truth-
fully drawn to real life, and the incidents are vouched for, so that the
reader who could not make it of value to him as a character-sketch is
no reader at all.
Christian Advocate.
JOHN PARMELEE'S CURSK
By JULIAN HAWTHORNE, Author of " Beatrix Randolph,"
"Dust," "Garth," etc., etc.
1 vol., extra cloth. Price $1.00.
The natural, unconstrained tone of the narrative makes it attractive,
and the incidents are so well devised, cleverly worked out, and de-
picted as to render the story decidedly absorbing.
Boston Sunday Tim e

CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York,
^THB FIRST ENGLISH MEMOIR WORTHY OP THE NAME,**
—London Times.
PRINCE BISMARCK.
AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY.
BY CHARLES LOWE, M. A.
With Introduction by Prof. MUNROE SMITH, of Columbia
College, New York.
In two large Octavo Volumes, over 1,300 pages, with
Portraits, complete Index and Appendix, giving the com-
plete text of the Treaty of Vienna (1864), Convention of
Gastein (1865), Treaty of Prague (1866), Treaty of Frank-
fort (1871), The Prussian Constitution, The Imperial Con-
stitution, etc., etc.
Extra Clotn, Price, per Set, - - $5,00.
*' Mr. Lowe has written an able account of a great career, and his
book is full of information, either personal or political, from the first
page to the last."—London Morning Post.
*'* The first complete historical sketch of the great German states-,
man, who will occupy so conspicuous a place in the annals of the
nineteenth century. ... Of permanent value to the correct and
intelligent apprehension of the political history of Europe."—Liver-
pool Mercury,
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York.
AT LOVE'S EXTREMES,
BY MAURICE THOMPSON,
Author of "A TALLAHASSE GIRL," "SONGS OF FAIR
WEATHER," etc., etc.
1 Tol., 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.
The scene of the story is laid in the mountains of Ala-
bama; it is a thoroughly American tale, as strong as it is
picturesque.
The story is a very strong one, with picturesque sketching, effective
dramatic situations, and most admirable character drawing.—Boston
Home Journal.
Crisp and fresh in style, and the story is told with animation.—
Brooklyn Daily Times.
The attractive setting, the general color, and the excellence of parts
of the action make the novel a very strong one.—Boston Globe.
It is bright with descriptions of scenes, and spicy with mountaineer
dialect. . . . The style is charming, and this new work of fiction
will be read widely and with pleasure.—St. Louis Globe Democrat.
A delightful story, elegantly designed, and told in the most interest-
ing manner.—Press, Albany.
The author has blended the beautiful and romantic in gracefn'
thought which charms and entertains the reader,—Southern Agricul-
turist.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York.
**ONK OP THR MOST POWERFUL NOVELS OF THE YEAR.*'
—-St. Louis Republican*
AS IT WAS WRITTEN.
A Jewish Musician's Story.
BY SIDNEY LUSKA.
I VOLUME i6MO. EXTRA CLOTH. PRICE, ~ - $1.00.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"' As IT WAS WRITTEN' is certainly a work of no common sort.
It is full of passion and virile struggle, and will make its mark."—
GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON.
'4 Its intensity, picturesqueness and exciting narration are in
sharp contrast with the works of our analytic novelists."—E. C. STED-
MAN.
44 It is safe to say that few readers who have perused the first chap,
ter, will be content to lay the book down without finishing it."—
Christian Union, New York.
41 The working out of so strange _and abnormal a plot without any
descent into mere grotesqueness is a triumph of art."—New York
Tribune.
44 It is vivid without floridness, dreamy without sentiment, exciting
without being sensational."— The Critic, New York.
. U ?^e. c.an earnestly advise all readers who care for a novel show-
ing individuality, power and thought, to read As IT WAS WRITTEN.1'—*
Brooklyn Union.
44 A capital novel. ... It cannot fail to impress itself as ar
able and moving dramatic effort."—New York Times.
44 Of all the novels that have come to us this season, As IT WAV
WRITTEN seems the most likely to take a permanent place in
literature. We hope to hear from Sidney Luska again."— Yale
Courant.
44 We have seen no book of late years to which the term absorbing
in interest could more appropriately be applied."—Boston Herald.
44 It ^stands apart from the average novel, soon invites attention and
then rivets it. ... Will doubtless be extensively read."—Nfw
York Telegram.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York,
AS COMMON MORTALS.
A Novel. 1 vol., 16 mo., cloth. Price $1.25.
"A strong story, the scene of which is laid in the city
of Brooklyn, and will be read with t^e greatest
interest and feeling."
"Written with great power."—; Journal of Commerce, N. Y.
*'A strong story, the interest of which deepens with every
chapter."—Home Journal\ Boston.
"In many respects a remarkable book, in all respects a most
readable one."—Buffalo Express.
THE PHANTOM CITY.
A VOLCANIC ROMANCE.
By WILLIAM WESTALL, author of "Red Ryvington,"
"Ralph Norbreek's 'I'rtist," etc., etc.
1 vol., 16 mo., extra cloth. Price $1.50.
"The plot is well worked out and the interest held to the
end."—Daily Union.
"A story of wonderful adventure, and certainly of absorbing
interest."—Daily Courier.
"The story is one of those ingenious romances which
enchant a summer afternoon, or render one wholly oblivious of
a railway journey, and will be prized by all novel readers."—
fioston Eve. Traveler.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, N. Y.
TWO CHARMING
THH MAGIC OF A VOICE,
1 ARGARET RUSSELL MACFARLANE. I vol., l6mO.
cloth. Price, $1.00.
scene of this story is laid in Germany, and the
ers are drawn from life. The author's style is
and direct, and the story has a special interest on
: of the information it gives in regard to the man-
: d customs of a type of German society ij.rely
:d to the nc7el reader.
RUHAINAH.
of Afghan Life. By EVAN STANTON. I vol.,
l6mo, extra cloth. Price $1.00.
"'•: " is new romance of Afghan life is by a new
• 'jii. but an old writer, who has spent several years
• r- the people whom he describes in such v./id colors."
'' iV:tty, bright, and spirited, with a clever mingling of
-•;;,.; I love, history and fiction, faith and treachery, and
10 analysis."—The Critic.
LiASSELL & COMPANY, Limited,
739 and 741 Broadway, New York.

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F.M. JOHNSON, M.D.
\July x, 1885.

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