Part 6 (1/2)
”My Lord!
”Sence you have happiely broght this businesse almost to and end, I mene to followe your Lords.h.i.+ppe's consel in alle. At your coming, alle shalle be redie for our journay to Viena. The moyns (moyens, _i.e._ money) I have when alle debts are paiet woul not bee moer than a 1,000 ducats. Thefore I beseech your Lords.h.i.+ppe to hasten our journe from Viena as much as possible. If you think fit, I mene to take my waie to Inspruck and throgh France, whiche is sertainely the best and saifest wai of alle. I woul desire a sudain answer of your Lords.h.i.+ppe that I mai send for bils of exchange to bee delivered at Geneva and Paris.
Thys is alle I have at this time to troble Yor Lords.h.i.+ppe withalle, and so I rest,
”Your most affectioned to doe you service, ”RUPERT.”[13]
It may here be noticed that Rupert, throughout his whole life, was singularly scrupulous about the payment of his debts.
When all negotiations were completed, the Emperor organised ”an extraordinary hunting” in Lower Austria, at which Rupert was directed to appear, as if by chance. He had the good luck to kill the boar with his spear, an exploit very highly accounted in the Empire. The Emperor, {55} thereupon, extended his hand to the successful hunter; Rupert kissed it, and, that being the final sign of release, was thenceforth free. For a week he was detained as a guest at Vienna, while every effort was made to gain his adherence to the Emperor. He seems to have been as popular at Vienna as at Linz. ”There were,” says the Lansdowne MS., ”few persons of quality by whom he was not visited and treated... The ladyes also vied in their civilities, and laboured to detain him in Germany by their charms.” But Rupert refused to be beguiled, charmed they never so wisely. As for the Emperor, he lavished so much kindness on his quondam prisoner, ”that the modesty of the Prince could not endure it without some confusion. Yet his deportment was composed, and his answers to the civilities of the Emperor were so full of judgment and grat.i.tude that they esteemed him no less for his prudence than for his bravery.”[14]
At last he was suffered to depart. Fain would the Emperor have sent him to the Archduke at Brunswick, believing that the influence of the Angel might yet win him. But Rupert preferred to visit Prague, his own birthplace, and the scene of his father's brief kings.h.i.+p. With a kindly caution not to venture into the power of the Duke of Bavaria, the Emperor bade him farewell. From Prague Rupert went to Saxony, where he astonished the reigning Elector not a little by his refusal to drink. A banquet had been arranged in his honour, but the Prince, ”always temperate”, excused himself from drinking with the rest.
”'What shall we do with him then,' says the Elector, 'if he cannot drink?'--and so invited him to the entertainment of a hunting.”[15]
After this Rupert travelled night and day, in his eagerness to be the first to bring news of his release to his family. He just managed to antic.i.p.ate Roe's letter, which arrived at the Hague on the same night with himself. Boswell, then English Amba.s.sador in Holland, wrote {56} an account of the event to Roe. ”Prince Rupert arrived here in perfect health, but lean and weary, having come that day from Swoll, and from Hamburg since the Friday noon. Myself, at eight o'clock in the evening, coming out of the court gate, had the good luck to receive him first of any, out of his waggon; no other creature in the court expecting his coming so soon. Whereby himself carried the news of his being come to the Queen, newly set at supper. You may imagine what joy there was!”[16] And to Roe wrote the Queen also: ”The same night, being the 20th of this month (December), that Rupert came hither I received your letter, where you tell me of his going from Vienna. He is very well satisfied with the Emperor's usage of him. I find him not altered, only leaner, and grown. All the people, from the highest to the lowest, made great show of joy at his return. For me, you may easily guess it, and also how much I esteem myself obliged to you.”
Yet, even after a three years' separation, Elizabeth had no notion of keeping her son beside her. ”What to do with him I know not!” she lamented. ”He cannot in honour, yet go to the war; here he will live but idly, in England no better. For I know the Queen will use all possible means to gain him to the prejudice of the Prince Elector, and of his religion. For though he has stood firm against what has been practised in his imprisonment, amongst his enemies, yet I fear, by my own humour, that fair means from those that are esteemed true may have more power than threatenings or flattery from an enemy.”[17] Doubtless the Queen's anxiety for her son's employment was justified; there was no money to maintain him; and, moreover, the Hague was no desirable residence for an idle and active-minded young Prince. There seems to have been some idea of sending him to Ireland, where the natives had risen against the English Government. The King approved of the {57} suggestion: ”But,” wrote the Elector, ”the Parliament will employ none there but those they may be sure of. I shall speak with some of them about it, either for Rupert, or for brother Maurice. This last might, I think, with honour, have a regiment under Leslie, but to be under any other odd or senseless officer, as some are proposed, I shall not advise it.”[18] Apparently the idea failed to commend itself to the English Parliament, which perhaps suspected that the younger brothers would be found less time-serving than was the Elector.
In accordance with his mother's wishes, and doubtless with his own, Rupert went over to England, early in February 1642, with the avowed object of thanking his uncle for his release. He found King Charles at Dover, whither he had accompanied his wife and eldest daughter on their way to Holland. Affairs in England were approaching a crisis, and the Queen, under the pretext of taking the Princess Mary to her husband, was about to raise money and men for the King, on the Continent. The visit of the warlike Rupert at so critical a juncture roused hostile comment, and, since war was not yet considered inevitable, the King desired his nephew to return home with the Queen. Therefore, after a visit of three days, he embarked with the Queen and Princess on board the Lyon, and sailed straight for Holland. The arrivals were met, on their landing, by Elizabeth, two of her daughters, the Prince of Orange and his son; all of whom proceeded in one coach to the Court of Orange.
Rupert remained at the Hague until August, when war broke out in England, and gave him the employment desired for him by his mother.
At this point, August 1642, closes what we may consider as the first period of Rupert's life. Probably these early years were his best and happiest. Marked though they were by poverty and misfortune, they were yet full of {58} interests and adventure, unmarred by the struggles, jealousies, disappointments, and family dissensions which were to come.
Rupert had no lack of friends; he had won the hearts of his very enemies. Not the least among a brilliant group of brothers and sisters, he was happy in their companions.h.i.+p and sympathy, the bond of which was so soon to be severed; happy also in the kindness and affection of the Prince of Orange and of the King and Queen of England.
He had shown himself gifted with rare abilities, capable of valiant action, and of loyal and patient endurance;--a generous, high-souled boy, fired by chivalric fancies, free from all self-seeking, earnest, faithful, strong-willed, but also, alas, opinionated, and impatient of contradiction.
[1] Collins Sidney Papers, Vol. II. pp. 584-5, 28 Jan. 1639.
[2] Com. State Papers. Chas. I. Vol. 539. Eliz. to Roe, Jan. 7/17, 1640.
[3] Bromley Letters, p. 122.
[4] Ibid. p. 124.
[5] Dom. State Papers. Maurice to Charles I, Oct. 30, 1640. Chas. I.
Vol. 470. fol. 21.
[6] Dom. State Papers, Chas. I. Vol. 477. Feb. 22, 1641.
[7] Ibid. Chas. I. Vol. 539. Jan. 7-17, 1641.
[8] Ibid. Chas. I. 484. f. 51. Oct. 10, 1641.
[9] Fairfax Correspondence. Ed. Johnson. 1848. Vol. I. p. 322.
[10] Benett MSS. Warburton. I. pp. 102, 458.
[11] Dom. State Papers. Chas. I. Vol. 483. fol. 39.
[12] Dom. State Papers. Sept. 19-29. 1641. Chas. I. 484. f. 36.