First let him see his friends in battle slain, And lie unburied on the barren sand.' 1 "It is said King Charles seemed concerned at this "accident, and that the Lord Falkland, observing it, "would likewise try his own fortune in the same man"ner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that could "have no relation to his case, and thereby divert the "King's thoughts from any impression the other might "have upon him; but the place that Falkland stumbled 66 upon was yet more suited to his destiny than the other "had been to the King's; being the following expres"sions of Evander upon the untimely death of his son "Pallas, as they are translated by the same hand :— "O Pallas! thou hast fail'd thy plighted word, To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword: Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come!" "2 This anecdote has been repeated by different writers, but on the sole authority of Dr. Welwood. It should, however, be observed that not only is the double coin 1 See Æn. iv. 615-620-" At bello audacis populi," &c. * Ibid., xi. 152-157—" Non hæc, o Palla," &c. See Welwood's Memoirs (ed. 1718), p. 90. cidence so remarkable as to pass the limits of credibility, but that the circumstance is not mentioned by any contemporary authority, or alluded to in any work previous to that of Dr. Welwood,' a Scotch physician, who wrote fifty-six years after the death of Lord Falkland. It is in the highest degree improbable that Lord Clarendon, so tenderly minute in all that concerned Lord Falkland, should have omitted, both in his history and in his own life, to mention such a striking and pathetic coincidence had it really occurred. The story may, perhaps, have originated in the following occurrence, mentioned by Aubrey in his MS. on the Remains of Gentilism. He says that in December, 1648, when King Charles I. was prisoner at Carisbrook, or to be brought to London to his trial, the Prince of Wales was at Paris, and received a visit from Mr. Abraham Cowley. The Prince asked him to play at cards with him, "to divert his sad thoughts." "Mr. Cowley replied, 'He did not care to play at cards, but, "if his Highness pleased, they would use Sortes Vir 66 gilianæ.' Mr. Cowley had always a Virgil in his pocket. The Prince liked the proposal, and pricked "a pin in the fourth book of the Æneid. The Prince "understood not Latin well, and desired Mr. Cowley 1 Dr. James Welwood was born near Edinburgh in 1652, and died in 1716. He wrote 'Memoirs of the most material Transactions in England for the last Hundred Years preceding the Revolution in 1688' at the suggestion of Queen Mary, who complained to him of the insuperable difficulties under which she lay of knowing truly the history of her grandfather's reign, saying that "most of the accounts she had read of it were either "panegyric or satire, not history." 2 See Appendix O. 3 "At bello audacis populi," &c. "to translate the verses, which he did admirably "well."1 2 Whether Aubrey's anecdote is correct or no it may not be very easy to determine; but a letter from Cowley himself to Mr. Bennet' is so far confirmatory of its truth, that, in speaking of the Scotch treaty then in agitation, he says, "I cannot abstain from believing "that an agreement will be made the mutual necessity of an accord is visible; the King is per"suaded of it. And, to tell you the truth (which I "take to be an argument above all the rest), Virgil has "told the same thing to that purpose." Johnson says, "I cannot but suspect Cowley of having consulted on "this great occasion the Virgilian lots, and to have "given some credit to the answer of his oracle." If this be the real foundation of Dr. Welwood's story of the Sortes Virgilianæ, it is clear that Lord Falkland could have had no part in it; and the verses that were applicable to his fate were ingeniously supplied after his death by some one who was struck with their applicability." Towards the end of December in this year Lord Falkland had the opportunity of evincing to Mr. Hyde the value he set upon his service to the King, by being 66 more solicitous to have him of the Council than he "was himself for the honour." The King had offered Mr. Hyde to make him Secretary of State in place 6 Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' edited by Sir H. Ellis, vol. iii. p. 177. 2 Quoted in Johnson's Life of Cowley.' of Sir Edward Nicholas, but for various reasons he thought fit to decline the offer. The death of Sir Charles Cæsar shortly afterwards caused a vacancy in the office of Master of the Rolls; Sir John Culpepper had been promised the reversion of this appointment. Lord Falkland immediately suggested to the King that he would now have a good opportunity for preferring Mr. Hyde, by making him Chancellor of the Exchequer in place of Sir John Culpepper. The King was well disposed to do so, but enjoined Lord Falkland to silence till he had himself made the offer. Mr. Hyde accepted, to the great dissatisfaction of Sir John Culpepper, who was so long in surrendering his patent of Chancellor of the Exchequer after that for the Rolls was passed, that Lord Falkland and Lord Digby expostulated very warmly with him upon it, and drew the King's attention to the circumstance. Sir John Culpepper then relinquished his office, and the following day Mr. Hyde succeeded to it, being sworn of the Privy Council and knighted.' Nor was this the only instance mentioned by Lord Clarendon of Lord Falkland's interference on his behalf, when he was dissatisfied with the conduct of others towards him. A few months later (in July), when the King went to Bristol, accompanied by some of his Council, Sir Edward Hyde, now Chancellor of the Exchequer, found that the trade Sir J. Culpepper made Master of the Rolls, 30th January, 1642-3.-— Vide Dugdale's 'Origines,' p. 111, from whence it has been copied into Beatson's 'Political Index.' There is no entry in the Council Register of Edward Hyde being sworn a Privy Councillor. The entries there become extremely irregular after Charles retired to York. of that port was likely to yield good profit to the King, if well managed; but on sending for the officers of the Customs to obtain further information, he found that an arrangement had been made, with the advice and assistance of Sir John Culpepper, by which the King assigned to Mr. Ashburnham this part of the duty of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's office. Sir Edward Hyde was mortified and offended at such interference with his duty, and, to use his own words, "he took it "very heavily, and the Lord Falkland, out of his friend'ship to him, more tenderly, and expostulated it with "the King with some warmth, and more passionately "with Sir John Culpepper and Mr. Ashburnham, as a "violation of the friendship they professed to the Chancellor, and an invasion of his office,' which no man "bears easily." Excuses and explanations ensued, with which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was satisfied, and thus the affair ended.2 66 66 The King remained for many months at Oxford, and it was during the residence there with the Court and 'A work published by the late Earl of Ashburnham, entitled 'Ashburnham's Narrative,' contains "a vindication of his character and conduct from "the misrepresentations of Lord Clarenden." In this vindication there is a most minute and elaborate defence of Mr. Ashburnham on this subject (vol. i. pp. 15-29). The spirit in which this portion of the vindication is written, and the terms in which it is couched, are not calculated to produce conviction in the mind of an impartial reader. :-“ • Lord Clarendon thus winds up his account of this difference :-" If "there remained after this any jealousy or coldness between the Chancellor "of the Exchequer and the other two, as the disparity between their "natures and humours made some believe there did, it never brake out or appeared to the disturbance or prejudice of the King's service, but all "possible concurrence in the carrying it on was observed between them."Life of Lord Clarendon, vol. i. p. 164. |