France had, both under Richelieu and Mazarin, lent continual aid and refuge to the Royalist cause against the Reformers. The queen, whom the Republicans had chased from the throne, was a princess of France, and was living there with numbers of the Royalists about her. Charles, the heir to the throne of England, was pensioned by France, and maintained a sort of court in Paris, whence continual disturbances and alarms were coming. It is true, the French Court had never been very munificent to the exiled Queen of England and her family. Henrietta was found by Cardinal Retz without fire, and almost without food, and Charles and his countrymen were so poor, that Clarendon, in June, 1653, wrote, "I do not know that any man is yet dead for want of bread, which I really wonder at. I am sure the king owes all that he has eaten since April, and I am not acquainted with one servant who hath a pistole in his pocket. Five or six of us eat together one meal a day for a pistole a week; but all of us owe, for God knows how many weeks, to the poor woman that feeds us." He adds that he wanted shoes and shirts, and that the Marquis of Ormond was in no better condition. The Court of Charles was as much rent with divisions and jealousies as it was poor. His brave conduct in England raised great hopes of him, but on his return to France he relapsed into all sorts of dissipations and intrigues, which made him contemptible. Amongst a troop of mistresses, Lucy Walters, or Barlow, as she was called, the mother of the afterwards celebrated Duke of Monmouth, was the most notorious. [Illustration: THE ROYALIST PLOTTERS AT SALISBURY INSULTING THE SHERIFF. (_See p._ 131.)] As Mazarin saw the growing power of Cromwell, he was glad to get Charles removed from Paris, and his abode transferred to Cologne; but, being still the pensioner of France, Charles was equally capable of annoying England from that place, as the late outbreaks showed. These circumstances no doubt rendered it very difficult for the conclusion of a peace between Cromwell and France, for Cromwell insisted on the withdrawal of the French support from the exiled family, and though France was fully disposed to abate the evil as far as possible, it could not in honour entirely abandon them. Mazarin made every possible concession on other points, and the French ambassador, Bordeaux, urged the progress of the treaty with all earnestness. But besides the grand obstacle, there were others raised by Spain. France and Spain were at war: Spain was supporting the Prince of Condé and the French insurgents, and the Spanish ambassador was indefatigable in representing that whilst Spain had been the very first to acknowledge the English Commonwealth, France had been constantly supporting the Royalist power, and in 1653 he offered to seize Calais and make it over to England as the price of the Commonwealth making peace with Spain, and common cause against France. [Illustration: THE PAINTED CHAMBER, WESTMINSTER.]