History of King Charles the Second of EnglandAbbott, Jacob
History
History of King Charles the Second of England
Abbott, Jacob
Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685
Though they felt thus no uneasiness and anxiety for themselves, their
exiled mother mourned for them, and was oppressed by the most foreboding
fears for their personal safety. She thought, however, still more
frequently of the babe, and felt a still greater solicitude for her,
left as she had been, at so exceedingly tender an age, in a situation
of the most extreme and imminent danger. She felt somewhat guilty in
having yielded her reluctant consent, for political reasons, to have
her other children educated in what she believed a false system of
religious faith, and she now prayed earnestly to God to spare the life
of this her last and dearest child, and vowed in her anguish that, if
the babe were ever restored to her, she would break through all
restrictions, and bring her up a true believer. This vow she afterward
earnestly fulfilled.
The child, it will be recollected, was left, when Henrietta escaped
from Exeter, in the care of the Countess of Morton, a young and
beautiful, and also a very intelligent and energetic lady. The child
had a visit from its father soon after its mother left it. King Charles,
as soon as he heard that Essex was advancing to besiege Exeter, where
he knew that the queen had sought refuge, and was, of course, exposed
to fall into his power, hastened with an army to her rescue. He arrived
in time to prevent Essex from getting possession of the place. He, in
fact, drove the besieger away from the town, and entered it himself
in triumph. The queen was gone, but he found the child.
The king gazed upon the little stranger with a mixture of joy and
sorrow. He caused it to be baptized, and named it Henrietta Anne. The
name Henrietta was from the mother; Anne was the name of Henrietta's
sister-in-law in Paris, who had been very kind to her in all her
troubles. The king made ample arrangements for supplying Lady Morton
with money out of the revenues of the town of Exeter, and, thinking
that the child would be as safe in Exeter as any where, left her there,
and went away to resume again his desperate conflicts with his political
foes.
Lady Morton remained for some time at Exeter, but the king's cause
every where declined. His armies were conquered, his towns were taken,
and he was compelled at last to give himself up a prisoner. Exeter,
as well as all the other strongholds in the kingdom, fell into the
hands of the parliamentary armies. They sent Lady Morton and the little
Henrietta to London, and soon afterward provided them with a home in
the mansion at Oatlands, where the queen herself and her other children
had lived before. It was a quiet and safe retreat, but Lady Morton was
very little satisfied with the plan of remaining there. She wished
very much to get the babe back to its mother again in Paris. She heard,
at length, of rumors that a plan was forming by the Parliament to take
the child out of her charge, and she then resolved to attempt an escape
at all hazards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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