then about thirteen, arrived to join his family, and in his daily walks
to and from his dancing and riding lessons always stopped at the
ambassador's house to hear morning prayers. Henry's open affection for
the English Church was more than his mother could bear. With the help of
the abbé Montagu she began to persecute the poor boy to change his
religion, which he steadily refused to do. Charles had gone to Cologne,
and only James, duke of York, was left to guard his young brother, whom
Montagu was doing his best to force into a Jesuits' college.
'They cannot send you there without your own consent, and that you must
never give,' said James. 'You are an English subject, and bound to obey
the king'; and then he sat down and wrote letters to the princess of
Orange, to their aunt, the queen of Bohemia, and to Charles, who replied
by upbraiding his mother with more anger than he had ever shown about
anything in his life. But the fact that her children thought her in the
wrong only increased Henrietta's obstinacy. She refused even to admit
Henry to her apartments, and sent a message to him by Montagu that she
would never see him again unless he would do as she wished. The duke of
York tried to soften her heart and bring her to reason, but fared no
better, and when Henry fell on his knees before her as she was getting
into her coach to go to Chaillot, she only waved him out of her path and
bade the coachman drive on. The boy rose up, and turned, his eyes
blazing with anger, to Montagu, who stood watching.
'I owe this to you,' he said, 'and I will repeat to you the queen's
message to me. Take heed that I see your face no more,' and, sorely
distressed, he went straight to the chapel at the Embassy for comfort.
When he returned to the Palais Royal he found that his bed had been
stripped of its sheets, and that by the queen's orders no dinner had
been cooked for him. Not knowing what to do, he went to the house of
lord Hatton, where he was warmly welcomed, and bidden to stay as long as
he liked. But by the advice of the duke of York it was settled that he
should quit Paris at once and put himself under Charles's protection at
Cologne. This counsel seemed good, but where was the money to be got for
the journey? No one had any, for the queen held the purse. Then the
marquis of Ormonde stepped forward and pointed to the George, which hung
from the blue ribbon of the Garter on his breast. 'I will get the
money,' he said. It was the last thing he had to sell, and he sold it.
[Illustration: "She only waved him out of her path"]
That evening, in the early dusk, Henry crept into the Palais Royal to
say good-bye to his sister.
'But where are you going?' asked she, clinging to him, 'and when will
you come back?'
'Never, I think,' he answered bitterly. 'My mother has bidden me see her
face no more, and I must begone before she returns from vespers.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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