On the 1st of October, 1646, the House of Lords ordered, That a pass be granted to the Lady Herbert, Countess of Glamorgan, into Ireland, with thirty of her menial servants, etc.[M][74] So that from August, when she left Raglan Castle, with the other inmates, to this period, she must have been a wanderer. Towards the close of the year 1646, it was decided between the Earl and his own party, to send his brother, the Lord John Somerset, a zealous Catholic, on a mission to the Pope. The Earl’s complicity with the clergy in these affairs, which had been conducted with great secrecy, occasioned much suspicion, creating for him many enemies among the Protestant party. In August, 1647, the Marquis of Ormond, leaving Ireland, waited on Charles the First at Hampton Court: Dublin being besieged, and likely to fall into possession of the English Parliament. While affairs were in this distracted state the Earl was apprised of his father’s decease, in December, 1646; and as Marquis of Worcester, he wrote from Galway to the titular Bishop of Fernes:--[26] “MY NOBLE LORD, “Although the place whither I go be now changed upon serious consideration, and my Lord Nuncio’s concurrence therein, as most advantageous _super totam materiam_, yet are my intentions the same they were when I left your Lordship; and I hope a shorter way contrived to them than I then imagined, having found a probable (I may call it even a certain) way to bring the Queen about to befriend this nation. In the interim, I beseech your Lordship, together with the Lord Bishop of Clogher and Mr. Rochfort, to be mindful of your promises to me, and to be sure that General O’Neile dissent not from the letter which you approved; the contents whereof I have not failed accordingly to recommend to his Majesty: and if I should deceive him therein, I must betake myself unto your Lordship’s advice and approbation, given thereupon. The copy of the original letter, together with the Nuncio’s recommendation, are to be delivered to General O’Neile by Father Definitor; and I have no more to say than that your Lordships (as I have said before), with Mr. Rochfort are the Triumvirate and the pillars upon whom I build, making no question of the goodness of that foundation; and I hope none of you do of my affection, which is not only devoted to yourselves, but as you shall further apply it to such persons as may be useful to God’s service, the King my master’s, and the good of this kingdom. And so, with my service to you all, I ever remain, “My Lord, “Your Lordship’s most humble “and devoted Servant, “WORCESTER. “Galway, 12th Oct. 1647.” His Lordship ultimately left Ireland in company with Father George Leyburn, a Roman Catholic priest, with whom he went to France in March, 1647–8.[61] Footnotes [13] Birch, p. 175. [13] Birch, p. 182; Nuncio’s Memoirs; and Siri, Mercurio, Vol. viii. [87] Rushworth, Part IV. vol. I. p. 249. [13] Birch, Inq. p. 184.