That the Marquis’s wife and family received any assistance whatever, through appeals to the Commonwealth Parliament, is significant of the high estimation in which he himself must have been held, simply for his moral worth, and his not overstrained political bias: marking his acts with extreme humanity in war, and good sense in avoiding the risk of launching into any of those extraordinary measures, for which the late King had granted him the ample powers already considered. Indeed the Nuncio,[C] as early as 1646, had correctly estimated his Lordship’s character, designating him “an Englishman of a very mild temper.” Footnotes [57] Jo. H. C. Vol. vi. p. 565. [A] Page 577. The same inquiry also supplied an interesting notice of Lord Herbert’s early life. [57] Jo. H. C. Vol. vii. p. 33. [B] Page 67. [57] Jo. H. C. Vol. v. p. 504; vi. p. 256. [C] See page 182. CHAPTER XIV. HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND--IMPRISONMENT, AND LIBERATION--HIS “CENTURY”--PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES--PETITIONS--AT CHARLES THE SECOND’S CORONATION--LORD HERBERT. We find that in the House of Commons, on the 14th of March, 1648, “The persons reported to be banished, and their estates confiscated, being fourteen in number, were every one particularly put to the question;” when it was resolved, &c. “That Charles Stuart, eldest son of the late King, be one of that number; also James Stuart, his second son;” then follow the Earls of Bristol, and Newcastle, along with Witherington, Digby, Musgrave, Langdale, Greenvill, and Dodington. After which it was-- “Resolved, &c. That the Earl of Worcester be one other of that number.” Likewise were added the names of Winter, Culpepper, Byron, the Duke of Buckingham; and finally, “all that have been plotting, designing, or assisting, in the Irish rebellion,” shall be proscribed, as enemies and traitors to the Commonwealth; and shall “die without mercy, wherever they shall be found within the limits of this nation; and their estates employed for the use of the Commonwealth.”[57] It appears, on the authority of Dr. White Kennet,[58] the historian, that while Charles the Second was a refugee in the Court of France, the King of France, Louis XIV., was in himself disposed not only to assist, but if possible to restore the royal family of England. His commanding minister, the Cardinal Mazarine, however, was always averse to any such measure; so that all the exiled prince could do was to send abroad his envoys and agents, to solicit for justice and relief, although without effect, as the result proved. He sent to England, says Kennet, “the noble Marquis of Worcester for private intelligence as well as for supplies; but the Marquis was taken up prisoner in London, and committed to the Tower in September[?]; where he was threatened with a speedy trial, and worse punished with a long confinement.”