Darpent, on
looking back, had to confess that his most enthusiastic supporters
were among the younger brothers, or those with less fortunate
fathers, for whom the Paulette had never been paid, or who felt it
very hard to raise. He himself brought sincere ardour for his own
part, and was full of soaring hope and self-devotion, though I
suspect his father would soon have silenced him if the poor man had
been able to think of anything beyond his own sick-chamber.
The real absurdity, or rather the sadness, of it was, as we two saw,
that the fine folk in whom the Parliament put its trust merely wanted
to spite the Cardinal, and cared not a rush for the Parliament,
unlike my Lord Essex, and our other Roundhead noblemen, who, right or
wrong, were in honest earnest, and cared as much about the Bill of
Rights and all the rest of their demands as Sir Harry Vane or General
Cromwell himself, whereas these were traitors in heart to the cause
they pretended to espouse. Even the Coadjutor, who was the prime
mover of all, only wanted to be chief of a party.
One part of his comedy, which I should like to have seen, was the
conducting the Duchesses of Longueville and Bouillon along the Greve
to the Hotel de Ville to ask protection, though I do not know what
for.
However, there they were, exquisitely dressed, with Madame de
Longueville's beautiful hair daintily disheveled, on foot, and each
with a child in her arms.
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