Books: Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe

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I landed at Youghall, in Munster, as my husband directed me, in hopes
to meet me there; but I had the discomfort of a very hazardous voyage,
and the absence of your father, he then being upon business at Cork.
So soon as he heard I was landed, he came to me, and with mutual joy
we discoursed those things that were proper to entertain us both; and
thus, for six months, we lived so much to our satisfaction, that we
began to think of making our abode there during the war, for the
country was fertile, and all provisions cheap, and the houses good,
and we were placed in Red Abbey, a house of Dean Boyle's in Cork, and
my Lord of Ormond had a very good army, and the country seemingly
quiet; and, to complete our content, all persons were very civil to
us, especially Dean Boyle, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Archbishop
of Dublin and his family, and the Lord Inchiquin, whose daughter
Elkenna I christened in 1650.

But what earthly comfort is exempt from change? for here I heard of
the death of my second son, Henry, and, within a few weeks, of the
landing of Cromwell, who so hotly marched over Ireland, that the fleet
with Prince Rupert was forced to set sail, and within a small time
after he lost all his riches, which was thought to be worth hundreds
of thousands of pounds, in one of his best ships, commanded by his
brother Maurice, who with many a brave man sunk and were all lost in a
storm at sea.

We remained some time behind in Ireland, until my husband could
receive his Majesty's commands how to dispose of himself. During this
time I had, by the fall of a stumbling horse, being with child, broke
my left wrist, which, because it was ill-set, put me to great and long
pain, and I was in my bed when Cork revolted. By chance that day my
husband was gone on business to Kinsale: it was in the beginning of
November 1650. [Footnote: These events happened in November 1649.] At
midnight I heard the great guns go off, and thereupon I called up my
family to rise, which I did as well as I could in that condition.
Hearing lamentable shrieks of men, women, and children, I asked at a
window the cause; they told me they were all Irish, stripped and
wounded, and turned out of the town, and that Colonel Jeffries, with
some others, had possessed themselves of the town for Cromwell, Upon
this, I immediately wrote a letter to my husband, blessing God's
providence that he was not there with me, persuading him to patience
and hope that I should get safely out of the town, by God's
assistance, and desired him to shift for himself, for fear of a
surprise, with promise that I would secure his papers.

So soon as I had finished my letter, I sent it by a faithful servant,
who was let down the garden-wall of Red Abbey, and, sheltered by the
darkness of the might, he made his escape. I immediately packed up my
husband's cabinet, with all his writings, and near 1000 pounds in gold
and silver, and all other things both of clothes, linen, and household
stuff that were portable, of value; and then, about three o'clock in
the morning, by the light of a taper, and in that pain I was in, I
went into the market-place, with only a man and maid, and passing
through an unruly tumult with their swords in their hands, searched
for their chief commander Jeffries, who, whilst he was loyal, had
received many civilities from your father. I told him it was necessary
that upon that change I should remove, and I desired his pass that
would be obeyed, or else I must remain there: I hoped he would not
deny me that kindness. He instantly wrote me a pass, both for myself,
family, and goods, and said he would never forget the respect he owed
your father. With this I came through thousands of naked swords to Red
Abbey, and hired the next neighbour's cart, which carried all that I
could remove; and myself, sister, and little girl Nan, with three
maids and two men, set forth at five o'clock in November, having but
two horses amongst us all, which we rid on by turns. In this sad
condition I left Red Abbey, with as many goods as were worth 100
pounds which could not be removed, and so were plundered. We went ten
miles to Kinsale, in perpetual fear of being fetched back again; but,
by little and little, I thank God, we got safe to the garrison, where
I found your father the most disconsolate man in the world, for fear
of his family, which he had no possibility to assist; but his joys
exceeded to see me and his darling daughter, and to hear the wonderful
escape we, through the assistance of God, had made.

But when the rebels went to give an account to Cromwell of their
meritorious act, he immediately asked them where Mr. Fanshawe was?
They replied, he was that day gone to Kinsale. Then he demanded where
his papers and his family were? At which they all stared at one
another, but made no reply. Their General said, 'It was as much worth
to have seized his papers as the town; for I did make account to have
known by them what these parts of the country are worth.'

But within a few days we received the King's order, which was, that my
husband should, upon sight thereof, go into Spain to Philip IV. and
deliver him his Majesty's letters; and by my husband also his Majesty
sent letters to my Lord Cottington and Sir Edward Hyde, his
Ambassadors Extraordinary in that Court. Upon this order we went to
Macrome to the Lord Clancarty, who married a sister of the Lord
Ormond; we stayed there two nights, and at my coming away, after a
very noble entertainment, my Lady gave me a great Irish greyhound, and
I presented her with a fine besel-stone.

From thence we went to Limerick, where we were entertained by the
Mayor and Aldermen very nobly; and the Recorder of the Town was very
kind, and in respect they made my husband a freeman of Limerick. There
we met the Bishop of Londonderry and the Earl of Roscommon, who was
Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom at that time. These two persons with
my husband being together writing letters to the King, to give an
account of the kingdom, when they were going down stairs from my Lord
Roscommon's chamber, striving to hold the candle at the stairs' head,
because the privacy of their despatch admitted not a servant to be
near, my Lord Roscommon fell down the stairs, and his head fell upon
the corner of a stone and broke his skull in three pieces, of which he
died five days after, leaving the broad seal of Ireland in your
father's hands, until such time as he could acquaint his Majesty with
this sad account, and receive orders how to dispose of the seals. This
caused our longer stay, but your father and I being invited to my Lord
Inchiquin's, there to stay till we heard out of Holland from the King,
which was a month before the messenger returned, we had very kind
entertainment, and vast plenty of fish and fowl. By this time my Lord
Lieutenant the now Duke of Ormond's army was quite dispersed, and
himself gone for Holland, and every person concerned in that interest
shifting for their lives; and Cromwell went through as bloodily as
victoriously, many worthy persons being murdered in cold blood, and
their families quite ruined.

From hence we went to the Lady Honor O'Brien's, a lady that went for a
maid, but few believed it: she was the youngest daughter of the Earl
of Thomond. There we stayed three nights. The first of which I was
surprised by being laid in a chamber, when, about one o'clock I heard
a voice that wakened me. I drew the curtain, and in the casement of
the window, I saw, by the light of the moon, a woman leaning into the
window, through the casement, in white, with red hair and pale and
ghastly complexion: she spoke loud, and in a tone I had never heard,
thrice, 'A horse'; and then, with a sigh more like the wind than
breath she vanished, and to me her body looked more like a thick cloud
than substance. I was so much frightened, that my hair stood on end,
and my night clothes fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who
never woke during the disorder I was in; but at last was much
surprised to see me in this fright, and more so when I related the
story and showed him the window opened. Neither of us slept any more
that night, but he entertained me with telling me how much more these
apparitions were usual in this country than in England; and we
concluded the cause to be the great superstition of the Irish, and the
want of that knowing faith, which should defend them from the power of
the Devil, which he exercises among them very much. About five o'clock
the lady of the house came to see us, saying she had not been in bed
all night, because a cousin O'Brien of her's, whose ancestors had
owned that house, had desired her to stay with him in his chamber, and
that he died at two o'clock, and she said, 'I wish you to have had no
disturbance, for 'tis the custom of the place, that, when any of the
family are dying, the shape of a woman appears in the window every
night till they be dead. This woman was many ages ago got with child
by the owner of this place, who murdered her in his garden and flung
her into the river under the window, but truly I thought not of it
when I lodged you here, it being the best room in the house.' We made
little reply to her speech, but disposed ourselves to be gone
suddenly.

By this time my husband had received orders from the King to give the
Lord Inchiquin the seals to keep until farther orders from his
Majesty. When that business was settled, we went, accompanied by my
Lord Inchiquin and his family, four or five miles towards Galway,
which he did not by choice, but the plague had been so hot in that
city the summer before, that it was almost depopulated, and the haven
as much as the town. But your father hearing that, by accident, there
was a great ship of Amsterdam bound for Malaga, in Spain, and Cromwell
pursuing his conquests at our backs, resolved to fall into the hands
of God rather than into the hands of men; and with his family of about
ten persons came to the town at the latter end of February, [Footnote:
Probably January, as in a subsequent page Lady Fanshawe says, she
embarked for Galway in the beginning of February.] where we found
guards placed that none should enter without certificates from whence
they came; but understanding that your father came to embark himself
for Spain, and that there was a merchant's house taken for us, that
was near the sea-side, and one of their best, they told us, if we
pleased to alight, they would wait on us to the place; but it was long
from thence, and no horses were admitted into the town.

An Irish footman that served us, said, 'I lived here some years and
know every street, and likewise know a much nearer way than these men
can show you, Sir; therefore come with me, if you please.' We resolved
to follow him, and sent our horses to stables in the suburbs: he led
us all on the back side of the town, under the walls, over which the
people during the plague, which was not yet quite stopped, flung out
all their dung, dirt, and rags, and we walked up to the middle of our
legs in them, for, being engaged, we could not get back. At last we
found the house, by the master standing at the door expecting us, who
said, 'You are welcome to this disconsolate city, where you now see
the streets grown over with grass, once the finest little city in the
world.' And indeed it is easy to think so, the buildings being
uniformly built, and a very fine marketplace, and walks arched and
paved by the sea-side for their merchants to walk on, and a most noble
harbour.

Our house was very clean, only one maid in it besides the master; we
had a very good supper provided, and being very weary went early to
bed. The owner of this house entertained us with the story of the late
Marquis of Worcester, who had been there some time the year before: he
had of his own and other friends' jewels to the value of 8000 pounds,
which some merchants had lent upon them. My Lord appointed a day for
receiving the money upon them and delivering the jewels; being met, he
shows them to all these persons, then seals them up in a box, and
delivered them to one of these merchants, by consent of the rest, to
be kept for one year, and upon the payment of the 8000 pounds by my
Lord Marquis to be delivered him.

After my Lord had received the money, he was entertained at all these
persons' houses, and nobly feasted with them near a month: he went
from thence into France. When the year was expired, they, by letters
into France, pressed the payment of this borrowed money several times,
alleging they had great necessity of their money to drive their trade
with; to which my Lord Marquis made no answer; which did at last so
exasperate these men, that they broke open the seals, and opening the
box found nothing but rags and stones for their 8000 pounds at which
they were highly enraged, and in this case I left them.

At the beginning of February we took ship, and our kind host, with
much satisfaction in our company, prayed God to bless us and give us a
good voyage, for, said he, 'I thank God you are all gone safe aboard
from my house, notwithstanding I have buried nine persons out of my
house within these six months'; which saying much startled us, but,
God's name be praised, we were all well, and so continued.

Here now our scene was shifted from land to sea, and we left that
brave kingdom, fallen, in six or eight months, into a most miserable
sad condition, as it hath been many times in most kings' reigns, God
knows why! for I presume not to say; but the natives seem to me a very
loving people to each other, and constantly false to all strangers,
the Spaniards only excepted. The country exceeds in timber and sea-
ports, and great plenty of fish, fowl, flesh, and, by shipping, wants
no foreign commodities. We pursued our voyage with prosperous winds,
but with a most tempestuous master, a Dutchman, which is enough to
say, but truly, I think, the greatest beast I ever saw of his kind.

When we had just passed the Straits, we saw coming towards us, with
full sails, a Turkish galley well manned, and we believed we should be
all carried away slaves, for this man had so laden his ship with goods
for Spain, that his guns were useless, though the ship carried sixty
guns. He called for brandy; and after he had well drunken, and all his
men, which were near two hundred, he called for arms and cleared the
deck as well as he could, resolving to fight rather than lose his
ship, which was worth thirty thousand pounds. This was sad for us
passengers; but my husband bade us be sure to keep in the cabin, and
the women not to appear, which would make the Turks think that we were
a man-of-war, but if they saw women they would take us for merchants
and board us. He went upon the deck, and took a gun and bandoliers,
and sword, and, with the rest of the ship's company, stood upon deck
expecting the arrival of the Turkish man-of-war. This beast, the
Captain, had locked me up in the cabin; I knocked and called long to
no purpose, until, at length, the cabin-boy came and opened the door;
I, all in tears, desired him to be so good as to give me his blue
thrum cap he wore, and his tarred coat, which he did, and I gave him
half a crown, and putting them on and flinging away my night clothes,
I crept up softly and stood upon the deck by my husband's side, as
free from sickness and fear as, I confess, from discretion; but it was
the effect of that passion, which I could never master.

By this time the two vessels were engaged in parley, and so well
satisfied with speech and sight of each other's forces, that the
Turks' man-of-war tacked about, and we continued our course. But when
your father saw it convenient to retreat, looking upon me, he blessed
himself, and snatched me up in his arms, saying, 'Good God, that love
can make this change!' and though he seemingly chid me, he would laugh
at it as often as he remembered that voyage. And in the beginning of
March we all landed, praised be God, in Malaga, very well, and full of
content to see ourselves delivered from the sword and plague, and
living in hope that we should one day return happily to our native
country; notwithstanding, we thought it great odds, considering how
the affairs of the King's three kingdoms stood; but we trusted in the
providence of Almighty God, and proceeded.

We were very kindly entertained by the merchants, and by them lodged
in a merchant's house, where we had not been with our goods three
days, when the vessel that brought us thither, by the negligence of a
cabin-boy, was blown up in the harbour, with the loss of above a
hundred men and all our lading.

After we had refreshed ourselves some days, we went on our journey
towards Madrid, and lodged the first night at Velez Malaga, to which
we were accompanied by most of the merchants. The next day we went to
Grenada, having passed the highest mountains I ever saw in my life,
but under this lieth the finest valley that can be possibly described,
adorned with high trees and rich grass, and beautified with a large
deep clear river. Over the town and this standeth the goodly vast
palace of the King's, called the Alhambra, whose buildings are, after
the fashion of the Moors, adorned with vast quantities of jasper-
stone; many courts, many fountains, and by reason it is situated on
the side of a hill, and not built uniform, many gardens with ponds in
them, and many baths made of jasper, and many principal rooms roofed
with the mosaic work, which exceeds the finest enamel I ever saw. Here
I was showed in the midst of a very large piece of rich embroidery
made by the Moors of Grenada, in the middle as long as half a yard of
the true Tyrian dye, which is so glorious a colour that it cannot be
expressed: it hath the glory of scarlet, the beauty of purple, and is
so bright, that when the eye is removed upon any other object it seems
as white as snow.

The entry into this great Palace is of stone, for a Porter's-lodge,
but very magnificent, through the gate below, which is adorned with
figures of forestwork, in which the Moors did transcend. High above
this gate was a bunch of keys cut in stone likewise, with this motto:
'Until that hand holds those keys, the Christians shall never possess
this Alhambra.' This was a prophecy they had, in which they animated
themselves, by reason of the impossibility that ever they should meet.
But see, how true there is a time for all things! It happened that
when the Moors were besieged in that place by Don Fernando and his
Queen Isabella, the King with an arrow out of a bow, which they then
used in war, shooting the first arrow as their custom is, cut that
part of the stone that holds the keys, which was in fashion of a
chain, and the keys falling, remained in the hand underneath. This
strange accident preceded but a few days the conquest of the town of
Grenada and kingdom.

They have in this place an iron grate, fixed into the side of the
hill, that is a rock: I laid my head to the key-hole and heard a noise
like the clashing of arms, but could not distinguish other shrill
noises I heard with that, but tradition says it could never be opened
since the Moors left it, notwithstanding several persons had
endeavoured to wrench it open, but that they perished in the attempt.
The truth of this I can say no more to; but that there is such a gate,
and I have seen it.

After two days we went on our journey; and on the 13th of April 1650,
we came to the Court of Madrid, where we were the next day visited by
the two English ambassadors, and afterwards by all the English
merchants.

Here I was delivered of my first daughter, that was called Elizabeth,
upon the 13th of July. She lived but fifteen days, and lies buried in
the Chapel of the French Hospital. Your father had great difficulty to
carry on his business, without encroaching upon the Extraordinary
Ambassador's negotiation, and the performance of his Majesty's
commands to show his present necessities, which he was sent to Philip
IV. for, in hopes of a present supply of money, which our King then
lacked; but finding no good to be done on that errand, he and I,
accompanied by Dr. Bell, of Jesus College in Cambridge, who had been
his tutor, went a day's journey together towards St. Sebastian, there
to embark for France.

While we stayed in this Court we were kindly treated by all the
English; and it was no small trouble to your father's tutor to quit
his company, but, having undertaken the charge of that family of the
ambassador's as their chaplain, he said, he held himself obliged in
conscience to stay, and so he did. In a few months after he died
there, and lies buried in the garden-house, where they then lived.

Whilst we were in Madrid, there was sent one Askew, as resident from
the then Governor of England; he lay in a common eating-house where
some travellers used to lie, and being one day at dinner, some young
men meeting in the street with Mr. Prodgers, a gentleman belonging to
the Lord Ambassador Cottington, and Mr. Sparks, an English merchant,
discoursing of news, began to speak of the impudence of that Askew, to
come a public minister from rebels to a Court where there were two
Ambassadors from his King. This subject being handled with heat, they
all resolved to go without more consideration into his lodgings
immediately and kill him: they came up to his chamber door, and
finding it open, and he sat at dinner, seized him, and so killed him,
and went their several ways. Afterwards they found Mr. Sparks in a
church for rescue, notwithstanding it was contrary to their religion
and laws, and they forced him out from thence, and executed him
publicly, their fears of the English power were then so great.

There was at that time the Lord Goring, son to the Earl of Norwich: he
had a command under Philip the Fourth of Spain, against the
Portuguese: he was generally esteemed a good and great commander, and
had been brought up in Holland in his youth, of vast natural parts;
for I have heard your father say, he hath dictated to several persons
at once that were upon despatches, and all so admirably well, that
none of them could be mended. He was exceeding facetious and pleasant
company, and in conversation, where good manners were due, the
civilest person imaginable, so that he would blush like a girl. He was
very tall, and very handsome: he had been married to a daughter of the
Earl of Cork, but never had a child by her. His expenses were what he
could get, and his debauchery beyond all precedents, which at last
lost him that love the Spaniards had for him; and that country not
admitting his constant drinking, he fell sick of a hectic fever, in
which he turned his religion, and with that artifice could scarce get
to keep him whilst he lived in that sickness, or to bury him when he
was dead.

We came to St. Sebastian's about the beginning of September, and there
hired a small French vessel to carry us to Nantz: we embarked within
two days after our coming to this town. I never saw so wild a place,
nor were the inhabitants unsuitable, but like to like, which made us
hasten away, and I am sure to our cost we found the proverb true, for
our haste brought us woe. We had not been a day at sea before we had a
storm begun, that continued two days and two nights in a most violent
manner; and being in the Bay of Biscay, we had a hurricane that drew
the vessel up from the water, which had neither sail nor mast left,
and but six men and a boy. Whilst they had hopes of life they ran
swearing about like devils, but when that failed them, they ran into
holes, and let the ship drive as it would. In this great hazard of our
lives we were the beginning of the third night, when God in mercy
ceased the storm of a sudden, and there was a great calm, which made
us exceeding joyful; but when those beasts, for they were scarce men,
that manned the vessel, began to rummage the bark, they could not find
their compass anywhere, for the loss of which they began again such
horrible lamentations as were as dismal to us as the storm past.

Thus between hope and fear we passed the night, they protesting to us
they knew not where they were, and truly we believed them; for with
fear and drink I think they were bereaved of their senses. So soon as
it was day, about six o'clock, the master cried out, 'The land! the
land!' but we did not receive the news with the joy belonging to it,
but sighing said, God's will be done! Thus the tide drove us until
about five o'clock in the afternoon, and drawing near the side of a
small rock that had a creek by it, we ran aground, but the sea was so
calm that we all got out without the loss of any man or goods, but the
vessel was so shattered that it was not afterwards serviceable: thus,
God be praised! we escaped this great danger, and found ourselves near
a little village about two leagues from Nantz. We hired there six
asses, upon which we rode as many as could by turns, and the rest
carried our goods. This journey took us up all the next day, for I
should have told you that we stirred not that night, because we sat up
and made good cheer; for beds they had none, and we were so
transported that we thought we had no need of any, but we had very
good fires, and Nantz white wine, and butter, and milk, and walnuts
and eggs, and some very bad cheese; and was not this enough, with the
escape of shipwreck, to be thought better than a feast? I am sure
until that hour I never knew such pleasure in eating, between which we
a thousand times repeated what we had spoken when every word seemed to
be our last.

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