Soon after he had made these purchases, the Queen desired Newcastle to go to the Prince of Wales in Holland; but his ungrateful creditors made a difficulty about their debtor leaving Paris, whereupon the Queen most generously made herself responsible for his Parisian debts. On the morning of the day on which he left Paris, his creditors, says his wife, showed “so great a love and kindness for him” that they came to “take their farewell of him”. No wonder! It is easy to understand that they would be anxious, to have a few words with him—perhaps a good many words—and to come to a very clear understanding, before losing sight of him. Love and kindness indeed!
For about six months Newcastle lived at Rotterdam, as his wife tells us, “at a great charge keeping an open and noble table for all comers”; although he was heavily in debt and seemed to have little prospect of ever repaying his creditors.
In addition to the large sums he owed in Holland and in Paris, he borrowed £2000, while in Rotterdam, from Lord Hertford and Lord Devonshire, all of which he spent there, as well as another £1000 which he borrowed; “his expense being the more, by reason he lived freely and nobly,” which, of course, he had no business to do.[131]
[Footnote 131: About this time Lady Newcastle lost her brother, Sir Charles Lucas, a very brave Cavalier, who, as she says, “was most inhumanly murthered and shot to death” at Colchester by the Parliamentary army.]
While at Rotterdam, he made visits to the Prince of Wales at the Hague. Finding that he could be of no help to the Prince, and probably also finding that he could borrow no more money in Rotterdam, he went to Antwerp, where he took a house[132] “that belonged to the widow of a famous Picture-drawer, Van Ruben”. Here, however, was a difficulty, for the Widow Rubens’s house was “to be let unfurnished,” and Newcastle had no cash with which to buy furniture. Happily he was a past-master in the art of borrowing.
[Footnote 132: _The Cavalier in Exile_, p. 63.]
“About this time my Lord was much necessitated for Money, which forced him to try several ways for to obtain so much as would relieve his present wants. At last Mr. _Alesbury_, the onely Son to Sir _Th. Alesbury_, Knight and Baronet, and Brother to the now Countess of _Clarendon_, a very worthy Gentleman, and great Friend to my Lord, having some Moneys that belonged to the now Duke of _Buckingham_, and seeing my Lord in so great distress did him the favour to lend him 200£. (which money my Lord since his return hath honestly and justly repaid).” No doubt! But that was some dozen years later, and the delay may have been inconvenient to the Duke of Buckingham. “This relief came so seasonably, that it got my Lord Credit in the City of _Antwerp_, whereas otherwise he would have lost himself to his great disadvantage; for my Lord having hired the house aforementioned, and wanting Furniture for it, was credited by the Citizens for as many Goods as he was pleased to have, as also for Meat and Drink, and all kind of necessaries and provisions, which certainly was a special Blessing of God, he being not onely a stranger in that Nation, but to all appearance, a Ruined man.”