s, and to repair
with her child to her native country. But Cromwell sent her back to France;
and she returned[b] to Paris, where by her lewdness she forfeited the royal
favour, and shortened her own days. Her son was taken from her by the Lord
Crofts, and placed under the care of the Oratoriens in Paris.[2]

But if Charles was incorrigible in the pursuit of pleasure, he proved a
docile pupil on the subject of

[Footnote 1: She was previously the mistress of Colonel Robert Sydney; and
her son bore so great a resemblance to that officer, that the duke of York
always looked upon Sydney as the father.--Life of James, i. 491. James
in his instructions to his son, says, "All the knowing world, as well as
myself, had many convincing reasons to think he was not the king's son,
but Robert Sydney's."--Macpherson's Papers, i. 77. Evelyn calls Barlow "a
browne, beautiful, bold, but insipid creature."--Diary, ii. 11.]

[Footnote 2: James, i. 492; Clarendon's Own Life, 205. Clarendon Papers,
iii. 180. Thurloe, v. 169, 178; vii. 325. Charles, in the time of his
exile, had also children by Catherine Peg and Elizabeth Killigrew.--See
Sanford, 646, 647. In the account of Barlow's discharge from the Tower,
by Whitelock, we are told that she called herself the wife of Charles
(Whitelock, 649); in the Mercurius Politicus, she is styled "his wife or
mistress."--Ellis, new series, iii. 352.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Jan. 21.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. July 16.]

religion. On one hand, the Catholics, on the other, the Presbyterians,
urged him by letters and messages to embrace their respective modes of
worship. The former maintained that he could recover the crown only through
the aid of the Catholic sovereigns, and had no reason to expect such aid
while he professed himself a member of that church which had so long
persecuted the English Catholics.[1] The others represented themselves as
holding the destiny of the king in their hands; they were royalists at
heart, but how could they declare in favour of a prince who had apostatized
from the covenant which he had taken in Scotland, and whose restoration
would probably re-establish the tyranny of the bishops?[2] The king's
advisers repelled these attempts with warmth and indignation. They observed
to him that, to become a Catholic was to arm all his Protestant subjects
against him; to become a Presbyterian, was to alienate all who had been
faithful to his father, both Protestants of the

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