and." Robert, even at fourteen a studious
person, "doth not Love tennisse play so much, but delights himselfe more
to be in private with some booke of history or other, but I perswade him
often both to play att tennisse and goe about. I never saw him
handsomer, for although he growes much, yet he is very fatt and his
cheeks are as red as vermilian. This Leter end of ye winter is mighty
cold and a great quantity of snow is fallen upon ye ground, but that
brings them to such a stomacke that your Lordship should take a great
pleasure to see them feed. I do not give them daintys, but I assure your
Lordship that they have allwayes good bred and Good wine, good beef and
mouton, thrice a week good capons and good fish, constantly two dishes
of fruit and a Good piece of cheese; all kind of cleane linnen twice and
thrice a week and a constant fire in their chamber wherein they have a
good bed for them, and another for their men."[346]

Indeed, Marcombes was a very good governor, as Robert several times
assured the Earl of Cork, and allowed them to lack for nothing. In the
spring he bought them saddle-horses so that after their studies they
might take the air and see their friends. Since a governor had charge of
all the funds, it was a great test of his honesty whether he resisted
the temptation to economize on the clothes and spending-money of his
pupils, and to pocket the part of their allowance so saved. This is why
Marcombes often lets fall into his letters to the Earl of Cork items
such as these: "I have made a compleat black satin sute for Mr Robert:
ye cloake Lined with plush, and I allow them every moneth a peese ye
value of very neare two pounds sterlings for their passe time."[347]

The only disturbing elements in the satisfactory state of Marcombes and
his pupils were the Killigrews. Thomas Killigrew, he who afterwards
became one of the dramatists of the Restoration, had then only just
outgrown the estate of page to Charles I., and in strolling about the
Continent he paid the Boyles a visit.[348] As the brother of the wife
whom Mr Francis had left at home, and on his own account as a
fascinating courtier, he cast a powerful but baleful influence upon the
household in Geneva. Marcombes was at first very guarded in his remarks,
writing only that "Mr Kyligry is here since Saturday Last ... but I
think he will not Stay long: which perhaps will be ye better for yr
sons: for although his conversation is very sweet and delect