to fly, promising
that he should not during his absence suffer in his honour or fortune.
Clarendon embarked the same night for Calais, where he arrived on the 2nd
of December. The Lords immediately passed an act for his banishment and
ordered the petition forwarded by him to parliament to be burnt.

The rest of Clarendon's life was passed in exile. He left Calais for
Rouen on the 25th of December, returning on the 21st of January 1668,
visiting the baths of Bourbon in April, thence to Avignon in June,
residing from July 1668 till June 1671 at Montpellier, whence he
proceeded to Moulins and to Rouen again in May 1674. His sudden
banishment entailed great personal hardships. His health at the time of
his flight was much impaired, and on arriving at Calais he fell
dangerously ill; and Louis XIV., anxious at this time to gain popularity
in England, sent him peremptory and repeated orders to quit France. He
suffered severely from gout, and during the greater part of his exile
could not walk without the aid of two men. At Evreux, on the 23rd of
April 1668, he was the victim of a murderous assault by English sailors,
who attributed to him the non-payment of their wages, and who were on
the point of despatching him when he was rescued by the guard. For some
time he was not allowed to see any of his children; even correspondence
with him was rendered treasonable by the Act of Banishment; and it was
not apparently till 1671, 1673 and 1674 that he received visits from his
sons, the younger, Lawrence Hyde, being present with him at his death.

Clarendon bore his troubles with great dignity and fortitude. He found
consolation in religious duties, and devoted a portion of every day to
the composition of his _Contemplations on the Psalms_, and of his moral
essays. Removed effectually from the public scene, and from all share in
present politics, he turned his attention once more to the past and
finished his _History_ and his _Autobiography_. Soon after reaching
Calais he had written, on the 17th of December 1667, to the university
of Oxford, desiring as his last request that the university should
believe in his innocence and remember him, though there could be no
further mention of him in their public devotions, in their private
prayers.[24] In 1668 he wrote to the duke and duchess of York to
remonstrate on the report that they had turned Roman Catholic, to the
former urging "You cannot be without zeal for the Church to which your
bl