rles I. taking refuge in
France, he soon followed her, and becoming secretary to the Earl of St.
Albans, conducted the correspondence between her majesty and the king,
ciphering and deciphering their letters, and such as were sent or
received by those immediately concerned in the cause of royalty. In this
situation he remained until four years previous to the restoration, when
he was sent into England for the purpose of observing the condition of
the nation, and reporting the same. Scarce had he set foot in London
when he was seized, examined, and only liberated on a friend offering
bail for him to the amount of one thousand pounds.

The better to disguise the object of his visit, and lull suspicions of
republicans, he took out the degree of Doctor of Physic at Oxford; after
which he retired into Kent, where he devoted a great portion of his
time to the study of botany and the composition of poetry. On Cromwell's
death he hastened to France, and remained there until the king's return;
which he celebrated by a song of triumph. Like hundreds of others who
had served Charles in his exile, he looked forward to gratitude and
reward, but met disappointment and neglect. Amongst the numerous places
and employments the change of government opened in court and state, not
one was offered the loyal poet.

Nay, his hardships did not end here; for having, in 1663, produced his
merry comedy, "Cutter of Coleman Street," it was treated with severity
as a censure upon the king. Feeling over-nervous to witness the
result of its first representation, the poet absented himself from the
playhouse; but thither his friends Dryden and Sprat sped, hoping they
might be able to bear him tidings of its triumph. When they returned to
him at night and told him of its fate, "he received the news of its
ill success," says Sprat, "not with so much firmness as might have been
expected from so great a man." Of all intent to satirize the king he was
entirely innocent--a fact he set before the public in the preface to his
play on its publication. Having, he argues, followed the fallen fortunes
of the royal family so long, it was unlikely he would select the time of
their restoration to quarrel with them.

Feeling his grievances acutely, he now published a poem called "The
Complaint," which met with but little success; whereon, depressed by
ill-fortune and disgusted by ingratitude, he sought consolation in the
peace of a country life. Through the influence