In 1663 he was sent by Charles II. as his ambassador to Louis XIV. of France. The sending of this stiff-backed old precisian to the Court of the Sun King, then at its gayest, proved curiously unsuitable, and Holles' impracticable conduct in his embassy aids us to understand why both under Cromwell and under Charles II. Presbyterianism failed as a political force.

Though appointed in May, 1662, Holles did not get his instructions till July, 1663. Some parts of these are interesting:

"You shall carefully peruse all the treaties made between France and the late Usurped Powers, and insist upon all such concessions as have been made to this nation in those treaties.

And upon our enjoying all those rights and privileges which were yielded unto us with reference to the trade to Bordeaux, and all other concessions of advantage granted heretofore, and if you find any scruple of doubt made in granting those particulars or any other comprehended in the treaty with Cromwell for the advantage of this nation; upon any suggestions that Cromwell did in consideration thereof do many things for the benefit of France, and particularly that he did not pretend to the title of France, and if there shall therefore be any insinuation to you as if they expected We should have that title out of our style, you know well how to answer the former suggestions, and how impossible it will be for Us to accept worse conditions than they gave to an Usurper, and to the latter concerning the title, you will express such a dislike, as of a thing you cannot heare, and as a thing which you cannot imagine can ever be moved to Us.

"You shall take with you some Godly, learned, orthodox divine, and use in your house the service of Common Prayer.1

Unfortu

1This Holles, though a Presbyterian, was willing to do. nately the Chaplain turned out to be, in Holles's words, "a notorious drunkard and in his drink a roaring, swaggering, and swearing man, as I have not known any to be more." When dismissed, he said that it was "because he was so much a conformist to the discipline of the Church of England," and on his return to England spread scandalous stories about Holles. He was however more fortunate in his second Chaplain, who was no other than Henry Compton, afterwards Bishop of London, and one of the signers of the invitation to William of Orange.

But withal (to demonstrate to the world that the sense of Us and of the Church of England is far more moderate and charitable than to intend a separation from the Communion of the Reformed Religion in that kingdom) you are not to forbear to go sometimes to Charenton," after the ministers and principal persons have first applied themselves unto you with the respect which they have formerly used towards Us for our countenance and protection."

Having got his instructions, Holles made haste to be off, and in July his first letter from Dieppe begins a long correspondence. In this the first thing which strikes a reader is its extreme verbosity. His instructions had prescribed a minimum of one letter a week. Holles never writes less frequently than twice, usually thrice, and on occasions four times a week. Like many other verbose persons, he usually begins by a lengthy protestation that he has nothing to say.

Almost equally noticeable is his mixture of pedantry and punctilio, his love of scolding, his delight in a grievance, his conscientious resolve to keep himself and everybody else, the Secretary of State and the King of France included, up to the mark. Even on shipboard he picked a quarrel with the weather, and complains to the Secretary of State, Lord Arlington, of his "foule and tedious passage." On his arrival at Dieppe he promptly became involved in a quarrel with the Customs.

21/11 July. "The Governor hath been very civil. . . but I cannot bragge of any great civility from the officers of the Domaine", who opened and searched the 'males' of some of his

The nearest place to Paris at which the Huguenots were allowed to hold their services.

Many of his letters during his embassy have been published; for a list of the books through which they are scattered, see Firth and Lomas: Notes on the Diplomatic relations of England and France, 1603-1688. But the bulk of his correspondence is still in manuscript. At the British Museum are: Addit. Mss. 22920, containing some important letters from Holles in Paris to Sir George Downing at the Hague. Addit. Mss. 32679 (ff. 11-14), chiefly private letters to his scape-grace son, Frank. At the Public Record Office: S. P. France, 117-122.

It is an instance of his punctilio that he invariably dates his letters both Old Style and New Style.

suite who arrived before him, "and when I came myself they got my sumpters to their Custom House, and would have opened them, but with much adoe my servants prevailed with them to forbeare, and one or two of them to come down to mee, being gotte to bedde in my foule linnen because they kept away my other, and I talked so bigge to them en Ambassadeur that at last I scared them.. . . I heare they should say their Ambassador was served so in England, but I am confident they lyed in it. Sr, you must know all that befalls me, and therefore I make you this narrative, very untowardly written, being in bed, and held up while I am writing."

He arrived at Paris on Aug.4/14, after stopping en route at Rouen; his first letter is dated Aug. 8/18, and shows him. still unable to change his underwear:

"This is now Saturday, yet I am no nearer to entry or audience or to any business than I was the first day I came, nay I cannot so much as shift my riding clothes, or any of my company theirs yet since I came, for our goodes doe yet all remain sealed. . . Except the King my master command me, I shall not give way to" their being searched, "for I conceive it an injury done to him, the King of France having sent his ambassador a passe. I think it is such a breakinge of that. Kinges word and of the publick faith as nothing can be more, and which I may not give way to except the King command. My nephew my Lord Clinton tooke his things out of the shippe to make use of them heere, and they made him pay seaven livres for some new paires of silke stockins (three or four I thinke) which he brought for his owne wearing." He finally offered to let Colbert come himself to search them, or send anyone else, "so he be not of the customers."

me.

On Aug. 13/23 Arlington rather cut the ground from under his feet by replying that the French Ambassador's goods were opened at his house "with an exactness that gave them much offence. Also I am informed that those of ye Douane at Paris proceeded in ye like manner with ye Queene Mother," and he ended by telling Holles to do just what he thinks fit.

He had his first audience with Louis XIV on Aug. 22 (O.S.) and spoke to the Sun-King in language the young Louis. was but little accustomed to hear:

Aug. 24, O.S. "I think there will now be an end of it (i.e. of the trouble with the Customs). I told the King when I was with him on Wednesday, that I would not suffer any officer to come to search anything in my house, wh was to be privileged as belonging to the King my master, and that it was directly contrary to the Passe he had sent for me into England, upon wh the Kg my Master had sent me hither, and was as a Publick faith given, which was not to be violated. He saide, the meaninge was that nothing should be paide, but that the use was alwayes to visit to prevent abuses, I answered the passes ought then to be made conformable, otherwise it made them deceive men to expect one thing, and have another done to them; that for the abuse, I did declare there was none, I had nothing there but what was for my owne use, and my company with me, and I would not wronge him in his Customes, nor say otherwise than what should be found trew for the Kgdome of France, and that an Ambassadors word was to be taken for greater matter than a little Custome, that I cared not if all the Court were present at the opening of the goods, and I did desire some might be there for publique satisfaction, but I could not answer it to my master to suffer an officer to come thither; so he said. he had given order in it that it should be to my contentment; and Abbott Montagu sent me word yesterday morning, that Mr. Bonoeil, who is introductor of Ambassadors, should come. as to visit me, and then I should open the goods before him, but yet he is not come, which may be for the holy dayes yesterday and todaye, and then he will come Munday; in the meantime it is a very great inconvenience to me, having neither clothes to putt on, nor furniture for my house."

His next woe was the insufficiency of his allowance and for some time no letter ends without an appeal for funds. On Nov. 13/3 he has found a grievance in this connection after his own heart. His allowance was to be £400 per month paid quarterly. Does this, says Holles, mean lunar or calendar months? He writes to his son Frank that he is to urge on Mr. Secretary Morice that it is the former, i.e. that he is to receive quarterly not £1200 but £1300. A long wrangle followed, finally decided in his favor.

Meanwhile he is never tired of keeping the unhappy Arlington up to the mark. "And give me leave to say you doe like

our commentators, who glide over a harde place in the Text, and take no notice of it, for you say nothing of what most troubled us here, the business of visiting our goods, in which I should have been very glad of some light, and some direction, to have knowen if the French Ambassador was served soe in England, and what were best for me to doe."

"Having stayed till the last moment for yours, which are just come" is a frequent opening to his letters (e.g. 2 Dec./ 22 Nov.). It must really have been a great satisfaction to Arlington to be able (Holles's letter of 14/4 Nov., 63) to reproach Holles with the bad quality of his notepaper, which he considers second-rate, and unbecoming an Ambassador. This cut the old precisian to the quick, and he defends himself at some length. "I did it for good husbandry," he asserts. Soon afterwards it was Holles's turn, and he girds at Arlington for the incomprehensible nature of his cypher. "I send you a very exact copy of it (i.e. of part of Arlington's last letter), for in such things which always are of a consequence, a little mistake in the writer may cause a great one in the actor." (11/1 Feb., 64/63). Holles's own objection to the use of cypher led to many complaints from Arlington, but the Ambassador always asserts in reply that he seals his letters so carefully that it would be quite impossible for the most skilled operator to open them without detection.

25/15 June, '64. "I have this morning made an experiment to open a packett I had sealed up just as I doe mine to you, and I think I can doe as much as another in such an exploite, if I sett about it, but for my life I could not doe it without breaking the paper, and I shall hereafter make it more difficult, for I find where I seale it with wax upon a wafer, it is not to be opened without tearing, and I will putt two wafers towards ye one end where before I putt but one, and one of them shall be sealed with wax upon it, and the other not, and both of them shall take in the end of the paper which is undermost, so as both the ends of the cover shall be fastened together by those wafers, so as if they should open the other seales (wch shall be hard to do for there shall be wafers there likewise) yet it shall be impossible to come to the letters with-out opening them also."