AN EMINENT GUERN8EYMAN. 



295 



point I desire and thinke necessary you should know is that I 

 pray yon looke upon me as one who at the farthest is not able 

 to live on here above three months more/' He then goes on 

 in cypher, apparently to suggest some way of raising money.* 

 That he evidently tided over the evil days is evident from the 

 fact that he remained on in Brussels for another eleven years, 

 and during that time his wife must have died, for in a letter 

 from the Queen of Bohemia to Sir Edward Nicholas, written 

 in December, 1654,t she describes her visit to Brussels where 

 she stayed " at Sir Henry de Vic's who was very carefull and 

 diligent to doe all the service he coulde." She goes on to say 

 that Sir Henry had made a journey to Cologne in pursuit of 

 a love affair, and she adds — " I am sorie for poore Sir Henry 

 for lett the match break or goe on, it is every way ill for 

 him." The match nowever must have fallen through, for 

 there is no record of his having married a second time. By 

 his marriage to Margaret de Carteret he had two children, a 

 son, Charles and a daughter, Anne Charlotte. 



On the downfall of Cromwell's government in 1660, Sir 

 Henry was deputed by the States of Guernsey to congra- 

 tulate Charles II. on his Restoration, and doubtless he had 

 to palliate as best he could the adherence the islanders had 

 always maintained to the Parliamentary party. For his 

 own unswerving loyalty the King made him Chancellor of the 

 Garter to the See of Salisbury, an honour which had only 

 once before been given to a layman, namely, to Sir William 

 Cecil, in the reign of Edward VI. Charles also made him 

 his " Secretary for the French tongue " and Agent to the 

 King of Denmark. In 1662 he was made Comptroller of the 

 Household to the King's brother — the Duke of York — with a 

 salary of £400 a year. But amid all his new dignities he 

 never forgot what he himself calls " l'affection que j'ay a pour 

 notre pauvre pays." The States begged him to persuade 

 King Charles to renew their ancient Charters, and also urged 

 him to say that the island, with its population of eight 

 thousand, carried far more people than it could possibly feed, 

 and thus was infested by paupers, thieves and vagabonds. 

 Therefore "would His Majesty authorize the Bailiff and Jurats 

 to deport such superfluous population either to the American 

 Plantations " (where they would have probably been sold as 

 slaves) "or to the Kingdom of Ireland." Even Sir Henry 

 de Vic's influence does not seem to have been powerful 

 enough to get this request acceded to, and there was some 



* Claredon MSS. copied by Dr. Hoskins. In Candie Library, 

 f Hardwick State Papers. Quoted in MacCulloch's MSS. 



