ANECDOTES OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. BRITISH. re CHARLES THE SECOND. [1649-1685.] HAD this King but loved business as well as he understood it," fays Sir Richard Bulftrode, "he would have been the greatest "Prince in Europe." Of his own country he used to say, that it was the most comfortable climate to live under, that he had ever experienced; as there were more days in the year, and more hours in the day, that a man could take exercise out of doors in it, than in any country he had ever known. He faid one day VOL. II. to to Sir Richard Bulstrode, that during his exile he had feen many countries, of which none pleafed him fo much as that of the Flemings, who were the most honeft and true-hearted people he had ever met with: and then added, "I am weary of travelling, I am resolved to go "abroad no more; but when I am dead and gone, I know not what my brother will do; "I am much afraid that when he comes to the Throne he will be obliged to travel again." An Addrefs being once prefented from the City to this Monarch by the Lord Mayor, attended by Sir Robert Clayton, Mr. Bethell, and Mr. Cornish, the King returned an answer by the Lord Chancellor, which concluded thus: "The King doth not believe this to be fo "unanimous a vote of the City as is pretended; "and he commands me to tell you, that if he "did believe it were fo (as he does not), that 66 you have meddled with a thing which is "6 none of your bufinefs;;" and fo difmiffed them." Memoirs of the Reign of Charles the Second, by Sir Richard Bulftrode, Refident at Bruffels to the Court of Spain from Charles the Second." Lockhart, the Author of "The Memoirs," wrote with his own hand the following narrative in in his copy of Lord Clarendon's "History of "the Rebellion." "It is very strange, that amongst so many "dangers to which King Charles the Second "was expofed, and from which he was furpriz ingly and miraculously delivered, neither "Lord Clarendon, nor any Author I have met "with, takes the leaft notice of one of a very "extraordinary nature which happened to him "in Holland, and which was as follows: "The King when at Bruffels, being defirous " and refolved to fee his fifter the Princess of Orange (but withal under a neceffity to make "his journey with the utmost secrecy), did "communicate his design to no person whatso66 ever. He ordered Fleming (a fervant of the "Earl of Wigtoun), who was in his fervice, "and of whofe fidelity he neither then nor ever "after did doubt, fecretly to provide a couple "of good horses, and have them ready at a certain place and time of the next ensuing night, by his Majesty appointed; and that Fleming, with these horfes, fhould remain. "alone till he heard from the King. At the "time appointed, the King (having gone to bed, and afterwards dreffed himself) privately goes out at a back door, and leaving only a ❝ letter to fome one of his fervants in whom "he confided, with an account of his having "gone B 2 r gone from thence for a few days, and with "directions to keep his abfence as fecret as poffible, under pretence of his being indifpofed, came to the place, where he found Fleming with the horfes as he had directed. "He then acquainted Fleming of his defign to fpeak with his fifter at the Hague; and, not regarding the hazards he might be expofed "to, away he went with his flender equipage "and attendance, travelling through the most "fecret by-ways, and contriving it so, that he came to the Hague by fix in the morning, "and alighted at a scrub inn, in a remote part "of the town, where he was confident none "would know him under the disguise he was then in. He immediately fent Fleming to "acquaint his fifter where he was, and left it "to her to contrive the way and manner of having access to her, fo as not to be known. "Fleming, having difpatched his commiffion "in a very short time (less than an hour), was no fooner returned to tell the King, whom "he found in the room where he had left him (where he had been ftill alone), than an un"known person came and asked of the Landlord, if two Frenchmen had not alighted at "his houfe that morning. The Landlord re plied, that two men had come, but of what |