." It had a
private communication with a little Roman Catholic chapel in the
building. The attics, as at Compton Winyates, were called "the
Barracks," tradition associating them with the King's guards, who
are said to have been lodged there. Upon the walls hung portraits
of the Duchesses of Leeds and Dorset, of Nell Gwyn and the Countess
herself, and of Earl Portmore, who married her daughter. Here also
formerly was Holbein's famous picture, Bluff King Hal and the
Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk dancing a minuet with Anne Boleyn
and the Dowager-Queens of France and Scotland. Evelyn saw the
painting in August, 1678, and records "the sprightly motion"
and "amorous countenances of the ladies." (This picture is now,
or was recently, in the possession of Major-General Sotheby.)

A few years after James's abdication, the Earl of Ailesbury rented
the house from the Countess, who lived meanwhile in a small house
adjacent, and was in the habit of coming into the gardens of the
palace by a key of admittance she kept for that purpose. Upon
one of these occasions the Earl and she had a disagreement about
the lease, and so forcible were the lady's coarse expressions,
for she never could restrain the licence of her tongue, that she
had to be ejected from the premises, whereupon, says Ailesbury,
"she bade me go to my----King James," with the assurance that
"she would make King William spit on me."

[Illustration: MONUMENT OF SIR RICHARD HEAD]

[Illustration: "RESTORATION HOUSE," ROCHESTER]

But to follow James II.'s ill-fortunes to Rochester, where he was
conveyed on the Tuesday at noon by royal barge, with an escort of
Dutch soldiers, with Lords Arran, Dumbarton, etc., in attendance--"a
sad sight," says Evelyn, who witnessed the departure. The King
recognised among those set to guard him an old lieutenant of the
Horse who had fought under him, when Duke of York, at the battle
of Dunkirk. Colonel Wycke, in command of the King's escort, was
a nephew of the court painter Sir Peter Lely, who had owed his
success to the patronage of Charles II. and his brother. The
part the Colonel had to act was a painful one, and he begged the
King's pardon. The royal prisoner was lodged for the night at
Gravesend, at the house of a lawyer, and next morning the journey
was continued to Rochester.

The royalist Sir Richard Head again had the honour of acting
as the King's host, and his guest was allowed to go in and out
of the house as he pleased, f