cess of Orange not
to attempt anything against the government of England, and having been
supplied by them with money to meet immediate demands. [331]

The prospect which lay before Monmouth was not a bright one. There was
now no probability that he would be recalled from banishment. On the
Continent his life could no longer be passed amidst the splendour and
festivity of a court. His cousins at the Hague seem to have really
regarded him with kindness; but they could no longer countenance him
openly without serious risk of producing a rupture between England and
Holland. William offered a kind and judicious suggestion. The war which
was then raging in Hungary, between the Emperor and the Turks, was
watched by all Europe with interest almost as great as that which the
Crusades had excited five hundred years earlier. Many gallant gentlemen,
both Protestant and Catholic, were fighting as volunteers in the common
cause of Christendom. The Prince advised Monmouth to repair to the
Imperial camp, and assured him that, if he would do so, he should not
want the means of making an appearance befitting an English nobleman.
[332] This counsel was excellent: but the Duke could not make up
his mind. He retired to Brussels accompanied by Henrietta Wentworth,
Baroness Wentworth of Nettlestede, a damsel of high rank and ample
fortune, who loved him passionately, who had sacrificed for his sake her
maiden honour and the hope of a splendid alliance, who had followed him
into exile, and whom he believed to be his wife in the sight of heaven.
Under the soothing influence of female friendship, his lacerated mind
healed fast. He seemed to have found happiness in obscurity and repose,
and to have forgotten that he had been the ornament of a splendid court
and the head of a great party, that he had commanded armies, and that he
had aspired to a throne.

But he was not suffered to remain quiet. Ferguson employed all his
powers of temptation. Grey, who knew not where to turn for a pistole,
and was ready for any undertaking, however desperate, lent his aid.
No art was spared which could draw Monmouth from retreat. To the first
invitations which he received from his old associates he returned
unfavourable answers. He pronounced the difficulties of a descent on
England insuperable, protested that he was sick of public life, and
begged to be left in the enjoyment of his newly found happiness. But he
was little in the habit of resisting skilful and u