Yet, poor as he was, Charles had been advised to keep up the name and appearance of a court.  He had his lord-keeper, his chancellor of the exchequer, his privy councillors, and most of the officers allotted to a royal establishment; and the eagerness of pursuit, the competition of intrigue with which these nominal dignities were sought by the exiles, furnish scenes which cannot fail to excite the smile or the pity of an indifferent spectator.  But we should remember that they were the only objects left open to the ambition of these men; that they offered scanty, yet desirable, salaries to their poverty; and that they held out the promise of more substantial benefits on the restoration of the king, an event which, however distant it might seem to the apprehension of others, was always near in the belief of the more ardent royalists.[2]

Among these competitors for place were two, who soon acquired, and long retained, the royal confidence,

[Footnote 1:  Clarendon Pap. iii. 120, 124.  “I do not know that any man is yet dead for want of bread; which really I wonder at.  I am sure the king owes for all he hath eaten since April:  and I am not acquainted with one servant of his who hath a pistole in his pocket.  Five or six of us eat together one meal a day for a pistole a week; but all of us owe for God knows how many weeks to the poor woman that feeds us.”—­Clarendon Papers, iii. 174.  June 27, 1653.  “I want shoes and shirts, and the marquess of Ormond is in no better condition.  What help then can we give our friends?”—­Ibid. 229, April 3, 1654.  See also Carte’s Letters, ii. 461.]

[Footnote 2:  Clarendon Pap. iii. 83, 99, 106, 136, 162, 179, 187, et passim.  Clarendon, History, iii. 434, 435, 453.]

the marquess of Ormond and Sir Edward Hyde.  Ormond owed the distinction to the lustre of his family, the princely fortune which he had lost in the royal cause, his long though unsuccessful services in Ireland, and the high estimation in which he had been held by the late monarch.  In talent and application Hyde was superior to any of his colleagues.  Charles I. had appointed him chancellor of the exchequer, and counsellor to the young prince; and the son afterwards confirmed by his own choice the judgment of his father.  Hyde had many enemies; whether it was that by his hasty and imperious temper he gave cause of offence, or that unsuccessful suitors, aware of his influence with the king, attributed to his counsels the failure of their petitions.  But he was not wanting in his own defences; the intrigues set on foot to remove him from the royal ear were defeated by his address; and the charges brought against him of disaffection and treachery were so victoriously refuted, as to overwhelm the accuser with confusion and disgrace.[1]

The expectations, however, which Charles had raised by his conduct in England were soon disappointed.  He seemed to lose sight of his three kingdoms amidst the gaieties of Paris.  His pleasures and amusements engrossed his attention; it was with difficulty that he could be drawn to the consideration of business; and, if he promised to devote a few hours on each Friday to the writing of letters and the signature of despatches, he often discovered sufficient reasons to free himself from the burthen.[2] But that which chiefly distressed