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thirty-four or five years since, God was gracious to lay the foundation or ground-work of a repentance for me in the bringing of me home to Himself, by His wonderful rich and free grace, revealing His Son in me, that by the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, I might, even while here in the body, be made partaker of eternal life in the first fruits of it."

His friend and biographer says of him: "He was a chosen vessel of Christ, separated (as Paul) from his mother's womb, though not actually called till fourteen or fifteen years' standing in the world ('twas longer ere Paul was called), during which time such was the complexion and constitution of his spirit, through ignorance of God and his ways as to recommend him acceptable company to those they call good fellows (yet at his worst, restrained from that lewdness intemperance sometimes leads into, which he has oft been heard to thank God for), and so long he found tolerable quarter amongst men. Then God did by some signal expressions and an awakening dispensation startle him into the danger of his condition. On this he and his former jolly company came presently to a parting blow."

This kind of retrospective depreciation was in those times common with men of a deeply religious tone, and it is clear from the qualifications made by his friend and biographer that Vane's youthful indiscretions were of no serious character.

There was in him an early maturity of intellect and sedateness of deportment that rendered distasteful the usual follies of youth, and led him to deeper thoughts and serious occupations.

This change of views, with its open profession, was very unpleasing to his father, then bent upon rising in the court of Charles I. At about sixteen years of age, says Anthony Wood, "Vane became a gentleman commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as his great creature Henry Stubbe hath several times informed me: but when he was to be matriculated as a member of the university, and so consequently take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, he quitted his Athenæ gown, put on a cloak, and studied notwithstanding in the same hall."1

After this young Vane visited the continent, where he must have passed some time when he learned to be fluent in the French language. In a memorandum still extant his father wrote: "I have bred my eldest son and six others beyond seas, which has been very chargeable to me."? A letterwriter of this time said that Vane studied at Leyden; Clarendon that he spent some time in France and more in Geneva. If he visited Geneva, he could scarcely have stayed long there.

8

1 Athena Oxonienses, vol. ii., p. 291, London, 1721.

2 Printed in the History of the Wrays of Glentworth, 1523-1852, including memoirs of the principal families with which they were connected, by Charles Dalton, in two volumes, London, 1880. The second volume was printed privately at Aberdeen in 1881. See vol. ii.,

p. 112.

3 Clarendon says that "after his return into England young Vane contracted a full prejudice and bitterness against the church, both against the form of the government and the Liturgy, which was generally in great reverence, even with many of those who were not friends to the other."

In the page before, writing of Nathaniel Fiennes, the same historian tells us that, after some years in Oxford, "he spent his time abroad in Geneva, and amongst the cantons of Switzerland, where he improved his disinclination to the church with which milk he had been nursed." Clarendon was evidently disposed to attribute Vane's dislike to the

OF AN UNUSUAL ASPECT

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Clarendon tells us in his graphic style that "Sir Harry Vane was a man of great natural parts and of very profound dissimulation, of a quick conception, and very ready, sharp, and weighty expression. He had an unusual aspect, which though it might naturally proceed both from his father and mother, neither of which were beautiful persons, yet made men think there was something in him of extraordinary, and his whole life made good that imagination."1

Any way, we know that Harry Vane was at Vienna in the summer of 1631, for some letters of his are still

Stuart government and to the Episcopal church to what he had learned in the republican and Calvinistic city. It is, however, clear that this dislike existed before he left England, and I know of no evidence beyond the statement of Clarendon that the younger Vane was ever in Geneva at all. He did not study there, for M. Dufour-Vernes, the archivist of Geneva, has had the kindness to go over the rolls of the students of that time, and the name of Vane is not amongst them. A learned correspondent, Dr Naegeli Äkerblom of Geneva, has sought through the whole archives of Geneva, but can find no mention of Henry Vane.

1 In the dining-hall of Hutton-in-the-Forest, the seat of Sir Henry R. Vane, there are three pictures which enable us to judge of the observations of the royalist historian: a life-like portrait of Sir Henry Vane, the elder, by Vandyck, one of Lady Vane by a Dutch artist, and a likeness of their illustrious son by Sir Peter Lely. We at once recognise that the younger Vane bears little resemblance either to his father or to his mother. Secretary Vane is a good-looking man, handsomely dressed, holding a wand in his hand. He has the smiling debonnaire carriage of a courtier. In another apartment there is a portrait of him by Mireweldt, reproducing the same features and air. Lady Vane is a dark-haired comely woman about forty, with a kindly and sensible expression.

Young Vane is in a sitting posture; the view is from the left side. A loose cloak is wrapped round the shoulders, the dress is plain. Masses of thick brown hair descend to the shoulders, and cover the ears. The eyebrows are darker; no appearance of beard save a slight imperial. The expression is deep and earnest, that of a man occupied with high thoughts, a face which would attract regard amongst thousands and which one could never forget. The pose and half-bent fingers show a temperament nervous and energetic.

preserved at the Public Record Office.' They are in French and partly in cipher. That a youth of nineteen should have been entrusted with important State secrets showed the confidence in which he was held, not only by his father, but also by Sir Robert Anstruther, who was then the ambassador at Vienna. The first of these letters is dated Vienna, 23rd July (new style) 1631; it is addressed "à Hon Monsieur Vane à la court." Much of it is in cipher with notes above the words by some one who had read it (apparently the handwriting of the elder Vane). From these frequent explanations the key to the cipher may be had, with some application. These passages refer to overtures and traffickings between Charles and the courts of Austria and Spain for the restoration of the Palatinate which ended in nothing. Vane is of opinion the Emperor Ferdinand wished to gain time, thinking that he had still the advantage in the war. Indeed he might, for with the Catholics it was a time of hope and exaltation, and for every true Protestant a time of despondency and dread. Never since the battle of Muhlberg (1547) had the Protestant cause appeared in such distress and danger. Ignatius Loyola had founded a new order in whose members devotion, enthusiasm, and discipline were blended with worldly craft-eager to check the tide of Protestantism and to spread the Catholic faith to the countries of the East and West, while the reformers were divided by doctrinal disputes and political jealousies. The beginnings of dissent from the superstitions of Rome had been stamped out in Spain and Italy; the French Protestants had lost their last S.p. Germany (Empire), 1631-1632, No. 8.

DANGERS OF PROTESTANTISM

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stronghold at Rochelle, and were in the power of a cardinal of the church; the reformers had been chased out of Bohemia; Frederick had lost the Palatinate, and the priest-ridden emperor, Ferdinand, terrorised Northern Germany with a large and well-trained army commanded by a victorious general. The Danish king, Christian, had enough of the struggle; Spain was ready to renew her attack upon Holland, and in England the bishops through ceremonials and disguises were seeking to lead men back to the Romish Church, while those who were zealous to carry on the work of the Reformation met with discouragement, rebuke, and persecution.

Ten weeks before this letter of Vane's, Tilly had filled all Germany with horror by the pitiless sack and massacre of Magdeburg. He was then ravaging Saxony and issuing insolent commands to the Protestant princes of Northern Germany.

All eyes were now turned to the King of Sweden who had already checked the overweening Wallenstein at Stralsund. Volunteers from Scotland and England too were speeding to aid him in the great struggle. In a letter to Sir Henry, dated Vienna 20/10/1631, the young man expresses deep regret that he cannot gratify his father's wishes in some matter not explained.' Here follows protestations of affection and the misery he felt at not being able to follow his father's counsels given for his good.

1

It was a year since the expected deliverer had

1 Je pouray vous declarer comment je me trouve incliné à present et les raisons pourquoi je suis si empechant or si peu penchant au fait de la guerre, et espere que vous ne trouveres point mauvais que je puis pas disposer mon naturel et affections a une affaire que vous sembles tant approuver.