courtier and a patron of literature. His affection for Shakspeare was well known to be almost unbounded, and as soon as he had heard the very extraordinary narrative which the poet had to communicate, he pledged himself to do all in his power not only to ascertain the fate of Raymond Neville, but to procure, if possible, an ample pardon both for the father, and for him whom there was every reason to suppose his

son.

With this view, having previously ascertained from Shakspeare's enquiries that the house through which Simon Fraser had been wont to receive his salary for the education of Hubert, knew nothing further of what had become of Neville, than that when they last heard of him, he was supposed to be at Paris, his Lordship immediately wrote to the English Ambassador at the Court of Louis the Thirteenth, or rather of the Regent Mary de Medicis; requesting that he would instantly make every search which the government and the police would allow him to institute, in order to discover if Raymond Neville, whom he mentioned as having

formerly been his friend, were still in being, and under what circumstances.

The result of this application was, that in a few weeks Lord Southampton received information, that Neville, of whose existence he had long despaired, had been discovered in a prison in the French metropolis, having been confined there better than two years for debt; an event scarcely to be wondered at when it was recollected that his estates in England had been confiscated, and that, in all probability, the uncertain profession of arms had been his sole source of revenue.

As the charge of a treasonable correspondence, however, had never been substantiated against Raymond Neville, it was no difficult task on the part of Lord Southampton, considering the length of time his friend had been a sufferer, to influence James in his favour; nor was his Majesty's inclination to mercy not a little strengthened when he learnt the extraordinary particulars connected with the fate of the exile, and that Shakspeare too, for whom he professed the highest admiration, was yet

4

more interested than even his Lordship in the success of the suit. He granted, therefore, and

with great good will, a full pardon to both the father and the son, with an entire restoration of property to the former. The extension of mercy, however, to the wild associates with whom Hubert had been connected, was a proposition which demanded further consideration; but, after weighing all the circumstances of the case, and more especially the fact that they had lately assumed a character little differing from that of common deer-stalkers, an offence then viewed in a somewhat too venial light, and that many of them were very young men, and some even related to families of distinction in the country, this also was in a few days assented to, under the implied condition of instant and total dispersion.

Nothing more, therefore, was now requisite than to make arrangements for the liquidation of the debts of the elder Neville, a business which, under the reversion of the attainder, was speedily effected. Letters were then written to the prisoner, both by Southampton and

Shakspeare, and forwarded along with the gracious act of the English Monarch, to our Ambassador at Paris.

During these negotiations, which necessarily occupied several weeks, Shakspeare with his daughter Susanna resided in the house of his tenant John Robinson, near the Wardrobe in Blackfriars, property which the poet had purchased about two years before. Hence, from time to time, had he written to Eustace Montchensey, stating minutely the progress which Lord Southampton and himself had made in the task they had undertaken. As soon, however, as the last despatches had been forwarded to Paris, Shakspeare, at the particular desire of his friend Eustace, set off for Wyeburne Hall, having previously requested in their joint names, in the letter which he had written to Neville, that as soon as he had landed in England, he would, without stopping a day in the metropolis, hasten into Derbyshire.

The time, however, had passed pleasantly with our poet during his residence in London. His friends there, and no man had more, flocked round him with the heartiest greetings

and delight. With his late fellows, Hemynge, Burbage, and Condell, he spent many happy hours, not only at the Globe and Blackfriars, but at their respective houses in St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, Holywell Street, Shoreditch, and Fulham, where the recollection of the numerous very curious circumstances and events, both jocular and serious, which had chequered their dramatic career, furnished an almost inexhaustible fund for conversation. But, above all, was he gratified in again mingling with his old associates in the literary and poetical world, with Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Carew, Donne, and many others, at the Mermaid in Cornhill. This celebrated Club held several full and extra meetings on his account, and here were once more resumed those lively and interesting "wit-combats," of which Beaumont several years after, in his letter to Jonson from the country, says,

What things have we seen,

Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame,

As if that every one from whom they came,

Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.