This I have told you that you may see how near dying we were; for
which recovery I humbly praise God. He got leave in August to go to
Bath, which, God be praised! perfectly recovered us, and so we
returned into Hertfordshire, to the Friary of Ware, which we hired of
Mrs. Heydon for a year. This place we accounted happy to us, because
in October we heard the news of Cromwell's death, upon which my
husband began to hope that he should get loose of his fetters, in
which he had been seven years; and going to London, in company with my
Lord Philip, Earl of Pembroke, he lamented his case of his bonds to
him that was his old and constant friend. He told him that if he would
dine with him the next day, he would give him some account of that
business. The next day he said to him, 'Mr. Fanshawe, I must send my
eldest son into France; if you will not take it ill that I desire your
company with him and care of him for one year, I will procure you your
bonds within this week.' My husband was overjoyed to get loose upon
any terms that were innocent, so, having seen his bonds cancelled, he
went into France to Paris, from whence he by letter gave an account to
Lord Chancellor Clarendon of his being got loose, and desired him to
acquaint his Majesty of it, and to send him his commands, which was
about April 1659. He did to this effect, that his Majesty was then
going a journey, which afterwards proved to Spain; but upon his
return, which would be about the beginning of winter, my husband
should come to him, and that he should have, in present, the place of
one of the Masters of Request, and the Secretary of the Latin Tongue.
Then my husband sent me word of this, and bade me bring my son
Richard, and my eldest daughters with me to Paris, for that he
intended to put them to a very good school that he had found at Paris.
We went as soon as I could possibly accommodate myself with money and
other necessaries, with my three children, one maid, and one man. I
could not go without a pass, and to that purpose I went to my cousin