quality, one in the company was called Captain Taller. My husband, who
had a very quick and piercing eye, marked him much, as knowing his
face, and found, through his peruke wig, and scarlet cloak and buff
suit, that his name was neither Captain nor Taller, but the honest
Jesuit called Friar Sherwood, that had cheated him of the greatest
part of his money, and after had lent him the five pieces; so your
father went to him, and gave him his five pieces, and said, 'Father
Sherwood, I know you, and you know this:' at which he was extremely
surprised, and begged of your father not to discover him, for his life
was in danger. After a year's stay in Paris, he travelled to Madrid in
Spain, there to learn that language; at the same time, for that
purpose, went the late Earl of Caernarvon, and my Lord of Bedford, and
Sir John Berkeley, and several other gentlemen. Afterwards, having
spent some years abroad, he returned to London, and gave so good an
account of his travels, that he was about the year 1630 made Secretary
of the Embassy, when my Lord Aston went Ambassador. During your
father's travels, he had spent a considerable part of his stock, which
his father and mother left him: in those days, where there were so
many younger children, it was inconsiderable, being 50 pounds a year,
and 1,500 pounds in money. Upon the return of the ambassador, your
father was left resident until Sir Arthur Hopton went Ambassador, and
then he came home about the year 1637 or 1638; and I must tell you
here of an accident your father had coming out of Spain in this
journey post: he going into a bed for some few hours to refresh
himself, in a village five leagues from Madrid, he slept so soundly,
that notwithstanding the house was on fire, and all the people of the
village there, he never waked; but the honesty of the owners was such,
that they carried him, and set him asleep upon a piece of timber on
the highway; and there he awaked, and found his portmanteau and
clothes by him, without the least loss, which is extraordinary,