that rode after him to kill him [24th April, 1648].  In that distress he had the presence of mind to catch up a little child that, during the rout, was frighted, and stood crying in the streets, and, unobserved by the troopers, ran away with it.  The people opened a way for him, saying, ’ Make room for the poor child.’  Thus he got off, and while search was made for him in the market-place, got into the Yarmouth ferry, and at Yarmouth took ship and went to Holland . . . .  In Holland he trailed a pike, and was in several actions as a common soldier.  At length he kept a cavalier eating-house; but, his customers being needy, he soon broke, and came for England, and being a genteel youth, was taken in among the chancery clerks, and got to be under a master . . . .  His industry was great; and he had an acquired dexterity and skill in the forms of the court; and although he was a bon companion, and followed much the bottle, yet he made such dispatches as satisfied his clients, especially the clerks, who knew where to find him.  His person was florid, and speech prompt and articulate.  But his vices, in the way of women and the bottle, were so ungoverned, as brought him to a morsel . . . .  When the Lord Keeper North had the Seal, who from an early acquaintance had a kindness for him which was well known, and also that he was well heard, as they call it, business flowed in to him very fast, and yet he could scarce keep himself at liberty to follow his business ....  At the Revolution, when his interest fell from, and his debts began to fall upon him, he was at his wits’ end ....  His character for fidelity, loyalty, and facetious conversation was without exception”—­Roger North’s Lives of the Norths (Lord Keeper Guilford), ed.  Jessopp, vol. i., pp. 381-2.  He was originally made Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of James ii., during the viceroyalty of Lord Clarendon, 1686, when he was knighted.  “He was,” says Burnet, “a man of ready wit, and being poor was thought a person fit to be made a tool of.  When Clarendon was recalled, Porter was also displaced, and Fitton was made chancellor, a man who knew no other law than the king’s pleasure” ("Own Time").  Sir Charles Porter was again made Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1690, and in this same year he acted as one of the Lords Justices.  This note of Lord Braybrooke’s is retained and added to, but the reference may after all be to another Charles Porter.  See vol. iii., p. 122, and vol. vi., p. 98.]

talking of a great many things:  and I perceive all the world is against the Duke of Buckingham his acting thus high, and do prophesy nothing but ruin from it:  But he do well observe that the church lands cannot certainly come to much, if the King shall [be] persuaded to take them; they being leased out for long leases.  By and by, after two hours’ stay, they rose, having, as Wren tells me, resolved upon sending six ships to the Streights forthwith, not being contented with the peace upon the terms