]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Feb. 15.]
in disguise through France to Geneva, that he might escape the notice
of Lockhart and Mazarin, returned along the Rhine to join his master in
Flanders.[1]
There was little in the report of Ormond to give encouragement to Charles;
his last hopes were soon afterwards extinguished by the vigilance of
Cromwell. The moment the thaw opened the ports of Holland, a squadron of
English frigates swept the coast,[a] captured three and drove on shore two
flutes destined for the expedition, and closely blockaded the harbour of
Ostend.[2] The design was again postponed till the winter;[b] and the king
resolved to solicit in person a supply of money at the court of the Spanish
monarch. But from this journey he was dissuaded both by Hyde and by the
Cardinal de Retz, who pointed out to him the superior advantage of his
residence in Flanders, where he was in readiness to seize the first
propitious moment which fortune should offer. In the mean time the
cardinal, through his agent in Rome, solicited from the pope pecuniary aid
for the king, on condition that in the event of his ascending the throne of
his fathers, he should release the Catholics of his three kingdoms from the
intolerable pressure of the penal laws.
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