'We do not,' he said, 'use Holland like a mistress, we love her
as a wife.' '_Vraiment je crois que vous nous aimez comme vous aimez la
votre_,' was the sharp and clever answer.
On the death of Charles II., in 1685, Buckingham retired to the small
remnant of his Yorkshire estates. His debts were now set down at the sum
of L140,000. They were liquidated by the sale of his estates. He took
kindly to a country life, to the surprise of his old comrade in
pleasure, Etherege. 'I have heard the news,' that wit cried, alluding to
this change, 'with no less astonishment than if I had been told that the
Pope had begun to wear a periwig and had turned beau in the
seventy-fourth year of his age!'
Father Petre and Father Fitzgerald were sent by James II. to convert the
duke to Popery. The following anecdote is told of their conference with
the dying sinner:--'We deny,' said the Jesuit Petre, 'that any one can
be saved out of our Church. Your grace allows that our people may be
saved.'--'No,' said the duke, 'I make no doubt you will all be damned to
a man!' 'Sir,' said the father, 'I cannot argue with a person so void of
all charity.'--'I did not expect, my reverend father,' said the duke,
'such a reproach from you, whose whole reasoning was founded on the very
same instance of want of charity to yourself.
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