old councillors being against [the former], yet we were outvoted by the king's addition of all the lords here who were not sworn councillors’ (Ormonde Papers, i. 342; Nicholas Correspondence, pp. 160, 163). When Charles left Jersey for Breda, Nicholas followed him, and arrived there in March 1650 before the opening of the negotiations between Charles and the Scottish commissioners; but after the first day's debate he and Lord Hopton were set aside, ‘having given our advice fully and clearly, that he ought not to allow the solemn league and covenant’ (Ormonde Papers, i. 378). The so-called treaty of Breda was therefore managed almost wholly by a junto composed of the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Hamilton, and the Marquis of Newcastle. There was at the time a design to appease Nicholas by making him ambassador in Holland, but Nicholas himself meditated retiring altogether (ib.). Charles before embarking for Scotland promised to keep for him the post of secretary, but left him no business to transact nor any allowance of money (Nicholas Correspondence, i. 188).
At the close of 1650 the king directed Nicholas to attend the Duke of York, ‘and to be always about him, because we know you to be well trusted by our friends in England, and to be very acceptable to the Marquis of Ormonde’ (ib. p. 24; Evelyn, iv. 199). The queen, however, was determined not to invite Nicholas to France, and Nicholas, then residing at the Hague and in attendance on the Duke, pressed for permission to retire (Ormonde Papers, i. 411, 418). In face of the queen's expressed dislike of Nicholas, Hyde, and Dr. Stewart, it needed all Ormonde's influence to maintain friendly relations between Nicholas and the Duke of York (Ormonde Papers, i. 440, 450; Nicholas Correspondence, i. 221). In May 1651 the duke required Nicholas to attend him from the Hague into France (ib. ii. 11). The secretary determined to wait on him to Breda and no further, in the absence of any invitation from the queen (ib. ii. 21). He had agreed with Lord Hopton and Hyde to go ‘together in some retirement in or about Wesel.’ He, however, followed the duke from Breda as far as Antwerp—14 June 1651—(ib. p. 29), when the duke went on alone to Paris. Nicholas thereupon settled in Antwerp with Hyde ‘and my little company for two or three months’ (ib. ii. 37). He meditated various removes for the relief of his poverty, but from 16 Oct. 1651 till 30 July 1654 resided at the Hague.
In the autumn of 1649 Nicholas had sent his wife to England to relieve their straits by compounding for his forfeited estates (Nicholas to Ashburnham, 8 March 1648–9, Nicholas Correspondence, i.; for particulars of his estates see ib. pp. 114, 119, 131; Collect. Top. et Gen. i. 291; Egerton MS. 2541, ff. 333, 383). On 30 Oct. Jane, his wife, made application to the committee for compounding for the fifths of her husband's estates in Hampshire and Wiltshire, with arrears from 24 Dec. preceding. The request was granted (Cal. of Comm. for Compounding, p. 2588). It does not appear, however, that the negotiation was completed. In November 1651 his rents were still detained by the county commissioners (ib. pp. 2895, 3160), and by October 1652 all his lands and leases, worth 1050l. per annum, and in which his mother had part interest, had been sold (Nicholas Correspondence, i. 310).
After the failure of Charles's English expedition, he graciously summoned Nicholas to meet him in Paris (April 1652). But Nicholas's poverty kept him at the Hague. Throughout his residence there he kept up a busy correspondence with Hyde in France and with royalist spies in England (ib. ii. 1–7). In November 1653 he obtained leave for Middleton to transport arms to Scotland in aid of the abortive rising of Glencairn. But this was practically all he accomplished. He could only advise the king to have patience, and ‘for God's sake’ to stay away from the Hague (ib. p. 13). In November 1653, as some means of alleviating his poverty, Charles conferred upon him a baronetcy, with an understanding that he should sell it, but he could not find a purchaser for the dignity (ib. p. 26). By March 1653–4 he had not received a ‘shilling from the king these 3 years or more,’ and, being wasted to nothing, proposed to retire to Cleves. Lord Craven advised him to remove to Cologne or Frankfort; the latter place he seriously considered, ‘because my grandfather and Bishop Jewel lived there in Queen Mary's time.’ During the year he strongly opposed the design of the queen and the catholic faction to make the young Duke of Gloucester a catholic. For his activity in this affair Nicholas incurred the renewed hate of Henrietta Maria. At her command, apparently, the princess royal declined any longer to countenance him (ib. p. 63). In June 1654 came rumours of Gerard's and Vowel's plot, and Nicholas wrote to Hyde to express a hope that Charles would be in readiness upon the expected assassination of Cromwell. On 31 July 1654 Nicholas left the Hague, was at Breda 3–13 Aug., Antwerp 16–18 Aug., and then proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle to meet Charles.
While staying at Aix from 25 Aug. to
