Note 60 — THE DIARY OF JOHN EVELYN. (continued 6)

The "Life of James II." contains an account of the circumstances of the Duke of Monmouth's birth, which may be given in illustration of the statements of the text. Ross, tutor to the Duke of Monmouth, is there said to have proposed to Bishop Cosins to sign a certificate of the King's marriage to Mrs. Barlow, though her own name was Walters: but this the Bishop refused. She was born of a gentleman's family in Wales, but having little means and less grace, came to London to make her fortune. Algernon Sydney, then a Colonel in Cromwell's army, had agreed to give her fifty broad pieces (as he told the Duke of York); but being ordered hastily away with his regiment, he missed his bargain. She went into Holland, where she fell into the hands of his brother, Colonel Robert Sydney, who kept her for some time, till the King hearing of her, got her from him. On which the Colonel was heard to say, Let who will have her, she is already sped; and, after being with the King, she was so soon with child, that the world had no cause to doubt whose child it was, and the rather that when he grew to be a man, he very much resembled the Colonel both in stature and countenance, even to a wart on his face. However, the King owned the child. In the King's absence she behaved so loosely, that on his return from his escape at Worcester he would have no further commerce with her, and she became a common prostitute at Paris.