Nevertheless, he suffered, at the hands of the anti-royalists, the
same spoliation which would have been visited on a malignant of the
extremest stamp. To fill up the measure of his misfortune--as if it
were not enough that he should be deprived of his stated means of
livelihood--he was despoiled of his library. For a while, also, his
loyalty was held, though without the slightest grounds, in
considerable suspicion. On coming to be better known, however, he was
restored to favor, and was enrolled among the royal chaplains. If the
doubts as to the sincerity of his adhesion to Charles were ever
actually thought to have good foundation, they must have been
dissipated by his voluntarily exposing himself to danger, as he did at
one of the sieges of Basing House. Like Isaac Barrow, he would at need
have done duty militant just as effectually with carnal weapons as
with spiritual. No longer required at Basing House, he repaired to
Oxford again, and then to Exeter, where he was nominated chaplain to
the princess Henrietta Anne. But he held his new post for only a short
period. Leaving Exeter, he once more sought Oxford, and thence went to
London. Forbidden to preach there, he retired to Northamptonshire, and
then reappeared at the metropolis, where he was sojourning in the
memorable year 1649. Becoming in that year curate of Waltham Abbey, he
enjoyed an interval of quietude while all around him was turbulence.
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