Digby
was certainly a hot inciter of the King to foolish activity; but in the
light of his after history, it would seem always with a view to the
complete freedom of the Catholic religion. A prominent King's man, nay, a
Queen's man, which was held to be something extremer, he played, however,
an individual part in the struggle. He was well fitted for the Cavalier
role by the magnificence of his person, by his splendid hospitality, his
contempt for sects, his aristocratic instincts, and his manner of the Great
World. But if he liked good cheer and a great way of living, he is never to
be imagined as clinking cans with a "Hey for Cavaliers! Ho for Cavaliers!"
He never fought for the King's cause--though he fought a duel in Paris with
a French lord who took Charles's name in vain, and killed his man too. His
role was always the intellectual one. He conspired for the cause--chiefly,
I think, out of personal friendship, and because he held it to be the cause
of his Church. He was not a virulent politician; and on the question of
divine right the orthodox Cavaliers must have felt him to be very unsound
indeed.
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