contribution being recommended, the collection was entrusted to Montagu and Sir Kenelm Digby. The matter came before Parliament, which expressed its displeasure, and the Queen excused her action in a letter. All this made Montagu a marked man, so that when the First English Civil War broke out he left for France. He entered a Benedictine monastery, and was professed in the order. In due course he was ordained priest, became a naturalised subject of France, and was in favour with the Queen-Regent, Marie de Medicis, at whose Court he appears to have resided. Through her influence he was made abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Nanteuil, in the diocese of Metz, and subsequently the commendatory abbacy of St. Martin, near Pontoise, was conferred upon him. The Queen-Regent also appointed him a member of her Cabinet Council, and in this capacity he was the chief instrument of introducing Cardinal Mazarin to Henrietta Maria. It is said that in 1643 Montagu came over to England with letters of importance and was apprehended at Rochester, and remained in confinement there until 1647, when he was banished the kingdom by a vote of Parliament. Possibly there is some confusion with a later visit in company with Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir John Winter. It would certainly appear that Montagu was some time imprisoned in the Tower of London, for in 1645 the Puritan minister, John Bastwick, published his version of the disputation he there held with him, and the Parliament's order of banishment is dated 1649. Meanwhile, Queen Henrietta Maria had taken up residence at the Louvre, and had lost her chaplain, Fr. Robert Phillip, an Oratorian and a Scot, who died on 4 January 1647. The abbot was chosen his successor, and was also appointed her Majesty's Lord Almoner. Subsequently, he resided with her at the Palais Royal, with intervals of retirement to his abbey. Sir Edward Nicholas reported to Edward Hyde in 1652 that Montagu and other Catholics were the cause of the exclusion from the exile court of Thomas Hobbes, a suspected atheist. After the Restoration, and Somerset House had been prepared for her Majesty's reception in 1663, the abbot was summoned to reside with her there, and apparently returned to France with her in June 1665. At this period Edward Walsingham was acting as his secretary, and accompanied him to England. The Queen died on 31 August 1669 and