At the beginning of the civil war, as the prince passed through
Cambridge in his way to York, he was entertained with the
representation of "The Guardian," a comedy which Cowley says was
neither written nor acted, but rough-drawn by him, and repeated by
the scholars. That this comedy was printed during his absence from
his country he appears to have considered as injurious to his
reputation; though, during the suppression of the theatres, it was
sometimes privately acted with sufficient approbation.

In 1643, being now master of arts, he was, by the prevalence of the
Parliament, ejected from Cambridge, and sheltered himself at St.
John's College in Oxford; where, as is said by Wood, he published a
satire, called "The Puritan and Papist," which was only inserted in
the last collection of his works; and so distinguished himself by
the warmth of his loyalty, and the elegance of his conversation,
that he gained the kindness and confidence of those who attended the
king, and amongst others of Lord Falkland, whose notice cast a
lustre on all to whom it was extended.

About the time when Oxford was surrendered to the Parliament, he
followed the Queen to Paris, where he became secretary to the Lord
Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, and was employed in such
correspondence as the royal cause required, and particularly in
ciphering and deciphering the letters that passed between the king
and queen; an employment of the highest confidence and honour. So
wide was his province of intelligence, that for several years it
filled all his days and two or three nights in the week.

In the year 1647, his "Mistress" was published; for he imagined, as
he declared in his preface to a subsequent edition, that "poets are