Henrietta Maria received Crashaw with all graciousness; and when, a few years later, he determined to visit Rome, she gave him introductory letters there. More than this she was no longer able to do. It is probable that most of Crashaw's later poems—those of the Carmen Deo Nostro—were written in the French capital. They were entirely religious in character, and Crashaw himself prepared more than half a score of the most interesting and characteristic illustrations for them; but their publication was not till 1652. The dedication of this volume to the Countess of Denbigh reveals a "friend and patron," whom we would gladly know better; but even Dr. Grosart has been able to discover little more than that she was probably Susan, the sister of Buckingham. This latter lady did, we know, eventually enter the Catholic Church. In one of these poems, "Against Irresolution in Matters of Religion," Crashaw had exhorted her with angelic eloquence to that step which had cost himself so much.
About 1648 or 1649, Crashaw took up his abode in Italy; and, possibly through the influence of Henrietta Maria, became private secretary to Cardinal Palotta, then Governor of Rome. This "good Cardinal" seems to have won and merited the poet's sincerest admiration; but the official life was stormy and uncongenial. Dreamer, mystic that he was, Crashaw had little place amid the sin and noise and conflict of the world. In time, moreover, he discovered flagrant corruption in the Governor's own suite, and fearlessly reported it. This expostulation appears to have been entirely just, but it drew upon the young English-man's head the whole wrath of the offending Italians; and so bitter grew the feeling that Cardinal Palotta was obliged to find some other refuge for his protégé. So the choice fell upon
