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 Cornell University Library 
 
 DA 447.R96S83 1898 
 
 Memo 
 
 3 1924 028 008 880 
 

 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028008880 
 
MEMOIRS OF LADY RUSSELL 
 AND LADY HERBERT 
 
MEMOIRS OF 
 
 LADY RUSSELL 
 
 AND 
 
 LADY HERBERT 
 
 1623-1723 
 
 COMPILED FROM 
 ORIGINAL FAMILY DOCUMENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 LADY STEPNEY 
 
 LONDON 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 
 
 1898 
 
 m 
 
A^\\'\2.^'i 
 
NOTE 
 
 The Memoirs and the Correspondence contained 
 in this volume were dealt with in works published 
 from time to time in the earlier half of the century. 
 It may be considered, however, that they now 
 come with some freshness ; since the works referred 
 to have long been out of print, and in this volume 
 they have been compiled from original family 
 documents, by Lady Stepney, who lived four 
 generations ago. The MSS. were left by Lady 
 Stepney to her son Admiral Manners, by whom 
 they were bequeathed to Colonel Pollok, her 
 great-nephew, at whose instance they are now 
 published. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LADY RUSSELL '''''^^ 
 
 t 
 
 LADY HERBERT . 
 
 209 
 
LADY RUSSELL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Among the counsellors and defenders of 
 Charles L in his adversities, Thomas 
 Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, was at 
 the same time one of the most faithful and 
 most independent. He was descended from 
 a man of the same name, who was Lord 
 Chancellor under Henry VIH., and was 
 appointed by His Majesty's will one of the 
 sixteen guardians of Edward VL A younger 
 son, he was suddenly placed in possession 
 of the title and the fortune of his family by 
 the almost simultaneous deaths of his father 
 
2 Memoirs ot 
 
 and his elder brother. His disposition led 
 him to love neither the Court nor his own 
 position. He was more embarrassed than 
 pleased by his elevation, and for some time 
 he coloured and turned away his head 
 when addressed as ''My Lord." He was 
 of a melancholy temperament, indolent and 
 proud, with strong passions, reserved and 
 taciturn, much attached to his own ideas 
 and feelings, and ready to make any sacrifice 
 in support of them, but without wish to lead, 
 not sanguine, little excited by success, and 
 leaving his retirement only from duty or 
 necessity. 
 
 After passing through college. Lord 
 Southampton spent some time on the 
 Continent, where he met the lady who 
 became his first wife. On his return to his 
 native country, he lived in private, taking 
 little part in politics. When, however, the 
 struggle between Charles L and the Long 
 
Lady Russell 3 
 
 Parliament began, he took his place in the 
 House of Lords, where he showed himself 
 disposed to support the demands of the 
 people, rather than the arbitrary acts and 
 pretensions of the Crown and its Ministers. 
 A true patriot, he wished the laws and 
 customs of the nation to be respected, and 
 the Parliament to have a part in the govern- 
 ment of the country. Moderate in his 
 religious views, he desired greater toleration 
 and charity towards Dissenters. Although he 
 did not regard freedom of opinion as a right, 
 tyranny in affairs of conscience was re- 
 pugnant to him. At the beginning of the 
 Long Parliament, he frequently voted against 
 the Crown, against the Bishops, and for 
 the reform of abuses, and the restraint of 
 despotism, both religious and political. He 
 seldom appeared at Court, was looked upon 
 as attached to the party in opposition to the 
 Crown, and among those who surrounded 
 
4 Memoirs of 
 
 the King was regarded as being, like his 
 friend and relation the Earl of Essex, dis- 
 contented and moody ; but when he saw 
 the violence and injustice with which the 
 proceedings of Parliament were conducted, 
 the laws violated, and the Monarchy en- 
 dangered by popular tumults under the 
 leading of ambitious and unscrupulous men, 
 he immediately took his place, not from 
 inclination, but from a feeling of duty, among 
 the defenders and servants of the King. 
 Holding himself aloof from all party combina- 
 tions, without any definite plan, troubling 
 himself little with the reform of the Constitu- 
 tion, or with abstract theories of government, 
 he opposed the prevalent injustice, inequality, 
 disorder, and violence, without concerning 
 himself with the schemes of those who took 
 part in them. The proceedings of Parliament 
 against Lord Strafford appeared to him 
 arbitrary, the penalty excessive ; and he 
 
Lady Russell 5 
 
 defended him whom he had previously 
 opposed. The Houses had voted that it 
 was improper for members to take office 
 under the Crown : he accepted, though un- 
 willingly, that of Privy Councillor, and 
 afterwards that of Lord of the Bed-chamber. 
 He steadily supported the King against the 
 violence of the popular party, as he had 
 previously supported the claims of the people 
 against the oppression of the Court. The 
 Civil War broke out. He detested it, and 
 looked for no good result, whichever side 
 prevailed ; but immediately joined the royal 
 army, was present at the battle of Edgehill, 
 and followed the Court to Oxford, though 
 every day more and more dissatisfied with 
 its conduct. He retained all his independ- 
 ence and his proud susceptibility. 
 
 On one occasion in the Council he ex- 
 pressed himself in strong language respect- 
 ing the arrogant pretensions over the English 
 
6 Memoirs of 
 
 nobility put forward by Prince Rupert. The 
 Prince, to whom an exaggerated report had 
 been made of what had passed, asked him 
 if it were true. The Earl acknowledged 
 what he had said, repeating the exact words. 
 Rupert persisted in finding them offensive, 
 and caused him to be informed that he 
 expected to receive satisfaction for them, and 
 to meet him on horseback sword in hand. 
 They met next morning. 
 
 '' What arms do you choose ? " said the 
 Prince. 
 
 *' I have no suitable horse here," said the 
 Earl. *' I could not obtain one immediately. 
 Moreover, I am too small and too weak to 
 compete with Your Highness in this manner. 
 I must beg you to excuse me, and to allow 
 me to choose arms of which I can make use. 
 I will fight on foot, and with pistols." 
 
 Rupert agreed without hesitation. The 
 seconds were appointed, and the meeting was 
 
Lady Russell 7 
 
 fixed for the next day ; but the affair had 
 become pubHc ; the Lords of the Council 
 interfered, caused the gates of the town 
 to be closed, summoned the seconds, and 
 reconciled the Earl and the Prince. 
 
 When the war had ended, and the King 
 was in the hands of the Parliament, Lord 
 Southampton made every possible effort for 
 his deliverance, and sought diligently for the 
 means of seeing and of assisting him. When 
 all had failed, and the trial, condemnation, 
 and execution of Charles left nothing to 
 attempt or to hope, he did not consider him- 
 self released from his duty towards his royal 
 master. On the 8th of February 1649, the day 
 when the remains of Charles L were buried 
 at Windsor, Lord Southampton was one of 
 five who accompanied to the tomb the Prince 
 whom he had been unable either to enlighten 
 or to save. Snow was falling thickly, 
 and the black velvet pall which covered 
 
8 Memoirs of 
 
 the coffin was completely whitened ; which 
 the faithful servants of the King afterwards 
 delighted to recall, as a symbol of innocence. 
 Royalty having been abolished, Lord 
 Southampton returned to his retirement at 
 Titchfield, and throughout the duration of 
 the Republic and the Protectorate of Crom- 
 well he employed himself with his family, 
 and in the improvement of his estate, taking 
 no part in public affairs, remaining always 
 faithful to the pros^^xibed Charles II., send- 
 ing him useful' intelligence, and frequent 
 and liberali supplies of money, but joining 
 neither in the attempted insurrections of the 
 Royalists nor in the movements of discon- 
 tented Republicans. His good sense, his 
 jealous patriotism, and his natural indolence 
 combined to keep him in this honourable 
 inactivity. He was one day informed that 
 Cromwell, who was on a visit in Hampshire, 
 on the occasion of the marriage of his son 
 
Lady Russell 9 
 
 Richard, had shown some intention of sur- 
 prising him by a visit. Lord Southampton 
 immediately left his house, and did not re- 
 turn until Cromwell had quitted the county. 
 
 On the Restoration, Lord Southampton, 
 notwithstanding his inactivity during the 
 interregnum, was among the first of the 
 nobles and former councillors of Charles L 
 whom Royalist feeling called to office. 
 Hyde, who then possessed the King's con- 
 fidence, was his particular friend. He was 
 made Lord Treasurer when Hyde became 
 Chancellor and Earl of Clarendon ; and for 
 seven years he performed the duties of the 
 office with a vigilance, integrity, and dis- 
 interestedness not always agreeable to the 
 monarch and his profligate Court. The two 
 friends, united in principle though different 
 in character, controlled with difficulty a King 
 without virtue or feeling, a corrupt and in- 
 triguing Court, a victorious but discontented 
 
lo Memoirs of 
 
 Party, and a people austere, humiliated, and 
 wrathful. Clarendon, ambitious, laborious, 
 enthusiastic for his Church, his cause, his 
 power, and his rank, struggled violently 
 against his enemies, old and new, and 
 against the decline of his influence with his 
 former pupil, now become his Sovereign. 
 Southampton, less energetic, fond of leisure 
 and repose, with greater liberality of mind, 
 tormented, moreover, by gout and stone,^ 
 conscientiously performed the duties of his 
 office. He made ineffectual efforts towards 
 having the resources of the Crown adminis- 
 tered in order and good faith, and, frequently 
 desponding, disgusted and ill, made known, 
 to the great chagrin of Clarendon, his wish 
 to quit an office which he filled without 
 pleasure and without success. 
 
 Charles, as clear - sighted as he was 
 
 1 Burnet says he bore his sufferings '*with astonishing patience, 
 the firmness of a great man, and the submission of a good 
 Christian." 
 
Lady Russell n 
 
 corrupt, soon perceived that Lord South- 
 ampton was indifferent to power, and wished 
 to take advantage of this feeling in order to 
 get rid quietly of an independent and unwel- 
 come councillor ; but Clarendon employed 
 all the influence he still retained to keep his 
 friend in office ; and Lord Southampton, 
 Treasurer till his death, quitted life and 
 public business together, without yielding, 
 like the Chancellor, to the unjust hatred of 
 the people, or to the ungrateful severity of 
 the King. 
 
 Lord Southampton had married Rachel 
 de Ruvigny, a member of one of those 
 noble French families who in the sixteenth 
 century, without any view to personal 
 interest, or any thought ot increase in power 
 or wealth, from the mere dictates of faith 
 and conscience, embraced the cause of the 
 Reformation, which was at all times feeble 
 in France, and from its infancy subject to 
 
12 Memoirs of 
 
 persecution. At the time of their marriage 
 the Edict of Nantes was still in force. 
 Richelieu, although he had destroyed the 
 political power of the Protestants, did not 
 interfere with their religious rights, and did 
 not hesitate to employ in various public 
 offices those who showed themselves devoted 
 to the interests of the Crown and to himself. 
 Mazarin followed Richelieu's example. He 
 was equally prudent as to the religious liberty 
 of Protestants, but more cautious as to their 
 employment in affairs of state. Though 
 unmolested and enjoying the liberty allowed 
 by the Edict, the Protestants, in a minority 
 and subjection, daily lost in the strength 
 that is derived from real activity, which 
 alone gives importance in public opinion 
 and secures freedom. Their places of 
 worship were still open ; they were not 
 driven from their country ; but they were 
 restricted to private life, isolated, and, as it 
 
Lady Russell 13 
 
 were, foreigners. The Marquess de Ruvigny, 
 
 brother of Lady Southampton, possessed 
 
 great ability and courage, and was one of 
 
 the most important and intelligent among 
 
 the Protestants of that period. During the 
 
 disturbances of the Fronde, he gave Anne 
 
 of Austria and Mazarin proofs of fidelity, 
 
 constant, active, and important. When the 
 
 Fronde was suppressed, Mazarin, wishing to 
 
 reward Ruvigny, caused him to be appointed 
 
 Deputy -General of the National Synod of 
 
 the French Reformed Churches, a double 
 
 and intermediary office, which made him 
 
 the chargd d'affaires of the King towards 
 
 the Protestants and of the Protestants 
 
 towards the King. Ruvigny performed this 
 
 double duty for nearly thirty years, with a 
 
 well-governed zeal, often disagreeable, and 
 
 even suspected by both parties, but equally 
 
 faithful to the King and to the Church, and 
 
 giving himself little disquiet as to either 
 
14 Memoirs of 
 
 being" pleased, provided he managed to pre- 
 serve peace between them and to maintain 
 their respective rights. This, however, did 
 not afford a sufficient object in Hfe. Wishing 
 to have a pursuit, he attempted to obtain 
 employment, either in the army or in diplo- 
 macy abroad ; but was given to understand 
 that he would find everything of that kind 
 unattainable unless he changed his religion. 
 The King and the Church made use of him 
 with the Protestants, he being the only person 
 capable of treating with them ; but all other 
 openings were closed to him. After the 
 death of Mazarin, and the restoration of the 
 Stewarts, Ruvigny's many connections in 
 England, his intimate relations with the 
 Southampton and Bedford families, and 
 with others of importance both in the Court 
 Party and in the Opposition, obtained for 
 him without any effort on his part what he 
 had previously sought in vain. He was 
 
Lady Russell 15 
 
 repeatedly employed in the most confidential 
 negotiations between the courts of Paris and 
 London, endeavouring sometimes to arrange 
 the secret agreements of the two Kings, 
 sometimes to secure the secret influence of 
 Louis XIV. over the most active leaders of 
 the Opposition in Parliament. Louis had a 
 sincere esteem for him, and Charles showed 
 him special favour. Writing to his sister the 
 Duchess of Orleans, he said that France had 
 never shown itself so friendly as since he had 
 resided in London. Loving his country, a 
 devoted Royalist, and a sincere Protestant, 
 Ruvigny made great endeavours to serve at 
 the same time his King, his country, and his 
 faith, yet without deceiving himself as to the 
 probability of this difficult conciliation being 
 long maintained. The Edict of Nantes still 
 stood, but like a deserted and ruined build- 
 ing which needs only the blow of a hammer 
 to bring it down. Under the pressure of 
 
1 6 Memoirs of 
 
 a general feeling among the Catholics of 
 France, and the urgent desires of the clergy, 
 — wishing, also, to carry out the false and 
 fatal idea that power has rights over con- 
 science and that the unity of the State requires 
 unity of faith, — Louis XIV,, with a want of 
 fidelity which he would not have allowed 
 himself towards strangers, set at naught — 
 sometimes secretly, sometimes publicly — the 
 royal promises and the legal guarantees 
 which had been given by his ancestors to 
 a part of his subjects. The Marquess de 
 Ruvigny, whilst serving the King, was not 
 bhnd to the end towards which His Majesty 
 was proceeding. Resolved, when the final 
 issue approached, to sacrifice everything 
 rather than his faith, he had secured letters 
 of naturalisation in England for himself and 
 his children. In January 1680, he wrote to 
 his niece. Lady Russell : 
 
 '' I send you my letters of naturalisation. 
 
Lady Russell 17 
 
 which will be better in your hands than in 
 mine. I would beg you and your sister to 
 take care of them for me. They may be 
 useful, since there is nothing more uncertain 
 than the course of events." 
 
 Affairs did not remain uncertain long. 
 Five years afterwards the Edict of Nantes 
 was formally revoked ; and Ruvigny obtained 
 with great difficulty, as the reward of his 
 services, and from the personal favour of 
 Louis XIV., the privilege of becoming with 
 his family exiled from his country without 
 flight — he was the only nobleman to whom 
 this favour was granted. Some years after- 
 wards, in 171 1, the King bestowed upon the 
 Abbe de Polignac the confiscated property 
 of his son, Henry de Ruvigny, who had 
 entered the service of William III. and had 
 been made Lord Galway. 
 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 in addition to its general effects upon the 
 
1 8 Memoirs of Lady Russell 
 
 population and the wealth of the country, 
 cost France the services of three excellent 
 officers : Marshal Schomberg in the army, 
 Admiral Duquesne in the navy, and the 
 Marquess de Ruvigny in diplomacy. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Lady Southampton had five children, only- 
 two of whom survived her. The younger 
 of them, born in 1636, was named Rachel, 
 after her mother. Descended from two 
 noble families, educated in habits of piety 
 and virtue, she received from the events of 
 her youth those strong moral impressions 
 which elevate minds that are not oppressed 
 by them. She early learned to feel for the 
 misfortunes of others, and to bear domestic 
 trials with patience. When she was an 
 infant she had lost her mother. Lord 
 Southampton married again ; ^ but he never 
 
 1 Lord Southampton was married three times. His second wife, 
 the daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, afterwards Earl of Chichester, 
 had four daughters, one of whom survived her parents, and was 
 
20 Memoirs of 
 
 ceased to entertain the most tender affection 
 for the two daughters whom his first 
 wife had left him, nor did Rachel re- 
 spect or love her father the less. She 
 saw him devote himself without the least 
 illusion or servility of mind to that political 
 cause which, all things considered, he 
 believed to have most justice on its side, 
 and remain at the same time both patriot 
 and Royalist. The principles of integrity, 
 liberality, and piety, which were character- 
 istics of his own mind, were instilled by 
 precept and example into the minds of his 
 daughters. His religion was not merely a 
 system of forms and ceremonies. As is 
 evident from Burnet's testimony already 
 
 married to the last Earl of Northumberland of the Percy family, 
 and after his death to Mr. (afterwards Lord) Montagu. She is 
 often mentioned in Lady Russell's letters as Countess of North- 
 umberland, and as Lady Montagu. The Earl's third wife was 
 Frances, daughter of the Duke of Somerset, and widow of Viscount 
 Molineux. She long survived Lord Southampton, and afterwards 
 married Mr. D'Arcy, who also is mentioned in Lady Russell's 
 letters. 
 
Lady Russell 21 
 
 quoted, it was a communion of his soul 
 with his heavenly Father, through the 
 Saviour. At the period when she passed 
 from childhood to youth, she lived in the 
 country, far from the world, familiarised 
 with those habits of quiet dignity, simplicity, 
 polite manners, and general benevolence 
 which do honour to a Christian aristocracy. 
 We have not much information respecting 
 her education ; but there is no reason to 
 suppose that it was inferior to that of other 
 ladies in her rank of life. Her letters show 
 a well-trained mind ; and her having been 
 the only governess of her two daughters, 
 afterwards the Duchesses of Devonshire 
 and Rutland, would indicate that her own 
 education had not been neglected. Among 
 her early instructors may be reckoned 
 Dr. Fitzwilliam, who was for many years 
 chaplain to her father, and afterwards to 
 the Duke of York, and took an almost 
 
22 Memoirs of 
 
 parental interest in her, as is evident from 
 the letters on both sides which have been 
 preserved. 
 
 In 1653, ^^ ^^^ ^S^ ^f seventeen, she 
 was handsome, pious, and cheerful, without 
 highly - wrought imaginations, disposed to 
 enjoy life quietly, receiving good things as 
 favours, and evils as lessons, from God. 
 A marriage with Lord Vaughan, the elder 
 son of Lord Carbery, was concluded by 
 an arrangement between their respective 
 parents, while yet they were scarce ac- 
 quainted with one another. It was one of 
 those marriages in which, as she afterwards 
 said when speaking of that of one of her 
 friends, *' it is acceptance rather than choos- 
 ing on either side.*' She went to live at the 
 residence of her father-in-law, Golden Grove, 
 in Wales, and fulfilled all the duties of her 
 new situation without effort, and without 
 display, inspiring those about her with a 
 
Lady Russell 23 
 
 lively affection, but producing no other 
 impression than that of constant virtue, an 
 agreeable temper, and especially of such 
 perfect amiability that it was spoken of to 
 herself as a peculiar merit, her correspondent, 
 after a high-flown compliment, concluding: 
 '* Present your noble husband with my most 
 affectionate service, and I shall in my prayers 
 present you both to God, begging of Him 
 daily increase of your piety to Him, and of 
 your love to each other. "^ 
 
 Little is known of the character of Lord 
 Vaughan ; but it may be presumed that an 
 affectionate father, as Lord Southampton 
 evidently was, would not arrange an alliance 
 for his daughter with one who was likely to 
 endanger her happiness. That her conduct 
 was such as to obtain the approbation of her 
 
 1 Lord Carbery was the protector of Jeremy Taylor, whose 
 Holy Living and Dying was dedicated to him ; another of 
 Taylor's works, Golden Grove^ is named after Lord Carbery's 
 estate. 
 
24 Memoirs of 
 
 husband's family is shown by her having 
 continued on friendly terms with them all her 
 life, and by her having exerted her influence 
 in their favour many years after his death. 
 
 Fourteen years thus passed with Lady 
 Vaughan, calmly and virtuously happy. 
 From an unfinished paper found after her 
 death, it would appear that this time of her 
 life was characterised by greater intercourse 
 and conformity with the world than she 
 allowed herself at any other period. She re- 
 grets her coldness and formality in religious 
 duties, and her too great liking for plays and 
 other diversions. This, however, probably 
 arose, not from her having indulged in frivo- 
 lous pursuits to excess, but from her having 
 attained a more lively sense of the import- 
 ance of religion during her residence with 
 her elder sister in her first widowhood, and 
 from habits of reflection formed during her 
 seclusion after Lord Russell's death. 
 
Lady Russell 25 
 
 In 1665 she bore a child, which died 
 almost immediately. In 1667 she was a 
 widow. No details of the death of her 
 husband are recorded ; but the plague raged 
 in London in 1665-66, extending to many- 
 places in the country ; and probably he was 
 one of its victims. She then lived with her 
 sister, Lady Elizabeth Noel,^ at Titchfield, 
 the house of her father, in which she had 
 passed her childhood. Lord Southampton 
 died in 1667, leaving Titchfield to Lady 
 Elizabeth Noel, and Stratton, also in Hamp- 
 shire, to Lady Vaughan. His property in 
 London was divided between the two sisters, 
 his youngest daughter being provided for 
 by her mother's fortune. 
 
 About the time of Lord Southampton's 
 death a young man, three years the junior 
 of Lady Vaughan, the second surviving son 
 
 1 For more than a century after her death, which occurred about 
 1679 or 1680, traditions of the piety and the charity of Lady 
 Elizabeth Noel were preserved among the cottagers at Titchfield. 
 
26 Memoirs of 
 
 of the Earl of Bedford/ began to take part in 
 public life, but not as yet very prominently. 
 After travelling on the Continent for three 
 years, he had returned to England a short 
 time before the Restoration, and had been 
 elected a member of the House of Commons 
 which recalled Charles II. Few traces of 
 his life and character at this period remain. 
 A note to him from his tutor, Mr. Thornton, 
 shows that religion had not been neglected 
 
 ^ The family of the Russells first appears in public life in the 
 reign of Henry VII. In the year 1506 the King and Queen of 
 Castile left the Low Countries for Spain. Their fleet was dispersed in 
 the Channel by a violent storm, and the ship in which they were with 
 difficulty ran into Weymouth. As soon as they were landed, Sir 
 Thomas Trenchard, the High Sheriff of the county, paid his respects 
 and invited them to his house at Wolveton. As he was not 
 acquainted with the Spanish language, he applied to Mr. Russell, 
 who lived at a short distance, to come and interpret for them. 
 Henry VII. having sent the Earl of Arundel to invite Philip to 
 Windsor, the latter, on leaving, asked Sir Thomas if he could do 
 anything for him with the King. Sir Thomas answered that he 
 was not himself in want of anything, but that if Philip could do 
 anything for Mr. Russell, he should take it as done to himself. 
 Philip, accordingly, took Mr. Russell with him, and warmly 
 recommended him to the King. Henry VIT. created him Lord 
 Russell, and named him one of his executors ; and he was after- 
 wards made Earl of Bedford by Edward VI. 
 
Lady Russell 27 
 
 in his upbringing, and one from him to 
 Mr. Thornton, after a severe illness, indicates 
 that it had not been altogether without 
 effect. He says : 
 
 ** My prayers to God are to give me, to- 
 gether with my health, grace to employ it in 
 His service, and to make good use of this 
 visitation by the serious application of it." 
 
 His religious impressions do not, how- 
 ever, appear to have been very decided 
 until later. The manners of the times, the 
 example of the Court, the heat of youth, 
 and perhaps also his natural temper, led him 
 into some irregularities of conduct ; and he 
 was engaged in more than one duel. This 
 did not long continue.^ His conduct became 
 
 ^ Bishop Burnet says of him : *' He was a man of great candour, 
 and of a general reputation ; universally beloved and trusted ; of a 
 generous, obliging temper. He gave proof of undaunted courage, 
 and of an unshaken firmness. He quickly got out of some disorders 
 into which the Court had drawn him, and ever after that his life was 
 unblemished in all respects. He had from his first education an 
 inclination to favour the Nonconformists, and wished the laws 
 
28 Memoirs of 
 
 more in accord with the pious instructions 
 he had received, and it is not improbable 
 that Lady Vaughan exercised an unconscious 
 influence in the correction of the irregulari- 
 ties in the life of the young man to whom 
 she was afterwards united. Of all human 
 motives, there is none which has so much 
 power as a virtuous attachment. There is 
 no account of their early acquaintance. We 
 only know, by a letter of Lady Percy, Lady 
 Vaughan's half-sister, that he was attached to 
 the handsome widow in 1667. She says : 
 
 *' For his concern, I can say nothing more 
 than that he professes a great desire, which 
 I do not at all doubt he, and everybody else 
 has, to gain one who is so desirable in all 
 respects." 
 
 could have been made more easy to them, or they more pliant to 
 the law. He was a slow man, and of little discourse ; but he had 
 a true judgment. When he considered things at his own leisure, 
 his understanding was not defective ; but his virtues were so 
 eminent that they would more than have balanced real defects, if 
 any had been found." 
 
Lady Russell 29 
 
 Lady Vaughan was without children, and 
 was a great heiress. William Russell, a 
 younger son, had neither fortune nor a title 
 to offer. He was the more timid and re- 
 served on that account. But there was too 
 much sympathy in their natural dispositions 
 for worldly considerations and doubts to keep 
 them long apart. They were married about 
 the end of the year 1669 ; but, according to 
 the usual custom in England at that time, 
 Lady Vaughan retained her title till 1678, 
 when, the elder brother of Mr. Russell 
 having died, he became heir to his father, 
 and assumed the title of Lord Russell. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 One of the most charming sights in the 
 world is a married pair united by a true 
 affection based on congeniality of sentiment 
 and principle. Passion, the open and gener- 
 ous expression of the feelings and inmost 
 capacities of the soul, has such attraction for 
 us, that we take pleasure in regarding its 
 manifestation, even when accompanied with 
 disorder, mistakes, troubles, and sorrows ; 
 but passion in harmony with principle, and 
 filling the heart with a flood of happiness, 
 without overclouding the mind or interrupt- 
 ing its peace, is the most active emotion of 
 our being, and possesses the greatest interest 
 to those who behold it. The union of 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 31 
 
 Rachel Wriothesley and William Russell 
 was of this rare character. Hitherto she 
 had been tranquil, simple, calmly pursuing 
 the ordinary paths of life. Now passionate 
 affection and the highest earthly happiness 
 filled her heart. She gave herself up to 
 their influence, and manifested them without 
 reserve : she ardently loved her husband, 
 and was entirely happy. They were seldom 
 separated, and only for short periods, during 
 the fourteen years of their married life. 
 Consequently, but few of their letters remain. 
 Those which we have present, on both sides, 
 a pleasing picture of conjugal confidence and 
 domestic happiness. It is evident that they 
 found their chief pleasure in the faithful 
 discharge of their duties to each other, and 
 in promoting the welfare and the happiness 
 of those around them. 
 
 ** If I were more fortunate," she writes, 
 three years after their marriage, 'Mn my 
 
32 Memoirs ot 
 
 expression, I could do myself more right 
 when I would own to my dearest Mr. Russell 
 what real and perfect happiness I enjoy, from 
 that kindness he allows me every day to 
 receive new marks of, such as, in spite of the 
 knowledge I have of my own wants, will not 
 suffer me to mistrust I want his love, though 
 I do merit, to so desirable a blessing ; but, 
 my best life, you that know so well how to 
 love and to oblige, make my felicity entire, 
 by believing my heart possessed with all the 
 gratitude, honour, and passionate affection to 
 your person, any creature is capable of, or 
 can be obliged to." 
 
 Three years later she says : 
 
 *' It is an inexpressible joy to consider, I 
 shall see the person in the world I most and 
 only long to be with, before another week is 
 past. I should condemn my sense of this 
 expected happiness as weak and pitiful if I 
 could tell it you. No, my best life : I can say 
 
Lady Russell 33 
 
 little, but think all you can, and you cannot 
 think too much ; my heart makes it all good. 
 I perfectly know my infinite obligations to 
 Mr. Russell ; and it is the delight of her life, 
 who is as much yours as you desire she 
 should be." 
 
 Again, five years afterwards : 
 
 '' My dearest heart, flesh and blood cannot 
 have a truer and greater sense of their own 
 happiness than your poor but honest wife 
 has. I am glad you find Stratton so sweet ; 
 may you live to do so one fifty years more ; 
 and if God pleases, I shall be glad I may 
 keep your company most of those years, 
 unless you wish for other at any time ; 
 then I think I could willingly leave all in the 
 world, knowing you would take care of our 
 brats ; they are both well, and your great 
 one's letter she hopes came to you." 
 
 Again : *' These are pleasing moments, in 
 absence, my dearest blessing, either to read 
 
34 Memoirs of 
 
 something from you, or to be writing some- 
 thing to you ; yet I never do it but I am 
 touched with a sensible regret that I cannot 
 pour out in words what my heart is so big 
 with, which is much more just to your dear 
 self (in a passionate return of love and 
 gratitude) than I can tell you ; but it is not 
 my talent, and so I hope not a necessary 
 signification of the truth of it : at least not 
 thought so by you." 
 
 A year later : '' To see anybody preparing, 
 and taking their way to see what I long to 
 do a thousand times more than they, makes 
 me not endure to suffer their going, without 
 saying something to my best life ; though it 
 is a kind of anticipating my joy when we 
 shall meet, to allow myself so much, before 
 the time ; but I confess I feel a great deal, 
 that, though I left London with great 
 reluctance (as it is easy to persuade men a 
 woman does), yet that I am not like to leave 
 
Lady Russell 35 
 
 Stratton with greater. . . .^ I would fain be 
 telling my heart more things — anything, to 
 be in a kind of talk with him ; but, I believe, 
 Spencer stays for my despatch ; he was 
 ' willing to go early ; but this was to be the 
 delight of this morning and the support of 
 the day. It is performed in bed, thy pillow 
 at my back ; where thy dear head shall lie, I 
 hope, to-morrow night, and many more, I 
 trust in His mercy, notwithstanding all our 
 enemies or ill-wishers. Love and be willing 
 to be loved by R. Russell." 
 
 Lady Russell did not express her love 
 to her husband merely in writing. She 
 showed it actively, in the smallest, as well 
 as in the greatest, things : taking interest 
 in all his occupations, in all his tastes ; 
 living with him in the world when he would 
 mix with the world, in the country when 
 he preferred the country ; caring for his 
 amusements, as well as for his happiness. 
 
36 Memoirs of 
 
 When they were separated — the one at 
 Stratton, the other in London — she kept 
 herself informed on political and fashionable 
 affairs, the affairs of their friends, and the 
 incidents of society, and communicated them 
 to him speedily, without study of expression, 
 or attempt to show herself off, but as one 
 simply desirous of collecting all that could 
 interest or divert him. In May 1672 she 
 writes : 
 
 ** I am very sure my dearest Mr. Russell 
 meant to oblige me extremely when he 
 enjoined me to scribble to him by the post, 
 as knowing he could not do a kinder thing 
 than to let me see he designed not to think 
 me impertinent in it ; though we parted but 
 this morning, which I might reasonably have 
 doubted to have been when I have passed 
 all this long day and learned nothing new 
 can entertain you and your good company. 
 All I see either are or appear duller to me 
 
Lady Russell n 
 
 than when you are here ; and I do not find 
 the town is enUvened by the victory we have 
 obtained. There is no more talked of than 
 you heard last night, nor nothing printed, 
 because there is no letters come yet ; Tom 
 Howard, Lord Howard's son, is expected 
 every hour with them. Many whisper the 
 French behaved themselves not like firm 
 friends. The Duke of York's marriage is 
 broke off. That, or other causes, makes him 
 look less in good humour than ordinary. 
 They say she is offered the King of Spain ; 
 and our Prince shall have D'Elboeuf. 
 Mrs. Ogle is to marry Craven Howard, 
 Tom Howard's son ; and Tom Wharton 
 has another mistress in chase, my Lady 
 Rochester's grandchild ; but he is so un- 
 fortunate before the end, that it is mistrusted 
 he may miss her, though the grandmother 
 is his great friend. Young Arundel, my 
 Lord Arundel of Trerice his son, is extremely 
 
38 Memoirs of 
 
 in love, and went down where she is, and 
 watched her coming abroad to take the air, 
 rode up to her coach. Mr. Wharton was on 
 horse by the roadside. Arundel thrust him 
 away, and, looking into the coach, told her 
 no man durst say he valued her at the rate 
 he did. Mr. Wfrarton, like a good Christian, 
 turned the othen cheek ; for he took no 
 notice of it ; but. the other, having no op- 
 portunity to , see or speak to her, was thus 
 forced^ to return ; but Wharton is admitted 
 
 tO/ the house." 
 
 ( 
 
 ' Besides the love for her husband, an- 
 other affection animated Lady Russell and 
 strengthened her beforehand for her day of 
 trial. She was a Christian, not in name 
 only, but also in mind and heart, with an 
 entire belief in Christian truth, submissive 
 to Christian precepts, without sectarianism, 
 without taste for disputation, moved by an 
 intelligent and exalted charity towards those 
 
Lady Russell 39 
 
 who did not think exactly as she thought. 
 Her letters after the blow had fallen show in 
 what uncommon harmony Christian feeling 
 and human affection were united in hen She 
 had the power of faith in her soul In the 
 midst of her happiness, and, while she was 
 still in the enjoyment of it, prepared herself 
 with humility to accept from the hand of God 
 the strokes, or rather the stroke, of which 
 she seems to have had some presentiment. 
 In 1680 she wrote : 
 
 *' Absent or present, my dearest Hfe is 
 equally obliging, and ever the earthly delight 
 of my soul ; it is my great care (or ought to 
 be) so to moderate my sense of happiness 
 here, that when the appointed time comes of 
 my leaving it, or its leaving me, I may not be 
 unwilling to forsake the one, or be in some 
 measure prepared and fit to bear the trial of 
 the other. What have I to ask but a 
 continuance (if God see fit) of these present 
 
40 Memoirs ot 
 
 enjoyments? If not, a submission without 
 murmur to His most wise dispensations and 
 unerring providence, having a thankful heart 
 for the years I have been so perfectly 
 contented in ; He knows best when we have 
 had enough here ; what I most earnestly beg 
 from His mercy is, that we both live so as, 
 whichever goes first, the other may not 
 sorrow as for one of whom they have no 
 hope. Then let us cheerfully expect to be 
 together to a good old age ; if not, let us not 
 doubt but He will support us under what 
 trial He will inflict upon us. These are 
 necessary meditations sometimes, that we 
 may not be surprised above our strength 
 by a sudden accident, being unprepared. 
 Excuse me, if I dwell too long upon it ; it is 
 from my opinion that if we can be prepared 
 for all conditions, we can with the greater 
 tranquillity enjoy the present, which I hope 
 will be long ; though when we change, it will 
 
Lady Russell 41 
 
 be for the better, I trust, through the merits 
 of Christ. Let us daily pray that it may be 
 so, and then admit of no fears : death is the 
 extremest evil against nature, it is true ; let 
 us overcome the immoderate fear of it, either 
 to our friend or self, and then what light 
 hearts we may live with.*' 
 
 Ten years elapsed since Lady Russell in 
 London had written these words to her 
 husband at Stratton. Lord Russell was in 
 London, and his wife at Stratton, when, on 
 September 25, 1682, she wrote : 
 
 ** I know nothing new since you went ; 
 but I know as certainly as I live, that I have 
 been for twelve years as passionate a lover 
 as ever woman was, and hope to be so one 
 twelve years more ; happy still and entirely 
 yours, R. Russell.'' 
 
 Lady Russell's attachments were not 
 hastily formed ; but they were lasting. She 
 was susceptible of conjugal and maternal 
 
42 Memoirs of 
 
 affection in no ordinary degree. Almost 
 every letter after the birth of her children 
 contains some reference to them. She was 
 also a kind and considerate mistress, not 
 merely satisfying herself with ordering that 
 medical advice should be provided for a sick 
 servant ; but herself making inquiry of the 
 physician as to the state of his patient, and 
 reporting the result to her husband. 
 
 Scarcely ten months had passed since 
 Lady Russell wrote the letter, so full of 
 affection, happiness, and trust, from which 
 the last extract was taken, when the light- 
 ning fell in the midst of a sky so calm and 
 peaceful. Lord Russell was a prisoner in 
 the Tower, and was charged with high 
 treason at the bar of the Old Bailey 
 Sessions. He had sat in the House of 
 Commons for several years, without taking 
 much part, or much interest, in the debates. 
 He was young, and led into other courses by 
 
Lady Russell 43 
 
 the ardour of youth. He was a man, not of 
 showy talents, but of high-toned principle 
 and unshrinking firmness ; and *'inall prob- 
 ability he would have continued through life 
 an inactive representative had not extra- 
 ordinary events called forth the native energy 
 of his character, never afterwards to sleep, 
 but on the scaffold."^ 
 
 1 Memoir of William^ Lord Russell, by Lord John Russell. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The hopes which had been raised in 
 England by the Restoration were slowly- 
 dissipated. Recollections of the Common- 
 wealth and the Protectorate, and the reaction 
 against the maxims, the acts, and the agents 
 of those times, filled all minds, Charles IL 
 and his Court, with licentious self-indulgence, 
 took advantage of these strong feelings, till 
 their pretensions, their faults, their vices, 
 excited fresh disputes and roused men*s 
 passions anew. A life insulting to the moral 
 as well as to the political feelings of the 
 people had shaken their love for the 
 Sovereign not a little. But ''an attachment 
 to foreign interests, and the profession of an 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 45 
 
 
 odious religion, had excited the strongest 
 aversion to the presumptive successor to the 
 Throne."^ The old Royalists, the men who 
 had fought for Charles I. and resisted 
 Cromwell, had disappeared. New men, and, 
 under their leading, new parties, appeared 
 on the scene : the Party of the Crown and 
 the Party of the Country, afterwards the 
 Tories and the Whigs, descendants of the 
 Cavaliers and Roundheads, but greatly trans- 
 formed. Parliament had become the arena 
 and the indispensable instrument of politics. 
 The Royalist Long Parliament carried on, 
 while they detested, the work of the Revolu- 
 tionary Long Parliament. The restored 
 Monarchy triumphed by means of the same 
 arms which had struck it down. The King 
 governed the country by Parliament, and the 
 Parliament, by its own leaders, became the 
 adviser of the Crown. 
 
 1 Memoir of Williafn, Lord Russell. 
 
46 Memoirs of 
 
 It was not till some little time after 
 RusselFs marriage to Lady Vaughan that he 
 began to take a prominent position in the 
 Country Party. His first speech was in 
 1674. With generous feelings, an elevated 
 but not very comprehensive mind, and little 
 foresight, of a character more obstinate than 
 strong, and disposed to allow himself to be 
 easily led, or governed, or deceived, in the 
 course to which his inclination disposed him, 
 he soon became one of the most fervent 
 opponents of the Court, and the ornament, 
 if not the chief leader, of the Country Party. 
 The principles which he adopted and the 
 measures which he brought forward or 
 supported would necessarily bring on him 
 the resentment of those whose corruption he 
 resisted. Always ready to risk danger in 
 behalf of his cause, he undertook the 
 defence in the House of Commons, and 
 often the initiative, of the strongest measures 
 
Lady Russell 47 
 
 of the Opposition — among others, the Bill 
 by which it was proposed to exclude the 
 Duke of York from the succession, as being 
 a Papist. He had the merit with his Party 
 and in the nation of almost always sharing 
 their prejudices, their passions, their mis- 
 takes ; agreeing with them in judgment and 
 in feeling, superior to them all by his virtues. 
 Thus he soon became the man who was 
 most popular and most honoured in the 
 Kingdom, and such was the mutual agree- 
 ment and sympathy between him and the 
 National Party that nothing occurred to 
 enlighten Lord Russell as to his failings, or 
 those of his friends — for the only warnings 
 of them came from his opponents, and such 
 warnings are never much regarded. 
 
 Lady Russell, whilst she sympathised with 
 her husband's principles, both political and 
 religious, and honoured him for his stead- 
 fast adherence to them, was not blind to the 
 
48 Memoirs of 
 
 danger he incurred ; and, from doubts as to 
 the propriety of some of the measures he 
 proposed, or disquieted as to their probable 
 consequence, sometimes gave him cautions 
 on the subject with a frankness equally 
 tender and firm. In 1681 she concludes a 
 letter thus : 
 
 ** One remembrance more, my best life. 
 Be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove. 
 So farewell for this time." 
 
 On another occasion she says : 
 
 '* Look to your pockets ; a printed paper 
 says you will have fine papers put into them, 
 and then witnesses to swear.'' 
 
 Like himself, she was anxiously and 
 patriotically occupied with the future of her 
 country ; but her judgment was more un- 
 trammelled, less prejudiced, more far-sighted. 
 As early as March 1678, when Lord Russell 
 was about to support a measure of bitter 
 opposition in the House of Commons, he 
 
Lady Russell 49 
 
 received a note from her during the 
 sitting : 
 
 *' My sister, being here, tells me she over- 
 heard you tell her Lord last night, that you 
 would take notice of the business (you know 
 what I mean) in the House ; this alarms me, 
 and I do earnestly beg of you to tell me 
 truly if you have or mean to do it ; if you do, 
 I am most assured you will repent it. I beg 
 once more to know the truth. It is more 
 pain to be in doubt, and to your sister too ; 
 and if I have any interest, I use it to beg 
 your silence in this case, at least to-day. 
 
 '' R. Russell." 
 It is not necessary to read this letter a 
 second time in order to be convinced that 
 this was not the first occasion on which 
 Lady Russell had used similar language. 
 Her urgent request that he would tell her 
 the truth implies a mild complaint that he 
 had often concealed it from her, and a lively 
 
so Memoirs of 
 
 solicitude on account of what she could not 
 be sure to prevent. Lord Russell was no 
 doubt struck with the step she had taken ; 
 for he carefully preserved the note, marking 
 on it the time and the place where it was 
 received. It is, however, probable that he 
 did not follow her advice, either then or on 
 other similar occasions. 
 
 The time arrived when the King, though 
 little inclined to a hazardous line of policy, 
 and the Parliament, though monarchical 
 and loyal, came to an open rupture. The 
 National Party required Charles II. to dis- 
 inherit his brother, and with his own hands 
 to divert the succession from the direct line. 
 Charles required the National Party, at all 
 risks, to submit to a Prince who evidently 
 • desired to destroy the religion and the con- 
 stitution of the country. Thus pushed to ex- 
 tremes, each formed a resolution : the King 
 to attempt tyranny ; the National Party, 
 
Lady Russell 51 
 
 insurrection. At the critical moment, in 
 1 68 1, when the last Parliament of Charles IL 
 was dissolved, two men, Lord Shaftesbury 
 and Lord Russell, were the leaders of the 
 struggle. Shaftesbury was already old, am- 
 bitious, indefatigable, and corrupt, practised 
 from childhood in seeking and finding his 
 fortune in intrigues and plots. His was a bold 
 and flexible mind, sagacious and fertile, having 
 great influence over men : he was equally 
 able to serve or to injure, to please or to 
 perplex, but attached by pride and foresight 
 to the Protestant and National Party, which 
 appeared to him the stronger, and certain 
 ultimately to prevail. He was fully resolved 
 amid any circumstances to save himself : to 
 reap the fruit of his intrigues, or to renew 
 them. Lord Russell was still young, sincere, 
 ardent, inexperienced, firm in mind and 
 heart, full. of faith and honour, conscientious 
 even in conspiring, ready to sacrifice his life 
 
52 Memoirs of 
 
 in the cause, but incapable of indifference to 
 success or of taking flight. Between these 
 two men, engaged with such different feel- 
 ings in the same enterprise, it was easy to 
 foresee which would be the instrument in 
 case of success, or the victim in case of 
 failure. 
 
 The conspirators met from time to time, 
 doubtful of each other and not revealing to 
 each other the full extent of their projects. 
 Lord Russell, with Algernon Sidney, was 
 willing to organise a resistance to arbitrary 
 power, and to exclude the Duke of York 
 from the Throne, probably accepting in the 
 depths of his soul, without avowing it even 
 to himself, the consequences of such a revolu- 
 tion. Lord Shaftesbury saw clearly into his 
 design, and was prepared at all costs for the 
 dethronement of the King and the appoint- 
 ment of a successor other than the direct 
 heir. There were others who desired to 
 
Lady Russell 53 
 
 have a Republican Government, and, in pur- 
 suit of their dream, were prepared for the 
 deaths of the King and the Duke. There 
 were among them also traitors, either bought 
 by the Court or ready to give up the secret 
 and sacrifice their associates in order to save 
 themselves. One day, when they were as- 
 sembled. Lord Russell saw enter, with Colonel 
 Sidney and Hampden, Lord Howard of 
 Escrick, a man whom he distrusted, who 
 was afterwards one of the chief witnesses 
 against him. He expressed to his friend 
 Lord Essex his wish to withdraw ; but Lord 
 Essex detained him, thinking better of Lord 
 Howard, and little suspecting that he would 
 be the instrument of the ruin of them both. 
 
 Some days later, Lord Mordaunt, an 
 ardent Royalist and far from being a con- 
 spirator, although a friend of Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, was with the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
 the Kings mistress, with whom he had 
 
54 Memoirs of 
 
 formed a secret and close intimacy, in the 
 hope of advancing his fortune. Suddenly 
 the Kings arrival was announced to the 
 Duchess : His Majesty was on the stairs. 
 The Duchess hastily concealed Lord Mor- 
 daunt in an adjoining room. Curiosity led 
 him to look through the keyhole. Lord 
 Howard had come, and was conversing with 
 the King, but in a voice so low that it could 
 not be overheard. Released by the Duchess 
 as soon as she herself was free, Mordaunt 
 hastened out, took a coach, and went forth- 
 with to Lord Shaftesbury, whom he informed 
 of what he had witnessed. 
 
 ** Are you quite certain ? " asked the Earl, 
 regarding him steadfastly. 
 
 '' Perfectly sure/* said Mordaunt. 
 
 '*Well, my Lord, you are an honourable 
 young man : you would not deceive me. If 
 that is true, I must be off to-night.*' 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury did leave his house that 
 
Lady Russell 55 
 
 night, and concealed himself elsewhere in 
 London, — the order for his arrest was 
 issued the following day, — and some days 
 afterwards he embarked at Harwich and 
 took refuge in Holland, hoping to find an 
 asylum there and an avenger in the Prince 
 of Orange. As Chancellor, he had vehe- 
 mently supported the war against Holland, 
 and more than once had said, *' Carthage 
 must be destroyed." On arriving at Amster- 
 dam, he applied to the Burgomaster for 
 permission to reside there. *' Carthage, not 
 yet destroyed, willingly receives the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury within her walls," the Burgo- 
 master answered. 
 
 At the same time that the order was 
 given for the arrest of Lord Shaftesbury, a 
 similar order had been issued for that of 
 Lord Russell, and that he should be brought 
 before the Council. The messenger who 
 bore the order presented himself at the chief 
 
56 Memoirs of 
 
 entrance of the house ; but that at the back 
 was left free, probably by design. Lord 
 Russell might have escaped ; but he would 
 not, saying that his flight would be a 
 confession, and that he had done nothing 
 which should make him fear the justice of 
 his country. Nevertheless, he sent Lady 
 Russell hastily to consult his chief friends, 
 who, understanding that his accuser was a 
 man named Rumsey, whom Lord Russell 
 had never trusted — whose testimony, there- 
 fore, he did not fear — agreed that he ought 
 not to fly. 
 
 He appeared before the King and 
 Council. The King told him that he was 
 not suspected of any design against him 
 personally, but that there were strong proofs 
 of his intentions against the Government. 
 After a long examination, he was sent to 
 the Tower. On entering, he said to his 
 valet, Taunton, that there was a determina- 
 
Lady Russell 57 
 
 tion against him, and that they would take 
 his Hfe. On Taunton's expressing a hope 
 that his enemies would not succeed, '' They 
 will take it," repeated Lord Russell: ** the 
 devil is unchained/' 
 
 *' From the moment of his arrest," says 
 Burnet, '' he looked upon himself as a dying 
 man, and turned his thoughts wholly to 
 another world. He read much in the Scrip- 
 tures, particularly in the Psalms. But, 
 whilst he behaved with the serenity of a 
 man prepared for death, his friends ex- 
 hibited an honourable anxiety to save his 
 life. Lord Essex would not leave his house, 
 lest his absconding might incline a jury to 
 give more credit to the evidence against 
 Lord Russell. The Duke of Monmouth 
 offered to come in, and share fortunes with 
 him, if he could do him any service. But 
 he answered, ' it would be of no advantage 
 to him to have his friends die with him.' " 
 
58 Memoirs of 
 
 We need not repeat the details of the 
 trial. Our purpose is merely to describe 
 the domestic life of Lord and Lady Russell, 
 their feelings towards each other, under 
 trials, as well as in happier times. As soon 
 as her husband was arrested, Lady Russell 
 rose equal to the emergency, and devoted 
 herself to the measures for his assistance 
 with an ardour and intelligence which called 
 forth the admiration of all who observed it. 
 During the fortnight which elapsed between 
 his arrest and the sentence, she went, came, 
 wrote, without ceasing, collected intelligence, 
 raised the courage of alarmed friends, excited 
 the interest of persons who were indifferent, 
 seeking on all sides modes of active exertion, 
 and for gleams of hope. She was, in the 
 minds of all, so completely identified with 
 Lord Russell that when he complained that 
 the list of the jury had not been given to 
 him beforehand, the Judge and the Attorney- 
 
Lady Russell 59 
 
 General considered it sufficient to prove that 
 Lady Russell had known their names. The 
 night before his appearance in court, she 
 wrote to him : — 
 
 '* Your friends believe I can do you some 
 service at your trial. I am extremely will- 
 ing to try. My resolution will hold out ; 
 pray let yours. But it may be the court 
 will not let me. However, do you let me 
 try. I think, however, to meet you at 
 Richison's, and then resolve. Your brother 
 Ned will be with me, and sister Margaret." 
 
 The trial was on July 13, 1683. The 
 court was crowded with spectators : the 
 counsel complained that they had no room 
 to sit down. Lord Russell asked for pen, 
 ink, and paper, to take notes. They were 
 given to him. **May I have somebody to 
 help my memory?" he inquired. Permission 
 to have a servant to write for him was 
 given. *' My wife,'* said he, ''is here to do 
 
6o Memoirs of 
 
 it " ; which being assented to, she took her 
 place by his side, and continued her trying 
 task through the day. 
 
 When sentence was passed, neither the 
 courage nor the activity of Lady Russell 
 ceased. She was one of those whose minds 
 are supported by love, duty, and trust in 
 God, beyond human anticipation, strength, 
 and hope. Efforts of all kinds were made 
 to save Lord Russell's life. Some of the 
 most important men about the Court pleaded 
 strongly with the King in his behalf His 
 release, they said, would impose a debt of 
 gratitude on a powerful family ; while, if 
 their plea were rejected, the injury would 
 never be forgotten. Moreover, some con- 
 sideration was due to the daughter of 
 Lord Southampton. From several quarters 
 Lady Russell received intimations of steps 
 which were being taken towards giving her 
 an opportunity to throw herself at the feet 
 
Lady Russell 6i 
 
 of the King, who, it was thought, could not 
 refuse her. The Duke of York as well as 
 the King was appealed to. He listened 
 quietly, and made no answer. The King 
 impatiently said to Monmouth that he would 
 have pardoned him, but then he must have 
 broken with his brother. To Lord Dart- 
 mouth he answered, ''All that is true; but 
 it is also true that if I do not take his 
 life, he will have mine." Other means 
 were employed. Lord Bedford offered the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth fifty and even a 
 hundred thousand pounds, to obtain a 
 pardon ; but Charles answered that he 
 would not sell his own blood, and that of 
 his subjects, so cheaply. Lady Russell 
 thought that her uncle, the Marquess de 
 Ruvigny, might have some influence with 
 Charles. The Marquess promised to come. 
 Barillon, the French Ambassador, was in- 
 structed to speak to Charles in behalf of 
 
62 Memoirs of 
 
 Lord Russell ; but when he did so, the 
 King said : *M am sure that the King, my 
 brother, would not advise me to pardon a 
 man who would have shown me no quarter. 
 I will not hinder M. de Ruvigny from 
 coming ; but Lord Russell will lose his head 
 before he arrives. I owe this example for 
 my own safety and the good of the State." 
 
 Ruvigny did not come. At the urgent 
 request of his father, his friends, and even 
 of his wife, Lord Russell himself wrote to 
 the King, and to the Duke of York, request- 
 ing a pardon, declaring that he had never 
 entertained any designs against the King's 
 life, or even of overturning the Government, 
 and promising to go to live on the Continent 
 and to interfere no more in English affairs. 
 It was without any expectation of success 
 that he wrote these letters, and as he folded 
 up that for the Duke he said to Dr. Burnet, 
 *' This will be printed and be selling about 
 
t I 
 
 Lady Russell 63 
 
 the streets as my submission when I am 
 hanged." 
 
 It was thought there might be one more 
 chance — perhaps the best, though singular 
 and indirect. Men*s minds were strongly 
 agitated by the question as to the possible 
 legitimacy or the absolute illegitimacy of any 
 armed resistance to the legitimate Sovereign. 
 Man always desires to have reason on his 
 side, and cannot rest in the mere possession 
 of power if he feels that truth and justice are 
 against him. Consequently, both the Court 
 Party and the National Party claimed to be 
 established on a principle, and to govern by 
 right, not by power merely. The English 
 Church maintained, without limitation, the 
 illegality of resistance by force. Two of her 
 moderate and most upright divines, Burnet 
 and Tillotson, attempted to obtain Lord 
 Russell's adherence to their doctrine, hoping 
 to save his life if they could assure the King 
 
64 Memoirs of 
 
 on this point. At one time they thought 
 they had prevailed, and Lord HaHfax, whom 
 they informed of the matter, told them that 
 when he reported it to the King, His 
 Majesty appeared to be more moved by this 
 prospect than by all the other applications. 
 They renewed their efforts. Lord Russell 
 listened to them quietly. Tillotson wrote 
 to him a letter arguing the maxim of non- 
 resistance as an article of Christian truth. 
 Lord Russell took the letter, retired into an 
 adjoining room, and, returning, said that he 
 should be glad to be convinced, but could 
 not say he was. He had always held that a 
 free nation had a right to defend its religion 
 and its liberties when they were assailed. If 
 he was in error, he hoped that God would 
 forgive him, as it would be a sin of ignorance. 
 Burnet still pressed the matter. Russell 
 answered that he could not tell a lie, and he 
 must if he went further. He had discussed 
 
Lady Russell 65 
 
 the question with his wife, who, far from 
 urging him to give way, had sorrowfully 
 approved and supported him in his firmness. 
 It is said that she even showed some dis- 
 pleasure at Tillotson's urgency on the subject. 
 All means were vain ; ^ all hopes suc- 
 cessively died away ; the fatal day was at 
 hand. ''I wish," said Lord Russell, **that 
 my wife would give over beating every bush 
 for my preservation " ; but, considering that 
 it would afterwards be a consolation to feel 
 that she had done all that was in her power, 
 he acquiesced. When they were together, 
 they seemed to be each of them entirely 
 occupied in strengthening and encouraging 
 
 ^ Lord Cavendish had nobly stood forward at the trial to 
 vindicate Lord Russell's character, when it was deemed ** almost 
 as criminal to be a witness for him, as to have been an accomplice 
 with him." After the sentence was passed, he offered to visit him 
 in prison, change clothes with him, and remain in his place while 
 he made his escape. Lord Russell, however, would not secure his 
 own safety at the expense of his friend, nor injure the cause he had 
 adopted by a course which would be construed as a confession of 
 guilt. 
 
 5 
 
66 Memoirs of 
 
 the other ; when she left, he followed her 
 with his eyes ; his emotion seemed on the 
 point of breaking forth ; he overcame it with 
 difficulty, and gave himself up either alone, 
 or with Burnet and Tillotson, to religious 
 meditation, conversation, or reading. On 
 July 19, being informed that the application 
 for a respite till the following Monday had 
 been rejected, and that the execution was 
 fixed for the second day afterwards, he wrote 
 a letter to the King which was not to be 
 forwarded till after his death, in which he 
 protested that he had always been devoted 
 to what he believed to be the real interests of 
 the Crown, and that if he had been mistaken 
 he hoped that the King's displeasure would 
 be satisfied by his death, and would not 
 extend to his wife and children. On the 
 following day, the 20th, he received the 
 Sacrament from Tillotson. 
 
 '* Do you believe all the articles of the 
 
Lady Russell ^i 
 
 Christian faith as taught by the Church of 
 England?" asked Tillotson. 
 
 '' Yes." 
 
 *' Do you forgive all your enemies ? " 
 
 '' With my whole heart." 
 
 After dinner, he read over and signed the 
 paper which he intended to give to the Sheriff 
 on the scaffold, as his farewell to life and to 
 the country, and gave Lady Russell his 
 instructions as to its publication and distri- 
 bution immediately after his death. Lady 
 Russell brought his children to him. He 
 kept them with him for some time, conversed 
 with her as to their education, and their 
 prospects, kissed and blessed them, without 
 losing his composure. *' Stay and sup with 
 me," he said to his wife. *' Let us eat our 
 last earthly food together." During and 
 after supper he spoke cheerfully on various 
 subjects, especially about his two girls, and 
 mentioned several instances of men who had 
 
68 Memoirs of 
 
 met death with calmness and firm minds. 
 Towards ten o'clock he rose, took Lady- 
 Russell by the hand, and kissed her four or 
 five times ; both were silent and trembling, 
 their eyes full of tears which did not over- 
 flow. When she had left, ''Now," said he 
 to Burnet, '' the bitterness of death is past " ; 
 and, suddenly giving himself up to his 
 feelings, *' What a blessing she has been to 
 me, and what a misery it would have been if 
 she had been crying to me to turn informer 
 and to be a Lord Howard ! " He said there 
 was a signal providence of God in giving 
 him such a wife, who brought rank, fortune, 
 great understanding, great religion, and great 
 kindness to him ; but her carriage in his 
 extremity was beyond all. Then he spoke 
 of his own situation, and remarked how great 
 a change death made, and how wonderfully 
 these new scenes would strike on a soul. 
 He had heard how some that had been 
 
Lady Russell 69 
 
 born blind were struck when, by the couching 
 of their cataracts, they saw ; '' but what," said 
 he, ''if the first thing they saw were the 
 rising sun ? '^ 
 
 In the morning, on his way to the place 
 of execution, he sang to himself the 119th 
 Psalm ; and while preparing for the last 
 blow he gave his watch to Burnet, saying, 
 '* I have done with time ; now eternity 
 comes/' One of his last commissions was 
 a kind message to his father's chaplain, 
 Mr. Kettlewell, who held in their fullest 
 extent opinions the opposite of those for 
 which he was about to die. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Lady Russell was now a widow, alone in 
 her dwelling of Southampton House with 
 her three children, — two girls, one nine years 
 of age and the other seven, and a boy of 
 three, — and it tends to excite some surprise 
 that we find among the earliest of her 
 letters, after so severe a blow, two addressed 
 directly or indirectly to Charles H., who 
 had just refused the life of her husband. 
 Scarcely had she left London, whence she 
 had retired with her children to her 
 father-in-law the Earl of Bedford's seat at 
 Woburn, when she wrote to her uncle, John 
 Russell, Colonel of the ist Regiment of 
 Guards : 
 
 ''Apologies, dear Uncle, are not necessary 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 71 
 
 to you for anything I do, nor is my dis- 
 composed mind fit to make any ; but I want 
 your assistance, so I ask it freely. You may 
 remember, Sir, that a very few days after 
 my great and terrible calamity, the King 
 sent me word he meant to take no advantage 
 of anything that was forfeited to him, but 
 terms of law must be observed ; so, now the 
 grant for the personal estate is done and in 
 my hands, I esteem it fit to make some com- 
 pliment of acknowledgment to His Majesty; 
 to do this for me is the favour I beg of you ; 
 but I have writ the enclosed paper in such a 
 manner that if you judge it fit, you may, as 
 you see cause, show it to the King, to let 
 him see what thanks I desire should be made 
 to him ; but that is left to you to do as you 
 approve. 
 
 '' Truly, Uncle, 'tis not without reluctancy 
 I write to you myself, since nothing that is 
 not very sad can come from me, and I do not 
 
72 Memoirs of 
 
 love to trouble such as, I am sure, wish me 
 none. I ask after your health, and when I 
 hear you are well, it is part of the only 
 satisfaction I can have in this wretched 
 world, where the love and company of the 
 friends and nearest relations of that dear and 
 blessed person must give me all I can find 
 in it now ; it is a great change from as much 
 happiness as I believe this world can ever 
 give, to know no more, as never must, — 
 Yours, R. Russell." 
 
 Soon a rumour from Town reached Lady 
 Russell in her retreat. She heard that the 
 Court, disquieted by the effect produced on 
 the country by the paper given to the Sheriff 
 by Lord Russell on the scaffold, denied its 
 authenticity. This roused her from her 
 depression. She considered this attack an 
 injury to her husband s memory, and hastened 
 to write to the King in the style of a person 
 called by a sense of duty to repel an injury 
 
Lady Russell 73 
 
 to the dead, and seeming reckless of con- 
 sequences to herself. The letter is endorsed 
 **My Letter to the King, a Few Days After 
 my Lord's Death," and is as follows : 
 
 '' May it please Your Majesty, — I find my 
 husband's enemies are not appeased with 
 his blood, but still continue to misrepresent 
 him to Your Majesty. It is a great addition 
 to my sorrows to hear Your Majesty is 
 prevailed upon to believe that the paper 
 he delivered to the Sheriff at his death was 
 not his own. I can truly say, and am ready 
 in the solemnest manner to attest, that 
 (during his imprisonment) I often heard 
 him discourse the chiefest matters contained 
 in that paper in the same expressions he 
 therein uses, as some of those few relations 
 that were admitted to him can likewise aver. 
 And sure it is an argument of no great force 
 that there is a phrase or two in it another 
 uses, when nothing is more common than 
 
74 Memoirs of 
 
 to take up such words we like, or are 
 accustomed to in our conversation. I beg 
 leave further to avow to Your Majesty, that 
 all that is set down in the paper read to Your 
 Majesty on Sunday night, to be spoken in 
 my presence, is exactly true ; as I doubt not 
 but the rest of the paper is, which was 
 written at my request ; and the author of 
 it, in all his conversation with my husband 
 that I was privy to, showed himself a loyal 
 subject to Your Majesty, a faithful friend to 
 him, and a most tender and conscientious 
 minister to his soul. I do, therefore, humbly 
 beg Your Majesty would be so charitable to 
 believe that he, who in all his life was 
 observed to act with the greatest clearness 
 and sincerity, would not at the point of 
 death do so disingenuous and false a thing as 
 to deliver for his own what was not properly 
 and expressly so. And if, after the loss 
 in such a manner of the best husband in 
 
Lady Russell 75 
 
 the world, I were capable of any consolation, 
 Your Majesty only could afford it by having 
 better thoughts of him, which, when I was 
 so importunate to speak with Your Majesty, 
 I thought I had some reason to believe I 
 should have inclined you to, not from the 
 credit of my word, but upon the evidence of 
 what I had to say. I hope I have written 
 nothing in this that will displease Your 
 Majesty. If I have, I humbly beg of you 
 to consider it as coming from a woman 
 amazed with grief; and that you will pardon 
 the daughter of a person who served Your 
 Majesty's father in his greatest extremities 
 (and Your Majesty in your greatest posts), 
 and one that is not conscious of having ever 
 done anything to offend you (before). I 
 shall ever pray for Your Majesty's long 
 life and happy reign — Who am with all 
 humility. May it please Your Majesty, 
 
 *' R. Russell." 
 
76 Memoirs of 
 
 It is a widow aggrieved, it is the devoted 
 wife of a conspirator just dead on the scaffold 
 for maintaining the right of resistance and 
 the liberties of his country, who manifests 
 with such simplicity this profound respect 
 for Monarchy, this attention to propriety, 
 this susceptibility so humble in words, so 
 proud in reality. Days, months, years, pass 
 on ; she remains the same, entirely given to 
 one feeling, without being overwhelmed by 
 it ; at the same time collected, attentive, and 
 even active, in the business of life. Her 
 friend Dr. Fitzwilliam takes the most tender 
 interest in the noble daughter of his old 
 patron, and employs his uttermost efforts to 
 support, to console, to lead her through all 
 her troubles closer to her God and Saviour. 
 It is to him that Lady Russell opens her 
 heart ; it is to him she conjfides all her 
 internal conflicts — her fits of depression, her 
 seasons of trustful confidence. The follow- 
 
Lady Russell tj 
 
 ing extracts from this correspondence will 
 be sufficient to give some idea of her 
 character, especially rare and admirable in- 
 asmuch as passion and good sense, tender- 
 ness of feeling and firmness of mind, never 
 neutralise each other. Through forty years 
 of widowhood, whilst devoted to the memory 
 of a beloved husband, she continued reason- 
 able and active in all the relations, all the 
 affections, all the duties, — we might almost 
 say, all the interests, — of the world around 
 her. 
 
 Shortly after her misfortune. Dr. Fitz- 
 william had sent her some religious advice, 
 and forms of prayer. In her answer she 
 says : 
 
 ** I need not tell you, good Doctor, how 
 little capable I have been of such an exercise 
 as this. You will soon find how unfit I am 
 still for it, since my yet disordered thoughts 
 can offer me no other than such words as 
 
78 Memoirs of 
 
 express the deepest sorrows, and confused 
 as my yet amazed mind is. But such men 
 as you, and particularly one so much my 
 friend, will, I know, bear with my weakness 
 and compassionate my distress, as you have 
 already done by your good letter and ex- 
 cellent prayer. I endeavour to make the 
 best use I can of both ; but I am so evil and 
 unworthy a creature, that though I have 
 desires, yet I have no dispositions or worthi- 
 ness, towards receiving comfort. You that 
 know us both and how we lived, must allow 
 I have just cause to bewail my loss. I know 
 it is common with others to lose a friend ; 
 but to have lived with such a one, it may be 
 questioned how few can glory in the like 
 happiness, so consequently lament the like 
 loss. Who can but shrink at such a blow, 
 till by the mighty aids of His Holy Spirit, 
 we will let the gift of God, which He hath 
 put into our hearts, interpose ? That reason 
 
Lady Russell 79 
 
 which sets a measure to our souls in pros- 
 perity will then suggest many things which 
 we have seen and heard to moderate us in 
 such sad circumstances as mine. But, alas ! 
 my understanding is clouded, my faith weak, 
 sense strong, and the devil busy to fill my 
 thoughts with false notions, difficulties, and 
 doubts . . . but this I hope to make matter 
 of humiliation, not sin." 
 
 A few days later : 
 
 *^ You deal with me. Sir, just as I would 
 be dealt withal ; and it is possible I feel the 
 more smart from my raging griefs because I 
 would not take them off, but upon fit con- 
 siderations ; as it is easiest to our natures to 
 have our sore in deep wounds gently handled ; 
 yet as most profitable, I would yield, nay 
 desire, to have mine searched, that, as you re- 
 ligiously design by it, they may not fester. It 
 is possible I grasp at too much of this kind, 
 for a spirit so broke by affliction ; for I am so 
 
8o Memoirs of 
 
 jealous that time, or necessity, the ordinary- 
 abater of all violent passions (nay, even em- 
 ployment, or company of such friends as I 
 have left), should do that my reason or re- 
 ligion ought to do, as makes me covet the 
 best advices, and use all methods to obtain 
 such a relief as I can ever hope for, a silent 
 submission to the severe and terrible provi- 
 dence, without any ineffective unwillingness 
 to bear what I must suffer ; and such a 
 victory over myself, that, when once allayed, 
 immoderate passions may not be apt to break 
 out again upon fresh occasions and accidents, 
 offering to my memory that dear object of 
 my desires, which must happen every day, I 
 may say every hour, of the longest life I can 
 live, that so, when I must return into the 
 world, so far as to act that part is incumbent 
 upon me in faithfulness to him I owe as 
 much as can be due to man, it may be with 
 great strength of spirits, and grace to live a 
 
Lady Russell 8i 
 
 stricter life of holiness to my God, who will 
 not always let me cry to Him in vain. On 
 Him I will wait till He have pity on me, 
 humbly imploring that, by the mighty aids of 
 His most Holy Spirit, He will touch my heart 
 with greater love to Himself. Then I shall 
 be what He would have me. But I am un- 
 worthy of such spiritual blessing, who remain 
 so unthankful a creature for those earthly 
 ones I have enjoyed, because I have them no 
 longer. Yet God, who knows our frames, will 
 not expect that when we are weak we should 
 be strong. This is much comfort under my 
 deep dejections, which are surely increased 
 by the subtle malice of that great enemy of 
 souls, taking all advantages upon my present 
 weakened and wasted spirits, assaulting with 
 divers temptations, as, when I have in any 
 measure overcome one kind, I find another 
 in the room, as when I am less afflicted (as I 
 before complained), then I find reflections 
 
 6 
 
82 Memoirs of 
 
 troubling me, as omissions of some sort or 
 other ; that if either greater persuasions had 
 been used, he had gone away ; or some 
 errors at the trial amended, or other applica- 
 tions made, he might have been acquitted, 
 and so yet have been in the land of the 
 living (though I discharge not these things 
 as faults upon myself, yet as aggravations to 
 my sorrows ) ; so that not being certain of 
 our time being appointed, beyond which we 
 cannot pass, my heart shrinks to think his 
 time possibly was shortened by unwise 
 management, I believe I do ill to torment 
 myself with such unprofitable thoughts." 
 
 To Mr. Griffith, who had written to her 
 on occasion of her loss, she writes : 
 
 *' I have loved man too well, and did not 
 weigh enough how short my interest might 
 be in that loved object of my desires : had 
 God had full possession of my soul, or had I 
 prized His love, adored His wisdom, and 
 
Lady Russell 83 
 
 believed His goodness in all the secret con- 
 ducts of His providences (yea, although I 
 groaned under the sharpest dispensations of 
 it), I should not be cast down ; but passion 
 rebels, and I cannot, with the constancy and 
 frame of spirit I desire, follow His steps in 
 that thorny path of suffering He trod before 
 me with so much ease : this calls for the 
 sharpest accents of my lamentations ; but I 
 still bestow them upon the loss of earthly 
 enjoyments ; our grosser part lying nearer to 
 their more suitable objects in the mixed state 
 of this world ; sense soon prevails, and by 
 perpetual sharp and quick remembrances 
 brings to my mind how full of content my 
 mind lately was, and that I must never here 
 know more ; it is a bitter reflective, can only 
 be allayed by seriously fixing upon that con- 
 sideration you have lighted on to offer me, 
 that whatever he did in his place he did it 
 faithfully, as unto God, and upon that belief 
 
84 Memoirs of 
 
 may safely ground a hope he was lifted from 
 a prison to a throne ; then I know it is very 
 unreasonable to take so heavily, that what 
 was so precious to me, his gain, should be 
 matter of so grievous and lasting a weight 
 of sorrow to me ; but I must hope this is my 
 infirmity, and that our High Priest, who was 
 touched with ours, will give me (who with 
 my soul desires with my groans to mingle 
 justification of my God) suffering grace for a 
 suffering condition, making His rod medicinal 
 to me ; and by giving a strong faith in the 
 precious promises of the gospel, I shall one 
 day be able to evidence to my soul, that they 
 belong to me, that His rod and love have 
 gone together, and, though sorely chastened, 
 yet instruction hath accompanied correction, 
 awakened and quickened me to make my 
 calling and election sure, bearing up my 
 evidence to heaven, where, after a few more 
 weary days, we shall together enjoy the 
 
Lady Russell 85 
 
 visions of God, ever praising Him to eternal 
 ages, without interposition of ill accidents : 
 that I may prepare for this blessed change, 
 and without undue impatience wait the time, 
 and in the meanwhile attain such a measure 
 of comfort as is necessary for a prudent and 
 faithful discharge of my remaining duty to 
 him to whom I owe as much as can be due 
 to man. Remember me, good Mr. Griffith, 
 in your supplications to the Throne of Grace 
 for suitable divine assistance to the miseries 
 and necessities of. Sir, your ever sad but 
 faithful friend to serve you, 
 
 '' R. Russell." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 For some time after her efforts in behalf of 
 her husband and her loss, there was a re- 
 action and depression which threatened to 
 become permanent, and in some measure to 
 disable her from feeling the consolations of 
 religion. "^ Dr. Fitzwilliam seems to have 
 remonstrated with her on having indulged 
 her feelings by visiting her husband's tomb. 
 She answered : 
 
 '' Doctor, I had considered I went not to 
 seek the living among the dead ; I knew 
 I should not see him any more wherever I 
 went, and had made a covenant with my- 
 self, not to break out in unreasonable, fruit- 
 less passion, but quicken my contemplation 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 87 
 
 whither the nobler part was fled, to a country 
 afar off, where no earthly power bears any 
 sway, nor can put an end to a happy society ; 
 there I would willingly be, but we must not 
 limit our time : I hope to wait without im- 
 patiency." 
 
 In another letter she says : 
 
 *'But sure, Doctor, it is the nature of 
 sorrow to lay hold on all things which give 
 a new ferment to it ; then how could I choose 
 but feel it in a time of so much confusion 
 as these last weeks have been, closing so 
 tragically as they have done ; and sure never 
 any poor creature for two whole years to- 
 gether has had more awakers to quicken 
 and revive the anguish of soul than I have 
 had ; yet I hope I do most truly desire that 
 nothing may be so bitter to me, as to think 
 that I have in the least offended thee, O my 
 God, and that nothing may be so marvellous 
 in my eyes as the exceeding love of my 
 
88 Memoirs of 
 
 Lord Jesus ; that, heaven being my aim, 
 and the longing expectations of my soul, 
 I may go through honour and dishonour, 
 good report and bad report, prosperity and 
 adversity, with some evenness of mind. 
 The inspiring me with these desires is, I 
 hope, a token of His never - failing love 
 towards me though an unthankful creature 
 for all the good things I have enjoyed, and 
 do still in the lives of hopeful children by 
 so beloved a husband." 
 
 Again : 
 
 ''You cannot make so great a mistake, 
 good Doctor, I know, as not to be assured 
 I accept most kindly every method you take 
 for the disposing my sad heart to be sub- 
 missively content with my position here ; 
 and then to revive it to some thankful 
 temper by various reflections. I do not 
 resist so foolishly as to say they are not 
 proper ones ; I can discern so justly as to 
 
Lady Russell 89 
 
 know you do not err, Doctor, In the manner 
 of magnifying your charitable respect, nor 
 
 ■ 
 
 in the design nor prosecution of it ; the 
 virtue you chiefly recommend to practise is 
 so beautifully set forth, it is as a burning 
 shining light, and one is willing to live with 
 that light. But my languishing, weary spirit 
 rises up slowly to all good : yet I hope by 
 God's abundant grace in time your labours 
 will work the same effect in my spirit ; they 
 will indeed in less time on others better 
 disposed and prepared than I am, who in 
 the day of affliction seem to have no remem- 
 brance, with due thankfulness, of prosperity. 
 Your papers, sure, Sir, are rarely fitted for 
 the use of all struggling under the burden 
 of sin or sorrow, though by a singular and 
 particular charity composed for my lament- 
 able calamity, and as seasonably is this new 
 supply come, as is possible, for its first 
 perusal by me. Since I unsealed your 
 
90 Memoirs of 
 
 packet this very morning, the 21st of July, 
 a day of bitterness indeed, I seasoned the 
 first minutes of retirement, I allotted this 
 day for prayer and mourning, with reading 
 them, and made a stop for some time on 
 those lines — * We may securely depend on 
 the truth of God's promises, to this purpose, 
 that a seed-time of tears shall be followed 
 by a plenteous harvest of joys/ It is a 
 sound I must hereafter be a stranger to in 
 my pilgrimage here, but that it shall one 
 day belong to me is a contemplation of great 
 comfort, and I bless God it is so ; I must 
 not in lowliness of mind deny the grace I 
 sometimes feel, though faint are my best 
 thoughts and performances, as I am sensible." 
 
 After passing ten months at Woburn, in 
 solitude and inaction, she felt the need of 
 change of scene, and of seeking new im- 
 pressions. On April 20, 1684, she wrote : 
 
 ''The future part of my life will not, I 
 
Lady Russell 91 
 
 expect, pass as perhaps I would just choose ; 
 sense has been long enough gratified, indeed 
 so long I know not how to live by faith ; 
 yet the pleasant stream that fed it near 
 fourteen years together being gone, I have 
 no sort of refreshment but when I can repair 
 to that living fountain from whence all 
 flows ; while I look not at the things which 
 are seen, but at those which are not seen, 
 expecting that day which will settle and 
 compose all my tumultuous thoughts in 
 perpetual peace and quiet ; but am undone, 
 irrecoverably so, as to my temporal longings 
 and concerns. Time runs on and usually 
 wears off some of that sharpness of thought 
 inseparable from my circumstances, but I 
 cannot experience such an effect ; every 
 week making me more and more sensible 
 of the miserable change in my condition : but 
 the same merciful hand which has held me 
 up from sinking in the extremest calamities, 
 
92 Memoirs of 
 
 will (I verily believe) do so still, that I faint 
 not, to the end in this sharp conflict, nor 
 add sin to my grievous weight of sorrows, 
 by too high a discontent, which is all I have 
 now to fear. You do, I doubt not, observe 
 I let my pen run too greedily upon this 
 subject ; indeed it is very hard upon me to 
 restrain it, especially to such as pity my 
 distress, and would assist towards my relief 
 any way in their power. I am glad I have 
 so expressed myself to you, as to fix you in 
 resolving to continue the course you have 
 begun with me, which is to set before me 
 plainly my duty in all kinds : it was my 
 design to engage you to it ; nor shall you 
 be less successful with me, in your desires, 
 could there happen occasion for it, which 
 is most unlikely. Dr. Fitzwilliam under- 
 standing himself and the world so well. 
 On neither of the points, I believe, I shall 
 give you reason to complain, yet please 
 
Lady Russell 93 
 
 myself in both, so far of one mind we 
 shall be. 
 
 '* I am entertaining some thoughts of 
 going to that now desolate place Stratton, 
 for a few days, where I must expect new 
 amazing reflections at first, it being a place 
 where I have lived in full and sweet con- 
 tent, considered the condition of others, and 
 thought none deserved my envy ; but I 
 must pass no more such days on earth ; 
 however, plans are indeed nothing. Where 
 can I dwell that his figure is not present to 
 me? Nor would I have it otherwise; so I 
 resolve that shall be no bar, if it proves 
 requisite for the better acquitting any obliga- 
 tion upon me. That which is the immediate 
 one is settling, and indeed giving up, the 
 trust my dear Lord had from my best 
 sister. Fain would I see that performed, as 
 I know he would have done it had he lived. 
 If I find I can do as I desire in it, I will 
 
94 Memoirs of 
 
 (by God's permission) infallibly go ; but 
 indeed not to stay more than two or three 
 weeks, my children remaining here, who 
 shall ever have my diligent attendance, 
 therefore shall hasten back to them." 
 
 Five months later : 
 
 '* I have resolved to try that desolate 
 habitation of mine at London this winter. 
 The doctor agrees it is the best place for 
 my boy, and I have no argument to balance 
 that, nor could take the resolution to see 
 London till that was urged ; but by God's 
 permission I will try how I can endure that 
 place, in thought a place of terror to me ; 
 but I know if sorrow had not another root, 
 that will vanish in a few days." 
 
 She did not carry out her intention 
 immediately, and six weeks afterwards she 
 wrote : 
 
 ** I have, you find, Sir, lingered out my 
 time here, and I think none will wonder at 
 
Lady Russell 95 
 
 it, that will reflect the place I am going to 
 remove to was the scene of so much lasting 
 sorrow to me, and where I acted so unsuccess- 
 ful a part for the preservation of a life I could 
 sure have laid down mine to have continued. 
 It was, Doctor, an inestimable treasure I did 
 lose, and with whom I had lived in the 
 highest pitch of the world's felicity. But 
 I must remember I have a better Friend, 
 a more abiding, whom I desire with an 
 inflamed heart to know, not alone as good 
 in a way of profit, but amiable in a way of 
 excellency ; then spiritual joy will grapple 
 with earthly griefs, and so far overcome as 
 to give some tranquillity to a mind so tossed 
 to and fro as mine has been with the evils of 
 this life; yet I have but the experience of 
 short moments of this desirable temper, and 
 fear to have fewer when I first come to that 
 desolate habitation and place where so many 
 passions will assault me : but having so many 
 
96 Memoirs of 
 
 months mourned the substance, I think (by- 
 God s assistance) the shadows will not sink 
 me/' 
 
 Her hope was fulfilled. Though often 
 falling into fits of despondency or weakness, 
 she overcame them, and her firmness of mind 
 and fervent piety kept her from exaggerated 
 feelings for the present, or fears in regard to 
 the future. She writes, a few months after 
 the foregoing : 
 
 '' I strive to reflect how large my portion 
 of good things has been ; and though they are 
 passed away no more to return, yet I have a 
 pleasant work to do, dress up my soul for my 
 desired change, and fit it for the converse 
 of angels and the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, amongst whom my hope is my loved 
 Lord is one ; and my often repeated prayer 
 to my God is, that if I have a reasonable 
 ground for that hope, it may give a refresh- 
 ment to my poor soul." 
 
Lady Russell 97 
 
 A few months later : 
 
 '' The great thing Is to acquiesce with all 
 one s heart to the good pleasure of God, who 
 will prove us by the ways and dispensations 
 He sees best ; and when He will break us to 
 pieces we must be broken. Who can tell His 
 works from the beginning to the end? But 
 who can praise His mercies more than 
 wretched I, that He has not cut me off in 
 anger, who have taken His chastisements so 
 heavily, not weighing His mercies in the midst 
 of judgments ? The stroke was of the fiercest, 
 sure ; but had I not then a reasonable ground 
 to hope that what I loved as I did my own soul 
 was raised from a prison to a throne ? Was I 
 not enabled to shut up my own sorrows, that I 
 increased not his sufferings by seeing mine ? " 
 
 Again, still a few months later : 
 
 *' I cannot tell. Doctor, whether your 
 papers met me in a better temper now, than 
 at some other times, to relish them ; yet 
 
98 Memoirs of 
 
 sure I esteem these sheets to be so fine, that 
 it brought into my mind the loss you have 
 lately sustained of a much-loved friend ; and 
 to conclude, that a new experience of grief 
 had, in your struggles to overcome all unfit 
 discontent, raised your fancy to the highest 
 pitch of framing arguments against it ; it is a 
 happy effect of sorrow, and a sure evidence 
 to the soul that the promises of the Holy 
 Word belong to her ; that the work of grace 
 is apt, and grows towards those degrees 
 where, when we arrive, we shall triumph 
 over imperfections, and our wills desire 
 nothing but what shall please God. We 
 shall, as your phrase is, be renewed like 
 eagles ; and we, like eagles, mount up to 
 meet the Lord coming in the clouds, and 
 ever tarry with Him, and be no more faint or 
 weary in God's service. These are ravishing 
 contemplations, Doctor ! They clasp the heart 
 with delight for such moments, or, to say 
 
Lady Russell 99 
 
 more truly, part of a moment, that the soul 
 is so well fixed. It is true, we can (you are 
 sure) bear the occasions of grief without 
 being sunk and drowned in those passions ; 
 but to bear them without a murmurinof heart — 
 there is the task ; and in failing — there lies 
 the sin. O Lord, lay it not to the charge of 
 thy weak servant ; but make me cheerfully 
 thankful that I had such a friend to lose ; 
 and contented that he has had dismission 
 from his attendance here (an expression you 
 use I am much pleased with). When my time 
 comes that I shall have mine, I know not how 
 it will find me then ; but I am sure it is my best 
 reviving thought now; when I am plunged 
 in multitudes of wild and sad thoughts, I 
 recover and recollect a little time will end 
 this life, and begin a better that shall never 
 end, and where we shall discover the reasons 
 and ends of all those seeming severe pro- 
 vidences we have known. Thus I seem to 
 
loo Memoirs of 
 
 long for the last day, and yet it is possible if 
 sickness, or other forerunner of our dissolu- 
 tion, were present, I would defer it if I could ; 
 so deceitful are our hearts, or so weak is our 
 faith. But I think, one may argue again, 
 that God has wisely implanted in our nature 
 a shrinking at the approach of a separation ; 
 and that may make us content, if not desire a 
 delay. If it were not so implanted there, 
 many would not endure the evils of life that 
 now do it, though they are taught duty that 
 obliges us thereto." 
 
 A year later : 
 
 '' I had made him my idol, though I did 
 not know it ; I loved man too much and God 
 too little ; yet my constant prayer was not to 
 do so — but not enough fervent I doubt. I 
 will turn the object of my love all I can upon 
 his loved children, and if I may be directed 
 and blessed in their education, what is it I 
 have to ask in relation to this perishing world 
 
Lady Russell loi 
 
 for myself? It is joy and peace in believing 
 that I covet, having nothing to fear but sin. 
 
 *' The near and pleasing concern you make 
 the well-being of me and mine to be to 
 you, I believe most hearty and sincere, and 
 kindly engages me to great thankfulness ; but 
 amongst your choicest expressions, you are 
 induced to say you could rather envy my 
 condition than pity it, from an opinion of 
 being supported and comforted with a well- 
 grounded persuasion of my having a right 
 and title to those precious promises that will 
 give a pleasant and perpetual rest to the 
 weary and heavy-laden soul. This, Doctor, 
 is perhaps what you mistake in; and I have 
 led you into the error by speaking too well 
 of my own thoughts or exercises, which are 
 truly all mean and encompassed with un- 
 comfortable weakness ; yet I have not the 
 confusion to reflect I have said anything from 
 a false glory ; I should, if I can discern right, 
 
102 Memoirs of 
 
 wrong my own heart by It, and that grace 
 of God which disposes me, though in the 
 meanest degree, to ask for and thirst after 
 such comforts as the world cannot give. 
 What it can pfive I am most sure I have 
 felt, and experienced them uncertain and 
 perishing ; such I will never more (grace 
 assisting) look after ; and yet I expect a 
 joyful day, after some more sorrowful ones ; 
 and though I walk sadly through the valley 
 of death, I will fear no evil, humbling myself 
 under the mighty hand of God, who will save 
 me in the day of trouble ; He knows my 
 sorrows and the weakness of my person. I 
 commit myself and mine to Him. 
 
 '*The pensive quiet I hope for here 
 [Woburn], I think, will be very grateful to 
 my weary body and mind ; yet when I con- 
 template the fruits of the trial and labour of 
 these last six months,^ it brings some comfort 
 
 1 The marriage of her eldest daughter. 
 
Lady Russell 103 
 
 to my mind, as an evidence that I do not 
 live only to lament my misfortunes, and be 
 humbled by those heavy chastisements I 
 have felt, which must for ever in this life press 
 me sorely. That I have not sunk under the 
 pressure has been, I hope, in mercy, that I 
 might be better fitted for my eternal state, 
 and form the children of a loved husband 
 before I go hence. With these thoughts 
 I can be hugely content to live ; and the 
 rather as the clouds seem to gather and 
 threaten storms ; though God only knows 
 how I may acquit myself, and what help I 
 may be, or what example I shall give to my 
 young creatures. I mean well towards them, 
 if I know my heart." 
 
 The following was written two years 
 later : 
 
 ** By report I fear poor Lady Gains- 
 borough is in new trouble ; for though she 
 has all the help of religion to support her. 
 
I04 Memoirs of 
 
 yet that does not shut us out from all sorrow ; 
 it does not direct us to insensibility if we 
 could command it, but to a quiet submission 
 to the will of God, making His ours as 
 much as we can. Indeed, Doctor, you are 
 extremely in the right to think that my life 
 has been so embittered, it is now a very 
 poor thing to me : yet, I find myself careful 
 enough of it. I think I am useful to my 
 children, and would endure hard things to 
 do for them till they can do for themselves ; 
 but alas ! I am apt to conclude if I had not 
 that, yet I should still find out some reason 
 to be content to live, though I am weary of 
 everything and of the folly, the vanity, and 
 the madness of man most of all. There is 
 a shrinking from the separation of the soul 
 from the body, that is implanted in our 
 natures, which enforces us to conserve life ; 
 and it is a wise Providence ; for who would 
 else endure much evil, that is not taught the 
 
Lady Russell 105 
 
 great advantage of patient sufferings ? I am 
 heartily sorry, good Doctor, that you are 
 not exempt, which I am sure you are not, 
 when you cannot exercise your care as 
 formerly among your flock at Cottenham. 
 But I will not enlarge on this matter, nor 
 any other at this time/' 
 
 After another two years she writes ; 
 
 *'But to come to the purpose of yours, 
 which I received the 13th of this lamentable 
 month, the very day of that hard sentence 
 pronounced against my dear friend and 
 husband : it was the fast day, and so I 
 had the opportunity of retiring without any 
 taking notice of it, which pleases me best. 
 What shall I say, Doctor ? That I do live 
 by your rules ? No : I should lie. I bless 
 God it has long been my purpose, with some 
 endeavour, through mercy, to do it. I hope 
 I may conclude I grieve without sinning ; 
 yet I cannot attain to that love of God, and 
 
io6 Memoirs of 
 
 submission to all His providences, that I can 
 rejoice in; however, I bless Him for His 
 infinite mercy, in a support that is not 
 wrought from the world (though my heart 
 is too much bound up in the blessings I 
 have yet left) ; and I hope chiefly He has 
 enabled me to rejoice in Him as my ever- 
 lasting portion, and in the assured hope of 
 good things in the other world. 
 
 '* Good Doctor, we are travelling the 
 same way, and hope, through mercy, to 
 meet at the same happy end of all our labours 
 here, in an eternal rest : and it is of great 
 advantage to that attainment, communicating 
 pious thoughts to each other; nothing on 
 this side heaven goes so near to it ; and 
 being where God is, it is heaven. If He 
 be in our hearts there will be peace and 
 satisfaction, when one recollects the happi- 
 ness of such a state (which, if my heart 
 deceives me not, I hope is mine), and I 
 
Lady Russell 107 
 
 will try to experience more and more that 
 blessed promise — * Come unto me, all ye that 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you ease/ 
 This day and this subject inclines me to be 
 very long, and might to another be too 
 tedious ; but I know it is not so to Dr. 
 Fitzwilliam, who uses to feast in the house 
 of mourning. However, my time to open 
 my chamber door is near, and I take some 
 care not to affect in these retirements.*' 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The foregoing excerpts show how Lady 
 Russell attempted to resist the depression 
 to which her circumstances naturally gave 
 rise. She received many letters of con- 
 solation and friendly counsel from Burnet, 
 Tillotson, Patrick, Howe, and others ; for 
 which in one of her letters she expresses 
 her gratitude : 
 
 '* How were my sinking spirits supported 
 by the early compassions of excellent and 
 wise Christians, without ceasing, admonish- 
 ing me of my duty, instructing, reproving, 
 comforting me ! You know. Doctor, I was 
 not destitute ; and I must acknowledge that 
 many others like yourself, with devout zeal 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 109 
 
 and charity, contributed to the gathering 
 together of my scattered spirits, and then 
 subjecting them by reason to such sub- 
 mission as I could obtain under so aston- 
 ishing a calamity." 
 
 She wrote also, if not with the same 
 freedom, at least with the same sentiments, 
 to some persons who had rendered her 
 important services, or shown her sympathy 
 under her trial. Lord Halifax, among 
 others, had interceded with the King, after 
 the execution of Lord Russell, and had 
 obtained, with great difficulty, permission 
 that his family arms might be placed over 
 the door of his house, as if he had died 
 a natural death. He had subsequently 
 maintained a friendly relation with Lady 
 Russell, who wrote to him on the death of 
 his daughter Lady Carbery in 1689. Lord 
 Halifax, in acknowledging her letter, had 
 given expression to his feelings at some 
 
no Memoirs of 
 
 political vexations which had annoyed him 
 about the same time ; on which Lady- 
 Russell wrote again as follows : 
 
 *' My Lord, — For my part, I think the 
 man a very indifferent reasoner, that to do 
 well he must take with indifference whatever 
 happens to him. It is very fine to say, Why 
 should we complain that is taken back which 
 was but lent us, and lent us but for a time, 
 we know ? and so on. They are the receipts 
 of philosophers I have no reverence for, as 
 I have not for anything which is unnatural. 
 It is insincere. And I dare say they did dis- 
 semble, and felt what they would not own. 
 I know I cannot dispute with Almighty 
 Power ; but yet if my delight is gone, I 
 must needs be sorry it is taken away, 
 according to the measure it made me 
 glad. 
 
 ''The Christian religion only, believe me, 
 my Lord, has a power to make the spirit 
 
1 1 1 
 
 Lady Russell 
 
 easy under great calamity ; nothing less than 
 the hope of being again made happy can 
 satisfy the mind : I am sure I owe more to 
 it than I could have done to the world, if 
 all the glories of it had been offered me, 
 or to be disposed of by me. And I do 
 sincerely desire your Lordship may ex- 
 perience the truth of my opinion. You 
 know better than most, from the share you 
 have had of the one, what they do afford ; 
 and I hope you will prove what tranquillity 
 the other gives. If I had a better wish to 
 make, your Lordship's constant expressions 
 of esteem for me, and willingness, as I hope, 
 to have had me less miserable than I am, 
 if you had found your power equal to your 
 will, engages me to make it ; and that alone 
 would have bound me, though my own 
 unworthiness and ill fortune had let you 
 have forgot me for ever after my sad lot. 
 But since you would not do so, it must 
 
112 Memoirs of 
 
 deserve a particular acknowledgment for 
 
 ever." 
 
 A distressing but efficacious diversion of 
 her thoughts was given her by a near 
 prospect of fresh losses. Her son, scarcely 
 four years old, became dangerously ill. She 
 was on the point of losing him ; but he 
 recovered. 
 
 **God has been pitiful to my small grace/* 
 she wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, ''and removed a' 
 threatened blow, which must have quickened 
 my sorrows, if not added to them, — the loss 
 of my poor boy. He has been ill, and God 
 has let me see the folly of my imaginations, 
 which made me apt to conclude I had nothing 
 left the deprivation of which could be 
 matter of much anguish, or its possession 
 of any considerable refreshment. I have 
 felt the falseness of the first notion, for I 
 know not how to part with tolerable ease 
 from the little creature. I desire to do so 
 
Lady Russell 113 
 
 of the second, and that my thankfulness for 
 the real blessing of these children may 
 refresh my weary, labouring mind with 
 some joy and satisfaction, at least in my 
 endeavours to do that part towards them 
 their most dear and tender father would 
 not have omitted, and which, if successful, 
 though early made unfortunate, may conduce 
 to their happiness for the time to come and 
 hereafter. When I have done this piece of 
 duty to my best friend and them, how gladly 
 would I lie down by that beloved dust I 
 lately went to visit (that is, the case that 
 holds it).'* 
 
 Shortly afterwards : 
 
 ** You hear I am at Totteridge, and why 
 I came thither, and soon will know I wanted 
 the auxiliaries you took care to send me ; 
 sure I did so, but it hath pleased the Author 
 of all Mercies to give me some glimpse and 
 
 ray of His compassions in this dark day 
 
 8 
 
114 Memoirs of 
 
 of my calamity, the child being exceedingly 
 better; and I trust no secret murmur or 
 discontent at what I have felt, and must 
 still do, shall provoke my God to repeat 
 those threatenings of making yet more bitter 
 that cup I have drunk so deeply out of; but 
 as a quiet submission is required under all 
 the various methods of Divine Providence, 
 I trust I shall be so supported, that though 
 unfit thoughts may haunt me, they shall not 
 break in importunately upon me, nor will I 
 break off that bandage time will lay over my 
 wound. To them that seek the Lord His 
 mercies are renewed every morning ; with 
 all my strength to Him I will seek ; and 
 though He kill me I will trust in Him ; 
 my hopes are not of this world ; I can 
 never more recover pleasure here ; but more 
 durable joys I shall obtain, if I persevere to 
 the end of a short life." 
 
 Three years later she writes : 
 
Lady Russell 115 
 
 '' I often think, could but this single 
 particular be fixed firmly in our hearts, that 
 God knows where it is best to place His 
 creatures, and is good to all, delighting not to 
 punish what He has made, how easily and 
 safely could we live by rule, and despise the 
 world ; not as, perhaps, I do, because I can- 
 not recover what was a perpetual bliss to me 
 here, but as considering we are strangers 
 and pilgrims upon earth, travelling to a 
 better country, and therefore may well bear 
 with bad accommodations sometimes in our 
 way to it. None are so dealt with, I believe, 
 as not to live some days of joy, yet we can lay 
 no claim to do so, nor are the happiest here 
 below without tasting the bitter cup of 
 affliction at some time of their life ; so 
 imperfect is this state, and doubtless wisely 
 and mercifully ordered so, that through all 
 the changes and chances of this mortal life 
 we may be the most apt to thrust forward 
 
ii6 Memoirs of 
 
 towards, and in the end (with inexpressible 
 joy) attain, that state where, as you express 
 it, we shall feel no more storms, but enjoy a 
 perpetual calm. What can be more ? The 
 thought clasps one's heart, and causes the 
 imprisoned soul to long to take her flight ! 
 But it is our duty to wait with patience 
 each of us our appointed time." 
 
 She had long to wait for the happy re- 
 union which she so strongly desired. While 
 waiting, as years passed on, she treated her 
 grief as men treat an ailment which cannot 
 be cured, with which they learn to live. 
 Notwithstanding the void in her heart, her 
 life was active, and she was occupied without 
 her thoughts being distracted. The educa- 
 tion of her children, their prospects, the 
 management of her household, the interests 
 and welfare of her neighbours, were the 
 objects of her constant care. *' I am very 
 glad," wrote Burnet, *'that you intend to 
 
Lady Russell 117 
 
 employ so much of your time in the education 
 of your children, that they shall need no 
 other governess ; for as it is the greatest 
 part of your duty, so it will be a noble 
 entertainment to you, and the best diversion 
 and cure of your wounded and wasted 
 spirits." Her daughters, indeed, never had 
 any other governess. She was careful that 
 her own sorrow should not interfere with 
 enjoyments proper to their age. 
 
 ** The poor children," she wrote, when 
 she returned to Stratton, *' are well pleased 
 to be a little while in a new place, ignorant 
 how much better it has been both to me and 
 them ; yet I thought I found Rachel not 
 insensible, and I could not but be content 
 with it in my mind. Those whose age can 
 afford them any remembrance should, 
 methinks, have some solemn thoughts for so 
 irreparable a loss to themselves and family ; 
 though after that I would cherish a cheerful 
 
ii8 Memoirs of 
 
 temper in them with all the industry I can ; 
 for sure we please our Maker best when we 
 take all His providences with a cheerful spirit/* 
 She bore a most grateful affection to her 
 father-in-law, the Earl of Bedford. He lost 
 his wife.^ She gave up a journey she had 
 designed, and remained with him. ** I would 
 not choose,'' she said, "to leave a good man 
 under a new oppression of sorrow, that has 
 been, and is, so very tender to me." It was 
 to her that application was made amid all 
 important circumstances connected with the 
 family : among others, in a project for the 
 marriage of her brother-in-law, Edward 
 Russell, and one of the daughters of Lord 
 
 ^ Anne, daughter and sole heiress of Robert Carr, Earl of 
 Somerset, by his too celebrated Countess, Frances Howard, the 
 divorced wife of Essex. The Earl's father strongly objected to the 
 marriage, saying that his son might take any other woman in 
 England. His consent was obtained only by the King's interference. 
 Lady Bedford's health never recovered the shock which it had received 
 from her son's execution ; and her death is said to have been hastened 
 by the accidental sight of a pamphlet commenting on her mother's 
 guilt, the knowledge of which had been carefully kept from her. 
 She was found senseless with it open before her. 
 
Lady Russell 119 
 
 Gainsborough, father-in-law of her sister 
 EHzabeth ; and a proposal made by Lord 
 Strafford for one of her sisters-in-law. It 
 was known that her advice would be good, 
 and that her approval would carry great 
 weight. *' I have done it," she writes on one 
 of these occasions, ** though I wish she had 
 made choice of any other person than myself, 
 who, desiring to know the world no more, am 
 utterly unfitted for the management of any- 
 thing in it; but must, as I can, engage in 
 such necessary offices for my children as I 
 cannot be dispensed from, nor desire to be, 
 since it is an eternal obligation upon me to 
 the memory of a husband to whom, and to 
 his, I have dedicated the few and sad 
 remainder of my days in this vale of misery 
 and trouble." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The day of so much interest for mothers 
 arrived sooner than she expected. Her 
 eldest daughter, Rachel, was only fourteen 
 when Lord Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, 
 asked her in marriage for his eldest son, who 
 was only sixteen. Lord Cavendish had been 
 the most intimate and devoted friend of Lord 
 Russell ; ^ and Lady Russell, feeling deeply 
 the sentiment which dictated the proposal, 
 and sensible of the fitness of the connection, 
 accepted it with much satisfaction. 
 
 '' I trust," she wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, 
 ''if I perfect this great work, my careful 
 endeavours will prosper ; only the Almighty 
 
 1 See p. 65. 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 121 
 
 knows what the event shall be ; but sure it is 
 a glimmering of light I did not look for in 
 my dark day. I do often repeat in my 
 thoughts, The children of the just shall be 
 blessed : I am persuaded their father was 
 such : and if my heart deceive me not, I 
 intend the being so, and humbly bless God 
 for it." 
 
 The settlements were difficult to arrange : 
 the most exalted sentiments are sometimes 
 united with sordid and obstinate requirements. 
 
 *^ I have," wrote Lady Russell, "a well- 
 bred lord to deal with, yet inflexible, if the 
 point is not to his advantage. I am to meet 
 him this morning at eleven o'clock at the 
 lawyer's chambers, proposing to give a finish- 
 ing stroke to the agreement between us, and 
 then the deeds will be drawn in a few more 
 weeks, I hope, and the matter perfected." 
 
 These conferences and discussions annoyed 
 her. *' I meet," she said, '' with hard difficulties 
 
122 Memoirs of 
 
 in the lawyer s hands ; we are forced to be 
 with a great many of that profession, which is 
 very troublesome at this time to me, who 
 would fain be delivered from them, conclude 
 my affairs, and so put some period to that 
 inroad methinks I make on my intended 
 manner of living the rest of my days on earth. 
 But I hope my duty shall always prevail 
 above the strongest inclination I have. I 
 believe to assist my yet helpless children is 
 my business ; which makes me take many 
 dinners abroad, and do of that nature many 
 things the performance of which is hard 
 enough to a heavy and weary mind ; but yet, 
 I bless God, I do it.'' 
 
 She brought these affairs to an end, how- 
 ever ; and on 21st June 1688 her daughter 
 was married to the young Lord Cavendish, 
 who almost immediately departed to travel on 
 the Continent. 
 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that 
 
Lady Russell 123 
 
 Lady Russell lived strictly in retirement, with 
 her sweet but sad memories, her religious 
 meditations, her duties and family cares. She 
 was not naturally of a very lively and fertile 
 mind ; nor was she disposed spontaneously 
 to seek and to find everywhere subjects of 
 interest and action. Left to herself and to 
 ordinary life, she would perhaps have taken 
 no part in the great ideas and movements of 
 the time ; but she had entered into them in 
 company with her husband, from sympathy 
 with him, and with a mind capable of under- 
 standing and feeling everything great. She 
 continued faithful to Lord Russell's cause as 
 to his memory, and constantly occupied, in 
 her isolated state, with the same questions of 
 religious and political liberties which, had 
 he been still with her, would have formed 
 the subjects of their joint solicitude and of 
 their private conversation. The revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes excited in her not 
 
124 Memoirs of 
 
 only the most lively sympathy with the 
 proscribed Protestants, but also deep moral 
 reflections. In writing to Dr. Fitzwilliam 
 she said : 
 
 ** Doctor, I will take your advice, and vie 
 my state with others, and begin with him in 
 the highest prosperity, as himself thinks, the 
 King of a miserable people ; but truly the 
 most miserable himself, by debasing as he 
 does the dignity of human nature ; and 
 though, for secret ends of Providence, he is 
 suffered to make these poor creatures drink 
 deep of a most bitter cup, yet the dregs are 
 surely reserved for himself. What a judg- 
 ment it is upon an aspiring mind, when 
 perhaps half the world knows not God nor 
 confesses the name of Christ as a Saviour, 
 nor the beauty of virtue, which almost all 
 the world has in derision, that it should not 
 excite him to a reformation of faith and 
 manners ; but with such a rage turn his 
 
Lady Russell 125 
 
 power to extirpate a people that own the 
 Gospel for their law and rule! How 
 infamous to his fame is the one! How 
 glorious to his memory would the other 
 have been! But he is too wicked to be 
 an instrument of so much good to his 
 degenerate age. Now, Sir, I cannot choose 
 but think myself less miserable than this poor 
 King. For the vast numbers of sufferers, 
 the sound thereof is more terrible to those 
 at a distance than the calamity of a single 
 person ; but taken asunder, the sufferings of 
 any one, and those I have and do feel, are 
 not perhaps at so wide a distance as it 
 appears, theirs being heaped together; but, 
 as you very well note, there is no state to 
 be pronounced extremely miserable, but a 
 state of sin, which will deprive us of a future 
 state of glory, without a deep repentance, 
 which I wish to all sinners. I hear our 
 King has given leave for collection for those 
 
126 Memoirs of 
 
 Protestants which have been drove hither. 
 God make His people thankful for it." 
 
 Two months later she says : 
 
 ''Yesterday the Lord Delamere passed 
 his trial, and was acquitted. I do bless God 
 that He has caused some stop to the effusion 
 of blood that has been shed of late in this 
 poor land. But, Doctor, as diseased bodies 
 turn the best nourishments, and even cordials, 
 into the same sour humour that consumes 
 and eats them up, just so do I. When I 
 should rejoice with them that do rejoice, I 
 seek a corner to weep in, I find I am capable 
 of no more gladness ; but every new circum- 
 stance, the very comparing my night of sorrow 
 after such a day with theirs of joy, does, from 
 a reflection of one kind or other, rack my un- 
 easy mind. Though I am far from wishing 
 the close of theirs like mine, yet I cannot 
 refrain giving some time to lament mine was 
 not like theirs ; but I certainly took too much 
 
Lady Russell 127 
 
 delight in my lot, and would too willingly 
 have built my tabernacle here, for which I 
 hope my punishment will end with life. 
 
 *' The accounts from France are more and 
 more astonishing ; the perfecting work is 
 vigorously pursued, and by this time com- 
 pleted, it is thought ; all without exception 
 having a day given them ; only those I am 
 going to mention have found so much grace 
 as rU tell you. ... It is enough to sink 
 the strongest heart to read the relations are 
 sent over. How the children are torn from 
 their mothers and sent into monasteries, 
 their mothers to another. The husband 
 to prison or the galley. These are amaz- 
 ing providences, Doctor ! God out of infinite 
 mercy strengthen weak believers ! I am too 
 melancholy an intelligencer to be very long, 
 so will hasten to conclude." 
 
 Her own country engaged her attention 
 in a still greater degree. The trial and 
 
128 Memoirs of 
 
 death of Algernon Sidney, the succession 
 of James II., the progress of his tyranny, 
 Monmouth's insurrection, and the severities 
 then inflicted on so many of the friends of 
 the cause which was dear to her, revived 
 her most painful remembrances. At times 
 she derived an unexpected consolation even 
 from these misfortunes. 
 
 *' The new scenes of each day," she 
 writes, *'make me often conclude myself 
 very void of temper and reason, that I 
 still shed tears of sorrow, and not of joy, 
 that so good a man is landed safe on the 
 happy shore of a blessed eternity ; doubtless 
 he is at rest, though I find none without him, 
 so true a partner he was in all my joys and 
 griefs ; I trust the Almighty will pass by 
 this my infirmity ; I speak it in respect to 
 the world, from whose enticing delights I 
 can now be better weaned. I was too rich 
 in possession while I possessed him ; all 
 
Lady Russell 129 
 
 relish now is gone. I bless God for it, and 
 pray and ask of all good people (do it for me 
 from such you know are so) also to pray 
 that I may more and more turn the stream 
 of my affection upwards, and set my heart 
 upon the ever-satisfying perfections of God ; 
 not starting at His darkest providences, but 
 remembering continually either His glory, 
 justice, or power is advanced by every one 
 of them, and that mercy is over all His 
 works, as we shall one day with ravishing 
 delight see. In the meantime I endeavour 
 to suppress all wild imaginations a melan- 
 choly fancy is apt to let in, and say, with 
 the man in the Gospel, * I believe : help thou 
 mine unbelief.' " 
 
 Religious thoughts, however, did not 
 always calm her real disquietude and real 
 griefs. The religious and political situation 
 of England became daily more and more 
 gloomy, and Lady Russell, whose strongest 
 
130 Memoirs of 
 
 feelings were concerned, was daily more and 
 more saddened and alarmed for her children, 
 for her country, and for the prospects of the 
 cause for which Lord Russell had laid down 
 his life. The following extracts from her 
 letters show her state of feeling at this time : 
 '' Those are happy who, in the midst of 
 confusions, can faithfully believe the end of 
 all shall be rest ; and if we can evidence to 
 our hearts we have a title according to the 
 promises of the gospel to that happy rest, 
 what can be a very uneasy disturbance ? 
 Nothing should be, I am certain, yet we 
 find pretences for it. I think I fear not 
 myself, but I am afraid what risk my 
 children may run ; and if that were not, 
 our weak faith would furnish us out with 
 some other reason to justify, as we fancy, 
 our too great carefulness. I will do what 
 I can not to exceed, and so bid you adieu 
 for this time.'* 
 
Lady Russell 131 
 
 ''We in the country are still kept under 
 wonder and expectation ; the cloud is very- 
 thick that is spread over us ; but this is our 
 support (if we can but maintain our courage 
 for a while), that nothing that can befall us 
 can hurt us much ; being the power of man 
 reaches no farther than these frail bodies, 
 that must, however, in a little while lie 
 down, until that glorious day of the Lord, 
 when all men's works shall be tried by a 
 right judgment ; then shall we see many 
 justified that have stood condemned with 
 the world : till then I desire to wait with 
 patience." 
 
 *' There is no time so hazardous but the 
 righteous and the repentant may run unto 
 God and be safe ; and if we must not escape 
 the judgments of the sword, yet I trust it 
 shall cut off only such as most notoriously 
 cumber God's ground ; and that in the midst 
 of wrath He will remember mercy, if we will 
 
132 Memoirs of 
 
 but meet Him in His judgments, as miserable 
 sinners ought to do ; and as I question not 
 but numbers in this land do/' 
 
 The revolution of 1688 put an end to this 
 position of pain and monotony. After five 
 years of mourning and depression, Lady 
 Russell suddenly saw her husband's cause 
 triumphant. 
 
 She was at Woburn during the two 
 months which elapsed between the landing 
 of the Prince of Orange in England and the 
 final departure of James. Far from London, 
 alone with her father-in-law and her children, 
 she yet was well - informed of what was 
 passing, and she watched the course of 
 events with the restrained interest of a 
 reasonable mind which knows the uncertainty 
 attending great designs, and with a religious 
 trust which leaves its family and country in 
 the hands of God. We see by her letters 
 that she diligently read the gazettes and 
 
Lady Russell 133 
 
 papers published on both sides, and that 
 details of Town and Court news reached 
 her frequently. Anxious for information, 
 when she heard that Burnet had arrived 
 with the Prince at Salisbury, she sent to 
 him a letter by a special messenger. 
 
 *' Curiosity," she says, **may be too eager, 
 and therefore not to be justified, but sure it 
 is unavoidable. I do not ask you should 
 satisfy any part of it further than you can do 
 in six lines. But I would see something of 
 your handwriting upon English ground, and 
 not read in print only the labour of your 
 brains." 
 
 When the conflict approached its close, 
 she went with the Earl of Bedford to pass 
 some days in London, and it was probably 
 then that. King James having requested 
 Lord Bedford's assistance, the Earl said, 
 ''Sire, I had a son who might to-day have 
 supported Your Majesty." Lady Russell 
 
134 Memoirs of 
 
 had a near view of the scenes amid which 
 William was seated on the throne. 
 
 ** Those who have Hved longest," she 
 wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, "and therefore 
 seen the most change, can scarce believe it 
 is more than a dream : yet it is indeed real, 
 and so amazing a reality of mercy as ought 
 to melt and ravish our hearts into subjection 
 and resignation to Him who is the dispenser 
 of all providences." 
 
 Writing to Tillotson some time afterwards, 
 she says : *' The many public and signal 
 mercies we have of late received are so 
 reviving, notwithstanding the black and 
 dismal scenes which are constantly before 
 one, and particularly in these sad months, 
 I must feel the compassions of a wise and 
 good God to these late sinking nations, and 
 to the Protestant interest all the world over, 
 and all good people also. I raise my spirit 
 all I can and labour to rejoice in the prospect 
 
Lady Russell 135 
 
 of more happy days for the time to come 
 than some ages have been blessed with. 
 The goodness of those instruments God has 
 called forth to work this great work by 
 swells one's hopes." 
 
 Though she had kept up no regular 
 communication with the Prince of Orange, 
 they were not unknown or indifferent to each 
 other. Letters occasionally passed between 
 her and the Princess ; and William knew too 
 well the weight of Lord Russell's name in 
 England, and the consideration in which his 
 widow was held, not to pay her an especial 
 regard. When he sent Dykevelt as Am- 
 bassador to England in 1687, he instructed 
 him to visit Lady Russell, and in his name 
 to express the deep esteem and great interest 
 which he felt for her. Lady Russell, on the 
 24th of March 1687, gives an account of this 
 visit, in which the Ambassador conveyed the 
 Prince's expressions of good -will towards 
 
136 Memoirs of Lady Russell 
 
 her and the families with which she was 
 connected, and assurances that any request 
 she might make should be acceded to, adding 
 that he acted not as an individual, but as a 
 public minister. He repeated an expression 
 made use of by Mr. Skelton, the English 
 Ambassador at the Hague, when the news of 
 Lord Russell's death was received, to the 
 effect that the King had taken the life of one 
 man, but it would cost him perhaps several 
 thousand men. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 William, when proclaimed King, did not 
 delay publicly to confirm the language which 
 his Minister had addressed to Lady Russell 
 nearly two years before. On the evening of 
 the 13th of February 1689, King William 
 and Queen Mary — having in the morning 
 accepted the Crown from Parliament — held 
 their first public reception at Whitehall. 
 Lady Russell was not there. Indisposed for 
 all earthly pomp, even when her own cause 
 was concerned, she quitted neither her house 
 nor her mourning. Her daughter. Lady 
 Cavendish, however, attended the Court with 
 her mother-in-law, the Countess of Devon- 
 shire. Writing to a friend, she says : " At 
 
138 Memoirs of 
 
 night I went to Court with my Lady 
 Devonshire, and kissed the Oueen's hand 
 and the King's also. There was a world of 
 bonfires, and candles almost in every house, 
 which looked extremely pretty. The King 
 applies himself mightily to business, and is 
 wonderfully admired for his great wisdom 
 and prudence in ordering all things. He is 
 a man of no presence, but looks very homely 
 at first sight ; but if one looks long on him, 
 he has something in his face both wise and 
 good. But as for the Queen, she is really 
 altogether very handsome ; her face is very 
 agreeable, and her shape and motions 
 extremely graceful and fine. She is tall, but 
 not so tall as the last Oueen. Her room 
 was mighty full of company, as you may 
 guess." 
 
 Political action soon succeeded royal 
 civility. An Act was passed by Parliament 
 reversing the sentence on Lord Russell, 
 
Lady Russell 139 
 
 which it designated as murder. It was 
 brought into the House of Commons ''at 
 the request of the Earl of Bedford and Lady 
 Russell/' Sir Thomas Clarges moved that 
 these words should be omitted, because, said 
 he, ''national justice is above personal 
 solicitation ; this Act is not passed as a 
 personal favour : all England is concerned in 
 it." It was the second Act which received 
 the royal assent after William's accession. 
 A short time afterwards, to show favour at 
 the same time to two families united by 
 domestic ties as well as by political feelings, 
 he raised the Earls of Bedford and Devon- 
 shire to the Dukedom. The letters patent 
 of the new Duke of Bedford stated, among 
 the grounds for this favour, " that this was 
 not the least, that he was father to the Lord 
 Russell, the ornament of his age, whose 
 great merits 'twas not enough to transmit by 
 history to posterity, but they were willing 
 
140 Memoirs of 
 
 to record them in their royal patent, to 
 remain in the family as a monument con- 
 secrated to his consummate virtue, whose 
 fame would never be forgot so long as men 
 preserved any esteem for sanctity of manner, 
 goodness of mind, and a love of their country 
 constant even to death. Therefore, to 
 solace his excellent father for so great a loss, 
 to celebrate the memory of so noble a son, 
 and to excite his worthy grandson, the heir 
 of such mighty hopes, more cheerfully to 
 emulate and follow the example of his 
 illustrious father, they entailed this high 
 dignity upon the Earl and his posterity." 
 
 Family gratifications came to Lady Russell 
 along with political restorations and honour. 
 Her second daughter, Catherine, was married 
 to Lord Roos, the eldest son of the Earl of 
 Rutland ; and her son to Miss Rowland, a 
 rich heiress of Surrey. In neither case did 
 she decide hastily, or on mere considerations 
 
Lady Russell 141 
 
 of rank or fortune. On account of a divorce 
 which gave rise to some scruples, she 
 hesitated for some time before she allowed 
 her daughter to enter the family of the Earl 
 of Rutland, and she had refused a still more 
 wealthy alliance for her son. The brilliancy 
 of these marriages and the prosperity of the 
 family drew upon her the attention of all, 
 without any one being surprised or envious. 
 The public openly sympathised with this 
 reparation of injustice ; and the relations and 
 friends of the Russells, the Cavendishes, and 
 the Wriothesleys, took pleasure in report- 
 ing to Lady Russell in her retirement at 
 Southampton House the splendour of the 
 festivals in which she had no part. Her 
 daughter Catherine, after her marriage with 
 Lord Roos, was conducted by her husband 
 to Belvoir, the seat of the Earl of Rutland, 
 her father-in-law. On this occasion Sir James 
 Forbes — by whom, ten years previously, 
 
142 Memoirs of 
 
 Lord Cavendish had conveyed to Lord 
 Russell the proposal to take his place in 
 prison while he escaped — wrote to Lady- 
 Russell : 
 
 '* Madam, — I could not miss this op- 
 portunity of giving your Ladyship some 
 account of Lord Roos and Lady Roos' 
 journey, and their reception at Belvoir, 
 which looked more like the progress of a 
 King and Queen through their country, 
 than that of a bride and bridegroom's going 
 home to their father's house. At their first 
 entry into Leicestershire, they were received 
 by the High Sheriff at the head of all the 
 gentlemen of the country, who all paid their 
 respects to the lady bride at Harborough. 
 She was attended next day to this place by 
 the same gentlemen, and by thousands of 
 other people, who came from all places of 
 the country to see her, and to wish them 
 both joy, even with huzzas and acclamations. 
 
Lady Russell 143 
 
 *' As they drew near to Belvoir, our train 
 increased, with some coaches and with fresh 
 troops of aldermen, and corporations, besides 
 a great many clergymen, who presented the 
 bride and bridegroom with verses upon their 
 happy marriage. 
 
 " I cannot better represent their first arrival 
 at Belvoir, than by the Woburn song that Lord 
 Bedford liked so well ; for at the gate were 
 four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row ; four- 
 and- twenty trumpeters, with their tan-tara- 
 ra-ra s ; four-and-twenty ladies, and as many 
 parsons ; and in great order they went in 
 procession to the great apartment, where the 
 usual ceremony of saluting and wishing of 
 joy passed, but still not without something 
 represented in the song as very much tittle- 
 tattle and fiddle-faddle. After this the time 
 passed away till supper in visiting all the 
 apartments of the house, and in seeing the 
 preparations for the sack-posset, which was 
 
144 Memoirs of 
 
 the most extraordinary thing I did ever see, 
 and much greater than it was represented to 
 be. After supper, which was exceedingly 
 magnificent, the whole company went in pro- 
 cession to the great hall : the bride and 
 bridegroom first, and all the rest in order, 
 two and two. There it was the scene opened, 
 and the great cistern appeared, and the 
 healths began, — first in spoons, some time 
 after in silver cups, — and though the healths 
 were many, and great variety of names 
 given to them, it was observed after one 
 hour s hot service, the posset did not sink 
 above one inch, which made my lady Rut- 
 land call in all the family, and then upon 
 their knees the bride and bridegroom's 
 health, with prosperity and happiness, was 
 drunk in tankards brim-full of sack-posset. 
 This lasted till past 12 o'clock. — Madam, 
 Your most humble and faithful servant, 
 1693. *'J. Forbes." 
 
Lady Russell 145 
 
 In addition to the account of these rejoic- 
 ings, Lady Russell received from some of her 
 friends congratulations which were doubtless 
 more in accordance with her own feelings. 
 Burnet writes : ''I do heartily congratulate 
 with your Ladyship for this new blessing. 
 God has now heard your prayers with 
 relation to two of your children, which is a 
 good earnest that He will hear them in due 
 time with relation to the third. You begin 
 to see your children's children : God grant 
 you may likewise see peace upon Israel. 
 And now that God has so built up your 
 house, I hope you will set yourself to build 
 a house of prayer for the honour of His 
 name. 
 
 *' You have passed through very different 
 scenes of life : God has reserved the best to 
 the last. I do make it a standing part of 
 my poor prayers twice a day, that as now 
 your family is the greatest in its three 
 
 10 
 
146 Memoirs of 
 
 branches that has been in England in our 
 age, so that it may in every one of these 
 answer those blessings by an exemplary 
 holiness, and that both you and they may 
 be public blessings to the age and nation." 
 
 She had only just married her son when 
 she received a proposal respecting him 
 equally singular and flattering. A General 
 Election was at hand. The Duke of 
 Shrewsbury, Lord Steward, and Lord 
 Somers, Keeper of the Seals, caused a 
 request to be conveyed to Lady Russell 
 that she would agree to her son, notwith- 
 standing his youth (he was only fifteen years 
 of age), becoming a candidate for the County 
 of Middlesex. '* I made all the objections," 
 says Sir James Forbes, "against it that I 
 think the Duke of Bedford or your Lady- 
 ship can make, yet they were still of one 
 opinion, that it is your interest, and for the 
 honour of the family, that he should stand 
 
Lady Russell 147 
 
 at present ; and being joined with Sir John 
 Worsename, a very honest man who is 
 recommended by my Lord Keeper, they 
 doubt not but they will carry it with a high 
 hand, and thereby keep out two notorious 
 Tories, which can never be done otherwise. 
 When I told their Lordships that my Lord 
 Tavistock was soon going to Cambridge, 
 and afterwards to travel for two or three 
 years, the Duke of Shrewsbury answered 
 that they would not hinder anything of that 
 design ; for he needed not to appear but 
 once at the election, when he would be 
 attended by several thousands of gentlemen 
 and other persons on horseback out of town, 
 and the charges would be little or nothing ; 
 and the Duke of Shrewsbury bid me tell 
 your Ladyship, that if you did consent he 
 should stand, which he doubted not but you 
 would, since it was on so good an account, 
 that then they must have leave to set him 
 
148 Memoirs of 
 
 up for that day only by the name of Lord 
 Russell, which would bring ten thousand 
 more on his side, if there be so many free- 
 holders in the County." 
 
 Lady Russell had now received the 
 utmost consolation the world could afford. 
 Her husband^s sentence had been reversed 
 by the highest authority in the realm ; his 
 cause had triumphed over all opposition ; 
 and his family had received the highest 
 honours. All that could gratify conjugal 
 and maternal love and pride had been 
 heaped upon her. These honours, however, 
 did not remove her sense of the loss she 
 had sustained ; nor did it disturb the sound- 
 ness of her judgment. With respect to 
 the honours bestowed on the Russell and 
 Cavendish families, she says : ** For the late 
 circumstances in relation to the family, I 
 would have assisted to my power for the 
 procuring thereof; but for any sensible joy 
 

 Lady Russell 149 
 
 at these outward things, I feel none." She 
 prudently resolved to reject the premature 
 political triumph offered to her son. In 
 forwarding the letter containing the proposal 
 for his election to her brother-in-law, Lord 
 Edward Russell, with a request that he 
 would see the Duke of Shrewsbury on the 
 subject, she expresses her own and Lord 
 Bedford's strong objections to it, and their 
 conviction that the interruption of her son's 
 studies would be fatal to his career. 
 
 Maternal discretion prevailed over party 
 interests, and, instead of presenting himself 
 to the electors of Middlesex, Lord Tavistock 
 went to complete his education at the Uni- 
 versity, ''where our young nobility," she 
 wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, ''should pass some 
 of their time : it has been for many years 
 neglected." She brought into the most 
 ordinary incidents of private life the same 
 sound judgment, the same uprightness and 
 
ISO Memoirs of 
 
 moral feeling, preserved thereby from the 
 prejudices, the pride, and the frivolity 
 which were too common among the old 
 aristocracy. Before deciding to give her 
 daughter Catherine to the son of the Earl 
 of Rutland, she asked the latter whether his 
 Lordship did not think it due to the young 
 couple that they should see of each other a 
 little more than they had done, and so at 
 least guess at each other s humour, before 
 they ventured to make them, as she hoped 
 they would be, a happy couple. A few years 
 later she had to dispose of the patronage of 
 two livings. She wrote to one of her 
 friends, Sir Robert Worsley : '' I find both 
 places well disposed to receive Mr. Swayne. 
 I hope he is worthy of the gift, and believe 
 you think him so. If you should know any- 
 thing why he is not, though as a friend you 
 might wish he were the incumbent, yet I am 
 persuaded that in a just regard to the weight 
 
Lady Russell 151 
 
 of the matter, and to me who ask it from 
 you, if you know any visible reason that he 
 is not a proper person for such a preferment, 
 that you will caution me in it ; for, I profess 
 to you, Sir, I think the care of so many souls 
 is a weighty charge, and I have been willing 
 to take time to consider whose hands I put 
 these into. I can, with all my scruples, make 
 no exception to Mr. Swayne, if his vapours 
 are not too prevalent to permit his being free 
 and active in such a charge.** 
 
 This union of virtue and good sense, the 
 same throughout circumstances of the most 
 varying character, amid the favours of fortune 
 as well as under its reverses, acquired to Lady 
 Russell among the people, as well as at the 
 Court of England, a consideration and a 
 moral influence such as few women have 
 ever possessed. After their elevation to the 
 Throne, King William and Queen Mary 
 continued to show her the same respect as 
 
152 Memoirs of 
 
 before, and paid the same attention to her 
 wishes. At the time of the Revolution, 
 when the formal consent of the Princess 
 Anne to the coronation of the Prince of 
 Orange was required, Lady Churchill, after- 
 wards Duchess of Marlborough and confidant 
 of the Princess, would not advise her to give 
 it until she had consulted persons of un- 
 doubted integrity and wisdom, *' especially 
 Lady Russell and Dr. Tillotson.'' Tillotson 
 himself long hesitated before he yielded to 
 William's urgent desire that he should be- 
 come Archbishop of Canterbury, fearing that 
 the non-recognition of the King s title by a 
 part of the clergy would interfere with his 
 usefulness if he accepted the office from him. 
 It was Lady Russell who decided him to 
 yield. Consulted by him and informed of 
 the pressure put upon him by the King, she 
 wrote, after discussing and arguing against 
 the Dean's scruples : 
 
 ( ( 
 
Lady Russell 153 
 
 **The time seems to be come that you 
 must put anew in practice that submission 
 you have so powerfully both tried yourself 
 and instructed others to. I see no place to 
 escape at ; you must take up the cross and 
 bear it. I faithfully believe it has the figure 
 of a very heavy one to you, though not from 
 the cares of it ; since, if the King guesses 
 right, you toil more now ; but this work is 
 of your own choosing, and the dignity of 
 the other is what you have bent your mind 
 against, and the strong resolve of your life 
 has been to avoid it. Had this even pro- 
 ceeded to a vow, it is, I think, like the virgin's 
 of old, to be dissolved by the father of your 
 country. Again, though contemplation, and 
 a few friends well chosen, would be your 
 grateful choice, yet if charity, obedience, and 
 necessity call you into the great world, and 
 where enemies encompass round about, must 
 not you accept it ? And each of these, in 
 
154 Memoirs of 
 
 my mean apprehension, determines you to 
 do it. In short, it will be a noble sacrifice 
 you will make, and I am confident you will 
 find as a reward kind and tender supports 
 if you do take the burden upon you : there 
 is, as it were, a commanding Providence in 
 the manner of it. Perhaps I do as sincerely 
 wish your thoughts at ease as any friend 
 you have, but I think you may purchase that 
 too dear ; and if you should come to think so 
 too, they would then be as restless as before. 
 '' Sir, I believe you would be as much a 
 common good as you can ; consider how few 
 of ability and integrity this age produces. 
 Pray, do not turn this matter too much in 
 your head ; when one has once turned it 
 
 every way, you know that more does but 
 perplex, and one never sees the clearer for 
 it. Be not stiff, if it be still urged to you. 
 Conform to the Divine Will, which has set 
 it so strongly into the other's mind, and be 
 
Lady Russell 155 
 
 content to endure ; it is God calls you to it. 
 I believe it was wisely said, that when there 
 is no remedy they will give it over and 
 make the best of it, and so I hope no ill will 
 terminate on the King ; and they will lay up 
 their arrows when they perceive they are 
 shot in vain at him or you, upon whom no 
 reflection that I can think of can be made 
 that is ingenious ; and what is pure malice, 
 you are above being affected with." 
 
 With her best friend, Dr. Fitzwilliam, she 
 had not the same success. She could not 
 overcome his scruples at taking the oath of 
 allegiance to William, and he left his living. 
 Lady Russell's attempt to dissuade him from 
 this course shows a conscientiousness equal 
 to his own. ** I am very sorry," she writes, 
 '* the case stands with you as it does in refer- 
 ence to the oath ; and still wonder (unless I 
 could find Kings of divine right) why it does 
 so ! And all this is the acceptation of a word 
 
is6 Memoirs of 
 
 which I never heard two declare the meaning 
 of but they differed in their sense of it. You 
 say you could have taken it in the sense 
 some worthy men have done. Why will 
 you be more worthy than those men ? It is 
 supererogation. 
 
 '* If you can avoid mental reservation, 
 that s the biggest thing to me, for I hate 
 that to God or man ; properly I know we 
 can have none to God, though we may wish 
 to have it ; but I abhor that wish. But you 
 seem to say, though you are permitted to 
 declare, that is not enough, as not being 
 consistent with the simplicity of an oath, 
 and that it ought to be taken according to 
 the mind of the imposers. If you can take 
 it as those you mention have done, declaring 
 they meant legal obedience and peaceable 
 submission, I dare say you do so ; no more 
 is meant to be imposed, especially by the 
 King and Queen. And does not being 
 
Lady Russell 157 
 
 content with the construction your friends 
 put upon it signify their permission to take 
 it in such a sense ? It was my Lord Notting- 
 ham's misfortune to pitch upon that word 
 which gives such scruples. But methinks 
 (with submission to wiser heads) it should be 
 a greater to weaken the interest of the Church 
 and the Protestant religion all the world over 
 to the degree so many able men incapacitating 
 themselves to serve in the Church will do, if 
 God in much mercy prevent it not. 
 
 ** It is above great and good men to 
 regard reflections, if they give not a just 
 cause of scandal : and in serving the cause 
 of God the best we can, there is none given. 
 It may very well be passive obedience went 
 too high. Some drove Jehu -like. If it 
 appears they perceive they did so, ought 
 there to be shame in that, or ought it not 
 to be borne cheerfully? If their nakedness 
 is laid open and some Hams do insult, still 
 
158 Memoirs of Lady Russell 
 
 they should be above it, and overcome evil 
 with good. I never thought good men had 
 any harm by the ill-natured speeches of 
 malicious spirits. God knows the very best 
 of men have infirmities, but they are ill men 
 that retort them. However, after all is said, 
 or can be said, a man must be quiet in his 
 own breast if he can. When I began to 
 write in this paper, I meant not one word 
 of all I have said on this subject ; but I 
 know, good Doctor, you will take it right ; 
 accept well of my good meaning towards 
 you, and excuse my defects. I pretend not 
 to argue, but where my wishes are earnest 
 I speak without reserve, sometimes by sur- 
 prise ; but take it as it is, I will not look 
 back to examine ; I know I need not to you." 
 The difference made no change in their 
 friendship, and he requested her to take 
 charge of his library until he had deter- 
 mined upon his course. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 On all occasions Lady Russell, after the 
 success of the cause in which she felt such 
 deep interest, and amid the exaltation of her 
 family, shows calm judgment and a: liberality 
 of mind and heart far removed from all in- 
 flated feeling, even as she had shown firm- 
 ness and constancy under her trials. The 
 following letters indicate the consideration 
 for others with which she acted in business 
 matters. The first is addressed to Sir 
 Jonathan Trelawney, Bishop of Exeter, one 
 of the seven bishops who were sent to the 
 Tower in 1688. — 
 
 ** My Lord, — I am much obliged to your 
 Lordship for the account you give me of 
 
i6o Memoirs of 
 
 your transactions with Mr. Reinolds and 
 the Vicar of Tavistock, esteeming the pains 
 you have taken in being so particular both 
 as a respect and as proceeding from the 
 same motive that incHned me to speak with 
 your Chancellor, which was that this matter 
 might be amicably composed. The late 
 Duke of Bedford was a person of great 
 justice, moderation, and courtesy, from which, 
 if he ever swerved, I dare say it was only 
 through misinformation ; but in managing 
 his business he was regular in his method, 
 doing it all generally by his officers, and 
 very reserved to his friends and relations. 
 I never knew anything of this difference till 
 some time after his Grace's death, that Mr. 
 Reinolds, his chief steward, applying himself 
 to me, among other things acquainted me 
 therewith, which he did upon occasion of a 
 letter he had lately received from the Vicar, 
 wherein he gave him to understand that 
 
Lady Russell i6i 
 
 your Lordship had renewed your prosecu- 
 tion, and that he was under some apprehen- 
 sion that my son would not support him as 
 his grandfather would have done ; to which, 
 out of pity to the grief and fear he expressed, 
 I ordered the steward to reply to this effect : 
 That my son being at Newmarket, he could 
 give him at present no answer from him ; 
 but I bid him tell him from me that I 
 did not doubt but my son would assist him 
 in all things that were just and reasonable ; 
 and, resolving to get a relation of it as soon 
 as I could from your Lordship's side, I 
 found means to discourse with Doctor Edis- 
 bury, your Chancellor, of which, I suppose, 
 he has given you a better account than I 
 can. Had I not observed that most of the 
 differences that are arise from not having 
 patience, or not using proper means to be 
 truly informed, I should have thought you 
 had singled out this man ; but by the course 
 
 II 
 
1 62 Memoirs of 
 
 I took I soon understood your orders were 
 general. I agree, my Lord, the Vicar ought 
 to observe the rubric, and obey all your 
 canonical injunctions. I am sensible what 
 good effect singing psalms musically has 
 had in several parishes; and I am sorry a 
 man, especially in so populous a place, 
 should need to be ordered to read prayers 
 Wednesdays and Fridays. In short, my 
 Lord, neither I nor any that I can persuade 
 will assist in opposing your just authority ; 
 and, saving that we are not of their mind 
 who would lay pains and penalties upon 
 people for not conforming to its worship, 
 we are, as much as any, for supporting the 
 Church of England, and encouraging com- 
 munion with it. 
 
 *' I am satisfied, my Lord, there are many 
 would be very inconsiderable, were it not 
 for being fierce of a party, and for that end 
 they keep up a dissension, when the reason of 
 
Lady Russell 163 
 
 it is ceased ; but I wish those whom I am 
 concerned for to value men according to 
 their worth, and not for being of a party, 
 and to be assured irreHgious and immoral 
 men, of whatever party they are, or what- 
 ever they profess, can never be true to friend 
 or country, wanting the principle that should 
 make them so. It highly imports my son 
 to inquire into the things your Lordship 
 relates of an officer of his ; and if what he 
 writ to one of the gentlemen you mention 
 be extant, and were put into my son's hands, 
 
 it would be an undeniable proof, and put 
 the matter past all out -facing. I cannot 
 
 conclude before I give your lordship my 
 
 thanks for your obliging letters, and your 
 
 favour to the Vicar, upon our account. My 
 
 son will order his steward to advise him to 
 
 be more observant for the future, and to let 
 
 him know he must expect no countenance 
 
 from him if he be irregular." 
 
1 64 Memoirs of 
 
 The following is taken from a letter to 
 her cousin, the Earl of Galway : 
 
 '' I am thankful to God I have made an 
 
 end between Mr. Sp and myself. Now 
 
 as I am to answer for Mr. Sp , who 
 
 was an accountant to me, being employed 
 by me so, there is this article between him 
 and me, that if any time there is a discovery 
 of any money or debt due to him, I have 
 the title to it, and not he, let it be much or 
 little. 
 
 *' After many offers and endeavours, by 
 council and without, I came to this agree- 
 ment : He was to make a clear and full 
 discovery of all he is worth — lands, leases, 
 monies, goods, debts, etc. Then I, who was 
 to have the whole in me, allow back to him 
 what I think will be a subsistence to him, 
 his wife and children. And so I have done. 
 Swearing is what I desire to excuse ; for it 
 is possible he might be tempted to proceed 
 
Lady Russell 165 
 
 in doing ill, and I not the better ; and if he 
 had sworn truth, as others professed they 
 would not believe him, though I am less 
 free in the professing of it, I might have 
 doubted ; then why provoke him to sin ? 
 
 '* What has been urged to me over and 
 over again many times has no force in it, 
 which was, that they would undertake, and 
 are sure, he could conceal ten thousand 
 pounds, which I should never discover, 
 either in this nation or India. My answer 
 is, if it cannot ever be found, it is to me as 
 if it were not. And if I had any opinion 
 of a conjuror (as we call them), I would not 
 seek it that way. So what I approved best 
 of, I chose. 
 
 ** That if a discovery be made out it is 
 to my use. Now, the farm he has from his 
 father, which is ^55 a year, I could not 
 come at, all counsel agreeing it to be out 
 of the way ; nay, I must have had application 
 
1 66 Memoirs of 
 
 to Chancery to have proceeded ; there he 
 could have hung it up. Sir Joseph Jekyll 
 said this, that there it might hang for a 
 dozen of years, nay, to the end of the youngest 
 in the room, and Tom Selwood was one of 
 the seven or eight : there were four counsel. 
 Also, he said, he would not take five 
 thousand pounds of me towards the charge 
 I should be at. But all this avails not at 
 all ; nothing but prison, nay, dying on a 
 dunghill has no ill sound. At last I gave 
 no further trouble (after having endured so 
 much myself), from the opinion of a great 
 lawyer, though not now to be paid as 
 counsel. After two hours' discourse, and 
 laying all before him, he told me it was 
 the most advisable thing to compound the 
 matter ; and he esteemed it a very good 
 composition, where they pretended to seven 
 or eight thousand pounds from me, to pay 
 me between two and three. He was so 
 
Lady Russell 167 
 
 vehement in his opinion of making an end, 
 that as a friend he prayed and exhorted me 
 to set to it next morning ; and if it were 
 his case he would not sleep till it was done, 
 if that were possible, for if he should happen 
 to die, I could not imagine how bad my 
 circumstances might be, even to the re- 
 turning two thousand pounds I had then 
 received, and never be able to disprove his 
 account, so be a debtor eight thousand 
 pounds to his wife and children. This has 
 given me many terrible waking hours from 
 week to week, seeking to please and ac- 
 commodate to my wishes ; but they were not 
 inclined to believe what they did not like ; 
 so took na impression, as I would think they 
 did not believe it did on me ; but I was no 
 hypocrite ; I felt more than I told, my mind 
 is more at rest as to all my worldly 
 
 concerns/* 
 
 Once only she seems rather exacting. 
 
1 68 Memoirs of 
 
 She had strongly recommended for admission 
 to the King*s Council a distinguished young 
 man, William Cowper, who afterwards, under 
 George I., became Chancellor and Lord 
 Cowper. Some strong objections were made 
 to granting this request ; a dispensation as 
 to age was requisite. Lady Russell per- 
 sisted, first to Lord Halifax, and afterwards 
 to Sir H. Polloxfen, Attorney-General, her 
 letter to whom concluded thus : *' I under- 
 take very few things, and therefore do very 
 little good to people : but I do not love to 
 be baulked, when I thought my end com- 
 passed : and though you would not promote 
 us in it, I hope you will not destroy us.'* 
 This is the only trace in all her corre- 
 spondence of any departure from that reserve 
 and consideration for others which marked her 
 conduct. The claim was indeed authorised 
 by the merit of him in whose behalf it was 
 made ; but the manner in which it was 
 
Lady Russell 169 
 
 pressed seems to show an impatience at 
 opposition which is not manifested in any 
 other instance. 
 
 Her own sufferings taught her to sym- 
 pathise with those who suffered the loss 
 of friends. In 1690 her cousin M. de 
 Ruvigny was killed at the battle of the 
 Boyne, and Lady Russell wrote to his 
 mother : 
 
 '* Dieu nous a frapp^e, ma chere Madame, 
 d*un coup qui nous parait fort rude ; mais 
 Dieu ne pense pas comme Thomme pense, et 
 il faut croire qu'il ne prend pas plaisir a 
 tourmenter ses pauvres creatures. Mais que 
 songeons-nous, que Dieu voulut se detourner 
 de son chemin en ses providences pour notre 
 contentement ? Non, assurement : il faut 
 nous supporter le mieux que nous puissions 
 sur toutes sorte d'6v6nements, et vivre en 
 esp6rance qu'un jour nous verrons plus ^ 
 clairement la raison de tous ses noirs dispensa- 
 
170 Memoirs of . 
 
 tions qui nous attaquent, qui nous touchent si 
 vivement. 
 
 '' Madame, je ne combats pas votre vive 
 douleur, vous le devoyez, a un fils, et a un 
 homme si brave et si ami^ otd du monde. 
 
 '' II a aussi toutes sortes de consolations 
 qu on pent possible atteindre en la maniere 
 de sa mort ; en toutes ses dernieres actions, 
 mon dme me fait fort espdrer qu'il fut 
 acceptd, et que son ame se repose en le bras 
 de cet Sauveur en qui il se reposoit avec 
 tant de foy. Dieu veut, Madame, que vous 
 et moy faisons nos devoirs en telle sorte que 
 les accidents qui nous peuvent arriver ne 
 nous d^tournent pas des sentiers de Dieu : 
 mais au contraire nous ayant k passer douce- 
 ment les peu de jours qui nous restent devant 
 que nous entrons dans ces ddices ^ternelles 
 qu'il nous prepare." 
 
 Twenty-six years afterwards she wrote to 
 his brother, Lord Galway, who, like herself, 
 
Lady Russell 171 
 
 had been called to mourn for his dearest con- 
 nections : '* I pray God to fortify your spirit 
 under every trial, till eternity swallows all 
 our troubles, all our sorrows, all our disappoint- 
 ments, and all our pains in this life. The 
 longest how short to eternity! All these 
 ought to be my own care to improve my 
 weak self, as the fortitude of your mind, 
 experience, and knowledge does to you. 
 And I pray for such a portion of them in 
 mercy to me as may secure an endless 
 glorifying to so feeble, so ignorant, so mean 
 a creature as myself, that I cannot be too 
 little in my own sight." 
 
 The following was addressed to Lady 
 Essex — the occasion does not appear : 
 
 ''In what I can serve the just end you aim 
 at, I will be very diligent. And I beseech 
 God one day to speak peace to our afflicted 
 minds, and let us not be disappointed of our 
 great hope. But we must wait for our day of 
 
172 Memoirs of 
 
 consolation till this world passes away : an 
 unkind and trustless world it has been to us. 
 Why it has been such, God knows best : all 
 His dispensations serve the end of His pro- 
 vidences ; and they are ever beautiful, and 
 must be good, and good to every one of us ; 
 and even these dismal ones are to us, if we 
 can bear evidence to our own souls, that we 
 are better for our afflictions ; which God 
 often makes them to be, who suffer wrong- 
 fully. We may reasonably believe our 
 friends find that rest we yet but hope for ; 
 and what better comfort can your Ladyship 
 or I desire in this valley of the shadow of 
 death we are walking through ? The rougher 
 our path is, the more delightful and ravish- 
 ing will the great change be to us." 
 
 In 1690 she lost her half-sister Lady 
 Montagu, and her nephew Lord Gains- 
 borough. The following letters were written 
 on this occasion : the first to Tillotson ; the 
 
Lady Russell ^73 
 
 others to Dr. Fitzwilliam and Bishop 
 Burnet. — 
 
 ** Your letters will never trouble me, Mr. 
 Dean ; on the contrary, they are comfortable 
 refreshments to my, for the most part, over- 
 burthened mind, which both by nature and 
 by accident is made so weak that I cannot 
 bear with that constancy I should the losses 
 I have lately felt. I can say, Friends and 
 acquaintances Thou hast hid out of my sight, 
 but I hope it shall not disturb my peace. 
 These were young, and as they had begun 
 their race of life after me, so I desired they 
 might have ended it also. But happy are 
 those whom God retires in His grace — I trust 
 these were so ; and then no age can be amiss : 
 to the young it is not too early, nor to the 
 aged too late. Submission and prayer is all 
 we know that we can do towards our own relief 
 in our distress, or to disarm God's anger, either 
 in our public or our private concerns. The 
 
174 Memoirs of 
 
 scene will soon alter to that peaceful and 
 eternal home in prospect. But in this time 
 of our pilgrimage vicissitudes of all sorts are 
 every one s lot.'* 
 
 *' There is so much in those little sheets 
 you sent me to thank you for, that, finding 
 myself very ill-fitted to do it, I was tempted 
 to let it quite alone, till I made shift to 
 consider that, for the most part, our tempta- 
 tions incline us to the worst things, and to 
 the most forbidden tempers. This makes 
 me rise from that listlessness I continually 
 drop into till I have at least told you how 
 sensible I am of your kindness on all 
 occasions ; and I am sensible too how 
 strong and pious all your offers of comfort 
 to a disquieted mind are, and I hope that 
 by often perusing them they will so affect 
 me that the effect shall correspond to your 
 Christian wishes and prayers for me, and I 
 
Lady Russell 175 
 
 shall obtain a better freedom of mind than 
 I am mistress of at present, since you 
 conjecture very truly, every new stroke to a 
 weary, battered carcass makes me struggle 
 the harder ; and though I lost with my best 
 friend all the delights of living, yet I find I 
 did not want a quick sense of new grief for 
 want of due considering that whatever below 
 God is the object of our love will, at some 
 time or other, be the matter of our sorrow. 
 These two, my sister and a dear sister s son, 
 began their course after me, but have ended 
 it sooner. I would have had it otherwise, 
 but I was vain and foolish in it. God knows 
 where it is best to place His creatures. Your 
 prayers are indeed of more use than your 
 fears, for my health is good ; but I love greatly 
 the prayers of my friends, that I may be re- 
 signed in the case of my children ; for this trial 
 has so experienced to me my sad weakness 
 that I doubt myself, and humbly beg in mercy, 
 
176 Memoirs of 
 
 but not in judgment, that I may be spared 
 that trial.'* 
 
 ** I have, my Lord, so upright an heart to 
 my friends that though your great weight of 
 business had forced you to a silence of this 
 kind, yet I should have had no doubt but 
 that one I so distinguished in that little 
 number God has yet left me does join with 
 me to lament my late losses. The one was a 
 just sincere man, and the only son of a sister 
 and a friend I loved with too much passion ; 
 the other, my last sister, and I ever loved 
 her tenderly. 
 
 ** It pleases me to think that she deserves 
 to be remembered by all those that knew 
 her. But after above forty years* acquaint- 
 ance with so amiable a creature, one must 
 needs, in reflecting, bring to remembrance so 
 many engaging endearments as are yet at 
 present embittering and painful ; and indeed 
 we may be sure that when anything below 
 
Lady Russell 177 
 
 God is the object of our love, at one time 
 or another it will be a matter of our sorrow. 
 But a little time will put me again into my 
 settled state of mourning ; for a mourner I 
 must be all my days upon earth, and there 
 is no need I should be other ; my glass runs 
 low ; the world does not want me, nor I 
 want that ; my business is at home, and 
 within a narrow compass. I must not deny, 
 as there was something so glorious in the 
 object of my biggest sorrow, I believe that in 
 some measure kept me from being then over- 
 whelmed. So now it affords ,me, together 
 with the remembrance how many easy years 
 we lived together, thoughts that are joy 
 enough for one who looks no higher than a 
 quiet submission to her lot, and such pleasures 
 in educating the young folks as surmounts 
 the cares that it will afford. If I shall be 
 spared the trial, where I have most thought 
 of being prepared to bear the pain, I hope I 
 
 12 
 
178 Memoirs of Lady Russell 
 
 shall be thankful, and I think I ask it faith- 
 fully, that it may be in mercy, not in judg- 
 ment. Let me rather be tortured here, than 
 they or I be rejected in that other blessed 
 peaceful home to all ages to which my soul 
 aspires. There is something in the younger 
 going before me that I have observed all 
 my life to give a sense I cannot describe ; 
 it is harder to be borne than a bigger loss, 
 where there has been spun out a longer 
 thread of life. Yet I see no cause for it, 
 for every day we see the young fall with the 
 old, but methinks it is a violence upon nature. 
 **A troubled mind has a multitude of 
 these thoughts. Yet I hope I master all 
 murmurings ; if I have had any, I am sorry, 
 and will have no more, assisted by God's 
 grace ; and rest satisfied that, whatever I 
 think, I shall one day be entirely satisfied 
 what God has done and shall do will be 
 best, and justify both His justice and mercy." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 As she advanced in years, respected by 
 all, satisfied in her family, and rejoicing in 
 the prospects of her country, Lady Russell 
 gradually changed. Without healing her 
 wound, time, use, that self-renunciation 
 which high-toned characters acquire with 
 age, blunted the sharpness of the pain ; 
 the same remembrances, the same regrets, 
 equally strong, had not the same power; her 
 affection for her children, her solicitude for 
 their conduct and their happiness, occupied 
 more of her thoughts and left less room for 
 retrospection; devotion, duty, became her 
 habitual life. She was more calm and re- 
 signed, more and more submissive to the 
 
i8o Memoirs of 
 
 Divine will, looking forward to the coming 
 eternity, and more occupied in preparing 
 for it. These are the feelings manifested 
 in a long letter which she wrote to her 
 children, before the marriages of her son 
 and of her younger daughter, in which she 
 gave them, with the utmost freedom, the 
 counsels, the exhortations, the example of 
 her faith and love. 
 
 '' My dear children," she says, — '' I write 
 this upon the 21st of July 1691 — a day 
 of sad remembrances to me, it being that 
 whereon your excellent father was taken 
 from us with much severity, to my lasting 
 sorrow and your loss. 
 
 '' I have not yet omitted on this day (but 
 when prevented by sickness) to humble and 
 afflict myself under the mighty hand of God, 
 pouring out my soul before Him in prayer and 
 fasting. As, first, to testify my humiliation 
 for all my sins, for my having offended God 
 
Lady Russell i8i 
 
 in so many and so frequent breaches of my 
 baptismal vow, my Sacrament vows, and 
 all those vows I have at any other time 
 made of a better and more strict obedience 
 to all His holy commandments, I recollect, 
 as well as I can, what they have been, and 
 make my resolutions to do better for the 
 time to come, and as a help to my memory, 
 I did now look over some notes I had by 
 me of some former examination ; at other 
 times I have done it by considering all the 
 passages of my life which I have by me 
 noted in a paper after the same manner I 
 set yours down, and gave it you when you 
 first received the Sacrament." She goes on 
 to describe the daily exercises to which she 
 had accustomed herself in order that none 
 of her actions should escape a scrupulous 
 examination, her habitual prayers, her read- 
 ings, whether in the Scriptures or in works 
 of religious instruction and edification. *'0n 
 
1 82 Memoirs of 
 
 every Friday," she says, *' I take my paper, 
 and consider what I have been most faulty 
 in this week — as wandering in prayer, or 
 negligent in reading, or passionate, or 
 envious, or what else. I set it down (in 
 as few words as I can) at the foot of my 
 daily notes for that week ; and so that is an 
 abridgment for the whole week. Saturday 
 morning begins the next week. And upon 
 the first Friday in every month, or the last, 
 just before I use my confession, I look upon 
 my notes and consider the actions of the 
 whole month — if nothing but common has 
 happened, the less examination will suffice ; 
 only I take care so to recollect as may 
 represent anything that is remarkable or 
 great, either to be matter of sorrow or 
 thanksgiving (for other things a general 
 care is proportionable), and make my resolu- 
 tions accordingly ; and when I have done 
 my devotions, I set down in a book I have 
 
Lady Russell 183 
 
 to that purpose, at the weeks of that month, 
 as I have made an abridgment of them, 
 and then I tear my piece of paper and take 
 a new one for the next month. 
 
 *' This gets on a habit of constant watch- 
 fulness ; and at Sacrament times, or at any 
 other time that I would examine myself, I 
 find it a great help to read this. It saves 
 much time in looking back, and one's 
 thoughts are less distracted, and makes our 
 lives more easy to us, when we see how we 
 live from one Sacrament to another. And 
 this makes religion easy, and the mind quiet 
 and full of tranquillity ; and though it may 
 seem a hard task at first, yet a little use 
 makes it none, though if it be, — for flesh and 
 blood is apt to draw back at the times of 
 devotion, and especially at such-like exercise, 
 — yet if it help us to live more innocently, 
 and to state things more reverently and use- 
 fully between God and our souls, no pains 
 
1 84 Memoirs of 
 
 is too much, but, on the contrary, doing this 
 will upon trial (I speak it by experience) 
 be found less pains to such as mean to be 
 serious in religion and do desire to do 
 their duty well and with cheerfulness : and 
 is hugely more satisfying to the mind than a 
 more careless, loose way of living is, and no 
 settled method. . . . And now, my dear 
 child, I have but little more to add, except 
 to put you in mind to remember this life at 
 longest is but short, and how short none can 
 tell ; but if you live, crosses will come, and 
 pleasures wear away. Strive to get gospel 
 evidence of your being a child of God, and 
 having a title to the promises of eternal life. 
 I call gospel evidence the being able to take 
 my hopes of being saved by my sincere en- 
 deavours I use to live up to the rule of the 
 Bible; therefore read it carefully all your life, 
 learn some of it by heart, some I have named. 
 ** It is this, believe me, my dear child, it 
 
Lady Russell 185 
 
 is the witness of an honest and good life in 
 the day of trouble and distress. No refresh- 
 ment then but in a well-founded hope to 
 enjoy a happy eternity, and to what a degree 
 that calms and sweetens the most bitter 
 sorrows is inconceivable by such as have 
 not felt it, as I bless God I have ever since 
 I could get over the astonishment of so great 
 and so sudden a blow. When I am cast down 
 with some sad reflections [on] what I have 
 lost, I do as soon as I can sum my thoughts 
 to consider that in a short time I shall leave 
 this world and go to a place where I shall 
 see Him who died for me. I shall then know 
 much of the reason of all those providences 
 we do now so little understand, and think so 
 severe. I shall meet all my pious friends 
 again, and what a joy will it be to feel 
 continual springs of pleasure, a perpetual 
 and entire quiet in our own minds : no 
 sickness, no bad appetite, no passion shall 
 
1 86 Memoirs of 
 
 remain in us, but a constant joy in being 
 extremely good ; and that the sense that 
 this will be perpetual must add a freshness to 
 that fulness of joy which could not be entire 
 if we did not foresee would be endless. O 
 blessed, longed-for day ! Yet I am willing to 
 continue for your good (I think so). But if 
 that care were over, it is very likely flesh 
 and blood would find some other reason to 
 be willing to continue. Nature shrinks at the 
 separation of soul and body, and there is a 
 love of living implanted in our natures ; 
 and how well is it that it is so, to help us to 
 endure the crosses and the toils and labours 
 of life. Yet I can think of this day of death 
 with sweet refreshment, and 'tis pleasantness 
 to my thoughts. O, my beloved children, 
 take care we meet again ; do but experience 
 the pleasure of a well-spent life, and the pure 
 delights of meditating on the future state of 
 Eternity. That you may do so, and love it, to 
 
Lady Russell 187 
 
 my last breath you will have the prayers of a 
 truly loving mother. Consider, my dear, that 
 all the innocent delights of life you may take 
 and no anxiety of mind with it ; but if they 
 shut out religious thoughts and performances 
 and devour and take up all our time, then 
 indeed we sin, and conscience will sting at 
 some time or other and be a sore remem- 
 brancer and check us in our gaiety ; but 
 be devout and regular in your duties to 
 God — heaven will be secure, and pleasures 
 innocent." 
 
 The following passages from her letters 
 show the solicitude with which she watched 
 over her children, and how wisely she advised 
 them. About two years after the marriage 
 of her younger daughter, she writes thus to 
 her — the occasion does not appear : 
 
 '* I must not be long, and therefore hasten 
 to remind you of your former promises to 
 strive to take every providence patiently 
 
1 88 Memoirs of. 
 
 and as cheerfully as you can, and not foolishly 
 pine and waste your spirits and spoil your 
 health against a better day comes, which 
 certainly will, if you provoke not the only 
 Giver of all good things. Heaviness may 
 endure for a night, but joy cometh in the 
 morning ; and the chiefest blessing on this 
 earth you have, a kind husband and a pretty 
 gentleman. Let that sweeten all other 
 meaner things, as it is your duty it should 
 do. Strive to act your part and glory in it : 
 it is a pride I can allow of : but all discontent 
 proceeds from a pride that must be resisted, 
 or a poor mortal can never be happy on 
 earth, or prepared to be so in heaven. Can 
 we without imprudence say to Him that 
 made us. Why is it thus and thus with me ? 
 Ask yourself what have you done, or what 
 can man do, to merit from God ? Have not 
 you many good things others want that are 
 perhaps more humble than you, but still their 
 
Lady Russell 189 
 
 submission is not tried enough ; but when it 
 is, and they are as gold refined in the 
 furnace, how greatly shall they be exalted 
 for evermore, and respected here ? Take it 
 well, my love : I remind you of your duty, 
 and let it be your part to strive to do it. To 
 whom asks it shall be given. You shall be 
 contented if you desire it ; I have experienced 
 it just at your years. I bless God I can say 
 (without vanity) what pleased me I enjoyed, 
 what crossed me had not power to torment 
 me long. I strove to think if my lot had 
 not been what it was it might have been 
 worse for me in regard to my eternal interest, 
 and that might pass and other days come, or 
 however the day of vexation would end ; and 
 I cannot commend a better reflection than 
 this, that troubles or pleasures that end with 
 time are not to be affecting at too high a 
 rate. A year or two to come seems long, 
 but twenty past as nothing. I have felt 
 
190 Memoirs of 
 
 many days of bitter grief as well as others of 
 lesser trouble and provocation, and many of 
 great and true happiness which was made up 
 by love and quiet at home, abroad friendships 
 and innocent diversions ; and yet, believe 
 me, child, life is a continual labour chequered 
 with care and pleasure ; therefore rejoice in 
 your portion — take the world as you find it, 
 and you will, I trust, find that heaviness may 
 endure for a night but joy comes in the 
 morning. It grows dark ; your sister is to 
 close this from [your] well-wishing Mother." 
 
 The following is from a letter to the Rev. 
 J. Thornton respecting her son : 
 
 '* My constant prayer is, that his studies 
 may be innocent and profitable, that is (in 
 my thoughts), directed to his most spiritual, 
 his precious and immortal soul. I lie under 
 no discouragements, for yesterday Mr. 
 Hicks speaks of him to me when we are 
 alone just as he did. Logic goes forward 
 
Lady Russell 191 
 
 very well, and he says his judgment is 
 wonderful nice and true ; what he reads 
 alone he gives a very handsome account of. 
 He tried him the other day, by a new treatise 
 on logic that the Dean of Christ Church 
 has lately printed, but he observes he does 
 not love to go over what he has once done. 
 They have a Bible bound up with blank 
 leaves, and in them, as he reads, he intends 
 he shall write as he expounds any hard 
 text." 
 
 Nine years afterwards Lady Russell writes 
 to her son, who had meanwhile succeeded his 
 grandfather as second Duke of Bedford : 
 
 *'When I take my pen to write this, I 
 am, by the goodness and mercy of God, in 
 a moderate and easy state of health — a 
 blessing I have thankfully felt through the 
 course of a long life, which (with a much 
 greater help) the contemplation of a durable 
 state has maintained and upheld me through 
 
192 Memoirs of 
 
 varieties of providences and conditions of 
 life. But all the delights and sorrows of this 
 mixed state must end ; and I feel the decays 
 that attend old age creep so fast on me^ 
 that, although I may get over some more 
 years however, I ought to make it my 
 frequent meditation that the day is near 
 when this earthly tabernacle shall be dis- 
 solved and my immortal spirit be received 
 into that place of purity where no unclean 
 thing can enter, there to sing eternal praises 
 to the great Creator of all things. With the 
 Psalmist, I believe, 'at His right hand there 
 are pleasures for evermore ' ; and what is 
 good and of eternal duration must be joyful 
 above what we can conceive, as what is evil 
 and of like duration must be despairingly 
 miserable. And now, my dear child, I pray, 
 I beseech you, I conjure you, my loved son, 
 consider what there is of felicity in this world 
 
 ^ Lady Russell was now over seventy years of age. 
 
Lady Russell 193 
 
 that can compensate the hazard of losing an 
 everlasting easy being ; and then deliberately 
 weigh whether or no the delights and grati- 
 fications of a vicious or idle course of life are 
 such that a wise or thoughtful man would 
 choose or submit to. Again, fancy its enjoy- 
 ments at the height imagination can propose 
 or suggest, which yet rarely or never happens, 
 or, if it does, as a vapour, soon vanishes ; but 
 let us grant it could, and last to fourscore 
 years, is this more than the quickest thought 
 to eternity ? O my child, fix on that word 
 * eternity ' ! Old Hobbes, with all his fancied 
 strength of reason, could never endure to 
 rest or stay upon that thought, but ran from 
 it to some miserable amusement. I remember 
 to have read of some man, who, reading in 
 the Bible something that checked him, threw 
 it on the ground; the book fell open, and 
 his eye fixed on the word * eternity,* which so 
 
 struck upon his mind that he from a bad liver 
 
 13 
 
194 Memoirs of 
 
 became a most holy man. Certainly nothing 
 besides the belief of reward and punishment 
 can make a man truly happy in his life, at 
 his death, and after death. Keep innocency, 
 and take heed to the thing that is right, for 
 that shall bring a man peace at the last — 
 peace in the evening of each day, peace in 
 the day of death, and peace after death. 
 For my own part, I apprehend I should 
 not much care (if free from pain) what 
 my portion in this world was — if a life to 
 continue perhaps one year, or twenty, or 
 eighty ; — but then to be dust, not to know or 
 be known any more — this is a thought has 
 something of horror in it for me, and always 
 had, and would make me careless if it were 
 to be long or short ; but to live, to die to live 
 again, has a joy in it, and how inexpressible 
 is that joy if we secure an humble hope to 
 live ever happily ; and this we may do if we 
 take care to live agreeably to our rational 
 
Lady Russell 195 
 
 faculties, which also best secures health, 
 strength, and peace of mind, the greatest 
 blessings on earth. Believe the Word of 
 God, the Holy Scriptures, the promises and 
 threats contained in them ; and what most 
 obstructs our doing so, I am persuaded, 
 is fear of punishment. Look up to the 
 firmament, and down to the deep : how can 
 any doubt a Divine power ? And if there is, 
 what can be impossible to infinite power ? 
 Then why an infidel in the world ? And if 
 not such, who then would hazard a future 
 state for the pleasure of sin a few days ? 
 No wise man, and indeed no man that lives 
 and would desire to see good days ; for the 
 laws of God are grateful. In His Gospel 
 the terrors of majesty are laid aside and He 
 speaks in the still and soft voice of His Son 
 incarnate, the fountain and spring whence 
 flows gladness. A gloomy and dejected 
 countenance better becomes a galley slave 
 
196 , Memoirs of 
 
 than a Christian, where joy, love, and hope 
 should dwell. The idolatrous heathen per- 
 formed their worship with trouble and terror ; 
 but a Christian and a good liver, with a 
 merry heart and lightsome spirit ; for 
 examine and consider well, where is the 
 hardship of a virtuous life ? When we have 
 moderated our irregular habits and passions 
 and subdued them to the obedience of reason 
 and religion, we are free to all the innocent 
 gratifications and delights of life ; and we 
 may lawfully, nay, further, I say we ought 
 to, rejoice in this beautiful world, and all 
 the conveniences and provisions, even for 
 pleasure, we find in it ; and which, in much 
 goodness, is afforded us to sweeten and allay 
 the labours and troubles incident to this 
 mortal state, nay, inseparable, I believe, by 
 disappointments, cross accidents, bad health, 
 unkind returns for good deeds, mistakes even 
 among friends, and, what is more touching. 
 
Lady Russell 197 
 
 death of friends. But in the worst of these 
 calamities, the thought of a happy eternity 
 does not alone support, but also revive, the 
 spirit of man ; and he goeth forth to his 
 labour with inward comfort, till the evening 
 of his day (that is, his life on earth), and with 
 the Psalmist cries out : ' I will consider thy 
 heavens, even the works of thy fingers : the 
 moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained. 
 What is man, that thou art mindful of him : 
 and the son of man, that thou shouldst so 
 regard him ? ' (Ps. viii.). ^ Thou madest him 
 lower than the angels : to crown him with 
 glory.' Here is matter of praise and 
 gladness. 'The fool,' as the Psalmist ex- 
 presses it, 'hath said in his heart, there is 
 no God.' Or let us consider the man who 
 is content to own an invisible power, yet 
 tries to believe that when man has done 
 living on this earth he lives no more ; but I 
 would ask if any of these unhappy creatures 
 
198 Memoirs of 
 
 are fully persuaded, or that there does not 
 remain in these men at times (as in sickness 
 or sober thoughtfulness) some suspicion or 
 doubt that it may be other than they try to 
 think. And although they may, to shun such 
 a thought, or be rid of such a contempla- 
 tion, run away from it to some unprofitable 
 diversion, or perhaps suffer themselves to 
 be rallied out of such a thought, so de- 
 structive to the way they walk in ; yet, to be 
 sure, that man does not feel the peace and 
 tranquillity he does who believes a future 
 state and is a good man. For although this 
 good man, when his mind may be clouded 
 with some calamity very grievous to him, 
 or the disorder of vapours to a melancholy 
 temper, I say, if he is tempted to some 
 suspicion that it is possible it may be other 
 than he believes (pray observe), such a 
 surmise or thought, nay, the belief, cannot 
 drive him to any horror ; he fears no evil, 
 
Lady Russell 199 
 
 because he is a good man, and with his life 
 all sorrow ends too ; therefore it is not to 
 be denied he is the wisest man who lives by 
 the Scripture rule and endeavours to keep 
 God*s laws. First, his mind is in peace 
 and tranquillity ; he walks sure who keeps 
 innocence and takes heed to the thing that 
 is right. Secondly, he is secure God is his 
 friend, that Infinite Being; and He has said, 
 * Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden ; my 
 yoke is easy ' ; but guilt is certainly a heavy 
 load ; it sinks and damps the spirits. ' A 
 wounded spirit who can bear ? ' And the 
 vile subtle spirit waits (I am persuaded) 
 to drive the sinner to despair ; but godliness 
 makes a cheerful heart. 
 
 ** Now, O Man, let not past errors dis- 
 courage. Who lives and sins not? God 
 will judge the obstinate, profane, unrelenting 
 sinner, but full of compassion to the work 
 of his own hand, if they will cease from 
 
200 Memoirs of 
 
 doing evil and learn to do well, pray for 
 grace to repent, and endeavour with that 
 measure which will be given, if sincerely 
 asked for, for at what time soever a sinner 
 repents (but observe, this is no license to 
 sin because at any time we may repent ; for 
 that day we may not live to see, and so, 
 like the fool in the parable, our lamps be 
 untrimmed when we are called upon). Re- 
 member that to forsake vice is the beginning 
 of virtue ; and virtue certainly is most con- 
 ducive to content of mind and a cheerful 
 spirit. He (the virtuous man) rejoiceth with 
 a friend in the good things he enjoys ; fears 
 not the reproaches of any ; no evil spirit can 
 approach to hurt him here, or accuse him in 
 the great day of the Lord, when every soul 
 shall be judged according as they have done 
 good or evil. O blessed state ! fit for life, 
 fit for death ! In this good state I wish and 
 pray for all mankind ; but most particularly, 
 
Lady Russell 201 
 
 and with all the ardour I am capable of, to 
 those I have brought into the world and 
 those dear to me. Thus are my fervent and 
 frequent prayers directed that you may die 
 the death of the righteous, and, to this end, 
 that Almighty God would endue all with 
 spiritual wisdom to discern what is pleasing 
 in his sight." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Thus did Lady Russell attempt to lead her 
 children in the path in which she had found 
 peace and consolation. It would be difficult 
 to find a motherly exhortation so sweet and 
 solemn, or in which anxious affection is 
 manifested in close alliance with fervent 
 piety. She had need to keep her faith in 
 exercise : her trials were not yet over. 
 Twenty years after she had addressed this 
 letter to her children, she was at the bedside 
 of her son, the Duke of Bedford, who had 
 been suddenly attacked with smallpox ; the 
 young Duchess and her children had been 
 sent away for fear of infection ; the mother 
 remained alone, receiving the last words, 
 
Memoirs of Lady Russell 203 
 
 soothing the last moments of her dying son, 
 and directing his thoughts heavenward. 
 '*Alas, my dear Lord Gal way," she wrote 
 to her cousin, ''my thoughts are yet all 
 disorder, confusion, and amazement, and I 
 think I am very incapable of saying or 
 doing what I should. I did not know the 
 greatness of my love to his person, till I 
 could see it no more. When nature, who 
 will be mistress, has in some measure, with 
 time, relieved herself, then, and not till then, 
 I trust the Goodness which hath no bounds, 
 and whose power is irresistible, will assist 
 me by His grace to rest contented with what 
 His unerring providence has appointed and 
 permitted. And I shall feel ease in this 
 contemplation, that there was nothing un- 
 comfortable in his death but the losing him. 
 His God was, I verily believe, ever in his 
 thoughts. Towards his last hours he called 
 upon Him, and complained he could not 
 
204 Memoirs of 
 
 pray his prayers. To what I answered, he 
 said he wished for more time to make up 
 his accounts with God. Then with remem- 
 brance to his sisters, and telling me how 
 good and kind his wife had been to him, 
 and that he should have been glad to have 
 expressed himself to her, said something to 
 me of my double kindness to his wife, and 
 so died away. There seemed no reluctancy 
 to leave this world, patient and easy the 
 whole time, and I believe knew his danger, 
 but, loth to grieve those by him, delayed 
 what he might have said. But why all this ? 
 The decree is past. I do not ask your 
 prayers ; I know you offer them with sin- 
 cerity to our Almighty God for your afflicted 
 kinswoman." 
 
 Six months had scarcely elapsed when a 
 fresh blow fell. Her second daughter, the 
 Duchess of Rutland, died in childbirth. Of 
 her three children, her eldest daughter, the 
 
Lady Russell 205 
 
 Duchess of Devonshire, alone was left, and 
 had also just been confined. In order to con- 
 ceal from her her sister's death, Lady Russell 
 said, in answer to her inquiry, *' I have 
 seen your sister out of bed to-day/' She 
 had seen her in her coffin. 
 
 Lady Russell knew herself better, and 
 judged herself more severely, than the most 
 rigid moralist could do. She was in the 
 habit, as we have seen from her letter to 
 her children, of constant and searching self- 
 examination ; and after her death an un- 
 finished paper w^as found, written in a hand 
 feeble with age, in which, in the form of a 
 prayer, she took a review of her life, an 
 account of her faults and her sins, and besought 
 God's forgiveness for them. *^ Vanity cleaves 
 to me, I fear, O Lord,'' she writes, "in all I 
 say, in all I do. In all I suffer proud, not 
 enduring to slights or neglects, subject to 
 envy the good parts of others, even as to 
 
2o6 Memoirs of 
 
 worldly gifts. Failing in my duty to my 
 superiors ; apt to be soon angry, with and 
 without cause, too often ; and by it may have 
 grieved those that desired to please me, or 
 provoked others to sin by my rash anger. 
 Not ready to own any advantage I may 
 have received by good advice or example. 
 Not well satisfied if I have not all the 
 respect I expected even from my superiors. 
 Such has been the pride of my naughty 
 heart, I fear, and also neglect in my per- 
 formances due to my superiors, children, 
 friends, or servants." 
 
 Her self-condemnation may appear ex- 
 cessive ; but in thus accusing herself of 
 pride and neglect of others, she shows 
 that she was aware of her own defects, 
 and was as penetrating as she was sincere. 
 
 About 1690 her sight began to fail, and 
 the few letters which remain from her later 
 years are short, chiefly on matters of business 
 
Lady Russell 207 
 
 or family concerns ; they breathe an air of 
 calm sadness, like those of a captive who 
 had seen all those whom she loved escape 
 from their prison, and was awaiting her own 
 turn for deliverance. A successful operation 
 for cataract partially restored her sight ; but 
 she frequently speaks of the necessity of 
 sparing her eyes. In September 1723 she 
 was alone at Southampton House, where 
 she had lived with her father, her husband, 
 and since her widowhood. On the 26th 
 her grand-daughter, Lady Rachel Morgan, 
 wrote to her brother, Lord James Cavendish : 
 '* The bad account we have received of grand- 
 mamma Russell has put us into great dis- 
 order and hurry. Mamma has left us, and 
 gone to London. ... I believe she has 
 stopped the letters on the road, for none 
 have come here to-day, so that we are still 
 in suspense. The last post brought us so 
 bad an account that we have reason to fear 
 
2o8 Memoirs of Lady Russell 
 
 the worst. I should be very glad that 
 Mamma should get to town time enough 
 to see her, because it might be some 
 satisfaction to both, and I hear Grand- 
 mamma asked for her." 
 
 They were allowed this last consolation. 
 Lady Russell died on the 29th, in the arms 
 of her only remaining child. The Weekly 
 Journal of October 5 announced her death 
 thus: ''The Right Honourable the Lady 
 Russell, relict of Lord Russell, died on 
 Sunday morning last, at five o'clock, at 
 Southampton House, aged eighty-six, and 
 her corpse is to be carried to Chenies, in 
 Buckinghamshire, to be interred with that 
 of her lord." A week later another journal 
 chronicled the funeral. Thus, after her long 
 and chequered life, the last words of Lord 
 Russell to Burnet were fulfilled for his wife, 
 as they had been for himself: she had done 
 with time, she had entered eternity. 
 
LADY HERBERT 
 
 In the romantic expedition made by Charles 
 I. into Spain, when Prince of Wales, to see 
 the Infanta Isabella, who had been proposed 
 to him for a bride, he was accompanied, or 
 followed, by some young Englishmen of 
 rank, who were smitten, like their Prince, 
 with the chivalrous spirit of the times. 
 Among these the most eminent, next to 
 the imperious favourite Buckingham him- 
 self, was Sir Edward Herbert (a kinsman 
 of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and of the 
 sweet and pious poet of the same name), 
 then a youth of three - and - twenty, dis- 
 tinguished equally by his personal and 
 
 mental graces, excelling in all martial 
 
 14 
 
210 Memoirs of 
 
 exercises, and uniting in his character that 
 mixture of hardihood and gentleness which 
 formed an accompHshed cavalier. 
 
 Sir Walter Aston was then resident at 
 the Spanish Court, under the Earl of Bristol, 
 who had been sent on a special mission to 
 negotiate the Royal Marriage. Sir Walter 
 was related to the great Earl of Strafford, 
 whose tragical end afterwards added a deeper 
 shade to the fate of his unfortunate master. 
 Sir Walter's eldest daughter, known in the 
 phrase of that period as Mistress Amabel 
 Aston, was esteemed the most charming 
 woman of her time, and celebrated in 
 masques and Court poems as the Rose of 
 England. She then resided with her father 
 at Madrid ; and it may well be supposed 
 that such a maid, then in the first bloom of 
 youth and loveliness, would make a deep 
 impression on the gay and gallant company 
 who were assembled at the Court of Spain. 
 
Lady Herbert 211 
 
 Even Prince Charles himself was struck, and 
 it was whispered among the Court gossips 
 that the beauty of the Infanta herself grew 
 dim in his eyes, when compared with the 
 charms of his fair country - woman. But 
 Charles was a man of prudence and virtue. 
 He saw that it would be improper to offer 
 his hand to the daughter of a subject ; and 
 he would not urge his passion on other 
 terms. Among all this noble assemblage, 
 the person preferred by the fair Mabel was 
 Sir Edward Herbert. Indeed, the merits 
 and attractions of both were so conspicuous 
 that they were at once destined for each 
 other by the public voice. Charles approved 
 of the union ; and some time afterwards, on 
 the return of Sir William's family to England, 
 the Prince dignified the nuptials by his 
 
 presence. 
 
 When Charles succeeded his father, Sir 
 Edward and Lady Herbert were among 
 
2 12 Memoirs of 
 
 the brightest ornaments of his Court, and 
 continued to be distinguished by his favour. 
 On the breaking out of troubles, they were 
 zealous in the Royal cause. The good sense 
 of Sir Edward disposed him to moderate 
 counsels ; but such was his habitual venera- 
 tion for the King, and horror at what he 
 deemed the unnatural disloyalty of his 
 subjects, that he was prevented from exer- 
 cising the native justness of his intellect, 
 or urging measures that were distasteful to 
 Charles. At length, all compromises having 
 failed, resource was had to arms ; the king- 
 dom was delivered up to the miseries of civil 
 war. 
 
 Sir Edward Herbert was now one of 
 the most active and prudent of the King's 
 adherents in battle, as he had formerly been 
 in council. His estates lying in the western 
 counties (where the disposition was always 
 the most favourable to the Royal cause), he 
 
Lady Herbert 213 
 
 had the means of raising a considerable 
 force among his friends and tenantry for 
 the assistance of Charles. 
 
 The first movements in the field were 
 rather to the advantage of the Royalists ; 
 but at the fatal battle of Edgehill they met 
 with a complete discomfiture. In this en- 
 gagement Sir Edward Herbert distinguished 
 himself greatly ; but no capacity or exertion 
 could prevail against the evil fortunes of 
 Charles. 
 
 Lady Herbert had continued to reside in 
 London. She was now the mother of a 
 large family — many of them very young, 
 with whom it would have been difficult to 
 follow the movements of the Royal army ; 
 while a residence at Sir Edwards country 
 seat would have been full of danger (remote 
 as it was, and without defence) in the dis- 
 tracted state of the country. Her situation 
 in London, however, was neither pleasant 
 
214 Memoirs of 
 
 nor safe. Among the sour fanatics who 
 governed there, Httle delicacy was to be 
 expected towards a woman, however lovely 
 or unfortunate ; little toleration for an 
 adherent of the Established Church ; little 
 favour for the wife of Sir Edward Her- 
 bert, and the kinswoman of Lord Straf- 
 ford. Although her conduct was guarded 
 by the strictest circumspection and her 
 correspondence with her husband confined 
 to the ordinary concerns of her house and 
 family (a precaution the more needful that 
 their letters were often intercepted), she 
 was exposed to frequent disturbance from 
 the wilder agitation of the time. She was 
 even more than once summoned before a 
 Committee of the Parliament '' to stand 
 question" (as it was termed) *' touching the 
 evil character of the Malignants.'' Her 
 behaviour on such occasions was so strongly 
 marked by dignity, gentleness, and dis- 
 
Lady Herbert 215 
 
 cretion, that no grounds of complaint 
 could be found against her ; and the fierce 
 nature of her inquisitors was almost softened 
 to respect and pity. 
 
 As the civil war advanced, it became 
 impossible for her to remain longer in 
 London with any comfort or safety. She 
 lived in daily fear of insult ; and there was 
 risk that she and her children might be de- 
 tained as hostages for her husband. There- 
 fore, she left London privately, with her 
 family ; and, escaping all interruption, joined 
 Sir Edward, who was then with the King 
 at Oxford. She continued to accompany 
 the motions of the army — residing, with her 
 family, at the nearest towns — till the fatal 
 affair of Naseby, which scattered the King's 
 party and brought ruin on his cause. 
 
 On the day of the decisive action, Lady 
 Herbert was residing at the town of 
 Northampton, which is several miles from 
 
2i6 Memoirs of 
 
 the field of battle. Early in the engagement, 
 reports arrived of the most favourable kind 
 for the King's party, grounded on the 
 successful charge of Prince Rupert. These 
 were magnified by every tongue, and the 
 King's adherents were full of joy and 
 triumph and vengeance on the Roundheads. 
 When these rumours reached Lady Herbert, 
 she was in company with her kinsman old 
 Sir Thomas Maynard, who had been 
 wounded at the skirmish of Cropredy 
 Bridge, and was still unable to take the 
 field. When she asked his opinion of the 
 news, he shook his head, and answered, 
 **'Tis fit, fair cousin, we hope the best; but 
 when I think of Marston Moor, I like not 
 such passages.'' Then came varying rumours 
 of good and evil. One bore that Cromwell 
 was slain ; the next, that the King was 
 unhorsed and taken prisoner. At length the 
 Royal troops were seen flying in scattered 
 
Lady Herbert 217 
 
 parties. Squadrons of the enemy's horse 
 appeared in pursuit. It was too plain that 
 the King s army had been overthrown. 
 
 To the anxious inquiries of Lady 
 Herbert about the fate of her husband, 
 the fugitives who reached the town of 
 Northampton returned doubtful and con- 
 tradictory answers. He had made himself 
 so conspicuous in the action that there were 
 many reports about him. It was said that 
 he had fled with the King ; that he had 
 fallen in the field ; that he was wounded 
 and a prisoner. What confirmed Lady 
 Herbert's fears was that on all former 
 occasions of this kind her husband had 
 contrived to send her private intelligence 
 of his safety. Now the day passed over, 
 and night approached, and she heard 
 nothing. She was convinced that he had 
 fallen in the field. He might be wounded 
 and still recoverable. Whilst she en- 
 
2i8 Memoirs of 
 
 deavoured to appear cheerful, in order to 
 soothe and pacify her children, she privately 
 communicated her thoughts to Sir Thomas 
 Maynard, and at the same time declared 
 her resolution to go herself, that night, to the 
 field and search for his body. *' I beseech 
 you, cousin/' said he, ''not to think of 
 it. Let your faithful servant Travers go 
 instead. Would I could go myself ! *' 
 *' Alas, no ! " said Lady Herbert, '' who 
 will persevere like me ?'' — ** Yet bethink you 
 of the dangers which you run — the strag- 
 gling parties, the lawless marauders, the 
 spoilers of the slain." — '' I were an unfit wife 
 for Edward Herbert, an unworthy daughter 
 of the house of Wentworth, could dangers 
 stop me in such a cause. Yet, for precau- 
 tion s sake, I will take Travers with me.'* 
 
 At midnight, after seeing her children put 
 td rest, Lady Herbert rode towards the field 
 
 of battle. She was attended by her servant 
 
 i 
 
Lady Herbert 219 
 
 Travers, the son of one of Sir Edwards 
 tenants, and generally his close companion 
 in the field, but of late entrusted with the 
 still dearer charge of his wife and children. 
 This had been against her wishes, and she 
 could not forbear saying to him as they 
 rode: ''Travers, hadst thou been with him, 
 methinks this would not have befallen. We 
 could have spared thee better than thy master 
 could." '' Indeed, so please your ladyship," 
 answered he, '' it went hard that I could not 
 attend my honoured master in the battle : 
 I might have done him some service.'* 
 Travers led a third horse with a blanket 
 and some other necessaries, in case they 
 should find Sir Edward wounded. In this 
 state they reached the field of Naseby, 
 
 It was a chill and boisterous night, the 
 moon breaking out by fits between the 
 clouds which drove over the sky. As 
 they approached the field they met frequent 
 
2 20 Memoirs of 
 
 stragglers laden with spoil ; and here and 
 there lay a miserable wounded man implor- 
 ing help which they could not give. When 
 they reached the scene of action, all was 
 silent. The living array and the throng, of 
 war had passed on, and nothing remained 
 but the still and motionless heaps of the 
 dead and dying. The moon sometimes 
 gave a prospect over the encumbered field. 
 Here the dead were piled closely together ; 
 there they had fallen dispersed in broken 
 flight. Here was struck to earth the head 
 grizzled by age ; there the glossy ringlets of 
 youth lay soiled in blood. Mangled limbs 
 were scattered about, mixed with the carcasses 
 of horses, gun-carriages, and broken tumbrils. 
 Elsewhere were small-arms and fragments of 
 feathers and clothing. The spoilers of the 
 dead had now nearly done their work ; but 
 one or two straggling women still moved up 
 and down like spectres among the heaps of 
 
Lady Herbert 221 
 
 slain. Lady Herbert had dismounted, and 
 was picking her cautious and shuddering 
 steps over the obstructed ground. She 
 made up to one of the women, and asked 
 if she could tell where the King's Guards 
 had fought. **Aye, gossip," answered she. 
 *' Be'est thou come arifling too ? But i' faith 
 thou rt of the latest. The swashing gallants 
 were as fine as peacocks ; but we've stript 
 their bravery, I trow. Yonder stood the 
 King's tent ; and yonder about do most of 
 them lie ; but thou'lt scarce find a lading for 
 thy cattle now." 
 
 Lady Herbert went, by this direction, 
 towards a rising ground where the frag- 
 ments of the royal tent were still to be 
 seen. The dead here lay wedged in close 
 heaps, indicating that the conflict had been 
 long and desperate. The combatants had 
 often fallen in mortal struggle, grasped 
 together in the very attitude in which they 
 
22 2 Memoirs of 
 
 had given the death-wounds. Here Lady- 
 Herbert, having lighted a lanthorn, began 
 her hideous labour; turning over the stiff 
 and heavy carcasses, touching the mangled 
 limbs, and gazing on the ghastly distorted 
 faces. Sometimes she shrank at discovering 
 symptoms of half-extinguished life in bodies 
 which appeared dead. Sometimes she heard 
 groans, and half - muttered words which 
 she could not interpret. Her hands and 
 dress were stained with blood. Long did 
 she thus persevere, but all in vain. Even 
 her faithful servant had advised her to give 
 up the search. Suddenly, as she kneeled 
 beside a dead body, she felt a light cold 
 touch on her hand, and, looking round, 
 beheld a small dog. *' Good heavens ! '' she 
 exclaimed, *' It is Fido ! He may help us 
 to find his master.'' *' Til warrant him so far 
 forth," said Travers. *' If it please your 
 Ladyship to follow him, Til lead the horses," 
 
Lady Herbert 223 
 
 The animal (a beautiful small greyhound, 
 which always attended Sir Edward) bounded 
 forward, turning round from time to time 
 with a sharp and cheerful bark, till he led 
 them to a hillock, the sides of which were 
 covered with slain. The dog forced his 
 way between the bodies, and at last stopped 
 where several were lying heaped on each 
 other. He then pushed and tore with his 
 snout and paws, looking round and whining 
 and barking with great eagerness. Travers, 
 leaving the horses, dragged off several bodies, 
 and at last came to one which, from the tones 
 and gestures of the animal, they could not 
 doubt to be that of Sir Edward. He had 
 been despoiled of his cloak, arms, and 
 upper garments; but on bringing the Ian- 
 thorn to his face they found that it was he. 
 The body, covered with many wounds, was 
 cold and stiff; and every feature seemed 
 fixed in the stillness of death. The dog 
 
2 24 Memoirs of 
 
 licked his face, scratched him with his paws, 
 and used every effort to arouse him ; and 
 when all was in vain, sent forth a long and 
 piteous howl. Lady Herbert and Travers 
 raised the body, chafed the temples, applied 
 strong scents to the nostrils ; but without 
 success. '*Alas," said Travers, '''tis a lost 
 labour. All we can do now is to procure a 
 Christian burial." ''Peace, Travers! Me- 
 thinks I feel warmth about the heart. Let 
 us bear him to yonder cottages. We may 
 find help there." 
 
 They wrapped the body in the blanket 
 which they had brought, and Travers, mount- 
 ing his horse, supported it in his arms before 
 him. Lady Herbert followed on foot, lead- 
 ing the other two horses. In this way they 
 reached a small hamlet, the inmates of which 
 had fled at the approach of the hostile armies. 
 They entered the nearest cottage. No living 
 creature was within ; but the embers of a fire 
 
Lady Herbert 225 
 
 remained unextinguished. These they care- 
 fully fed with wood till the flame revived. 
 They placed Sir Edward on a bed ; applied 
 warmth to his body ; rubbed him with strong 
 essences ; and used all means to arrest and 
 restore the fleeting spirit. At length they 
 could perceive a change. The vital warmth 
 slowly extended from about the heart ; a 
 feeble pulse was distinguishable, and gradu- 
 ally became firmer. Then he heaved a deep 
 sigh. It was the most grateful sound that ever 
 struck Lady Herbert's ear. Soon afterwards 
 he opened his languid eyes ; gazed with a 
 bewildered look upon her, as she hung over 
 him ; and, making an effort at recollection, 
 said, in a low and tremulous voice, ** Mabel, 
 is it thou ? '' — ^' Yes, Edward : it is I : whom 
 else shouldst thou think to see at such an 
 
 hour ? " 
 
 The wounds Sir Edward had received 
 
 were so severe, and his exhaustion from 
 
 15 
 
226 Memoirs of 
 
 cold and loss of blood was so great, that he 
 was with difficulty removed from the cottage 
 into the town of Northampton. There, how- 
 ever, it was dangerous to remain. The 
 country around was all in possession of the 
 Parliamentary forces ; and the consequence 
 of discovery would have been his immediate 
 arrest. He was, therefore, secretly conveyed 
 into Gloucestershire, to his own estate ; but, 
 as a residence at his own house would have 
 led to detection, he was carried to a cottage 
 at some distance, situated in a deep glen, 
 and thickly surrounded by woods. Here, 
 it was hoped, he might escape the parties 
 of horse which, during the siege of Bristol, 
 scoured the western country, and lived at 
 free quarters on the inhabitants, as a 
 penalty for their attachment to the Royal 
 cause. 
 
 In this retirement he continued to gain 
 strength. Lady Herbert, the better to lull 
 
Lady Herbert 227 
 
 suspicion, appeared frequently with her family 
 at Northampton, and soon after ventured to 
 remove them to Oxford. From there she 
 often visited the cottage to watch over her 
 husband's recovery, making her journeys by 
 night attended by the faithful Travers. On 
 one of these occasions, as they approached 
 the cottage towards morning, they were 
 alarmed by perceiving strewed on the narrow 
 path which led into the glen fragments of 
 feathers, silk, and men s apparel. As they 
 came nearer, they saw the cottage door 
 standing open. Lady Herbert hastily dis- 
 mounted, and, entering, found all within 
 empty and silent. The furniture, with some 
 musical instruments and papers, lay scattered 
 about and broken. Everything bore the 
 marks of disturbance and violence. '' Good 
 heavens, Travers!" she cried. ** What hath 
 befallen? " — '^ Alas, I fear me that the Round- 
 heads have come down and surprised him ; 
 
228 Memoirs of 
 
 but I will run to Gabriel's cottage and 
 inquire. Will your Ladyship be pleased 
 to tarry here till I return ? " — '' Nay, 
 Travers : methinks I had better go with 
 thee." 
 
 They soon reached the old forester*s 
 dwelling, situated farther up the glen, where 
 their fears were confirmed. ''Alas, Lady,'* 
 said the old man, '' I think there be some 
 false heart that hath betrayed him ; or at 
 least a shrewd mischance must have dis- 
 covered his retreat to the rebels. For at 
 yester eventide we saw troopers passing 
 between the trees, and soon they fell into 
 the path leading towards the cottage. My 
 son Ned (mine honoured master's godson, 
 so please your Ladyship) ran through the 
 bushes to get before them and give the 
 alarm ; but he was too late. They had 
 already seized upon the cottage, and Sir 
 Edward was in their hands. When Ned 
 
Lady Herbert 229 
 
 ventured near, they let fly some bullets at 
 him, and one took the tuft off his cap. As 
 soon as they departed, we ran to the cottage, 
 but found all gone." ** Did you note which 
 way they took ? " said Lady Herbert. ''We 
 were all on the watch, so please your Lady- 
 ship, but durst not go near. However, to 
 our thought they made toward Cirencester.'' 
 ''They must be for London," she said, "and 
 thither will I follow.'' 
 
 Lady Herbert hastened towards London, 
 taking on her way the town of Oxford, 
 where she saw her children, and settled how 
 they should be cared for in her absence. 
 On her arrival in London, she found that 
 Sir Edward had been committed to the 
 Tower. Many were the intercessions used, 
 and many the repulses suffered, before she 
 could prevail with the fierce and fanatic 
 rulers of that time to allow her to see her 
 husband. She at length succeeded, through 
 
230 Memoirs of 
 
 the influence of Mrs. Claypole, Cram well's 
 daughter. She found Sir Edward languish- 
 ing under sickness and pain. His sudden 
 journey, while scarcely recovered from his 
 wounds, had brought on a relapse ; and this 
 had been little alleviated amid the neglect 
 and hardships of a prison. His spirits were 
 revived by the presence of his wife ; but 
 there was still room for cruel anxiety, both 
 on his own account and for the Royal cause. 
 Lady Herbert shared in these fears, but en- 
 deavoured to disguise them, and discharged 
 the hard task of feigning hope which she 
 could not feel. In the midst of these dis- 
 tresses, a day was fixed for Sir Edwards 
 trial, the news of which affected his wife far 
 more deeply than himself. She looked for- 
 ward to the result, and expected neither 
 justice nor mercy. The remembrance of 
 Lord Strafford occurred to them both. Sir 
 Edward burned to emulate his noble con- 
 
t * 
 
 Lady Herbert 231 
 
 stancy; but Lady Herbert thought of his 
 fate, and trembled. 
 
 The trial was conducted as such proceed- 
 ings too often are in factious times when 
 the accusers are judges and the accused 
 are pre-condemned. Suffice it to say, that 
 Sir Edward was charged with misleading 
 the King by false counsels, and maintain- 
 ing and abetting him in arms against his 
 people. He was found guilty of treason, 
 and sentenced to death. 
 
 The dreadful interval which ensued was 
 employed by Lady Herbert in unavailing 
 supplications for pardon. The charitable 
 Mrs. Claypole again interfered, but without 
 success. At length, rendered at once in- 
 ventive and desperate by the approaching 
 danger. Lady Herbert resolved upon a bold 
 plan. She first despatched Travers to her 
 family, with instructions to have them con- 
 veyed privately to France. He was directed 
 
232 Memoirs of 
 
 to return immediately afterwards to the little 
 seaport of Folkestone, and to engage a boat 
 and remain there till joined by his master. 
 Then Lady Herbert, taking advantage of 
 the permission to visit her husband, stated 
 that she should not return home at night, 
 and, exchanging clothes with him, dismissed 
 him towards evening in her place. She then 
 went to bed, on the pretext of illness, and 
 thus remained unsuspected in place of Sir 
 Edward till the next morning. 
 
 Sir Edward escaped to France. His 
 wife's situation, however, was far from agree- 
 able. The ruling faction, wroth at having 
 the prey taken out of their grasp, wreaked 
 their vengeance on the instrument of their 
 disappointment. Her imprisonment was 
 close and severe, varied only from time to 
 time by a summons for examination before 
 a Committee. When questioned as to her 
 treasonable designs, ''Alas, Sirs," said she. 
 
Lady Herbert 233 
 
 ** I had no design but to save my husband, 
 and that was surely loyal. Which of you, 
 on such enforcement, would have done 
 less?'^ 
 
 After some months' confinement, the 
 Committee, feeling that the persecution of 
 a noble and virtuous woman brought dis- 
 credit on their cause, although they would 
 not openly authorise her release, resolved 
 to connive at her escape. She was, at the 
 same time, given to understand that she 
 must hasten her departure from England, as 
 it would be necessary to make some show 
 of pursuit, to satisfy their zealous adherents. 
 Accordingly, she was permitted to leave the 
 Tower, and proceeded on horseback towards 
 the coast, with a single attendant. She took 
 the road through Sussex keeping to the 
 westward, as there she was less liable to 
 discovery than she would have been in the 
 nearer communications with France, and, 
 
234 Memoirs of 
 
 towards evening, reached the small fishing 
 town of Seaford, near Beachy Head. To 
 escape remark, her attendant stopped on the 
 outskirts of the town, and returned to 
 London with the horses by a different road. 
 Thus left alone, she knocked at the door of 
 a fisherman's cottage. The man opened it 
 himself, and she asked him if she could get 
 a boat to pass over to France. *' A boat to 
 France!" he exclaimed. ''Why, not to- 
 night, sure ? " — '' Yes, good friend : to-night, 
 if it be possible : my occasions brook no 
 delay." — ** Why, there is nought but a light 
 wherry afloat, no bigger than a cockle shell. 
 You had better tarry till morning." Here 
 the fisherman's wife, overhearing a female 
 voice, came out with a child in her arms, 
 and several children hanging about her. 
 ''It were a crazy thing," said she, "to go 
 afloat to-night : thou shalt do no such, 
 Jacob." " Peace, wench," cried he. "Sure, 
 
Lady Herbert 235 
 
 I am old enough to answer for myself." 
 *' Indeed, friends," said Lady Herbert, '' I 
 am loth to trouble you. Yet it is very 
 needful I should go to-night, if you will 
 aid me so far. My strait is great, or I 
 would not ask you." This was spoken in 
 a voice and manner that gained upon these 
 rude but kindly people. ** Jacob,'* said the 
 woman, ''she seemeth a noble lady, and 
 many such are sore pressed in these times. 
 Thou must e'en do her will. But, lady, 
 wilt thou not consent to tarry all night in 
 our poor house ? They will take thee 
 betimes in the morning." — '* I pray thy 
 excuse, my good dame, though with thanks 
 for thy kindness. It is a heavy need which 
 urgeth me to be gone ; and, therefore, I do en- 
 treat both your furtherance." '' Then, Jacob," 
 said the woman, "thou must needs go. Hie 
 thee down to the Point, and get Will Roberts 
 to help thee." 
 
236 Memoirs of 
 
 While the fisherman was away, Lady- 
 Herbert remained with his wife, and com- 
 pletely won the poor woman's heart by her 
 sweet and gracious manner towards her- 
 self and her children. This is a subject 
 on which two mothers are never at a loss 
 for conversation, however strangers to each 
 other, or different in rank and circumstances. 
 At length the man returned, and told them 
 that all was ready. Lady Herbert, attended 
 by the good woman and her children, went 
 down to a little creek, where the boat was lying. 
 Here another man stood waiting for them; and 
 she took an affectionate leave of her humble 
 companions, who in return put up prayers 
 for her safety. Then she stepped on board. 
 At this moment, a thought of her defenceless 
 situation, embarking thus with two men 
 strangers to her, and rude in their habits of 
 life, came across her mind. She breathed 
 a silent appeal to Heaven, and trusted to its 
 
Lady Herbert 237 
 
 protection. She read in the weather- 
 beaten faces of her attendants signs of 
 honest and simple hearts, and felt that she 
 need not fear. Indeed, they regarded her 
 with reverence as a superior being, and 
 would have hazarded their lives in her 
 protection. 
 
 The night was dark and squally ; rain 
 began to fall ; and towards morning there 
 came an adverse breeze, which raised the 
 waves, tossing the little bark to and fro, 
 and covering them with spray. The men 
 pulled with all their vigour ; but made little 
 way ; and as day broke, and the wind fell, 
 they found themselves enveloped in a heavy 
 mist, which prevented their seeing before 
 them. At length, however, the mist cleared 
 away, and they were relieved by a view of 
 the French coast, which, after a tedious and 
 stormy passage, they reached in safety, 
 landing at the little port of Fecamp, in 
 
2 38 Memoirs of 
 
 Normandy. Here Lady Herbert took leave 
 of her hardy conductors, with a Hberal reward 
 for their services, and set out to join her 
 husband, in Paris. 
 
 To Sir Edward and her children the 
 meeting was equally unexpected and gratify- 
 ing ; for during her imprisonment all corre- 
 spondence had been forbidden, and they 
 were full of apprehension about her at the 
 time she appeared before them. Her joy 
 at the reunion was cruelly damped by the 
 appearance of her husband, whose pale and 
 emaciated looks showed that his health had 
 rather lost than gained since they were 
 separated. Indeed, his anxiety at her 
 situation, accompanied by a feeling of blame 
 to himself as its cause, had kept his mind 
 in a state of constant disquiet, and had 
 aggravated his bodily ailment. Though his 
 health improved a little on her arrival, the 
 amendment was temporary ; and it soon 
 
Lady Herbert 239 
 
 became evident that his Hfe was ebbing 
 away. His wife observed the fatal symp- 
 toms, but, amid her anguish, preserved 
 an external composure. Every effort of 
 skill and tenderness was tried in vain ; and 
 about four months after Lady Herbert had 
 rejoined her husband, he died in her 
 arms. 
 
 The trials of this noble woman had thither- 
 to been of such a nature as called for active 
 exertion. The lot which now became her 
 portion was perhaps more difficult to bear : 
 a long, unvarying course of exile, dependence, 
 and neglect. Her husband's estates had been 
 declared forfeited. Herself and her family 
 were proscribed by the ruling powers. Her 
 only resource was to retire to a small pro- 
 vincial town in France, where, by the assist- 
 ance of her own and her husband's friends, 
 whose fortunes had partly outlived the public 
 storm, she procured a bare sufficiency for the 
 
240 Memoirs of 
 
 wants of life. Such assistance was not 
 discountenanced by Cromwell, whose faults 
 were not those of a little mind. She devoted 
 herself to the education of her children ; 
 constantly maintaining in herself, and in- 
 stilling into them, resignation to the will of 
 Providence, and a hope for better times. 
 
 Such times were long in coming, and for 
 the first portion of her retreat sorrows seemed 
 to accumulate around her. The tragic end 
 of Charles I. filled her with grief and horror. 
 Some time afterwards, when his son made an 
 unsuccessful attempt to recover the Crown, 
 Lady Herbert's eldest son, the inheritor of 
 his fathers accomplishments of mind and 
 person, accompanied his Sovereign to Eng- 
 land, and fell at the fatal field of Worcester, 
 after performing deeds of skill and valour 
 beyond his years. He died in the arms of the 
 faithful Travers, who had attended him ; and 
 in his last moments sent a loving message to 
 
Lady Herbert 241 
 
 his mother, and a ring which had belonged 
 to Sir Edward to his next brother. It bore 
 a head of Charles I., with the inscription, 
 ''Abyde Loyally 
 
 At length Charles 1 1, recovered the Throne 
 of his ancestors. Among those who offered 
 their congratulations on that event, Lady- 
 Herbert sent Sir William, now her eldest son, 
 to pay his duty, and solicit the restoration of 
 his paternal estates. These still remained 
 sequestrated for public use, and had been 
 placed by Parliament at the King's disposal. 
 That voluptuous monarch, who was alike 
 devoid of gratitude and resentment, paid little 
 attention to the young man's claims, and 
 seemed more inclined to appropriate the 
 estates to his own pleasures, or to bestow 
 them on some of the profligate and greedy 
 favourites by whom he was surrounded. Sir 
 William wrote in a desponding strain to his 
 mother. ** What ?'*' said she. ''Is it come 
 
 16 
 
242 Memoirs of 
 
 to this ? I must needs go myself, and lay 
 before His Majesty all that we have done and 
 suffered in his cause/' 
 
 Lady Herbert, though advanced in years, 
 retained much of the beauty of her early days ; 
 and the nobleness and dignity of her manners 
 gained her the admiration and respect of the 
 polite monarch and his gay and frivolous 
 followers. Being admitted with two of her 
 sons to his presence, she addressed him 
 thus: *'Your Majesty sees before you the 
 widow of Edward Herbert, who perished 
 by the wounds and hardships which he 
 suffered in the service of Your Majesty's 
 father. You see the mother of another 
 Edward Herbert, who died on the field of 
 Worcester, fighting by Your Majesty's side ; 
 and a family who have endured long years of 
 exile and poverty ; and by their loyalty have 
 lost all, save honour ; who now seek but their 
 own, which it is in Your Majesty's power to 
 
Lady Herbert 243 
 
 restore, and who (should it be given) will 
 ever hold it as a trust to be freely employed 
 in the same cause." 
 
 This address moved even the indifferent 
 soul of Charles ; but its effect would soon 
 have been effaced, amid the gaiety and 
 laughter of his thoughtless companions, had 
 not the better counsels of Clarendon and 
 Ormonde prevailed, and saved the honour 
 of their master. Through their influence, 
 Lady Herbert's suit at length was granted. 
 She soon found, however, that the Court 
 of Charles was no place for her. It suited 
 neither her habits nor her principles. There- 
 fore, after gracefully returning her thanks to 
 the King for his act of justice, she retired to 
 her son's estate, and sought solace in the 
 bosom of her family. Here, surrounded by 
 domestic peace, in the remembrance of 
 former scenes, and in exercises of piety 
 and beneficence, Lady Herbert passed the 
 
244 Memoirs of Lady Herbert 
 
 remainder of her days, after a life chequered 
 by many vicissitudes, darkened by many 
 sorrows, but ennobled by the highest attri- 
 butes of our nature — affection, courage, and 
 patience. 
 
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