day, for (as I related before) ye Duke having used to 'play att Hide & Seeke, and to conceal him selfe a long ' time, when they mist him att the same play, thought he 'would have discovered himselfe as formerly when they ' had given over seeking him. Butt a much longer time 'beinge past then usually was spentt in that divertisse'ment, some began to aprehend that his Highnese was gone in earnest past their finding, wch made the Earle ' of Northumberland (to whose care hee was committed) 'affter strict search made in the howse of St. James & all 'thereabout to noe purpose, to send & acquaint the Speaker of the House of Commons that the Duke was gone, butt 'how or by what meanes hee knew nott, butt desired that 'there might bee orders sent to the Cinque Ports for 'stoping all ships going outt till the passengers were ' examined & search made in all suspected places where 'his Highnese might bee concealed.

'Though this was gone aboutt with all the vigillancy immaginable, yett itt pleased God to disapointt them of 'there intention by so infatuating those severall persons 'who were imployed for writing orders that none of them were able to writt one right, butt ten or twelve of ym were cast by before one was according to their minde. 'This account I had from Mr. N., who was mace-bearer to the Speaker all that time & a witnese of itt. This 'disorder of the clarkes contributed much to the Duke's safety, for hee was att sea before any of the orders came ' to the ports, & so was free from what was disigned if they had taken his Highnese.

'Though severalls were suspected for being accesory 'to the escape, yett they could nott charge any with itt 'butt the person who wentt away, & hee being outt of 'there reach, they took noe notice as either to examine or imprison others.'

This narrative properly belongs to the pages of history; indeed, Anne Murray well deserves her little niche there for the hand she had in it; but her story is so full of

little womanish touches, with its naïve description of the mohair suit and the tailor's perplexity at the measurements, the Woodstreet cake, too, which her thoughtful kindness prepared to solace the boy on his hazardous journey, that it seems not out of place among the things which women did in their own feminine fashion. It is sad that poor Anne's own romance, thus strangely begun, should have ended so unhappily as has been related in the previous volume.

CHAPTER XVII

WHAT WAS LEFT

THE last ten years of the half century which has formed the subject of this study brought about a complete change, not only in the political constitution, but in the whole life of the country; not alone laws and religion were overturned, but society as a whole was more entirely and abruptly altered than has ever been the case at any other period. Having gleaned from their own pens some notion of the life led by the cultivated classes either in town or country, we may, without going into the question of political gain or loss, inquire how that life was affected by the changes.

As to material comfort, that was in many cases exchanged for utter ruin. The great strongholds which had stood siege, such as Corfe Castle, Lathom or Basing House, were 'slighted,' that is, blown up, having been plundered of all their contents, and their ruins still stand as gaunt reminders of the strength of an earlier day. But these belong to the fortunes of war and the glory of it; what comes more closely home to our sympathies are the pitiful accounts of waste, loss, and desolation which were the lot of hundreds of modest, comfortable, well-furnished houses. These quiet homes, which were not strongholds and were never besieged, have no glory in history, but they suffered; they were plundered, many of them first by one side and then by the other; they were wasted and their resources overtaxed by the continual quartering of troops; they were sequestrated or impoverished by fines