afterwards Countess of Sussex. -Warnick & Manchester.

from a painting by Van Somer at Ditchley.

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CHAPTER XII.

OF WOMEN'S MATTERS IN DISTRACTED TIMES.

1656-1659.

How small of all that human hearts endure

That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.-GOLDSMITH.

SIR RALPH's sisters and lady friends were all, with one exception, Royalists; Constitutional Freedom was a cause for men to defend; Charles Stuart was a person for women to love and pity. The exception was of course Eleanor, Countess of Warwick; she had grasped from the first the importance of the issues, and had followed with enthusiasm every phase of the struggle. She was the recognised chaperone of the young Commonwealth whom other great ladies snubbed as a low-born and presuming creature. During the Protectorate she figured as almost our only Peeress, as well as being latterly stepmother-in-law to the Protector's daughter. But when, within a few months, Lord Warwick died, and Cromwell's family were so completely swept into oblivion as never again to influence English history, the widowed Countess was carried along by the tide, and Sir Ralph was soon called upon to arrange