Towards her latter end, she fell into some bodily distempers, in which she had fits, which, by a gradual failure of her spirits, left her at last unable to speak or move, yet, without any great alteration in her countenance. The fits were short, but not sharp, for she felt no pain; but when she returned to herself she was commonly more feeble than before. During her sickness, she had the free use of her faculties, and her desires were strong for a speedy dissolution; so that she adopted the requests of David, Psalm xxxviii. 22. "Make haste to help

me, O Lord of my salvation!" and Psalm xl. 13. "Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make "haste to help me!" At length, the hour came, when her desires were to be granted in the very kind she wished by the gate of death to pass to the Author of life; which she did in such a calm manner, that, when she was thought to be asleep, she was found to be dead, August 17, 1638.

LADY RACHAEL RUSSELL.

LADY Rachael Wriothesley was born about the year 1636, and was the daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, by his first wife, Rachael, daughter of Henry de Massey, Baron of Ruvigny, and sister to the Marquis of Ruvigny, father of Henry, Earl of Galway. She was married first to Francis, Lord Vaughan, eldest son of Richard, Earl of Carberry, and afterwards, about the year 1669, to William, Lord Russell, son of William, Earl of Bedford, by whom she had one son and two. daughters. Lady Rachael, the eldest, was married to William, Lord Cavendish, afterwards Duke of Devonshire; and the Lady Catherine, the youngest, to John Manners, Lord Roos, aftewards Duke of Rutland. Wriothesley, the son, married, in May 1695, Elizabeth, only daughter and heir of John Howland, Esquire, and was, immediately after his marriage, created Baron Howland of Streatham. He succeeded his grandfather in 1700, as Duke of Bedford, and died of the small-pox, May 26, 1711, in the thirty-first year of his age. By his lady he had three sons and two daughters.

It is an event which can never be forgotten, that the husband of this lady, William, Lord Russell, was beheaded July 21, 1683. How worthy a man he was, how true a friend to the liberties of his country, how undeserving of his bitter treatment, and with what an invincible fortitude he met his cruel doom, the Introduction to the Letters of Lady Rachael Russell, his widow, particularly shows; and to that we refer our readers*. As our concern is only

*Letters of Lady Rachael Russell, from the Manuscript in the Library at Wooburn-Abbey; to which is prefixed an Introduction,

with his relict, we shall turn our thoughts entirely to her.

We are not furnished with any considerable materials for our memoirs of her before the dismal period of her illustrious husband's sufferings. At this juncture, she conducted herself with a mixture of the most tender affection and the most surprising magnanimity. She appeared in court at the trial of her husband; and when the Attorney-General told him," he might use the hands of one of his servants "in waiting to take notes of the evidence for his "use;" Lord Russell answered," that he asked none, "but that of the lady that sat by him.". The spectators at these words turning their eyes, and beholding the daughter of the virtuous Southampton rising up to assist her lord in this his utmost distress, a thrill of anguish ran through the assembly. After his condemnation, she threw herself at the King's feet, and pleaded, but, alas! in vain, with his majesty, the merits and loyalty of her father *, in order to save her husband. And without a sigh or a tear, she took her last farewell of him; when it might have been expected, as they were so perfectly happy in vindicating the Character of Lord Russell against Sir John Dalrymple, &c. Third Edit. printed 1774.

"

"The Earl of Southampton," says Clarendon, was a great "man in all respects, and brought very much reputation to King "Charles the First his cause. He went to the King to York, was "most solicitous for the offer of peace at Nottingham, was with "him at Edge-Hill, and came and stayed with him at Oxford to "the end of the war." Burnet calls him, 66 a man of great virtue "and good parts, of a lively imagination and sound judgment, "who had merited much by his constant adherence to the King's "interest during the war, and the large remittances he made him "in his exile; and styles him a fast friend to the public — the "wise and virtuous Earl of Southampton - who deserved every thing the King could give him.""The King," says Oldmixon, saw the virtuous and lovely Lady Russell weeping at "his feet, imploring but a short reprieve for her condemned lord, “with dry eyes and a stony heart, though she was the daughter of "the Earl of Southampton, the best friend he ever had in his "life." See the Introduction to Lady Russell's Letters.

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