THE TRUE MAID OF HONOUR. pretty, vivacious child ; it was the first wish of her maternal heart that the impressionable girl should be imbued with a fervent reverence for the pure and gentle teachings of the Protestant faith : -a wish which the natural disposition of Margaret promised to fulfil. The lessons imparted by her mother must have sunk deeply into the mind of Margaret, for when she was six or seven years old, their efficacy was severely tested. The old Duchess of Richmond took her to Paris, and consigned her to the care of her grace's cousin, the Countess of Guildford, then one of Henrietta Maria's ladies in waiting. The Countess being a rigid, indeed bigoted, member of the Church of Rome, endeavoured to influence her youthful charge to abjure the simple doctrines of Luther for the dictatorial formula of the Vatican ; but Margaret Blagge had been so well grounded in her religious belief, that no persuasion could induce her for a moment to listen to the arguments of the Countess. Gentle means producing so unsatisfactory a result, Lady Guildford next tried a rigorous course of ill-treatment and menaces to compel her to attend mass and confession ; but Margaret firmly adhered to the tenets instilled by her mother, although the usage to which she was subjected caused her to become " almost a martyr before she was seven years old." Almost immediately after, she returned to her mother ; and in her eighth year she lost her good 7
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