THE PERFECT WIFE.' Byron's troop proved not to have any sinister inten- tions, merely asking for refreshment on their way, and appropriating one or two horses. Partly from this alarm, and partly because Owthorpe was found to be uninhabitable, " till it was either repaired or newly built," she joined her husband in London, immediately after, with her children. It is needless to recapitulate the events of the memorable session of that year. With the parti- culars of that trial, which, in those days when divinity did really hedge a King, was a deed of such unexampled boldness, we have nothing further to do than to record that Colonel Hutchinson was one of those members who signed the warrant for the execution of the royal Charles. Finding that his health had been almost irretriev- ably impaired by the anxieties and hardships which he had endured, Colonel Hutchinson desired his wife to intercede with Ireton, to have his name omitted from the Council of State then forming. She did so, with what earnestness maybe imagined ; but the request was not acceded to ; and, finding his services still needed by his country, he was un- remitting in his attention to his Parliamentary duties. At the end of some months, however, Parliament consented to dispense for a season with his attendance ; and, with his anxious and devoted wife, he at last escaped from the heat and turmoil of political struggles to the freedom and tranquillity of the country and the quiet pleasures of private 39
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