I LUCY HUTCHINSON, life. They rebuilt and adorned Owthorpe, enjoyed an open, cordial hospitality, and superintended the education of their children, sparing no cost " for the instruction of both sons and daughters in languages, sciences, music, dancing, and all other qualities befitting their father's house." The Colonel, whose love for music had led to his acquaintance with the sprightly " young Mrs. Apsley" (now the loving and beloved wife of the goodnatured George Hutchinson), resumed " the practice of his viol," and specially directed his children's attention to his favourite art. But their Arcadian life was not to continue. Oliver Cromwell's death was the signal for every faction in England to raise its head; and during the brief Protectorate under his son the leaders of numerous parties exerted themselves to enlist Colonel Hutchinson on their side, but, perfectly free from personal ambition, he still kept himself aloof from the discord of political strife, though in consequence of his strict neutrality he was looked on with gloomy suspicion by both Cavaliers and Puritans, who were keeping the country in a state of turmoil and distraction. Lucy Hutchinson's courage was now tried on more than one occasion through this troubled time. Her first alarm occurred during the absence of her husband, to whose care Lord Byron, his cousin, had some time previously committed a valuable case of weapons. The hopes of the Royalists having been revived, it 40
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=