THE PERFECT WIFE. securing his estate; but a wild dread that he in- tended to resign himself a public martyr possessed his wife, and in an agonised burst of grief she declared she would not live to see him a prisoner. His conduct on the Restoration had been most magnanimous; and when advised to follow the example of the dastardly Ingoldsby-who protested, with many tears, that Cromwell had held his hand and forced him to sign the sentence on the King-. he indignantly refused; and, again, when called on to attest the signatures of his associates, he iden- tified only the names of those who were dead. Urged by her friends, and accused of obstinacy, Lucy Hutchinson at length wrote a letter in her husband's name to the Speaker of the House of Commons, representing all that could be said in his favour, and begging that he might consider himself at liberty on his parole till his fate should be finally decided. This document she intended to show to the Colonel to obtain his sanction to it; but, being apprised that the House was then leniently disposed towards him, she "wrote her husband's name to the letter, and ventured to send it in, being used some- times to write the letters he dictated, and her character not much differing from his." This act she endeavoured to excuse by the end in view; but she afterwards greatly regretted it. Through the exertions of Sir Allen Apsley, a favourable answer was returned, the Colonel's name was inserted in the Act of Oblivion, and his estate voted free 43
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