LUCY HUTCHINSON, without any conditions; and the only punishment inflicted was discharging him from all offices, military or civil, in the State for ever. Lucyhad soon the joyof being able to return with her husband and children in apparent safety to the dear home at Owthorpe; though the Colonel was terribly uneasy and dissatisfied with himself for accepting pardon when others had suffered. In- deed, the loving wife confesses, with tender grief, that though " she thought she had never deserved so well of him as in the endeavours and labours she exercised to bring him off, yet she never displeased him more in her life, and had much ado to persuade him to be contented with his deliverance." They were warmly advised to quit England, but they refused, thinking it would be " an ungrateful distrust of God" to forsake the country which had hitherto sheltered them. This liberty was of short duration, for Clarendon and the Court party, enraged that their contemplated victim had escaped them, were greedily watching for an excuse to entrap him again in their toils; and on every pretence which offered he was annoyed and insulted, his house, even, being boldly invaded and plundered more than once of valuable weapons, to Colonel Hutchinson's sword and some pistols be- longing to Lord Byron. The treasured pictures which adorned Owthorpe, and which had been bought at the sale of the late King's collection, were taken without any recompense, although they had 44
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