LUCY HUTCHINSON, with her eldest son and daughter, went with him to London. The gentle, loving wife's heart was torn with grief and foreboding; she could not conceal her anguish, until her noble, patient husband, en- deavouring to console her, told her "it would blemish his innocence for her to appear afflicted." He tried to divert her by joking with his guards, and talking gaily all the way; but alas, "her divining heart was not to be comforted." For ten months Colonel Hutchinson, now become a political martyr, languished under perpetual indig- nities, and even hardships, inflicted by the petty tyrant to whose charge he had been committed ; and at the end of that time he was suddenly removed to a wretched dilapidated place-Sandown Castle, Kent, - totally unfit for human habitation. The windows were unglazed ; the tide washed its walls ; salt and damp encrusted the sides of the room where he was shut up ; and it was altogether a horrible abode. Lucy was subjected to many trials during this time, apart from her one great grief. For many weeks at the beginning of her husband's confine- ment she was not permitted to visit him, until her brother, Sir Allen, interfered ; and then the Lieutenant imposed vexatious conditions on her, with the object of extorting fees from her. He refused to allow her to take lodgings in the Tower, whereby she was put to " great toil and inconve- nience," it being " in a sharp winter season," and 46
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=