151 " very- much scorne to betrey or quilt a. trust he had undertaken; " but the grounds he weitt on were such, that he very much de- " spised such a thought as to sell his faith for base rewards or " fcares, and therefore conld not consider the losse of his estate, " which his wife was as willing to part with as himselfe, in this " cause, wherein he was resolv'd to persist, in the same place, in " which it had pleased God te call him ' to the defence of it." About this time a woman was taken, whereof the committee had before bene inform'd, that she carried intelligence betweene Coli. Pierrepont and his mother, the countesse of Kingston. The woman was now going through Nottingham, with letters from the old countesse to her daughter-in-law, the colloncll's wife, who was then at Clifton, Sr. Gervas Clifton's house. In this pacquet there was a letter drawne, which the countesse adviz'd her daughter to signe, to be sent to Coli. Stanton, one of the king's collonells, to entreate back from him some goods of her husband's, which he had plunder'd; wherein there were these expressions: " that though her '· husband was unfortunately engag'd in the unhappie rebellion, she " hoped ere long he would approve himselfe a loyall subject to his " majesty." The committee having read these letters, seal'd them up againe, and enclos'd them in another to the collonell, then at Derby, telling him that having intercepted such letters, and not knowing whether his wife might follow her mother's advice, which if he should, would prove very dishonourable to him, they had chosen rather to send th~ letters to him then to her. The collonell was vext that they had open'd tl~em, but for the present tooke no 11 Notice is taken by '\Vhitelock of several attempts to prevail on Colonel Hutchinson to betray his trust, and of his steady adherence to it: there will be seen other instances more remarkable than this; but here are two things extremely well worth notice; this elegant and forcible apostrophe to Sir Richard Byron; and the patriotic and disinterested devotion of :Mrs . Hutchinson to the cause, at least a rare example jn her sex. z
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