ffatbers of Bnoltno 29 



Ormonde and Inchiquin, were routed with great 

 slaughter. Just before he was ordered to Ireland, 

 General Venables, then a widower, met Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Aldersley Lee, the widow of Thomas Lee, Esquire, 

 of Darnhall, whose Diary, " wrote by herself," is extant. 

 The lady was eminent for her piety, and had also 

 a snug jointure, which, together with some personal 

 charms, rendered her attractive in the eyes of the 

 General. She thus quaintly describes the perturbation 

 caused by that godly and gallant warrior's attentions : 



" But now I looked upon myself as a person so 

 settled that I had nothing to disturb my peace, so 

 long as I enjoyed the satisfying presence of my 

 God, for which I bless His name ; yet then I met 

 with a business that did exceedingly vex my spirit, 

 the love of a gentleman that I durst not but esteem, 

 a very precious servant of God, and in that regard 1 

 could not scorn him. Yet himself and some others 

 know how I have long slighted him. But that neither 

 satisfied him nor brought me freedom from the trouble 

 of it. ... God only knows the sighs and tears and 

 prayers this business cost me. For the truth is, I 

 am very unwilling to change my condition, yet eyeing 

 Providence and seeing something of God in it, I 

 durst not but in some measure satisfy his desire." 



But then "some cross-passages fell out" between 

 her and her suitor, which were like to have ended in 

 estrangement. " I will not," she writes naively, " mention 

 what offers I have had since I parted from him. But I 

 bless the Lord my heart did not at all go out after 

 them." After more than two years' separation the 



