196 The Duchess of Newcastle 



remained so lively in her memory, and her grief was 

 so lasting, as she never mentioned his name, though 

 she spoke often of him, but love and grief caused tears 

 to flow, and tender sighs to rise, mourning in sad 

 complaints ; she made her house her cloyster, inclosing 

 herself as it were therein, for she seldom went abroad, 

 unless to church ; but these unhappy wars forced her 

 out, by reason she and her children were loyall to the 

 king ; for which they plundered her and my brothers 

 of all their goods, plate, jewels, money, corn, cattle, 

 and the like, cut down their woods, pulled down their 

 houses, and sequestered them from their lands and 

 livings; but in such misfortunes my mother was of an 

 heroick spirit, in suffering patiently where there is no 

 remedy, or to be industrious where she thought she 

 could help: she was of a grave behaviour, and had 

 such a magestic grandeur, as it were continually hung 

 about her, that it would strike a kind of an awe to the 

 beholders, and command respect from the rudest; I 

 mean the rudest of civilised people, I mean not such 

 barbarous people as plundered her, and used her 

 cruelly, for they would have pulled God out of Heaven, 

 had they had power, as they did royaltie out of his 

 throne : also her beauty was beyond the ruin of time, 

 for she had a well-favoured loveliness in her face, a 

 pleasing sweetness in her countenance, and a well- 

 tempered complexion, as neither too red nor too pale, 

 even to her dying hour, although in years, and by her 

 dying, one might think death was enamoured with 

 her, for he imbraced her in a sleep, and so gently, 

 as if he were afraid to hurt her: also she was an 

 affectionate mother, breeding her children with a 

 most industrious care, and tender love, and having 

 eight children, three sons and five daughters, there 

 was not any one crooked, or any ways deformed. 



