204 The Duchess of Newcastle 



to leave Sir Charles, My Lord's brother, he being sick 

 of an ague, of which sickness he died: for though his 

 ague was cured, his hfe was decayed, he being not of 

 a strong constitution could not, as it did prove, 

 recover his health, for the dreggs of his ague did put 

 out the lamp of his Hfe, yet Heaven knows I did not 

 think his life was so near to an end, for his doctor had 

 great hopes of his perfect recovery, and by reason he 

 was to go into the country for change of aire, where I 

 should have been a trouble, rather than any ways 

 serviceable, besides, more charge the longer I stayed, 

 for which I made the more hast to return to My Lord, 

 with whom I had rather be as a poor beggar, than 

 to be mistress of the world absented from him; yet, 

 Heaven hitherto hath kept us, and though Fortune 

 hath been cross, yet we do submit, and are both 

 content with what is, and cannot be mended, and are 

 so prepared that the worst of fortunes shall not afflict 

 our minds, so as to make us unhappy, howsoever it 

 doth pinch our Hves with poverty ; for, if tranquillity 

 lives in an honest mind, the mind Hves in peace, 

 although the body suffer: but patience hath armed 

 us, and misery hath tried us, and finds us fortune- 

 proof. For the truth is, My Lord is a person whose 

 humour is neither extravagantly merry, nor un- 

 necessarily sad, his mind is above his fortune, as 

 his generosity is above his purse, his courage above 

 danger, his justice above bribes, his friendship 

 above self-interest, his truth too firm for falsehood, 

 his temperance beyond temptation, his conversa- 

 tion is pleasing and affable, his wit is quick, and his 

 judgment is strong, distinguishing cleerly without 

 clouds of mistakes, dissecting truth, so as it justly 

 admits not of disputes : his discourse is always new 

 upon the occasion, without troubling the hearers 



