£ Records of the Rising in the West, A.B. 1655. 



Adieu therefore ten thousand times ray dearest dear, and sinoe I must never \ 

 see you more, tako this prayer * ' May your faith be so strengthened, that your j 

 constancy may continue, and then I hope heaven will receive you, where grief | 

 and love will in a short time after, I hope, translate, my dear, your sad but 

 constant wife, even to lovo your ashes when dead.' 

 Your children beg your A. Penetjdbock. 



blessing end present 



their duties to you."f 



This is indeed a noble epistle ! abounding* in charm of style, and 

 beauty of thought. Here is refinement mixed with Christian love. 

 Is it not the mirror of their wedded lives ? We may see reflected 

 there the affection and faith of both growing" through time to eternity, 

 and feel certain she would have pledged her own existence for his. 

 She did not lose " her devoir/'' What a comfort must this letter 

 have been to the dying man ! ie The sweetest thought the last ; " 

 there were George, Tom, and Jane to rally round her in the hour 

 of trial. 



The effort of writing no doubt was great. Her frame enfeebled 

 by long and heavy anxieties, fatiguing journies, and night watches. 

 We see her struggling on amidst prayers and tears, her grief at 

 times almost overwhelming her, but perchance she gained strength 

 as she wrote, feeling that despatch was necessary, for she did not 

 know how soon her husdand might be summoned to execution, and 

 that he should die without receiving it, was terrible to contemplate. 



" Haste, post haste, must you gallop, good and faithful friend! Speed 

 thee to catch up His Highnesses messenger ! 33 But time was found 



• Words " with you " erased after " prayer." 



+ The fac-timile which will be found opposite this page, contains in addition the words " Eleven 

 o'clock at night — May 3rd," which are not at present on the original, but only on the sbeet of paper 

 on which it is preserved. Mr. Charles Penruddock, the present owner of Compton, believes he has 

 seen them on it. That there has been a small piece most unluckily shorn off the foot of this highly- 

 interesting document is clear from its appearance, some word or words having been cut through, and 

 thus become indecipherable. 



The pamphlet of July 2nd, 1655 (King's Pamplets, Sm. Qto., Vol. 652— " Illegal Proceedings"), 

 which has often been mentioned, contains both sentences; and is followed by Sir Richard Steele. 

 It would therefore appear that the date of the foot of the letter, as given by Sir Richard Hoare 

 (Hund. Dunw., p. 85), viz., " May 15th," is incorrect. The latter appears never to have seen Mrs. 

 Penruddock's original letter. That it could have been written and sent from London, at midnight 

 on the loth of May, and reach Exeter on the morning of the 16th, in time for Colonel Penruddock 

 to have answered it, is impossible. If it were written on that day it must have been written at 

 Exeter, but this I do not believe. The compiler of the pamphlet must have known the facts and 

 could have no reason for giving the date as the 3rd if it were not so. Moreover the pamphlet gives 

 the answer of Colonel Penruddock as dated " May 6th." Sir Richard Hoare said he took the letters 

 from " The Lover," but that, as has been already mentioned, gives the date as the 3rd of May, See 

 " The Lover," p. 20, Harrison's Brit. Classics, vol. 6. 



