Remarks on Mr. Long's Papers. 



49 



the lady miscarried, Mistress Barnes was to be immolated forth- 

 with." Whereupon Mr. Long dilates jocosely on the absurdity of 

 supposing the gentleman in black velvet to have such an appetite 

 for "infant cremation'' as unnecessarily to act the part of an assassin 

 when a miscarriage would have answered his object in a perfectly 

 honest and satisfactory manner. But of course the word " mis- 

 carried/' in the deposition did not, and could not, mean, in relation 

 to a labour then actually in progress, a fatal result to the child, (as 

 Mr. Long supposes) but to the mother, for whose life Darell might 

 very naturally have been anxious. 



Well, but is there any truth in that part of Aubrey's story which 

 relates that Darell was tried for the murder, and escaped punish- 

 ment by the aid of Mr. Attorney-General Popham, and that the 

 latter was paid for this service by the conveyance to him of the 

 reversion of the estate of Littlecote upon Darell' s death without 

 heirs ? 



Upon these points the documents furnished by Mr. Long do not 

 certainly afford any strong evidence either way. But some matters 

 appear in them which do, I think, lend some countenance to the 

 statement so positively made by Aubrey ; e. g. 



1. The singular letter of W. Darell of June 17th, 1583, 1 to his 

 cousin Reginald Scriven, who seems to have been servant, secretary 

 perhaps, to the Lord Chancellor Bromley, in which, referring to 

 the " secret advice ", and many favours that he (Darell) had 

 gratuitously received from Bromley, " when he was Solicitor," 

 Darell continues, " 0 that I might not even heare say too that he 

 had been my good Lord also." " And if it may be to have him my 

 good and indifferent Lorde, I pray you move ; and, as you may, let 

 fall in substance this, I have a manor standing in good sort with me 

 of the value of £300 by the yeare. This will I convey to My Lorde 

 and Mr. Harry Bromley that maryed my kinswoman, and to his 

 eyers, &c, if I dy without heyer male of my body begotten. And I 

 will enter into a covenant, or be bound in £5000 for ye doing of 

 it, &c." 



VOL. VII. — NO. XIX. 



1 Vol. vi. p. 212. 



E 



