98 



James Ley, Earl of Marlborough. 



bended knee of his heart for his conduct towards her." Whether 

 he repented of his marriage or lamented the estrangement from his 

 daughter is a question which we need not decide. 



And now comes the tragic end of the good Earl. For some time 

 he must have seen that darker days were drawing on, and it may be 

 that his counsels were unheeded by the King, and in that case what 

 passed between his royal master and himself was a secret which he 

 would never have divulged. The end came when the King dissolved 

 his fourth Parliament, and declared that he would rule without the 

 aid of parliaments. The Earl of Marlborough and his son, Lord 

 Ley, were both present in the House of Lords at the delivery of 

 the King's speech, in which he said : — " I thought it necessary to 

 come here to-day to declare to you and to all the world that it was 

 merely the undutiful and seditious carriage in the Lower House 

 that hath caused the dissolution of this Parliament. You, my Lords, 

 are so far from being the causers of it, that I take as much comfort 

 in your dutiful demeanour as I am justly distasted with their pro- 

 ceedings. Yet to avoid mistakings, let me tell you that it is so 

 far from me to adjudge all the House equally guilty, that I know 

 that there are many there as dutiful subjects as any in the world ; 

 it being but some few vipers among them that did cast this mist of 

 undutifulness over most of their eyes. As these vipers must look 

 for their reward of punishment, so you, my Lords, must justly 

 expect from me that favour and protection that a good King oweth 

 to his loving and faithful nobility." 



The Earl went home with a broken heart, for he loved his country 

 and his King. Four days afterwards he was dead, and his body 

 was brought from London to Westbury and laid in the same grave 

 with his first wife — the mother of all his children — in the south 

 transept of the Church. 



And as I began with his epitaph, so I will end with words which 

 have immortalised his memory, the sonnet which Milton addressed 

 to Lady Margaret, his daughter : — 1 



1 Milton diverted himself sometimes of an evening in visiting Lady Margaret 

 Ley, daughter of the Earl of Marlborough, Lord High Treasurer of England and 

 President of the Privy Council to King James I. This lady, being a wom.au of 



