in the hands of the Parliament army, and paffing by this feat, he was permitted to reft there all night, where the Countefs entertained him in the most refpectful manner; and as her fon the Earl was there, his Majefty was, for the greateft part of the time, fhut up in private conference with both of them. Upon this a late writer fays, Unfortunately for CHARLES, he thought himself, even then, in a capacity to be of much greater importance than be really was, and that it was at any time in his power to have turned the fcale between the Parliament and the army. His prepoffeffions made him neglect the counfels of his best friends, nor was he undeceived till he came within fight of the fcaffold.

This King's affairs being in this difmal fituation, all this Lady could do was to fupply the Loyalifts with money; and even after the King's death, and the lofs of the battle of Worcester, the received many of the routed party with great kindness, and affifted them in their diftrefs, which expofed her so much to the refentment of thofe in power, that the very narrowly escaped imprisonment; tho' at the fame time it might be weighed, that the Countess was a woman of too much fense not to confider the time she lived in, and that by acting too openly fhe would have` only ruined her own family, without doing any effential fervice to the Royal Caufe.

It is indeed faid, that the Countefs had intelligence of Monk's fecret intention of reftoring King Charles II, tho' fuch a defign did not publickly appear till he had first disclosed it to the King himfelf, and then it was brought about in fuch a manner as furprized all the world.

This Lady, befides the fhare fhe had in the publick calamities, was not without her own domeftic afflictions, first in the lofs of her beloved fon Charles, (of whom we shall presently speak,) and next of her only daughter Anne, married to Robert Lord Rich,

fon

fon and heir to Robert Earl of Warwick, a Lady of those rare endowments of mind and body, that her memory is celebrated by the wits and orators of her own time, the Lord Faulkland, Mr. Waller, Mr. Godolphin, and others.

Hear Waller :

The Lady RICH is dead!

Heart rending news! and dreadful to those few
Who her resemble and her fteps perfue:
That death should licence have to rage among
The fair, the wife, the virtuous and the young!
All stand amazed! but beyond the reft

The heroic dame whofe happy womb fhe bleft,
Moved with juft grief expoftulates with heaven;
Urging the promise to the obfequious given,
Of longer life: for ne'er was pious foul
More apt to obey, more worthy to controul.
A skilful eye at once might read the race
Of CALEDONIAN Monarchs in her face,
And sweet humility: her look and mind,
At once were lofty, and at once were kind.
There dwelt the fcorn of vice, and pity too,
For those that did what fhe difdained to do:
So gentle and fevere, that what was bad,
At once her hatred, and her pardon had.
Gracious to all; but where her love was due,
So faft, fo faithful, loyal, and so true,
That a bold hand as foon might hope to force
The rowling lights of heaven, as change her course.
Some happy angel, that beholds her there,
Inftruct us to record what she was here!
And when this cloud of forrow's over-blown,
Through the wide world we'll make her graces
So fresh the wound is, and the grief fo vaft,
That all our art, and power of fpeech, is waste.
Here paffion fways, but there the Mufe fhall raife
Eternal momuments of louder praise.

There our delight complying with her fame,
Shall have occafion to recite thy name,

CHRISTIAN, Countess of Devonshire.

known.

Fair SACHARISSA!--and now only fair!
To facred friendship we'll an altar rear;
(Such as the ROMANS did erect of old)
Where, on a marble pillar, fhall be told
The lovely paffion each to other bare,
With the resemblance of that matchlefs pair.
NARCISSUS to the thing for which he pined
Was not more like, than yours to her fair mind:
Save that the grac'd the feveral parts of life,
A fpotlefs virgin, and a faultlefs wife:

Such was the sweet converse betwixt her and you,
As that she holds with her affociates now.

How falfe is hope, and how regardless fate,
That fuch a love fhould have fo fhort a date!
Lately I faw her fighing part from thee;
(Alas! that That the laft farewell fhould be!)
So look'd ASTRA, her remove defign'd,
On those diftreffed friends fhe left behind.
Confent in virtue knit your hearts so fast,
That ftill the knot, in fpite of death, does laft:
For, as your tears, and forrow-wounded foul,
Prove well that on your part this bond is whole :
So, all we know of what they do above,
Is, that they happy are, and that they love.
Let dark oblivion, and the hollow grave,
Content themselves our frailer thoughts to have:
Well chofen love is never taught to die,
But with our nobler part invades the sky.
Then grieve no more, that one fo heav'nly fhap'd
The crooked hand of trembling age escap'd.
Rather, fince we beheld her not decay,
But that the vanifh'd fo entire away;

Her wond'rous beauty, and her goodness, merit
We should fuppofe, that fome propitious fpirit
In that cœleftial form frequented here;

And is not dead, but ceases to appear.

But it is to be observed, that the mourning mother, tho' none could be more fenfible of the lofs of fuch children, had fo much of the old Roman matron in her, as to feem to have been much lefs affected at the melancholy fcentes in her own family than at the public miferies of the Church and State.

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Not

Not long after the murder of the King fhe retired to Greenwich, and there lived privately, in hopes of feeing, one day or other, the dignity of the crown and the liberty of the people reftored. When there appeared little or no profpect of public peace and fettlement, fhe removed to her brother's, the Earl of Elgin's houfe, at Ampthill; and by three years privacy, which lightened her griefs and expences, and enabled her to renew her hofpitality and charity, in a feat which she purchased, for its pleasant fituation, at Roehampton, in Surry.

Notwithstanding this Lady had paffed through fuch a variety of troubles, as generally break the spirits and shorten the thread of life, yet had the the fatisfaction to live to fee the King reftored to the throne of his ancestors.

After this happy event fhe received all outward marks of refpect from the Royal Family, and paffed the remainder of her days in great tranquillity at Roehampton, where fhe continued her hofpitable manner of living and extensive charity towards the poor to her last moments.

She bore her fickness with great piety and refignation, died on the 16th of January, 1674, and was buried at Derby, where fhe had erected a monument for her Lord, herself, and children, having ordered in her will, that the remains of her beloved fon Charles fhould be taken up, and accompany her own corpfe, which was accordingly done.

The fhort detail we have given of this Lady's life is the highest encomium we can beftow on her, because it fets her character in its true light. We fhall find, on looking back to Sir William Cavendifh's laft wife, that Chriftian was the exact copy of that beautiful original, which is faying, in one word, that she had all the valuable accomplishments of her fex. In short, tho' none knew better how to keep up the dignity of her station, yet fuch was her natural af

fability,

fability, that fhe treated all perfons, whether in town or country, in fo polite a manner fuitable to their respective qualities, that none ever left her, without being charmed at the reception they met with. A life fpent in conftant acts of piety and devotion has nothing to fear, but every thing to hope for, from its approaching exit. As the Countefs had been a Chriftian indeed, during its whole course, it will be easily believed, that the bore her last sickness with great patience and refignation, and that the terrors of death could not affect the calmness and ferenity of her mind. In a word, fhe left this world for a better, honoured by the rich, lamented by the poor, and univerfally regretted by all who had the happiness of her acquaintance. As fhe had been always the tenderest of mothers, she was the kindeft of mistresses, in teftimony of which she bequeathed confiderable legacies to every one of her domesticks, befides what fhe had bestowed on them, before her decease.

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