Lady Cowper furnishes two scenes in connection with the attempts to save the condemned lords, which admirably illustrate the time and its character――‘1716. Feb. 21.’ ‘The ladies of the condemned lords brought their petitions to the House of Lords, to solicit the King for a Reprieve. The Duke of St. Albans was the man chosen to deliver it, but the Prince advised him not to do so without the King’s leave. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Wake) opposed the Court strenuously in rejecting the petition. Everybody in a consternation. ’Tis a trap laid to undo the Ministry.’ The Archbishop’s mercy-fit did not last long. Lady Cowper went to him on the following morning, by order of the Princess, to talk with him. She wrung from him a humiliating concession: ‘He says, he’s far from flying in the King’s Face, after all the obligations he has received from him, and that he thought himself in the right way of serving him; but, if the King was not of the same opinion, he would stay at home, which was all he could do.’ On the evening of the day on which the ladies of the condemned lords took their petition to the House of Peers, the Duchess of Bolton――(Henrietta Crofts, a natural daughter of the Duke of Monmouth, by the daughter of Sir Robert Needham, though Lady Cowper demurred to the parentage)――went to Court. ‘The Duchess,’ says Lady Cowper, ‘went with the ladies to make them believe she was one of the Royal family; though that won’t do. It’s too plainly writ in her Face that she’s Penn’s Daughter, the quaking preacher. The Princess chid her and she made all the excuses she could. She said, Lady Derwentwater came crying to her when the Duke was not at Home, and persuaded her to go and plead for her Lord.’ [Sidenote: _THE CONDEMNED LORDS._] Lady Cowper describes Lord Nottingham as ‘behaving sadly’ in the discussion on the matter of the sentenced peers. But, my lord did nothing sadder than express a hope that the king would reprieve the illustrious criminals whether they confessed or not. The Duke of Bolton, by command of the House, presented to the king the address of the peers, beseeching him to reprieve such of the lords as deserved it, and for as long a time as he should think fit. To this address, his angry Majesty very civilly replied――‘I shall always do what I think most for the Honour of my Government, and the safety of my Kingdom.’ To the record of which circumstance Lady Cowper adds, ‘The Lords that had gone astray the Day before plainly showed by their Looks that they felt they had played the Fool.’ The king was angry, inasmuch as the lords, by addressing him, implied that he required to be moved to clemency. He told Mademoiselle von der Schulenburg ‘that he should be ashamed to show himself after this.’ Forthwith Lords Derwentwater, Kenmure, Nithsdale, Widdrington, Nairn, and Carnwath were ordered for execution.