that he left his children in such a mother’s hands, and that she had promised to him to take care of herself for their sakes. Then he turned to think of the great change that was before him, and at last went to bed and slept soundly. Those who were with him next morning were amazed at the temper he was in. He thanked God that there was no sort of fear nor hurry in his thoughts, and so he prayed and waited till they came to take him in his coach to his execution. He was still cheerful as he went, singing softly a psalm to himself. As they came near his own house and then turned from it into another street, he said, “I have often turned to the other hand with great comfort, and now I turn to this with greater.” But as he looked towards his house, some tears were seen to fall from his eyes. So he remained calm and cheerful till he laid his head on the block and all his troubles were over. We do not know and we can hardly bear to think how his wife passed those terrible hours after she had parted from him. Seven years afterwards she wrote: “There was something so glorious in the object of my biggest sorrow, I believe, that in some measure kept me from being then overwhelmed.” She was roused, only a few days after Lord Russell’s death, to defend his memory, since it was asserted that the paper which he had written before his death, and which had been printed and widely read, was not his but had been written by Dr. Burnet. She wrote to the king describing herself as a woman “amazed with grief,” and begged him to believe that “he who in all his life was observed to act with the greatest clearness and sincerity, would not at the point of death do so false a thing as to deliver for his own what was properly not so.” Still Dr. Burnet was regarded with such suspicion that he thought it wise to leave the country for a time. [Illustration: LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL TAKING LEAVE OF HIS CHILDREN PREVIOUS TO HIS EXECUTION, 1683. (_After J. Bridges._)]