Buckingham ennobles his own family--Villiers becomes Lord Purbeck--Purbeck and the Countess of Buckingham become Catholics--Rumours that Purbeck is insane 64 CHAPTER VIII. The insanity question--Quite sane--Thought insane again--Letter from Lady Purbeck to Buckingham--Birth of Robert Wright--Sir Robert Howard 74 CHAPTER IX. Proceedings instituted against Sir Robert Howard and Lady Purbeck--Buckingham's correspondence about them with his lawyers--Lanier, the King's musician--Buckingham accuses Lady Purbeck of witchcraft--Dr. Lambe--Laud and witchcraft 83 CHAPTER X. Trial of Lady Purbeck before the High Commission--The sentence--Archbishop Laud--The Ambassador of Savoy--Escape--Clun--Some of our other characters--Lady Purbeck goes to Stoke Pogis to take care of her father--Death of Coke 102 CHAPTER XI. Lady Purbeck goes to London--Laud--Arrest of Lady Purbeck and Sir Robert Howard--Question of her virtue at that time--Lord Danby--Guernsey--Paris--Sir Robert Howard turns the tables on Laud--Changes of religion 114 CHAPTER XII. Lady Purbeck in Paris--The English Ambassador--Serving a writ--Lady Purbeck at a convent--Sir Kenelm Digby--His letter about Lady Purbeck--Lady Purbeck returns to England 125 CHAPTER XIII. Lord Purbeck takes Lady Purbeck back again as his wife--He acknowledges Robert Wright as his own son--Death of Lady Purbeck--Retrospect of her life and character--Her descendants--Claims to the title of Viscount Purbeck 137 CHAPTER I. "After this alliance, Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep, And every creature couple with its foe." DRYDEN. The political air of England was highly charged with electricity. Queen Elizabeth, after quarrelling with her lover, the Earl of Essex, had boxed his ears severely and told him to "go to the devil;" whereupon he had left the room in a rage, loudly exclaiming that he would not have brooked such an insult from her father, and that much less would he tolerate it from a king in petticoats.