That old cousin must have wished devoutly that she had placed herself
anywhere else. For the Governor of one of the King's islands to
receive and to shelter a criminal flying from justice was a very
embarrassing position. On the other hand, to refuse protection to a
helpless lady, and that lady a kinswoman, much more to betray her into
the hands of her enemies, would have been an act from which any
honourable man might well shrink. The possibility that it might be
discovered in the island that he was entertaining a woman in male
attire must also have been an annoying uncertainty to the immaculate
Governor of Guernsey. Over the details of this perplexing situation
history has kindly thrown a veil; indeed, we learn nothing further
about Lady Purbeck's proceedings until we read, in the already noticed
letter of Garrard's, that she landed at St. Malo, whence she
eventually went to Paris.
It seems safe to infer that whatever protection and hospitality her
relative, Lord Danby, may have afforded to Lady Purbeck, he was
heartily glad to get rid of her. If she had originally intended to go
to Paris, she would scarcely have made the long voyage of nearly two
hundred miles out of her way to Guernsey, and the most natural
explanation of that voyage is that she had hoped and expected to
obtain concealment, hospitality, and a refuge in the house of her
relative. Instead of conceding her these privileges for any length of
time, Lord Danby evidently speeded the parting guest with great
celerity.
While all this was going on, Sir Robert Howard remained under arrest
in London. Laud, writing of Lady Purbeck's escape, says: "In the mean
time, I could not but know, though not perhaps prove as then, that Sir
Robert Howard laboured and contrived this conveyance. And thereupon in
the next sitting of the High-Commission, Ordered him to be close
Prisoner, till he brought the Lady forth. So he continued Prisoner
about some two or three months."
It may be observed here that some years later, in fact in the year
1640, Sir Robert Howard turned the tables upon Laud for this
transaction. "On Munday, December 21," wrote Laud in 1640, "upon a
Petition of Sir Robert Howard, I was condemned to pay Five Hundred
Pounds unto him for false Imprisonment. And the Lords Order was so
strict, that I was commanded to pay him the Money presently, or give
Security to pay it in a very short time. I payed it, to satisfie the
Command of the House: but was not therein so well advised as I might
have been, being Committed for Treason." Laud was at that time a
prisoner in the Tower, only to leave it for execution. In addition to
this £500, Sir Robert was ordered to have a fine of £250 paid to him
by the sorcerer, Lambe, and another fine of £500 by a man named
Martin;[90] so altogether, the Long Parliament assigned him,£1,250
damages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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