Mary Mulsho, the sole heiress of Gothurst, was a girl of considerable character, grace, and gravity of mind, and she was well suited to become the bride of the young courtier, musician, and sportsman excelling "in gifts of mind," described at the beginning of this chapter. It can have been no marriage for the sake of money or lands; for Everard Digby was already a rich man, possessed of several estates, and he had had a long minority; moreover, there is plenty of evidence to show that they were devotedly attached to one another. The exact date of their marriage I am unable to give. Jardine says[27] that Sir Everard "was born in 1581," and that "in the year 1596 he married"; and, if this was so, he can have been only fifteen on his marriage. Certainly he was very young at the time, and Jardine may be right; for, at the age of twenty-four, he said that a certain event, which is known to have taken place some time after their marriage, had happened seven or eight years earlier than the time at which he was speaking.[28] I have made inquiries in local registers and at the Herald's College, without obtaining any further light upon the question of the exact date of his wedding. One thing is certain, that his eldest son, Kenelm, was born in the year 1603. In that same year Everard Digby was knighted by the new king, James I. He may have been young to receive that dignity; but, as a contemporary writer[29] puts it, "at this time the honour of knighthood, which antiquity preserved sacred, as the cheapest and readiest jewel to preserve virtue with, was promiscuously laid on any head belonging to the yeomandry (made addle through pride and contempt of their ancestors' pedigree), that had but a court-friend, or money to purchase the favour of the meanest able to bring him into an outward room, when the king, the fountain of honour, came down, and was uninterrupted by other business; in which case it was then usual for the chamberlain or some other lord to do it." It is said that, during the first three months of the reign of James I., the honour of knighthood was conferred upon seven hundred individuals.[30] [27] _Criminal Trials_, Vol. ii. p. 30. [28] S. P. Dom. James I., Gunpowder Plot Book, Part II. No 135, B. [29] Osborne's _Traditional Memorials_, p. 468. I quote from a footnote on page 147 of the _Somers Tracts_, Vol. ii. [30] See Lingard, Vol. vii. chap. i. We find Sir Everard and Lady Digby, at this period of our story, possessed of everything likely to insure happiness--mutual affection, youth, intelligence, ability, popularity, high position, favour at Court, abundance of wealth, and a son and heir. How far this brilliant promise of happiness was fulfilled will be seen by and bye. CHAPTER II.