Hannah Hewling, who married Major Henry Cromwell, grandson of Oliver Cromwell, played a notable part during the terrible period following the Monmouth Rebellion. Both her brothers, Benjamin and William, were implicated and condemned to death. Hannah, who was at that time a young, unmarried girl, waylaid Judge Jeffreys in his coach, beseeching him to stay the sentence. “The merciless judge, to make her let go, caus’d the coachman to cut her hands and fingers with the lash of his whip. Nor would he allow the respite of the execution but for two days, tho’ the sister, with tears in her eyes, offered a hundred pounds for so small a favour.” Hannah also vainly interceded with the king, James II. Lord Churchill, by whom she was introduced, warned her of the king’s obstinacy. “Madam,” said he, “hearty as my wishes are that you may obtain what you want, I dare not flatter you with any such hope, for that marble (laying his hand on the chimneypiece at which he was standing) is as capable of feeling compassion as the King’s heart.” After her marriage Hannah exercised a great deal of influence in the Cromwell family. She was of a strong Evangelical cast of mind and a Dissenter. Through her the Dowager Lady Cromwell was induced to substitute a Baptist minister for the Anglican clergyman she had been accustomed to have about her as chaplain. Divers have been the parts which women of the middle classes have played in politics in days gone by. Even when it was a part involving a good deal of publicity they did not shrink, and their practical common sense was unclouded by any sentimental haze of doubt as to their “proper sphere.” Everything that concerned their families or the commonweal they felt to be within their sphere, and they did not conceive the idea that politics were the concern of one sex alone. That complex creation of to-day, the “New Woman,” to whom is ascribed, among other things, an unfeminine taste for politics, is not so modern after all. History is repeating itself, and the progenitors of the political woman are to be found far back in the days of the Lancastrians. CHAPTER VII. HEROINES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Nature of the struggle--Position of Queen Henrietta Maria--Activity of women on both sides--Mrs. Hutchinson at Nottingham--Defence of Lathom House by the Countess of Derby--Lady Arundel at Wardour Castle--Lady Bankes besieged in Corfe Castle--Lady Lettice Digby defends Greashill Castle--Lady Fanshawe’s visits to her husband in prison--Experiences of a gentlewoman in the West of England--Lady Musgrave and the Parliament--Lady Halkett assists the Duke of York to escape--Lady Rochester and the elections--The Jacobite rising--Flora McDonald.