rbury, that he was directed
by his Council in all things, and devoted to his interest.

Earth has no curse like love to hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.

This was literally verified in the case of the countess; she let loose
all the rage of which she was capable against him, and as she panted
for the consummation of the match between Carre and her, she so
influenced the Viscount, that he began to conceive a hatred likewise
to Overbury; and while he was thus subdued by the charms of a wicked
woman, he seemed to change his nature, and from the gentle, easy,
accessible, good-natured man he formerly appeared, he degenerated into
the sullen, vindictive, and implacable. One thing with respect to the
countess ought not to be omitted. She was wife of the famous Earl of
Essex, who afterwards headed the army of the parliament against the
King, and to whom the imputation of impotence was laid. The Countess,
in order to procure a divorce from her husband, gave it out that tho'
she had been for some time in a married state, she was yet a virgin,
and which it seems sat very uneasy upon her. To prove this, a jury of
matrons were to examine her and give their opinion, whether she was,
or was not a Virgin: This scrutiny the Countess did not care to
undergo, and therefore entreated the favour that she might enter
masked to save her blushes; this was granted her, and she took care
to have a young Lady provided, of much the same size and exterior
appearance, who personated her, and the jury asserted her to be
an unviolated Virgin. This precaution in the Countess, no doubt,
diminishes her character, and is a circumstance not favourable to her
honour; for if her husband had been really impotent as she pretended,
she needed not have been afraid of the search; and it proves that she
either injured her husband, by falsely aspersing him, or that she had
violated her honour with other men. But which ever of these causes
prevailed, had the Countess been wise enough, she had no occasion to
fear the consequences of a scrutiny; for if I am rightly informed, a
jury of old women can no more judge accurately whether a woman has
yielded her virginity, than they can by examining a dead body, know
of what distemper the deceased died; but be that as it may, the whole
affair is unfavourable to her modesty; it shews her a woman of
irregular passions, which poor Sir Thomas Overbury dearly
experienced; for even after the Countess was h