not seen more prudence,
sweetinesse, goodnesse, honor and bravery shewed by any woman that I
know, than this unfortunate lady sheweth she hath a rich stock of.
Besides her naturall endowments, doubtlessly her afflictions adde
much: or rather have polished, refined and heightened what nature gave
her: and you know vexatio dat intellectum. Is it not a shame for you
Peeres (and neare about the king) that you will let so brave a lady
live as she doth in distress and banishment: when her exile serveth
stronger but to conceive scandalously of our nation, that we will not
permit those to live among us who have so much worth and goodnesse as
this lady giveth show off....

"Yo. Lo: most humble and affectionate
"servant,
"KENELM DIGBY."

Sir Kenelm, like Scudamore, was on a friendly footing with Lady
Purbeck's chief enemy, Archbishop Laud, but in a very different sense.
When Sir Kenelm was a boy Laud had been his tutor, and a friendship
had sprung up between the master and the pupil which was not broken by
the conversion of the pupil to a religion greatly disliked by the
master. Subsequently, Sir Kenelm gave evidence in favour of his old
tutor, before the Committee appointed to prepare the prosecution of
Laud at his trial, and he sent kind messages to Laud in the Tower.
Unlike Scudamore, however, he was no admirer of Laud's religion or of
his ecclesiastical policy, if indeed of any of his policy.

Although Sir Kenelm Digby, the King and the Queen of France, Cardinal
Richelieu, and the French Ambassador at the Court of St. James's did
their best to obtain forgiveness for Lady Purbeck, Charles I. was long
obdurate. At first, as we have seen, he had sent a writ commanding her
to return at once to her native country for punishment. When he had
withdrawn that writ, he for some time refused to allow her to return
at all, for any purpose. But troubles were brewing for Charles
himself, and, after Lady Purbeck had spent an exile of some length in
Paris, she was permitted to come to England, without any liability to
stand barefoot in a white sheet for the amusement of the congregation
in a fashionable London church on a Sunday morning.

FOOTNOTES:

[95] _S.P. For._, Charles I., France. Scudamore to Coke, 25th
March--4th April, 1636. This letter was addressed to Sir John Coke,
the Secretary of State.

[96] _Court and Times of Charles I_. By D'Israeli, Vol. II., p. 242.

[97] _S.P._, Charles