If that be true, John Hoar's wife, Alice,
was a daughter and namesake of Lady Alice Lisle. Although
I should like to believe it, I am afraid that the claim cannot
be made good. Lady Alice Lisle was a lady of large wealth
and good lineage. Her husband was John Lord Lisle, who was
Lord Justice under Cromwell, and one of the Judges in the
trial of Charles I. He drew the indictment and sentence of
the King, and sat next to Bradshaw at the trial, and directed
and prompted him in difficult matters. He was murdered one
Sunday morning on his way to church when in exile at Lausanne,
Switzerland, on the Lake of Geneva, by three ruffians, said
to be sent for that purpose by Queen Henrietta. Lady Alice
Lisle was a victim of the brutality of Jeffries. After Monmouth's
rebellion and defeat, she gave shelter and food to two fugitives
from Monmouth's army. The report of her trial is in Howell.
There was no proof that she knew that they were fugitives
from Monmouth's army, although she supposed one of them was
a Dissenting minister. There had been no conviction of the
principals, which the English law required before an accessory
after the fact could be found guilty. She suggested this
point at the trial, but it was overruled by Jeffries. He
conducted the case with infinite brutality. She was a kindly
old lady, of more than seventy years. She slept during part
of the trial, probably being fatigued by the journey, in which
she had been carried on horseback from Moyle's Court to Winchester,
and the sleepless nights which would naturally have followed.
She was sentenced to be burned at the stake. But the sentence
was commuted to beheading, at the intercession of the gentry
of the neighborhood. She had disapproved of the execution
of the King; said she had always prayed for him, and had a
son in the King's army. Macaulay's account of the story is
familiar to all readers of English history.

I was received at the old house with great kindness by Mrs.
Fane, wife of the present proprietor. It is a beautiful
old house with carved oak partitions, with a dining room
rising to the roof. Lady Lisle's chamber and the place where
the two fugitives were concealed are still shown. Mrs. Fane
had gathered some local traditions which are not found in
print. One old lady, who had been well known to persons now
living, had received some of them from her grandmother, who
was cotemporary with Lady Alice.

The lady was very popular