d herself by
learning English and by the study of divinity. A lawsuit with her
brother caused temporary delay, but she secured her share of the family
fortune, which she devoted to founding a college for English Jesuits at
Louvain; it was transferred to Watten near Saint Omer in 1612, and
lasted till the suppression of the Order. In 1605 she was allowed to go
to England. She established herself under the protection of the Spanish
ambassador, whose house was in the Barbican. From this place of safety
she carried on an active and successful propaganda. She made herself
conspicuous by her attentions to the Gunpowder Plot prisoners, and won
converts, partly by persuasion, partly by helping women of the very
poorest class in childbirth, and taking charge of the children. Her
activity attracted the attention of the authorities, and she was
arrested in 1608. But the protection of the Spanish ambassador Zuniga,
and the desire of King James I. to stand well with Spain, secured her
release. In 1613, while staying at a house in Spitalfields, where she
had in fact set up a disguised nunnery, she was arrested with all the
inmates by the pursuivants of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, who had
been on the watch for some time. Her release was again secured by the
new Spanish ambassador Gondomar, who played with effect on the weakness
of King James. By this time, however, the Spanish authorities had begun
to discover that she was a political danger to them, and recalled her.
Luisa, who had hoped for the crown of martyrdom, was bitterly
disappointed, and resisted the order. Before she could be forced to obey
she died in the Spanish ambassador's house on her birthday, the 2nd of
January 1614. Her body remained as an object of admiration for months
till it was carried back to Spain.

The original authority for the life of Luisa de Carvajal is _La Vida y
Virtudes de la Venerable Virgen Dona Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza_
(Madrid, 1632), by the Licentiate Lorenzo Munoz. It is founded on her
own papers collected by her English confessor Michael Walpole. It is
largely autobiographical, and contains some examples of her verse. The
_Vida y Virtudes_ is summarized by Southey in his _Letters from Spain
and Portugal_ (1808). A life was written by Lady Georgiana Fullerton
(1873), in which much that is shocking to modern sentiment is
concealed. See also _Quatre Portraits de femmes_, by La Comtesse R. de
Courson (Paris, 1895). There