awing
nigh when her husband would be raised to the throne. Indeed, she
considered him as already the true and rightful sovereign of the
realm, and she believed that the hour would very soon come when his
claims would be universally acknowledged, and when she herself would
be Queen of England, and her boys royal princes, and, as such, the
objects of universal attention and regard. She instilled these ideas
continually into the minds of the children, and she exacted the utmost
degree of subserviency and submission toward herself and toward them
on the part of all around her.

While she was thus situated in her palace near London, awaiting every
day the arrival of a messenger from the north announcing the final
victory of her husband over all his foes, she was one day
thunderstruck, and overwhelmed with grief and despair, by the tidings
that her husband had been defeated, and that he himself, and the dear
son who had accompanied him, and was just arriving at maturity, had
been ignominiously slain. The queen, too, her most bitter foe, now
exultant and victorious, was advancing triumphantly toward London.

Not a moment was to be lost. Lady Cecily had with her, at this time,
her two youngest sons, George and Richard. She made immediate
arrangements for her flight. It happened that the Earl of Warwick,
who was at this time the Lord High Admiral, and who, of course, had
command of the seas between England and the Continent, was a relative
and friend of Lady Cecily's. He was at this time in London. Lady
Cecily applied to him to assist her in making her escape. He
consented, and, with his aid, she herself, with her two children and a
small number of attendants, escaped secretly from London, and made
their way to the southern coast. There Lady Cecily put the children
and the attendants on board a vessel, by which they were conveyed to
the coast of Holland. On landing there, they were received by the
prince of the country, who was a friend of Lady Cecily, and to whose
care she commended them. The prince received them with great kindness,
and sent them to the city of Utrecht, where he established them safely
in one of his palaces, and appointed suitable tutors and governors to
superintend their education. Here it was expected that they would
remain for several years.

Their mother did not go with them to Holland. Her fears in respect to
remaining in England were not for herself, but only for her helpless
children. For herself, h