ught the
dreaded disease.

For some time it was thought that Lucy Apsley would die from the
complaint, but she recovered. There were many people, however, who
declared that it would have been better if she had died, for the once
beautiful girl was now much disfigured, and the Society gossips
expressed their confidence that John Hutchinson would never marry her.

It was unjustifiable for these people to talk of John Hutchinson as if
he were a scoundrel, for he was a manly, honourable, young fellow, and
quite unlikely to refuse to marry Lucy Apsley because she had lost her
beauty. He told her that he was thankful to God for having spared her,
and urged her to marry him as soon as it was possible.

They were married at St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, on July 3, 1638, the
bride presenting such a shocking appearance that the clergyman who
performed the ceremony could not look at her a second time. It is
highly satisfactory to be able to say that in the course of time Lucy
Hutchinson regained some of her beauty; but the contemporary writer's
statement that she became as beautiful as ever she had been must be
received with a certain amount of doubt.

However, it is not for her beauty but for her bravery that Lucy
Hutchinson deserves to be remembered. When she had spent a few happy
years of married life, the troubles which ended in the execution of
Charles I. began. It was impossible for any man or woman to refrain
from siding with one or the other party in this momentous struggle, for
any person who claimed to be neutral would have been suspected by both
parties. Lucy Hutchinson's husband was of a studious disposition, and
had little taste for the frivolities and dissipation in which the
majority of men of his position indulged, and it is therefore not
surprising that, when it became necessary to take part in the struggle,
he determined to espouse the cause of the Parliamentary party.

This step caused Lucy Hutchinson some sorrow, for her brother and many
other members of her family were fighting for King Charles. However,
she felt that it was her duty to hold the same political opinions as
her husband, and she became a staunch Parliamentarian.

The Cavaliers, hearing that John Hutchinson had proclaimed sympathy
with the Roundheads, decided to take him prisoner immediately, but
warning of their intention reached him, and he fled to Leicestershire.
Lucy joined him at the earliest opportunity, but they had little peac