ounty, supply but few
materials which may not be found in records that already exist. Yet
there are incidents connected with them which the historian has left
unrecorded; occurrences, it might be, too trivial or too apocryphal for
his pen. One of the main events in the following narrative, though not
found amongst written and authenticated records, the author has listened
to when a child, with a vigorous and greedy appetite for wonder,--one of
the earliest and most delightful exercises of the imagination.

We purpose to follow briefly the order of events as they appear in the
several narratives to which we have had access, interweaving such
traditionary matter as we have gathered in our researches, thereby
interrupting and relieving the tediousness of this "thrice-told tale."

Lord Derby, from the usual unhappy fatality, or rather from the
indecision and jealousies prevailing in his Majesty's councils, had been
commanded to leave the realm, and proceed instantly to the Isle of Man,
at the precise time when his presence here would have been the most
serviceable, not only from his great zeal, activity, and loyalty to his
sovereign, but by reason of the influence he possessed, and the example
which his noble and valiant bearing had shown throughout the county. His
house, children, and all other temporal concerns, he left to the care of
his lady, first making provision, secretly, for their defence, supplying
her with men, money, and ammunition, that she might not be unprepared in
case of attack. His lordship's opinion of this disastrous and impolitic
removal may be gathered from the following hasty expressions. After a
perusal of the despatches, announcing the king's, or rather the queen's,
pleasure that he should speedily repair to the Isle of Man, where an
invasion was apprehended from the Scots,--speaking to the Lady Derby
with more than ordinary quickness, he said, "My heart, my enemies have
now their will, having prevailed with his Majesty to order me to the
Isle of Man, as a softer banishment from his presence and their malice."

This valiant and high-born dame was daughter to Claude, Duke of
Tremouille, and Charlotte Brabantin de Nassau, daughter of William,
Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon, of the royal house of
France. By this marriage the Earl of Derby was allied to the French
kings, the Dukes of Anjou, the Kings of Naples and Sicily, the Kings of
Spain, and many other of the sovereign princes of Europe