_Letter 4._--The story of the king who renounced the league with his too
fortunate friend is told in the third book of Herodotus. Amasis is the
king, and Polycrates the confederate. Dorothy may have read the story in
one of the French translations, either that of Pierre Saliat, a cramped
duodecimo published in 1580, or that of P. du Ryer, a magnificent folio
published in 1646.

My Lord of Holland's daughter, Lady Diana Rich, was one of Dorothy's
dearest and most intimate friends. Dorothy had a high opinion of her
excellent wit and noble character, which she is never tired of
repeating. We find allusions to her in many of these letters; she is
called "My lady," and her name is always linked to expressions of
tenderness and esteem. Her father, Henry Rich, Lord Holland, the second
son of the Earl of Warwick, has found place in sterner history than
this. He was concerned in a rising in 1648, when the King was in the
Isle of Wight, the object of which was to rescue and restore the royal
prisoner. This rising, like Sir Thomas Peyton's, miscarried, and he
suffered defeat at Kingston-on-Thames, on July 7th of that year. He was
pursued, taken prisoner, and kept in the Tower until after the King's
execution. Then he was brought to trial, and, in accordance with the
forms and ceremonies of justice, adjudged to death. His head was struck
off before the gate of Westminster Hall one cold March morning in the
following year, and by his side died Capel and the Duke of Hamilton. By
marriage he acquired Holland House, Kensington, which afterwards passed
by purchase into the hands of a very different Lord Holland, and has
become famous among the houses of London. Of his daughter, Lady Diana, I
can learn nothing but that she died unmarried. She seems to have been of
a lively, vivacious temperament, and very popular with the other sex.
There is a slight clue to her character in the following scrap of
letter-writing still preserved among some old manuscript papers of the