do not hear of anything else. Mr. Howard presented his mistress but a
dozen such seals as are not to be valued as times now go. But _à propos_
of Monsr. Smith, what a scape has he made of my Lady Barbury; and who
would e'er have dreamt he should have had my Lady Sunderland, though he
be a very fine gentleman, and does more than deserve her. I think I
shall never forgive her one thing she said of him, which was that she
married him out of pity; it was the pitifullest saying that ever I
heard, and made him so contemptible that I should not have married him
for that reason. This is a strange letter, sure, I have not time to read
it over, but I have said anything that came into my head to put you out
of your dumps. For God's sake be in better humour, and assure yourself I
am as much as you can wish,

Your faithful friend and servant.


_Letter 8._--The name of Algernon Sydney occurs more than once in these
pages, and it is therefore only right to remind the reader of some of
the leading facts in his life. He was born in 1622, and was the second
son of Robert Earl of Leicester. He was educated in Paris and Italy, and
first served in the army in Ireland. On his recall to England he
espoused the popular cause, and fought on that side in the battle of
Marston Moor. In 1651 he was elected a member of the Council of State,
and in this situation he continued to act until 1653. It is unnecessary
to mention his republican sympathies, and after the dismissal of the
Parliament, his future actions concern us but little. He was arrested,
tried, and executed in 1683, on the pretence of being concerned in the
Rye House Plot.

Arundel Howard was Henry, second son of the Earl of Arundel. His father