Robert Howard at
Suffolk House, and to carry him to the Fleet; but there was never any
proceeding against him, for he refused to take the oath _ex-officio_,
and had the Parliament to back him out, but I fear he will not escape
so now."

It is open to those who may like to do so to take Laud's words as
meaning that Lady Purbeck and Sir Robert Howard were again living
together in immorality. Possibly that may have been Laud's meaning. If
it was, he may have been mistaken. The world is seldom very charitable
and, when Sir Robert and Lady Purbeck were both in London--which was
comparatively a small place in those days--the gossips would naturally
put the worst construction on the matter. If the very proper Charles
I. heard such rumours, he would most likely believe them; so also
would Laud.

From the meagre evidence existing on the question, there is much--the
present writer thinks most--to be said in favour of the theory that
the relations of Lady Purbeck to Sir Robert Howard were, at this time,
perfectly innocent, and that they had been so ever since she had left
him to live with her father, two years earlier. To begin with, is it
likely that if, after so long a separation, the pair had wished to
resume their illicit intercourse, they would have chosen London as the
place in which to do so? Sir Robert may, or may not, have obtained for
Lady Purbeck her lodging. If he did, there was not necessarily any
harm in that.

Then the fact of Lady Purbeck's returning openly to London looks as if
she was conscious of innocence since she had left Sir Robert a couple
of years earlier, and as if she believed that the innocence of her
recent life was generally known. And, indeed, she might naturally
suppose that because, as Garrard wrote, she "had not been much looked
after" by the authorities, when she had gone into the country to
continue her offence many years earlier, she was perfectly safe in
returning to London now that she was living a life of virtue.

Sir Robert Howard, says Garrard's letter, was sought for and taken at
Suffolk House, the London home of his brother, whereas Lady Purbeck
was taken at, and living at, a house "on the Water side, over against
Lambeth." This does not absolutely prove that they were not living
together; but it is certainly evidence in that direction.

Again, although it is possible that the King and Laud may have
believed in the revival of the criminal intercourse between Lady
Purbeck and Sir