Robert, it is equally possible that they did not, and
that they merely considered it "boldness" and a "thing full of
Impudence" to "publickly adventure to outface the Justice of the
Realm," when a woman under sentence to do public penance for grave
immorality--a woman who had fled to a remote part of the country to
escape from that penance--came back to London and took up her quarters
"so near the Court, and in so open view," as if nothing had happened;
and that, as the sentence had never been repealed, they thought it
ought to be executed.

It might even be contended that the conduct of the King and Laud looks
in favour of the innocence of Lady Purbeck, at that time; for, if they
had had any evidence of a fresh offence, far from being content with
executing the sentence for the old transgression, they would probably,
if not certainly, have prosecuted her again for the new one, and have
either added to the severity of the first sentence, or passed a second
to follow it, as a punishment for the second crime.

Be all this as it may, one thing is certain, namely, that the King and
Laud were determined to carry out the sentence which had been passed
some seven or eight years earlier, now that the escaped convict had
had what Laud calls the "Impudence" to come to the capital; and it
appears that Sir Robert was to be proceeded against in the Star
Chamber upon the old charge.

Apart from any concern on his own account, Sir Robert was greatly
distressed that Lady Purbeck should be exposed to public punishment
for an offence of the past, of which he himself was at least equally
guilty. In the hope of saving her from it, he took into his counsel
"Sir ... of Hampshire," some friend whose name is illegible in Laud's
MS.

We must now turn attention, for a little time, elsewhere. The first
Earl of Danby was a man of great respectability, and he had
distinguished himself in arms, both on sea and on land. He was a
Knight of the Garter and the Governor of Guernsey, and he had been
Lord President of Munster. He had always done those things that he
ought to have done, with as great a regularity as his attainted elder
brother, Sir Charles Danvers, had done those things that he ought not
to have done.

This paragon of a bachelor, at the age of sixty-two, received a visit
at his Government House in Guernsey from a youth who requested a
private interview. This having been granted, the boy, to the
astonishment of Lord Danby, proclaimed