himself to be his Lordship's
cousin, Frances, Lady Purbeck.[89]

In a former chapter we saw that Lady Purbeck had escaped from
punishment through the medium of a boy dressed up like a woman. The
process had now been reversed: for she had escaped from the
Gate-House--a woman dressed up like a boy. The Sir Somebody Something
of Hampshire, says Laud, "with Money, corrupted the Turn-Key of the
Prison (so they call him) and conveyed the Lady Forth, and after that
into France in Man's Apparel (as that Knight himself hath since made
his boast). This was told me the Morning after the escape: And you
must think, the good Fellowship of the Town was glad of it." Lady
Purbeck, however, did not go first into France. As we have seen, she
went to Guernsey and placed herself under the protection of her old
cousin, Lord Danby.

That old cousin must have wished devoutly that she had placed herself
anywhere else. For the Governor of one of the King's islands to
receive and to shelter a criminal flying from justice was a very
embarrassing position. On the other hand, to refuse protection to a
helpless lady, and that lady a kinswoman, much more to betray her into
the hands of her enemies, would have been an act from which any
honourable man might well shrink. The possibility that it might be
discovered in the island that he was entertaining a woman in male
attire must also have been an annoying uncertainty to the immaculate
Governor of Guernsey. Over the details of this perplexing situation
history has kindly thrown a veil; indeed, we learn nothing further
about Lady Purbeck's proceedings until we read, in the already noticed
letter of Garrard's, that she landed at St. Malo, whence she
eventually went to Paris.

It seems safe to infer that whatever protection and hospitality her
relative, Lord Danby, may have afforded to Lady Purbeck, he was
heartily glad to get rid of her. If she had originally intended to go
to Paris, she would scarcely have made the long voyage of nearly two
hundred miles out of her way to Guernsey, and the most natural
explanation of that voyage is that she had hoped and expected to
obtain concealment, hospitality, and a refuge in the house of her
relative. Instead of conceding her these privileges for any length of
time, Lord Danby evidently speeded the parting guest with great
celerity.

While all this was going on, Sir Robert Howard remained under arrest
in London. Laud, writing of Lady Purbeck's escape, says: