This intervention on the part of the French Government made Lord
Scudamore fear lest _l'affaire Purbeck_ might lead to international
complications, and he presently adds: "Coming to the knowledge of this
particular this Morning I thought good to hasten the Messenger out of
the way."

Fortunately for Lady Purbeck, she was not without a friend in Paris.
About a year before she went there, a curious character had arrived in
the person of Sir Kenelm Digby, a son of the Sir Everard Digby who had
been executed for having been concerned in the Gunpowder Plot. Sir
Kenelm was well known, both at home and abroad. He had stayed at
Madrid with his relative, the Earl of Bristol, at the time when
Prince Charles had gone to Spain to woo the Infanta. He had been a
brilliant ornament at the Court of Charles I.; but, like all the
relations of Bristol, he had been hated by Buckingham. Armed with
letters of marque, he had raised a fleet and ravaged the Mediterranean
in the character of a privateer. He was literary, philosophical,
metaphysical and scientific. When he came to Paris his beautiful wife
had been dead a couple of years, and the smart courtier had thrown off
his hitherto splendid attire, had clothed himself in black of the very
plainest, and had allowed his hair and beard to grow as they would,
ragged and untrimmed. Shortly before the arrival of Lady Purbeck in
Paris, Sir Kenelm had declared himself a Catholic; and the fact that
both he and Lady Purbeck had submitted themselves to the Catholic
Church may have formed a bond of union between them. Sir Kenelm soon
contrived to interest Cardinal Richelieu in Lady Purbeck's case, and
not only Richelieu but also the King and the Queen of France.

A certain "E.R." wrote[96] to Sir R. Puckering: "The last week we had
certain news that the Lady Purbeck was declared a papist." And then he
went on to say that Louis XIIIth and the Queen of France, as well as
Cardinal Richelieu, had sent messages or letters to Charles I.,
begging him to pardon Lady Purbeck and to allow her to return to
England. He also said that the French Ambassador at St. James's was
"very zealous in the business." Shortly afterwards he added: "It is
said she is altogether advised by Sir Kenelm Digby, who indeed hath
written over letters to some of his noble friends of the privy
council, wherein he hath set down what a convert this lady is become,
so superlatively virtuous and sanctimonious, as the like hath never
been s