t 24th, 1653. The Ormonds had
indeed been in great straits for want of money, and in August 1652 Lady
Ormond had come over from Caen, where they were then living, to
endeavour to claim Cromwell's promise of reserving to her that portion
of their estate which had been her inheritance. After great delays she
obtained L500, and a grant of L2000 per annum out of their Irish lands
"lying most conveniently to Dunmore House." It must have been this
matter that Dorothy had heard of when she questions "whether she will
get it when she comes there."

Francis Annesley, Lord Valentia, belonged to an ancient Nottinghamshire
family, though he himself was born in Newport, Buckinghamshire. Of his
daughter's marriage I can find nothing. Lord Valentia was at this time
Secretary of State at Dublin.

Sir Justinian has at length found a second wife. Her name is Vere, and
she is the daughter of Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh. Thus do Dorothy's
suitors, one by one, recover and cease to lament her obduracy. When she
declares that she would rather have chosen _a chain to lead her apes in_
than marry Sir Justinian, she refers to an old superstition as to the
ultimate fate of spinsters--

Women, dying maids, lead apes in hell,

runs the verse of an old play, and that is the whole superstition, the
origin of which seems somewhat inexplicable. The phrase is thrice used
by Shakespeare, and constantly occurs in the old burlesques and
comedies; in one instance, in a comedy entitled "Love's Convert" (1651),
it is altered to "lead an ape in _heaven_." Many will remember the fate
of "The young Mary Anne" in the famous Ingoldsby legend, "Bloudie
Jacke:"--

So they say she is now leading apes--
Bloudie Jack,
And mends bachelors' smallclothes below.

No learned editor that I am acquainted with has been able to suggest an
explanation of this curious expression.

SIR,--All my quarrels to you are kind ones, for, sure, 'tis alike
impossible for me to be angry as for you to give me the occasion;
therefore, when I chide (unless it be that you are not careful enough of
yourself, and hazard too much a health that I am more concerned in than
my own), you need not study much for excuses, I can easily forgive you
anything but want of kindness. The judgment you have made of the four
lovers I recommended to you does so perfectly agree with what I think of
them, that I hope it will not alter when you