Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/804

790 confinement in her own house, and to have impaired both her fortune and health.

It is observed, in a letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood in 1609, that the Lady Arabella's business (whatever it was) is ended, and she restored to her former place and grace. The King gave her a cupboard of plate, better than 200 l. for a new-year's gift; and a thousand marks to pay her debts, besides some yearly addition to her maintenance; want being thought the chiefest cause of her discontent.

Soon after this, she was privately married to Mr. William Seymour, second son to the Earl of Hertford, who was afterwards Earl of Hertford, and at length restored to the dukedom of Somerset. Their marriage being soon divulged, they were both committed prisoners to the Tower.

After an imprisonment of about a year, though under the care of different keepers, they both made their escape at the same time: at the news of which the court was terribly alarmed, and a proclamation immediately issued for their apprehension.

She went off in man's apparel, and had arrived at a French bark that waited for her and her husband, who by some mistake did not meet her; and a pinnace which was sent after them overtook and made her little vessel strike. She was then taken with her followers, and brought back to the Tower; not so sorry for her own restraint, as glad that Mr. Seymour had escaped as she hoped.

This unfortunate lady being from this time under close confinement in the Tower, spent the remaining part of her life in a melancholy retirement, which deprived her of reason. When she had been a prisoner four years, she was happily released from all her