Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/21

Rh she must have been, when at length one of the best and noblest youths of England, the young Lord Spencer, afterwards created Earl of Sunderland, declared himself her suitor. They were married under every propitious omen, but their happiness was short-lived. He was killed at the battle of Newbury, fighting gallantly on the King's side, with "those melancholy forebodings of danger from the victory of his own party which filled the breasts of the more generous royalists, and which on the same occasion saddened the dying moments of Lord Falkland."

The following extract from a letter of her father's, in which he attempts to give some comfort to his daughter, does honour to the writer, and proves how heavily the blow had fallen on them all.

"I know you lived happily, and so as no one but yourself could measure the contentment of it. I rejoiced at it, and did thank God for making me one of the means to procure it for you. That now is past, and I will not flatter you so much as to say I think you can ever be so happy in this life again; but this comfort you owe me, that I may see you bear this change and your misfortune patiently Rh