Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/188

 work not fall to ruin or decay by my absence hence, neither let me work here without the best wages, your company.'

Such entreaties were irresistible, and in consequence Lady Petty went over to Ireland early in the autumn. She had not been long there before anxieties, of far greater consequence than pecuniary embarrassments, or the tortuous processes of the law, made her regret that she had yielded to her husband's entreaties. The infant daughter left in London was taken dangerously ill, and it was long doubtful whether she would not succumb. Writing to Dr. Cox, the physician under whose care she was placed, Sir William says: 'We have received your several letters. In giving you all the thanks we at present can for your patient and affectionate care, we can acquiesce in the will of God by whom all these things came to pass. How smart the blow is and how sore the place whereon it lights, and what a concurrence there hath been of several other perplexities, many know, and my poor wife thinks it an aggravation that she is again with child. But be things how they will, there is one short remedy for all, viz. That they are the will of God, which we pray may be done. Hopes of better news do a little flatter nature, but fail much of satisfying my understanding that we shall be happy even in that: wherefore I again conclude, God's will be done. As for my wife she hath a reciprocation of sharp resentments and stupidity, and is now lately fallen into her tickling cough, &c, and these things too must be borne. What more to say I know not, but to beg you to have the same courage for us as I here pretend to, and to impress the same upon all the servants that attend the uncomfortable employment, assuring them that they all shall be considered, whatever the event of their labors be. I know of no better use for all men can spare above necessary food and raiment, than to do such justice, and it is the honestest way of giving it to the children for whom we are solicitous.'

The child recovered. We get some glimpses of her, and of her brother Charles, born in 1673, in the following letter, written two years after:—