own inclination, or for the preservation of the Protestant religion, but by mistaking the ability of the party to carry it. However, so earnest and importunate was the Countess, that I did mention it to Sir Stephen, who said, that it was too great an honour, that his daughter was very young, as well as my Lord, and he was resolved never to marry her without the parties' mutual liking, with other objections which I neither could nor would contradict.
"He desired me to express to the Countess the great sense he had of the honour done him, that his daughter and her son were too young, that he would do nothing without her liking, which he did not think her capable of expressing judiciously till she was sixteen or seventeen years of age, of which she now wanted four years, and that I would put it off as civilly as I could."[1]
The following letter from Lady Sunderland, urging this point, is no bad specimen of her diplomatic powers.
"I received your letter, and have all the grateful sense of your kindness to me in the worlds I have
- ↑ Evelyn Mem. i. 533.
