Such he knew the world would esteem him, if ever the story transpired;
and could it be long concealed? His influence with the ruling powers was
evidently on the wane; the star, which was now Lord of the ascendant,
shed on him a malign influence. Abjured by those whom he had served,
hated by the royalists, and despised by all parties; could a more
pitiable object be found, than a timorous, susceptible, falling villain;
conscious of guilt, aware of danger, convinced of the necessity of
repentance; but too much attached to temporal enjoyments to set about
it.
Lord Bellingham's distresses were not alleviated by domestic comfort. I
have before observed, that his Lady had embraced the party of Cromwell,
and had taken her religious creed from the fanatics, as best calculated
to compose her fears, and leave her conduct under the mis-rule of her
irregular passions. She had long hated and despised her husband, on whom
she threw the whole blame of the crimes she had excited him to commit,
at the same time that she took pains to stifle in him all the better
feelings of remorse, by telling him that it was his want of faith, which
excluded him from reaping the benefit of the promise, that the saints
should inherit the earth.
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