They suggested, that since the King was now openly
supported by the Presbyterians, it would be expedient that party should
defray the expences of the war. Lord Bellingham, they said, had long
been suspected of loyal propensities; and at this moment the
sequestration of his effects might answer a twofold purpose--to confirm
the fidelity of the army by discharging their arrears--and to punish the
Presbyterians through one of their leaders. Advice, sanctioned by the
approbation of the General, took the form of a command. The Parliament
readily complied with a suggestion that wore in its aspect the pretence
of relieving the well-disposed. The estates were immediately voted to
belong to the Commonwealth; the Earl was ordered into closer
confinement; and sequestrators were sent down to take possession of
Bellingham-Castle.
It was by this event that the feelings of the Countess were roused from
the long apathy of self-enjoyment. Forgetting that she had herself
furnished Cromwell with the information which first excited her
suspicions against her Lord, she loudly complained that, not content
with keeping him in prison on a charge which could not be proved, they
were now injuring his innocent family by seizing their inheritance.
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