THE WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 66 MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE levatur onus."-Ovid. Becords of the Rising in the West, JOHN PENRUDDOCK, HUGH GROVE, ET SOCII. (Concluded from Vol. xiv., Page 67.) S the trooper, who bore the death warrant, journied westward, the news that the time for reprieve was past, spread without Whitehall Palace. We can well imagine that Mrs. Penruddock, who heard it the same day, immediately made one more effort to save her husband, and that it was then probably that she was "turned out of doors, because she came to beg mercy." Returning to her lodgings after a long and weary day of fruitless toil, she wrote words of exquisite solace to her unfortunate husband: “My dear heart, My sad parting was so far from making me to forget you, that I have scarce thought upon myself since, but wholly upon you. Those dear embraces which I yet feel, and shall never lose (being the faithful testimonies of an indulgent husband) have charmed my soul to such a reverence of your remembrances, that were it possible, I would with my own blood cement your dead limbs to life again, and with reverence think it no sin to rob heaven a little longer of a martyr. Oh my dear! you must now pardon my passion, tho' being the last (oh fatal word!) that ever you will receive from me; and know that until the last minute that I can imagine you shall live, I will sacrifice the prayers of a Christian, and the groans of an affected [afflicted ?] wife; and when you are not, which sure by sympathy I shall know,† I shall wish my own dissolution with you, that so we may go hand in hand to heaven. It is too late to tell you what I have, or rather have not, done for you. How turned out of doors, because I came to beg mercy! The Lord lay not your blood to their charge. I would fain discourse longer with you, but dare not, my passion begins to drown my reason, and will rob me of my devoir, which is all I have left to serve you. "Minute" written twice, once erased. VOL. XV.-NO. XLIII. B |