fi.

IM ,

80

CHAP.

vi r.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

be amply sufficient. His brethren did not agree with him;■nor did he, on this occasion, show the courage by which, ona memorable day some months later, he signally retrieved hisfame. The Earl was accordingly condemned to a fine ofthirty thousand pounds, and to imprisonment till paymentshould be made. Such a sum could not then be raised at aday’s notice even by the greatest of the nobility. The sen-tence of imprisonment, however, was more easily pronouncedthan executed. Devonshire had retired to Chatsworth, wherehe was employed in turning the old Gothic mansion of hisfamily into an edifice worthy of Palladio. The Peak was inthose days almost as rude a district as Connemara now is, andthe Sheriff found, or pretended, that it was difficult to arrestthe lord of so wild a region in the midst of a devoted house-hold and tenantry. Some days were thus gained: but at lastboth the Earl and the Sheriff were lodged in prison. Mean-while a crowd of intercessors exerted their influence. Thestory ran that the Countess Dowager of Devonshire had ob-tained admittance to the royal closet, that she had remindedJames how her brother-in-law, the gallant Charles Cavendish,had fallen at Gainsborough fighting for the crown, and thatshe had produced notes, written by Charles the First andCharles the Second, in acknowledgment of great sums lent byher Lord during the civil troubles. Those loans had neverbeen repaid, and, with the interest, amounted, it was said,to more even than the immense fine which the Court of King’sBench had imposed. There was another consideration whichseems to have had more weight with the King than the me-mory of former services. It might be necessary to call a Par-liament. Whenever that event took place it was believed thatDevonshire would bring a writ of error. The point on whichhe meant to appeal from the judgment of the King’s Benchrelated to the privileges of peerage. The tribunal beforewhich the appeal must come was the House of Peers. Onsuch an occasion the Court could not be certain of the supporteven of the most courtly nobles. There was little doubt thatthe sentence would be annulled, and that, by grasping at toomuch, the government would lose all. James was therefore