She had not been there long when she sent her trusty friend, Mary, to acquaint Sir Robert with what had happened.

He was from home, engaged in an expedition of which we feel called upon to give some account to the reader.
At this period, when the persecution ran high against the Catholics, but with peculiar bitterness against their priesthood, it is but justice to a great number of the Protestant magistracy and gentry--nay, and many of the nobility besides--to state that their conduct was both liberal and generous to the unfortunate victims of those cruel laws.

It is a well known fact that many Protestant justices of the peace were imprisoned for refusing to execute such oppressive edicts as had gone abroad through the country.

Many of them resigned their commissions, and many more were deprived of them.

Amongst the latter were several liberal noblemen--Protestants--who had sufficient courage to denounce the spirit in which the country was governed and depopulated at the same time.