kingdom of France, or the riches of Venice; and that for three good reasons. 1. Because she was given to him at the time whem he implored the assistance of God in finding a good wife; 2. Because, though she was not faultless, she had fewer faults than any other woman; 3. Because she had been very faithful in her affection to him.

Luther's constitution was enfeebled by frequent illness and severe pain. In January, 1546, he thus addresses a friend: "I write to you though old, decrepit, inactive, languid, and now possessed of only one eye. When drawing to the brink of the grave, I had hopes of obtaining a reasonable share of rest; but I continue to be overpowered with writing, preaching, and business, in the same manner as if I had not discharged my part in these duties in the early period of life."

Yet six days after writing this, he had energy enough to undertake a journey to Eisleben, his native place, in order to decide a dispute concerning the brass and silver mines in that place. He was accompanied by his three sons, and the Counts of Mansfield came with a hundred horsemen to meet him.

This journey was his last. He died at Eisleben after a brief illness. In his will he spoke of his wife with

great tenderness; praising her integrity, modesty and fidelity and testifying that she had truly loved him and faithfully served him. To her he left what little property he possessed. His body was carried to Wittemberg, and an oration pronounced by his dearly beloved friend, Melancthon. The funeral was conducted with pomp better suited to his great reputation than to his own simple habits while living. Princes, nobles, professors, students, and an immense concourse of people followed him to the grave.

The year after his death, when the troops of Charles the Fifth quartered in Wittemberg, a soldier gave Luther's effigy two stabs with his dagger; and the Spaniards were very desirous of having the monument of the heretic demolished, and his bones burned. The emperor nobly replied, "Luther is now subject to another Judge, whose jurisdiction it is not for me to usurp. I war not with the dead."

MRS. HUTCHINSON.

After the death of Cromwell, Colonel Hutchinson was again elected member of Parliament. The people, finding a military tyrant no better than an hereditary

one, were then becoming zealous for the restoration of the Royal family; and of course those who voted for the death of the late king were placed in a condition of some peril. Colonel Hutchinson met the emergency of the times with a more firm and manly spirit than most of his associates. When the subject was debated in the house, he said, "That for his actings in those days, if he had erred, it was the inexperience of his age, and the defect of his judgment, not the malice of his heart; that he had ever preferred the general advantage of his country to his own; and if the sacrifice of him could conduce to the public peace and settlement he freely submitted his life and fortunes to their disposal: that the great debts he had incurred in public employments proved that avarice had not urged him on, and gave him just cause to repent that he ever forsook his own blessed quiet to embark in such a troubled sea, where he had made shipwreck of all things but a good conscience."

In order to quiet the anxiety of Mrs. Hutchinson, he assured her that no one would lose or suffer by the expected change of government. But this assurance failed to tranquillize her fears. She said she could not live to see him a prisoner. She persuaded him to leave

his own house for a place where he could more readily make his escape. His friends advised him to give himself up, thinking he might by that means save his estates; but she declared herself ready to endure poverty in its worst forms, rather than trust him to the generosity of his political enemies; and she urged this point with such earnest entreaty, that he promised to do nothing without her consent. For the first and only time in her life, she ventured to disobey him; she wrote a letter in his name to the speaker of the house. The letter was favourably received; this encouraged his friends, who were present, and they spoke so kindly and effectually in his favour, that his punishment was limited to a discharge from parliament, and from all offices civil and military for ever.

After this decision, he returned to Owthorpe, where he spent nearly a year in the enjoyment of his quiet and tasteful pursuits.

But Charles the Second was not disposed to trust the loyalty of those who had beheaded his father. Colonel Hutchinson was at last seized, upon suspicion of being concerned in a treasonable plot, and was conveyed by an armed guard to London. His wife, with their oldest son and daughter, accompanied him. "Mrs.

Hutchinson was exceedingly sad, but he encouraged and kindly chid her out of it, and told her it would blemish his innocence for her to appear afflicted; that if she had but patience to wait the event, she would see it was all for the best, and bade her be thankful that she was permitted to accompany him; and with divers excellent exhortations cheered her, who could not be wholly abandoned to sorrow while he was with her."

The prisoner was committed to the Tower, and treated with great harshness. The chamber he occupied is said to have been the same where Edward the Fifth and his little brother were murdered by the command of Richard. The room leading to it was large and dark, without windows, where the portcullis of one of the inward gates was drawn up and let down, and under which a guard was placed every night. There was a tradition that the Duke of Clarence was here drowned in a butt of malmsey. This part of the building was called the Bloody Tower. The door by which these two rooms communicated with each other was not allowed to stand open during the night, although Colonel Hutchinson and his servant were suffering under a very painful disease, occasioned by bad diet, and a comfortless residence.