When they had gone he said that the bitterness of death was passed, and then spoke much of the noble spirit of her whom he had so loved, and who had been to him so great a blessing.  He said, “What a misery it would have been to him if she had not that magnanimit of spirit, joined to her tenderness, as never to have desired him to do a base thing for the saving of his life.  There was a signal providence of God in giving him such a wife, where there was birth, fortune, great understanding, true religion, and great kindness to him; but her carriage in his extremity was beyond all.  He was glad she and his children were to lose nothing by his death; and it was a great comfort to him that he left his children in the hands of such a mother, and that she had promised to him to take care of herself for their sakes.”

[Illustration:  PARTING OF LORD AND LADY RUSSELL. Copied, by permission, from the fresco in the Palace of Westminster.]

It should be stated that when they partook of the Communion together for the last time, she so controlled her feelings, for his sake, as not to shed a tear; although afterwards she wept so much that it was feared she would lose her sight.

The scene of the parting in prison is not only memorable in history, but has been a favourite theme in art, and one of the frescoes in the new Houses of Parliament commemorates it.  Many poets have written about the death of Lord Russell, among them Canning, in a supposed letter to his friend Lord Cavendish, in which the noble character of his wife is celebrated as well as the virtues of her husband.

The execution took place not on Tower Hill, as usual with persons of high rank, but in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in order that the citizens of London might be humbled and terrified by the sight, as he was carried in a coach to the scaffold through the City.  The effect was very different from what was intended.  The death of this one man made many enemies to the king, and though the triumph of liberty and religion was delayed for a few years, the execution of Lord Russell did much to secure the overthrow of arbitrary power, and the defeat of Popery in England at no distant time.  The trial took place July 13 and 14, and the execution on July 21, 1683.

VII.

Lord Russell died for the civil and religious liberties of his country.  All men, even those who were far from agreeing with his political principles, agreed in regarding him as a man of probity and virtue, and the model of a patriot.  He passed through this world with as great and general a reputation as any one of the age, and his memory will be held in everlasting remembrance.

     “Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew
      The grave where Russell lies, whose tempered blood
      With calmest cheerfulness for thee resigned,
      Stained the sad annals of a giddy reign;
      Aiming at lawless power, though, meanly sunk
      In loose inglorious luxury.”