a nuptial agreement with the Earl of Dalkeith, who subsequently became Duke of Buccleuch, but the marriage was unexpectedly broken off, and for very many years she persistently refused all the offers which were made for her hand.  At length, in 1746, when she was forty-eight years old, she was secretly married to Mr. Stewart, of Grantully.  This gentleman was a penniless scion of a good family, and the sole resources of the newly-wedded couple consisted of an allowance of L300 per annum, which had been granted by the duke to his sister, with whom he was on no friendly terms.  Even this paltry means of support was precarious, and it was resolved to keep the marriage secret.  The more effectually to conceal it, Mr. Stewart and his nobly-born wife repaired to France, and remained on the Continent for three years.  At the end of that time they returned to England, bringing with them two children, of whom they alleged the Lady Jane had been delivered in Paris, at a twin-birth, in July 1748.  Six months previously to their arrival in London their marriage had been made public, and the duke had stopped the allowance which he had previously granted.  They were, therefore, in the direst distress; and, to add to their other misfortunes, Mr. Stewart being deeply involved in debt, his creditors threw him into prison.

Lady Jane bore up against her accumulated sorrows with more than womanly heroism, and when she found all her efforts to excite the sympathy of her brother unavailing, addressed the following letter to Mr. Pelham, then Secretary of State:—­

“SIR,—­If I meant to importune you I should ill deserve the generous compassion which I was informed some months ago you expressed upon being acquainted with my distress.  I take this as the least troublesome way of thanking you, and desiring you to lay my application before the king in such a light as your own humanity will suggest.  I cannot tell my story without seeming to complain of one of whom I never will complain.  I am persuaded my brother wishes me well, but, from a mistaken resentment, upon a creditor of mine demanding from him a trifling sum, he has stopped the annuity which he had always paid me—­my father having left me, his only younger child, in a manner unprovided for.  Till the Duke of Douglas is set right—­which I am confident he will be—­I am destitute.  Presumptive heiress of a great estate and family, with two children, I want bread.  Your own nobleness of mind will make you feel how much it costs me to beg, though from the king.  My birth, and the attachment of my family, I flatter myself his Majesty is not unacquainted with.  Should he think me an object of his royal bounty, my heart won’t suffer any bounds to be set to my gratitude; and, give me leave to say, my spirit won’t suffer me to be burdensome to his Majesty longer than my cruel necessity compels me.

“I little thought of ever being reduced to petition in this
way; your goodness will therefore excuse me if