The Literary Fund Society possess in their house on the Adelphi Terrace, the two daggers employed by Blood and Parrot at the Tower; they are beautifully chased and inlaid; the handles are of a dark-red wood, and the sheaths of embossed leather. Blood's dagger (the larger one) is engraved with a griffin-like figure, and is dated 1620; Parrot's is engraved plainly on both sides with the fleur-de-lis.

Both weapons are described as above, and engraved in the Illustrated London News.

THE STORY OF NAN CLARGES, DUCHESS OF ALBEMARLE.

THE most singular portion of General Monk's private history is his marriage, the validity of which was contested upon the trial of an action. at law between the representatives of Monk and Clarges, when some curious particulars came out respecting the family of the Duchess.

"It appeared that she was the daughter of John Clarges, a farrier, in the Savoy, and farrier to Colonel Monk, in 1632. She was married in the church of St. Lawrence Pountney, to Thomas Ratford, son of Thomas Ratford, late a farrier, servant to the Prince Charles, and resident in the Mews. She had a daughter who was born in 1634, and died in 1638. Her husband and she lived at the Three Spanish Gypsies, in the New Exchange, and sold wash-balls, powder, gloves, and such things, and she taught girls plain work.* About 1647, she, being a sempstress to Colonel Monk, used to carry him linen.' In 1648 her father and mother died. In 1649, she and her husband fell out *See p. 106, ante.

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and parted.' But no certificate from any parish register appears, reciting his burial. In 1652, she was married in the Church of St. George, Southwark, to "General George Monk;' and in the following year was delivered of a son, Christopher (afterwards the second and last Duke of Albemarle), who was suckled by Honour Mills, who sold apples, herbs, oysters, &c. One of the plaintiff's witnesses swore, 'that a little before the sickness, Thomas Ratford demanded and received of him the sum of twenty shillings; that his wife saw Ratford again after the sickness, and a second time after the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle were dead.' A woman swore, she saw him on the day his wife (then called Duchess of Albemarle) was put into her coffin, which was after the death of the Duke, her second husband, who died the 3rd of January, 1669–70.'

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A third witness swore, that 'he saw Ratford about July 1660.' In opposition to this evidence, it was alleged, that all along, during the lives of Duke George and Duke Christopher, this matter was never questioned,' that the latter was universally received as only son of the former, and that this matter had been thrice before tried at the bar of the King's Bench, and the defendant had three verdicts.' A witness swore that he owed Ratford five or six pounds, which he had never demanded. And a man, who had married a cousin to the Duke of Albemarle, had been told by his wife, that Ratford died five or six years before the Duke married. Lord Chief Justice Holt told the jury, If you are certain that Duke Christopher was born while Thomas Ratford was living, you must find for the plaintiff. If you believe he was born after Ratford was dead, or that nothing appears what became of him

after Duke George married his wife, you must find for the defendant.' A verdict was given for the defendant, who was only son to Sir Thomas Clarges, knight, brother to the illustrious Duchess."

It does not appear on which of these accounts the jury found a verdict for the defendant-whether because Ratford was dead, or because nothing had been heard of him; so that the Duchess, after all, might have been no Duchess. However, she carried it with as high a hand as if she had never been anything else, and Monk had been a blacksmith. Pepys gives some spiteful notices of her; describing her as "ever a plain and homely dowdy," and "a very ill-looked woman," and going still further:

4th (Nov. 1666). Pepys says that Mr. Cooling tells him," the Duke of Albemarle is grown a drunken sot, and drinks with nobody but Troutbecke, whom nobody else will keep company with. Of whom he told me this story: that once the Duke of Albemarle in his drink taking notice, as of a wonder, that Nan Hide should ever come to be Duchess of York: Nay,' says Troutbecke, ne'er wonder at that, for if you will give me another bottle of wine, I will tell you as great, if not greater, miracle.' And what was that, but that our dirty Besse (meaning his Duchess) should come to be Duchess of Albemarle."

"4th (April, 1667). I find the Duke of Albemarle at dinner with sorry company, some of his officers of the army; dirty dishes and a nasty wife at table, and bad meat, of which I made but an ill dinner. Colonel Howard asking how the Prince (Rupert) did (in the last fight); the Duke of Albemarle answering, 'Pretty well;' the other replied, but not so well as to go to

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sea again.' How!' says the Duchess, what should he go for, if he were well, for there are no ships for him to command? And so you have brought your hogs to a fair market,' said she."

The Duchess of Albemarle is supposed to have had a considerable hand in the Restoration. She was a great loyalist, and Monk was afraid of her; so that it is likely enough she influenced his gross understanding, when it did not exactly know what to be at. Aubrey says, that her mother was one of the five women barbers,' thus sung of in a ballad of the time:

Did you ever hear the like,

Or ever hear the fame,
Of five women barbers,

That lived in Drury Lane?

After all, her father, John Clarges, must have been a man of substance in his trade. According to Aubrey's Lives (written about 1680), Clarges had his forge upon the site of No. 317, on the north side of the Strand. "The shop is still of that trade," says Aubrey; “the corner shop, the first turning, on ye right hand, as you come out the Strand into Drury Lane: the house is now built of brick." The house alluded to is believed to be that at the right-hand corner of Drury Court, now a butcher's. An adjoining house, in the court, is now a whitesmith's, with a forge, &c. Upon Monk's being raised to the Dukedom, and her becoming Duchess of Albemarle, her father, the farrier, raised a Maypole in the Strand, nearly opposite his forge, to commemorate his daughter's good fortune. She died a few days after the Duke, and is interred by his side in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. The Duke was succeeded by his son, Christopher, who

married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, granddaughter of the Duke of Newcastle, and died childless. The Duchess' brother, Thomas Clarges, was a physician of note; was created a baronet in 1674, and was ancestor to the baronets; whence is named Clarges Street, Piccadilly.

SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY-HIS MYSTERIOUS

DEATH.

ONE of the darkest blots upon our Annals is the socalled Popish Plot in 1678, first broached by the infamous Titus Oates and Dr. Tongue, and accusing the Roman Catholics of an atrocious conspiracy to assassinate the King, massacre all Protestants, and establish a Popish dynasty in the Duke of York. So little attention was at first given by Charles and his Council to Oates's discoveries, that nearly six weeks were suffered to elapse before any serious or strict examination was made into the truth or falsehood of the Plot. At length, Oates and his accomplice, Tongue, resolved in some way to make the matter public; and, as a preparatory step, Oates drew up a narrative of particulars, to the truth of which he solemnly deposed before Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, who was an eminent Justice of the Peace. "This," says Burnet, "seemed to be done in distrust of the Privy Council, as if they might stifle his evidence ; which to prevent he put into safe hands. Upon that Godfrey was chid for his presuming to meddle in so tender a matter," and, as appeared from subsequent events, a plan was immediately laid to murder him; and this, within a few weeks, was but too fatally executed.