University of Virginia Library

October ye 18th.

A cloudie wet Day. Goody Nowell brought me
this morning a little Parcel of Papers, which she found
in the corner of a Closet. They are much stained and
smoked, and the Mice have eaten them sadlie, soe that
I can make little of them. They seem to be letters,
and some fragments of what did take place in the life
of a young Woman of Qualitie from the North of
England. I find frequent mention made of Cousin
Christopher, who is also spoken of as a Soldier in the
Warres with the Turks, and as a Knight of Jerusalem.
Poorly as I can make out the meaning of these
Fragments, I have read enough to make my Hearte
sad, for I gather from them that the young Woman
was in earlie life betrothed to her Cousin, and that
afterwards, owing, as I judge, to the Authoritie of her
Parents, she did part with him, he going abroad, and
entering into the Warres, in the belief that she was to
wed another. But it seemed that the Hearte of the
young Woman did so plead for her Cousin, that she
could not be brought to marry as her Familie willed
her to do; and after a lapse of years, she, by chance
hearing that Sir Christopher had gone to the New
England, where he was acting as an agent of his
kinsman, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, in respect to the
Maine Province, did privately leave her home, and

take passage in a Boston bound Ship. How she did
make herself known to Sir Christopher, I find no
mention made; but, he now being a Knight of the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and vowed to forego
Marriage as is the rule of that Order, and being moreover,
as was thought, a Priest or Jesuit, her great love
and constancy could meet with but a sorrowful return
on his part. It does appear, however, that he journeyed
to Montreal, to take counsel of some of the
great Papist Priests there, touching the obtaining of a
Dispensation from the Head of the Church, so that he
might marry the young woman; but getting no encouragement
therein, he went to Boston to find a Passage
for her to England again. He was there complained
of as a Papist; and the coming over of his Cousin
being moreover known, a great and cruel Scandal did
arise from it, and he was looked upon as a Man of
evil life, though I find nothing to warrant such a
Notion, but much to the contrary thereof. What
became of him, and the young woman, his Cousin, in
the end, I doe not learn.

One small Parcel did affect me even unto Tears. It
was a paper containing some dry, withered Leaves of
Roses, with these Words written on it: “To Anna,
from her loving Cousin, Christopher Gardiner, being
the first Rose that hath blossomed this Season in the

College garden. St. Omer's, June, 1630.” I could
but think how many Tears had been shed over this
little Token, and how often, through long, wearie years,
it did call to mind the sweet Joy of earlie Love, of that
fairest blossom of the Spring of Life of which it was
an Emblem, alike in its beautie and its speedy withering.

There be moreover among the papers sundrie
Verses, which do seem to have been made by Sir
Christopher; they are in the Latin tongue, and inscribed
to his Cousin, bearing date manie years before
the twain were in this Countrie, and when he was yet
a Scholar at the Jesuits' College of St. Omer's, in
France. I find nothing of a later time, save the
Verses which I herewith copie, over which there are,
in a Woman's handwriting, these Words:

My Hearte is heavie with the thought of these unfortunates.
Where be they now? Did the Knight forego
his false Worship and his Vows, and soe marry his
beloved Anna? Or did they part forever, she going
back to her kinsfolk, and he to his companions of
Malta? Did he perish at the Hands of the Infidels,
and does the maiden sleep in the familie Tomb, under
her father's Oaks? Alas! who can tell? I must
needs leave them, and their Sorrows and Tryals, to
Him who doth not willingly afflict the children of men;
and whatsoever may have been their Sins and their
Follies, my prayer is, that they may be forgiven, for
they loved much.