mitted. This recefs from incredible bank-notes, which mifs Meadows fatigue, was a pause that afforded our adventurer time to overtake them before they reached the metropolis, that vaft labyrinth, in which Aurelia might have been for ever loft to his inquiry. It was in the afternoon of the day which fucceeded his departure from the White Hart, that Sir Launcelot arrived at the inn, where mifs Aurelia Darnel had bespoke a dish of tea, and a post-chaife for the next stage. He had, by inquiry, traced her a confiderable way, without ever dreaming who the perfon really was whom he thus pursued, and now he defired to fpeak with her attendant. Dolly was not a little furprised to fee Sir Launcelot Greaves, of whose character she had conceived a very fublime idea, from the narrative of Mr. Thomas Clarke; but she was still more furprised when he gave her to understand, that he had charged himself with the pocket-book, containing the had dropped in the house where they had been threatened with infult. Mifs Darnel had not yet difcovered her difafter, when her attendant, running into the apartment, prefented the prize, which fhe had received from our adventurer, with his compliments to mifs Meadows, implying a request to be admitted into her prefence, that he might make a perfonal tender of his best services. It is not to be fuppofed that the amiable Aurelia heard unmoved fuch a meffage from a perfon, whom her maid discovered to be the very identical Sir Launcelot Greaves, whose story she had fo lately related : but as the enfuing fcene requires fresh attention in the reader, we fhall defer it till another opportunity, when his fpirits fhall be recruited from the fatigue of this chapter. [To be continued.] A Genealogical Account of RUSSEL, Duke of BEDFORD. TH HIS family, originally Norman, was confiderable in England, and poffeffed an estate in Dorfetshire, as far back as the reign of king John; in the third year of which John Ruffel, conftable of Corfe-caftle, payed fifty marks for a licence to marry the fifter of a baron called Daun Bardolf. His fon, Sir Ralph Ruffel, was a perfon of confiderable intereft at the court of Henry III. and acquired, by his marriage with one of the daughters of James de Newmarche, certain lands in the counties of Somerset, Wilts, and Gloucefter. His eldest January 1761. fon and fucceffor, William Ruffel, obtained, in the reign of Edward I. a charter for a market every Thurfday in the week, and a fair on the eve, day, and morrow of St. Matthew, at his manour of Kingston, commonly called Kingston Ruffel, in the county of Dorfet; which lordship was held by ferjeantry, as cupbearer to the king at four principal feafts in the year. In the following reign he was returned to parliament knight of the fhire for the county of Southampton. His fon Theobald had two wives; and by the first a fon of the fame name, B who who affumed the appellation of French king was taken prifoner. Gorges, from whom the family of the Gorges in Herefordshire are derived. By his fecond wife Eleanor, daughter of John de la Tower, he had William Ruffel, ancestor of the prefent duke of Bedford. His great grandfon was Sir John Ruffel, fpeaker of the house of commons in the reign of Henry VI. His grandfon John Ruffel was an accomplished gentleman, who had diftinguifhed himself in the wars of France, travelled for improvement, and made himself mafter of the modern languages. In the reign of Henry VII. Philip archduke of Auftria, and only fon of the emperor Maximilian, being, in his voyage to Spain, driven by a tempeft into Weymouth, he was vifited by Mr. Ruffel, and fo charmed with his converfation, that he defired his company to Windfor, where he warmly recommended him to the king, as a perfon qualified for fome important ftation. In confequence of this recommendation, Mr. Ruffel was appointed one of the gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber. In the fucceeding reign, he attended Henry VIII. in his expedition to France, when Therouenne and Tournay were taken; and obtained fome lands in the territory of Tournay, as a reward for his fervices. He was afterwards knighted by the earl of Surry, admiral of the English fleet, when he made a conquest of Morlaix in Bretagne. He enjoyed, in the fequel, the place of marshal of the Marthalfea; was employed in divers negotiations abroad, with the emperor Charles V. Francis I. king of France, the Pope, and the, duke of Lorraine. He was prefent in the battle of Pavia, when the Being conftituted sheriff of Dorsetfhire and Somersetshire, he attended Henry at his magnificent interview with the king of France at Boulogne ; was appointed comptroller of the houfhold, and privy-counfellor; advanced to the dignity of baron in the thirtieth year of that monarch's reign, by the title of lord Ruffel, baron Ruffel of Cheneys in the county of Buckingham, and gratified with the manour of Aymondefham in Bucks, which had belonged to Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded for high treafon. He married Anne, daughter and fole heir of Sir Guy Sapcotes, with whom he enjoyed the manour of Cheneys, and other large poffeffions. When the greater monafteries were diffolved, he obtained a grant of the whole fcite and circuit of the rich abbage of Taviftock in the county of Devon, together with the borough of that name, and a great number of other manours. He ferved the king in the different offices of lord warden of the Stannaries, lord admiral of England and Ireland, prefident of the counties of Devon, Cornwal, Somerfet, and Dorfet; general in Picardy against the French, lord privy-feal, and captain-general of the vanguard of the king's army at the reduction of Boulogne. He was inftalled knight of the garter, and appointed in the king's will one of the fixteen perfons to compofe the council of his fon and fucceffor Edward VI. At the coronation of that young prince he acted for the day as lord high fteward of England; and in the courfe of the fame year was indulged with a grant of Wooburnabbey in the county of Bedford. He was was appointed first commiffioner to fee the images pulled down, and promote the Reformation; which having excited divers infurrections, he, with a body of troops, defeated the rebels of Devonshire and Cornwal at Fenniton-bridge, and relieved Exeter, which they had invefted. In the year 1549, he was created earl of Bedford. He afterwards repaired to France, as one of the ambaffadors to treat of a peace, which they accordingly concluded at Guifnes and upon the acceffion of queen Mary obtained a new patent, for the office of privy-feal. In the fecond year of this queen's reign, though now stricken in years, he was fent into Spain, to attend Philip in his voyage to this kingdom, where he efpoufed Mary. Thus he owed his firft rife to Philip, archduke of Auftria; and the last public office he bore was that of conducting his grandfon Philip, king of Spain, to the bofom of his fovereign. This truly great man died in London in the year 1554, leaving his honours and eftate to his fon Francis, now earl of Bedford. "This nobleman had been created knight of the Bath at the coronation of Edward VI. He afterwards proclaimed the lady Mary queen of England, and appeared in arms for the defence of her title against the lady Jane Grey. He was prefent in the battle of St. Quintin, and eminently fhared in the glory and the dan ger of that victory, which the forces of Philip, with the affiftance of the English auxiliaries, obtained over the army of France. In the reign of Elizabeth he was fworn of the privy council, fent twice ambaffador into France, appointed governor of Berwick, inftalled knight of the Gar ter, employed with other commiffioners to treat of a marriage between Mary queen of Scots and the earl of Leicefter, and fent with the prefent of a gold font to represent the perfon of queen Elizabeth at the chriftening of James VI. of Scotland. He fat upon the trial of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk : he acted as one of the English commiffioners who treated with ambaffadors from France, touching a marriage between the queen and the duke of Anjou. He founded a school at Wooburn; eftablished a maintenance for two students of divinity in Univerfity-college at Oxford; and was fo remarkable for his hofpitality, that queen Elizabeth used to say, he made all the beggars. He died in the year 1585, after having furvived three of his fons by his countefs Margaret, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletfo. He was fucceeded in his honours and eftate by his grandfon Edward, whofe father, Sir Francis Ruffel, was flain on the borders of Scotland, and buried at Alnwick in Northum berland. Edward, earl of Bedford, who died in the year 1627, was fucceeded by his coufin Francis, only fon of his uncle Sir William Ruffel, baron of Thornhaugh, one of the best generals of the age in which he lived. He diftinguished himself in the Low Countries, where he was appointed governor of Flushing, and in the rebellion of Tir-owen in Ireland, where he governed as lord deputy. He efpoufed Elizabeth,daughter and heir of Henry Long of Shengay in the county of Cambridge, Efq; and left iffue Francis, now earl of Bedford. This nobleman, in the reign of Charles 1. was the princi B 2 pal |