The account given of the occasion
of obtaining this letter, was, that it had been written by the
Countess at Wimbledon, in presence of Lady Lake and her daughter, Lady
Ross, being designed to procure their forgiveness for her mischievous
intention. The King remained still unsatisfied, the writing, in his
opinion, bearing some marks of forgery. Lady Lake and her daughter
then alleged, that, besides their own attestation, and that of a
confidential domestic, named Diego, in whose presence Lady Exeter had
written the confession, their story might also be supported by the
oath of their waiting-maid, who had been placed behind the hangings at
the time the letter was written, and heard the Countess of Exeter read
over the confession after she had signed it. Determined to be at the
bottom of this accusation, James, while hunting one day near
Wimbledon, the scene of the alleged confession, suddenly left his
sport, and, galloping hastily to Wimbledon, in order to examine
personally the room, discovered, from the size of the apartment, that
the alleged conversation could not have taken place in the manner
sworn to; and that the tapestry of the chamber, which had remained in
the same state for thirty years, was too short by two feet, and,
therefore, could not have concealed any one behind it. This matter was
accounted an exclusive discovery of the King by his own spirit of
shrewd investigation.
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