She likewise
requested that in case Dr. Blandford or any other of the bishops
should come to visit her, he would tell them she had become a
member of the Catholic Church; but if they insisted on seeing her
she was satisfied to admit them, providing they would not
distress her by arguments or controversy.
Soon after she had expressed these desires, Bishop Blandford
arrived, and begged permission to see her, hearing which the duke
went into the drawing-room, where his lordship waited, and
delivered the message with which the duchess had charged him.
Thereon the bishop said, "he made no doubt but that she would do
well since she was fully convinced, and had not changed out of
any worldly end." He then went into the room, and having made "a
short Christian exhortation suitable to the condition she was
in," took his departure. Presently the queen came and sat by the
dying woman, with whom she had borne many wrongs in common; and
later on, the Franciscan friar being admitted, the duchess
"received all the last sacraments of the Catholick Church, and
dyed with great devotion and resignation."
Though no mystery was now made concerning the faith in which she
died, the duke, from motives of prudence, continued to preserve
the secret of his having embraced the same religion. He still
publicly attended service on Sundays with the king, but continued
to absent himself from communion. At last, the Christmastide of
the year 1672 being at hand, his majesty besought Lord Arundel
and Sir Thomas (now Lord) Clifford to persuade the duke to take
the sacrament with him, "and make him sensible of the prejudice
it would do to both of them should he forbear so to do, by giving
the world so much reason to believe he was a catholick.
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