for one of his own daughters. Upon what plea he acted it is not stated:
he committed Villiers to the Tower, where he remained until the death of
Oliver, and the accession of Richard Cromwell.

In vain did Fairfax solicit his release: Cromwell refused it, and
Villiers remained in durance until the abdication of Richard Cromwell,
when he was set at liberty, but not without the following conditions,
dated February 21st, 1658-9:--

'The humble petition of George Duke of Buckingham was this day read.
Resolved that George Duke of Buckingham, now prisoner at Windsor Castle,
upon his engagement upon his honour at the bar of this House, and upon
the engagement of Lord Fairfax in £20,000 that the said duke shall
peaceably demain himself for the future, and shall not join with, or
abet, or have any correspondence with, any of the enemies of the Lord
Protector, and of this Commonwealth, in any of the parts beyond the sea,
or within this Commonwealth, shall be discharged of his imprisonment and
restraint; and that the Governor of Windsor Castle be required to bring
the Duke of Buckingham to the bar of this House on Wednesday next, to
engage his honour accordingly. Ordered, that the security of £20,000 to
be given by the Lord Fairfax, on the behalf of the Duke of Buckingham,
be taken in the name of His Highness the Lord Protector.'

During his incarceration at Windsor, Buckingham had a companion, of whom
many a better man might have been envious: this was Abraham Cowley, an
old college friend of the duke's. Cowley was the son of a grocer, and
owed his entrance into academic life to having been a King's Scholar at
Westminster. One day he happened to take up from his mother's parlour
window a copy of Spenser's 'Faerie Queene.' He eagerly perused the
delightful volume, though he was then only twelve years old: and this