The Lady Blanche at prayer in Bolton Abbey. Engraving by C. Heath after G. Cattermole.

An episode in a narrative set in the time of the Civil War and Protectorate in England. "It was a solemn and beautiful picture, to see this fair girl within her oratory, offering up heartfelt supplications to those in whose power she trusted to save and protect her father. The room she had chosen to sanctify to the holy purpose of secret prayer, had been divided off by some of the old possessors of Bolton from the chapel, and what considerably added to the solemnity of the narrow chamber was, that a monument to the memory of one of her ancestors remained set within the wall; the effigy of the stern old warrior contrasting with the living and breathing form of the beautiful woman, who knelt before a temporary altar, over which was suspended one of the finest of Murillo's paintings of the Virgin and Child. It was evident that things of earth as well as heaven mingled in the fair girl's mind, for a vase that stood near the missal wherein she read, contained a single flower of richest perfume and blossom, and jewels of great value sparkled on the sleeves of her dress, and rested on her bosom."—Mrs S.C. Hall, op. cit., pp. 183-184