Such a sum could not then be raised at a day's notice even by the greatest of the nobility.

The sentence of imprisonment, however, was more easily pronounced than executed.
Devonshire had retired to Chatsworth, where he was employed in turning the old Gothic mansion of his family into an edifice worthy of Palladio.
The Peak was in those days almost as rude a district as Connemara now is, and the Sheriff found, or pretended, that it was difficult to arrest the lord of so wild a region in the midst of a devoted household and tenantry.

Some days were thus gained: but at last both the Earl and the Sheriff were lodged in prison.

Meanwhile a crowd of intercessors exerted their influence.

The story ran that the Countess Dowager of Devonshire had obtained admittance to the royal closet, that she had reminded James how her brother in law, the gallant Charles Cavendish, had fallen at Gainsborough fighting for the crown, and that she had produced notes, written by Charles the First and Charles the Second, in acknowledgment of great sums lent by her Lord during the civil troubles.