" and protested her innocency. And now again, " and faid to M. Kingston, I heard fay I shall "not die afore noon, and I am forry therefore, for "I thought to be dead by this time, and past my pain,' I told her it should be no pain it was so fotell, for fo is his word" (adds Lord Herbert). "And then she said, fhe heard fay the executioner " was very good, and I have a little neck;' " and put her hand about it, laughing heartily. "I have feen many men and women executed, "and they have been in great forrow; and to my knowledge, this lady hath much joy and pleasure " in death.

May 19, 1536."

"The nineteenth of May being thus come," fays Lord Herbert, the Queen, according to "the exprefs order given, was brought out to a "fcaffold erected upon the Green in the Tower "of London, where our hiftorians fay fhe fpoke "before a great company there affembled, to this " effect:

66 GOOD CHRISTIAN PEOPLE,

"I am come hither to die. For according to "the law, and by the law, I am judged to die, " and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accufe no man, nor to speak "any thing of that whereof I am accused and

* Subtile, fudden.

" condemned

" condemned to die.. But I pray God fave the King, and fend him long to reign over you. "For a gentler nor a more merciful Prince there

never was, and to me hee was ever a good, a gentle, and a foveraine Lord. And if any per"fon will judge of my cause, I require them to judge the beft. And thus I take my leave of "the world, and of you all. And I heartily defire you all to pray for me."

"After which," adds Lord Herbert, "coming "to her devotions, her head was ftricken off by a fword. And thus ended the Queen, "lamented by many, both as she was defirous "to advance learned men, in which number "Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Saxton "Bishop of Salisbury are recounted, and as fhe "was a great alms-giver, infomuch that fhe is

faid in three quarters of a year to have be"ftowed fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds in "this kinde, befides money intended by her "towards raising a stock for poor artificers in the "realme.”

In one of the letters which fhe wrote to Henry previous to her trial, fhe fays, You have chofen

me from a low eftate to be your Queen and "companion, far beyond my defert or defire. "If then you found me worthy of fuch honour, "let not any light fancy or bad council of mine "enemies withdraw your princely favour from

"me.

Neither let that stain, that unworthy stain "of a difloyal heart towards your good Grace "ever caft fo foul a blot on your most dutiful "wife, and the infant Princeffe her daughter.'

Try me, good King, but let me have a lawfull trial, and let not my fworn enemies fit as my "accufers and judges. Yea, let me receive an open trial, for my truth fhall fear no open "fhame."

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Told Sir William Cavendish, his Gentleman Ufher, that by means of his parents, and other his good friends, he was maintained at the Univerfity of Oxford, where he profpered fo well, that in a fhort time he was made Bachelor of Arts when he was but fifteen years of age, and was commonly called there the Boy Bachelor.

Wolfey, on his return from Oxford, fettled in the country as a schoolmafter, where happening to displease a powerful neighbour, Sir James Pawlet," he (as his Biographer, Cavendish, says) set

Wolfey by the heels; which affront," it is added, "was neither forgotten nor forgiven; for "when the fchoolmafter mounted fo high as to "be Lord Chancellor of England, he was not forgetful

3

"forgetful of his old difpleasure moft cruelly. "ministered to him by Sir James, but fent for "him, and after a very sharp reproof, enjoined "him not. to depart out of London without "licence first obtained; fo that he continued in "the Middle Temple for the fpace of five or fix years, and afterwards lay in the Gate-houfe << near the Stayres, which he re-edified, and fumptuously beautified the fame all over on the "outfide with the Cardinal's arms, his hat, his

cognizance, and badges, with other devices, in "fo glorious a manner, as he thought thereby to have appeafed the Cardinal's displeasure."

The eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland, who was in the Cardinal's household, was contracted in marriage to Anne Boleyn, to the extreme indignation of Henry the Eighth, who ordered the Cardinal to fend for his father to London, to talk to him on the fubject of his intended marriage." The Earl of Northumberland," fays Cavendish," came to London very speedily, and "came first to my Lord Cardinal, as all great

perfonages did that in fuch fort were fent for, σε by whom they were advertised of the caufe of "their fending for; and when the Earl was come, "he was presently brought into the gallery to the

Cardinal. After whofe meeting, my Lord "Cardinal and he were in fecret communication

a long fpace. After their long difcourfe, and

"drinking

drinking a cup of wine, the Earl departed; and " at his going away, he fate down in the gallery,

upon a form, and called his fon unto him, and "faid: Son, (quoth he) even as thou art and ever "haft been a proud, difdainful, and very unthrifty "mafter, fo thou hast now declared thyself. "Wherefore what joy, what pleasure, what com"fort can I conceive in thee, that thus, without "difcretion, haft abused thyself; having neither "regard to me thy natural father, nor unto thy fovereign Lord, to whom all honest and loyal fubjects bear faithful obedience, nor yet to the profperity of thy own eftate; but haft fo unad"vifedly enfnared thyfelf to her (Anne Boleyn;) "for whom thou haft purchased the King's high

displeasure, intolerable for any fubject to fuf"tain? And but that the King doth confider the

lightness of thy head, and the wilful qualities of thy perfon, his difpleasure and indignation were "fufficient to caft me and all my posterity into "utter ruin and destruction. But he being my

fingülar good Lord and favourable Prince, and

my Lord Cardinal my very good friend, hath "and doth clearly excufe me in thy lewdnefs, and "doth rather lament thy folly than malign thee; " and hath advised an order to be taken for thee, " to whom both you and I are more bound than "we can conceive of. I pray to God, that this

may be a fufficient admonition to thee, to use "thyfelf