the Emperor some account of his conspiracy—not hiding any portion of his glory—and dilating on his rapid action and complete success.

6. "Your Majesty," ran this night confession of the chief conspirator, "will be pleased to recollect what I wrote to you early in the last month, touching what had taken place between M. Cromwell and myself about the King's divorce from his concubine. I waited on the Princess Mary and obtained her sanction. She bade me go on in what was to be done; the more so as it would be for her father's credit and conscience. She had ceased to care whether her father had lawful heirs or not, though such might take away her crown. For the sake of God she pardoned every one what had been done against her mother and herself. Acting under her orders, I joined with Cromwell and many other persons, but refrained from writing to your Majesty until we saw how things would go. No one could have dreamed that they would go so well as they have done. God's justice has been rendered. In the open light of day the concubine has been conducted from Greenwich to the Tower; conducted by the Duke of Norfolk, the Lord Chamberlain, and Vice-chamberlain; and left there with only four women to attend her. It is rumoured that she is accused of having carried on adultery with a musician of her chamber. He is also in the Tower. M. Norreys, one of the King's most cherished friends, has been committed for concealing what was going on; also, six hours later in the evening, three other gentlemen. Three or four hours after

his sister was arrested, Lord Rochford was taken to the Tower."

7. This letter pours a flood of light on the affair. We see the artist in his room, and note the method and the progress of his work. Chapuys was master of the plot. Each fact was known to him the moment it arose. Audley and Cromwell had been raking in the Queen's ante-rooms for evidence. They had bribed the porter at her door; the serving-man who carried in her tray. They had told the women of her chamber that the King hated her. They had warned her ladies-in-waiting that nothing they could do would save her; and had made these ladies understand that they might gain the greatest favour by assisting to destroy the Queen. Yet nothing had been learned. The porter and the servingman knew nothing wrong. The bed-chamber women, the ladies-in-waiting, and the maids of honour, knew nothing wrong. Had any trace of guilt been found, Chapuys would have told the Emperor his news. Even after Anne's committal all is vague and dark. There is no question save of a musician of the chamber. Not a word is dropt about accomplices. Not a hint is given about a host of lovers. Nothing is said of Anne having poisoned the late Queen and intending to poison the Princess Mary. No conspiracy "to compass and imagine the King's death" is mentioned by Chapuys. No misconduct with Norreys, Brereton, and Weston is alleged, nor is there any suggestion of incest with her brother George. These charges were the after-growth of Audley's brain. Norreys and the other gentlemen,

we learn on sure authority, were lodged in prison, not as pretended partners in the Queen's offences, but as witnesses alleged to have concealed the truth about Mark Smeaton's intimacy with the Queen!

History of two Queens. VI.

9

BOOK THE TWENTY-FOURTH.

SACRIFICE.

CHAPTER I.

The Reformers.

1536.

I. WHILE Anne was tossing on her bed of pain, all London was astir with feverish dread and no less feverish joy, according to the grooves in which the new and old opinions ran. Men of the new learning stood aghast. They knew their prop was gone. They felt for Anne the passion and the reverence which a Carthusian and a Minorite felt for Catharine. That Scottish pastor, Alesse, who had seen the mother and her child repulsed at Greenwich, was in fellowship with all Melancthon's friends. He held a post in Cromwell's house, and still supposed his patron was an honest man. A warm admirer of Cranmer, he had lived on terms of friendship with the Primate. From the highest to the lowest, Alesse knew the men who were engaged leading England from the "house of bondage" to the "house of liberty," and this good scholar and divine has left a striking picture of the

gloom and misery which fell on every one through Anne's arrest.

2. "All those who were with us that night," he wrote in Leipzig, when he was an aged man, “many of whom have been preserved through the mercy of God, and are now returned from banishment to their native land, well know how deep a sorrow overwhelmed the godly in heart, how high were the rejoicings of the hypocrites and enemies of the Gospel, when the rumour spread abroad that the Queen was in the Tower. Next morning every one seemed stunned. Those who are still alive remember what tears the faithful shed, what agonies the good endured. They know with what passion they lamented the snares which had been laid for the Queen; and how the enemies of truth were rejoicing in her misfortunes. For myself I was a man cast down with grief. I could not leave my house, but waited in my room for the result; for it was easy to foresee that the Queen's death would bring about a change of religion in the Court."

3. Every one yet committed was a known reformer. Wyat was called the prompter of the Great Reform. Bryan had given offence in Rome and was an active enemy of the Imperial party. As the day wore on fresh warrants of arrest were said to have gone out. No one could say how far a man like Audley, spurred by party rage, would fling his

nets.

4. A barge swept up to Lambeth with an order from the Secretary of State. Cranmer was absent on the business of his See, and only heard by chance