if he had, he would have permitted her to return to France; and that she was there in 1524, when the queen of Francis the First died, is positively asserted. One thing, however, is clear, which is, that if Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn was not the cause of his first desiring a divorce from Queen Catherine, it is quite certain that it urged him to pursue it with a zeal and obstinacy that he might never have employed, had he not loved her. As to his alleged excuse for repudiating Catherine, namely, scruples of conscience, his afterconduct furnished too many and too positive examples that his was not a conscience to be troubled by scruples. Henry was probably led to desire a divorce because he was tired of a wife whose gravity reminded him that she was some years his senior, and by whom he despaired of having a male heir to his crown, long the object of his anxious desire. It is probable that had the two sons whom Catherine presented him with lived, he would have contented himself with being an unfaithful husband, without breaking the bond that united him to the mother of his children. We have the authority of Lord Herbert for stating, that Henry had often remarked the peevishness of his queen, even while admitting the many virtues she possessed; and the ennui that follows a sated affection in a breast like his, would have been quite sufficient motive for his wishing to get wholly rid of her who no longer ministered to his pleasures, or lent a charm to his society. The high moral principles of Catherine must have often served as a constraint, if not as a reproach, to her selfish husband, from which he was glad to emancipate himself in the pursuit of gaieties with his sensual courtiers, who had no will but his, and who lent themselves to his gross pleasures.

The descriptions of Anne Boleyn, handed down to posterity by her contemporaries, prove that she must have been indeed a very attractive person, and although the well-known passion

entertained for her by Wyatt may lead us to suppose that his description of her charms partakes the exaggeration of the lover as well as of the poet, the more sober one of Chateaubriant, and the less flattering one of Sanders, convey an impression very favourable to her personal appearance. Even with less attractions than "a stature tall and slender, an oval face, black hair, beauty and sprightliness hovering on her lips, in readiness for repartee, skill in the dance and in playing on the lute," and, though last not least, a rare and judicious taste in dress, which led to her being "the glass of fashion" by which all her companions wished to attire themselves, Anne must have been very captivating. Naturally lively and witty, with an uncommon facility in acquiring whatever was taught her, Anne Boleyn must have greatly profited by her abode with the clever and brilliant Duchess d'Alençon, whose fascination of manner and sprightly conversation were so universally acknowledged by her contemporaries. But while acquiring accomplishments, and the art of pleasing, with the beloved sister of Francis the First, it is but too probable that the moral principles of Anne were little cultivated, and that to her séjour beneath Marguerite's roof she owed the vivacity and levity, often passing the bounds of strict propriety, with which she was in after-years charged, and which furnished weapons to wound her. These peculiarities, which probably formed her greatest attractions in the eyes of Henry when she first won his selfish heart, became sins of deep die when, sated with her charms, he sought to hurl her from the giddy height to which he had raised her. During her residence in France, although greatly admired, the reputation of Anne Boleyn was never assailed, and she returned to England free in heart, and spotless in character.

Lord Herbert and others, among whom was Fiddes, state that Anne continued to dwell with the Duchess d'Alençon

until some difference grew between Henry and Francis, which caused the English students to be recalled to their own country, at which time she also returned to her family. Fiddes adds, that Francis the First complained to the English ambassador "that the English scholars and the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn had returned home."

It is known that Anne's return was advised by the king for the purpose of arranging a marriage between her and Sir Piers Butler, the heir of him who contested the inheritance of Anne's great-grandfather, the last Earl of Wiltshire, this union being considered the best mode of stopping all vexatious suits between the contending parties. Strange are the freaks of fortune, which shapes the destinies of men-nay more, sometimes make themselves the instruments to work out her will! When Henry recalled Anne Boleyn to wed another, he little thought he was bringing back a future wife for himself. It appears that the order for her recall was given late in the year 1521, which would fix the date of her return to 1522. She soon afterwards was appointed one of the maids of honour to Queen Catherine, little dreaming that she was to supplant her royal mistress. To the sober court of this virtuous lady Anne Boleyn transported not only the fashion in dress, but all the wiles and graces which she had acquired in the gay circles of the bewitching Marguerite. Her presence excited great admiration; her musical skill, sweet voice, and piquant manners still more; while her sprightliness and uncontrolled (if not uncontrollable) vivacity drew around her many admirers, among whom to one only did she accord encouragement; this one was Henry, Lord Percy, the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland, and, like herself, contracted by his father to form a marriage based not on affection, but interest. This double engagement was forgotten on both sides in the delirium of a first love; or, if remembered, this hindrance

only served to increase, as obstacles generally do, the passion of the youthful pair.

The position of Anne at court furnished opportunities for frequent meetings and conversations between Percy and the fair maid of honour, he forming one of the suite of the Cardinal Wolsey, and, accompanying him daily to the palace, was wont to remain in one of the waiting-rooms which communicated with that of the ladies of the queen, while the ambitious cardinal was engaged in those téte-à-tétes with Henry which often led to such grave results. These interviews, always in the presence of other maids of honour, ripened the affection of the lovers. But "never did the course of love run smooth." The affection of the youthful pair was revealed to the king by some envious court spy, and the pain the intelligence inflicted rendered Henry aware of the extent and nature of the interest with which he regarded the fair Boleyn. So wholly occupied was Anne's heart and head with Percy, that if she indeed suspected it, she never betrayed the least consciousness of the king's growing attachment to her. Indeed, the probability is that she had not then discovered it; and, if she had, the prospect of becoming the wife of the man she loved, and that man born to fill a high station, and possess great wealth, must have been infinitely preferable to aught that could spring from the attachment of Henry, a married man, king though he was. History offers no evidence of Anne's ever encouraging the attentions of Henry before the prospect of becoming his queen had excited her ambition and dazzled her brain, and that was long after the enforced marriage of Percy with another had banished every hope of her becoming his.

Henry had no sooner discovered the mutual love of the young pair than he commanded Cardinal Wolsey to take immediate steps to break the engagement between them,

artfully giving, as an excuse for his angry interference, the arrangements previously made for the marriage of both parties with persons selected by their respective families. Whether the cardinal, who was as expert in discovering the secret feelings and thoughts of others as in concealing his own, divined those of his self-willed sovereign or not, we have no evidence to prove; but, entrusted with the command to separate the lovers, he vigorously carried it into immediate execution, to the grief and dismay of Anne Boleyn and Percy. The rudeness and tyranny of Wolsey's treatment of Percy, during their interview on this occasion, offers a striking proof of his natural insolence and brutality, which not even his elevation and long contact with a court could subdue. The young man was reproached and insulted with all the contumely with which a parvenu loves to visit those of high birth whenever chance gives him the power; and, unfortunately for Anne, although of an honourable mind and good intentions, Percy had not sufficient moral courage to resist the tyranny so unjustly exercised over him. It excites disgust to peruse the account handed down by history of the manner in which the haughty cardinal presumed, on the strength of Henry's favour, to treat even the highest nobility in the land, proving that he had either wholly forgotten his own mean origin, or that he remembered it with a bitterness that urged him to insult those of high birth. He not only angrily rebuked Percy, but forthwith despatched a messenger for the Earl of Northumberland, and strictly commanded Percy to see Anne Boleyn no more. Rebellious sons of our own time would do well to read the grave reproofs and tyrannical commands of the Earl of Northumberland, when, in pursuance of Cardinal Wolsey's summons, he arrived, and poured out the vials of his wrath on the head of his unhappy son, and in the presence, too,