Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

will not call you to a strait account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general judgment-seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear, and in whose judgment I doubt not (whatsoever the world may think of me), mine innocence shall be openly known and sufficiently cleared.

'My last and only request shall be, that myself may only bear the burthen of your Grace's displeasure, and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, who, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If ever I have found favour in your sight, if ever the name of Anne Boleyn hath been pleasing in your eyes, then let me obtain this request. And I will so leave to trouble your grace any further; with mine earnest prayers to the Trinity to have your grace in His good keeping, and to direct you in all your actions. From my doleful prison in the Tower, this 6th day of May. Your most loyal

[ocr errors]

' and ever faithful wife,
'ANNE BOLEYN.'

4. This bold demand for a 'lawful trial,' an 'open trial,' made some of the pretenders and their followers feel a little faint. In wrestling with so high a spirit as Anne's, they never could feel safe until her head was off. Try me, good King!' Nothing by them in way of proof.

had yet been got

No

man will confess anything against her, but only

Mark of any actual thing,' wrote Baynton, Latimer's

[ocr errors]

opponent in an early stage of the divorce. Great efforts had been made to get a witness in support of Smeaton's lies. Audley was perplexed, for he had fancied it was only necessary to threaten Norreys and Weston, as he had threatened Smeaton, in order to obtain the evidence he wished to find. Brereton was added to his list of conspirators,' for Brereton held a place at court, and, being in trouble on his own account, it was conceivable that he might turn King's evidence, to save his life. Imagine this brave soldier's scorn when told the price at which he might obtain a royal pardon, not only for a crime he had never committed, but for all his splendid services to the crown!

5. Cromwell was ill at ease. Suppose he were to fail? The chances of success were not so great that he could look them in the face and show no fear. Though Henry might be tired of Anne's bright eyes, and smitten by the younger charms of Jane; yet, in his lonely hours, the master had a knack of pondering on the future of his crown. Suppose he were to think of that fair child who bore his mother's name? That infant was his legal heir. To brand her mother as a traitress was to rob his family and his kingdom of that lawful heir. Suppose he were to pause in his career? Whose head would then be near the axe? Cromwell began to fence and hedge. Though pushing on his labour, he affected to be overwhelmed with grief. He felt, he said, the Queen's misfortune as his own.

In vapory

[ocr errors]

language he was hinting, even to the arch-enemy, that he had only entered on this business to protect the Queen from calumny. A prophecy had come to him from Flanders, that the King was threatened by conspirators near his throne. He wished to stop such prophecies and calumnies. and Rochford were lying in the opportunity of praising them to Chapuys; lauding not only their brave spirit, but their good sense and their loyal hearts. If Elizabeth should save Anne, as Mary had saved Catharine, these words might help to shield him from the axe.

While the Queen Tower, he took an

6. Try me, good King!' Henry replied to her appeal by further offers of a pardon, if the Queen would but admit some fault, so as to deserve his grace.' A prettier woman and more lenient critic. sat beside him as he supped, and diced, and paddled on the stream by night. He wanted a divorce to marry Jane; and if his consort in the Tower were willing to undo the matrimonial bond, her life might well be spared. But Anne was not a woman to confess a lie, and take away her daughter's birthright in the crown. She pressed him for an open trial. She desired him not to let her enemies be at once her accusers and her judges. She had nothing more to add. She told him, in reply to these fresh offers, she had nothing to confess, and nothing to conceal. She added, with a spirit that excited Bacon's admiration, and induced him to record her words in his collection of the best sayings of all time, that

the King, her lord, seemed constant in his habit of heaping honours on her head. From a simple gentlewoman he had made her a marchioness; from the state of a marchioness he had raised her to that of Queen; and since he had no higher grade of earthly honour to confer, he was now vouchsafing to crown her innocence with martyrdom!

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHARGE.

1536.

1. AUDLEY at last got leave to move, and there was little time for such a business as he had to do. Less than four weeks remained before the peers and burgesses would meet. Before that day arrived one Queen must be in her grave, another on her throne.

2. At first, Audley seemed disposed to give each pretender an opening to attack his enemy in the general charge. Of course, the Queen must be the head of his 'conspiracy,' but any number of persons might be netted in the toils, if Henry only gave him leave. The chancellor was in no position to be nice. He wished to charge a number of men with having made the King a cuckold! To the great astonishment of Chapuys, Henry seemed inclined to let him do it; for the King was going up and down complaining of his wrongs, and naming various gentlemen as the favourites of his wife. The King,' wrote Chapuys, in his bitterest mood of scorn, ‘declares that he fancies more than a hundred men have had to do with her. Never has Prince, or any other

« ZurückWeiter »