twenty-ninth day of January.

For two or three

weeks, Anne had been confined by sickness to her room. She seemed to be aware that only one chance remained to her. If she should bear a son, her life and crown were safe. If not, it might be better for her that she had never seen her husband's face. She bore a son:-unhappily for her, that son was dead.

6. On the very day of Catharine's funeral, Henry, having heard the news of his misfortune, stalked into the Queen's room, and said in fury, "It is now too sure that God will give me no heir male by you." The fainting woman could not speak. Turning on his heel, he left her with the dry and blighting words, "When you get up, I'll speak to you again." The pains of her recovery were prolonged. Her women wept around her couch; for what was likely to occur, they knew by many a secret sign. Anne tried to cheer them up, by saying that the legitimacy of her next son would lie beyond dispute. When Henry came to see her, she put this hope before his mind. "I will have no more boys by you," he answered in a brutal tone. The outraged woman broke on him in answer: "It is your unkindness that has killed our son."

CHAPTER VII.

Conspiracy.

1536.

I. THE mine was charged. Who was to bring the fire? Lady Exeter sent the outlines of a plan to Chapuys, who, as Spanish envoy, had assumed the main direction of the Spanish plot. "Jane Seymour," said the Marchioness, "must be employed." Already Jane was well instructed in her part, as those who hated Anne had shown her how to act, and told her what to say. If Chapuys should approve Lady Exeter's plan, Jane Seymour was to seek the King, and tell him boldly he was living in a state of mortal sin. Chapuys was to follow Jane. If Jane and Chapuys spoke out strongly, Henry might consult with others who were banded to destroy the Queen.

2. Chapuys thought the plan of Lord Exeter might do. It was, no doubt, a dangerous course to take. The law was clear and stern. To say that Anne was not the King's wife, and that her daughter was not born in wedlock, was high treason, and the punishment of high treason was the axe. Few men were likely to risk their heads till they were certain of success. One of the conspirators tried to feel his way with one who might have been supposed to act on higher motives than a wish to. curry favour with the crown. Pole called on

History of two Queens. VI.

8

Stokesley, Bishop of London, and implored that bishop to speak with Henry, and advise him to appease his conscience and dismiss his concubine. Pole assumed that Stokesley was of his opinion; but he found the prudent bishop far from frank. "I shall not tell you what my opinion is," said Stokesley. "I will speak of it to no one but the King, nor even to the King himself until I see what way his Highness will decide."

3. Yet Chapuys felt with Lady Exeter that some one must begin. The situation of affairs seemed good. Queen Anne was sick in bed. Cranmer was absent. Henry was sure to speak with Cromwell, who was known to be reflecting Henry's moods, as either fear of Paul or love of Jane prevailed over duty to his kingdom and fidelity to his wife. The Secretary was playing fast and loose, according to the changes in his game. His conduct to Tyndale Iwas in evidence. This eminent reformer was denounced by English scoundrels to the Emperor's councillors in Brussels, who enveigled him, an unsuspecting man, from Antwerp, and committed him to the castle of Vilvorde. Efforts on many sides were made to save him from the persecutor's rage. Cromwell had been his pupil, and had gathered up his various writings for the use of bishops who employed them in their version of the Word of God; but he was turning towards the papal and imperial powers; and though appeals were made to him in favour of the kidnapped scholar, Tyndale was abandoned to his fate. For some time past the Queen had been annoyed by Cromwell's per

fidies. One day, he told the Spanish envoy she was threatening to have his head. Chapuys left Cromwell with an impression that it was become a question which of the two heads should fall—the Secretary's or the Queen's. It all depended on the tyrant's mood. Yet Chapuys saw no reason for despair. If Jane were sure of Henry's love, and Cromwell right about his fear, the plot of Lady Exeter could hardly fail.

4. Chapuys consulted Mary, who approved the plan laid down by Lady Exeter. This method of proceeding suited her haughty temper better than pretending to be meek and offering to retire into some convent of St. Clare. She begged the Savoyard to push on hard and fast. She yearned, she said, to see the concubine overthrown. But for herself she took no thought; she was prepared for every sacrifice, even for her father marrying Jane, and for the advent of a prince.

5. Armed with her approval, Chapuys went to Cromwell; after seeing him, he called on many more. Their first care was to find a pretext for divorcing Anne. They might denounce her as a sorceress, who had enchanted Henry by the power of devils, and divorce her at the stake; but such a method, though it would have suited Lady Exeter and Lady Willoughby, was repugnant to the hard yet liberal Secretary of State. Cromwell, believing the Pope could help them better than the devil, and believing also that the King was ready to submit his case to Rome, hinted to his master that the Pontiff would at once declare his marriage with

Anne Boleyn void. For once the crafty man was wrong, and when he found how badly Henry took his hints, he feared that he had spoiled his game, and lost his head. But Jane excused the Secretary to her lover, and his crafty brain was soon employed on a less dangerous track. As Wolsey's servant, Cromwell knew of the affair between Anne Boleyn and Lord Percy. When the Cardinal parted that pair of lovers, Percy had asserted that he held some pledge from Anne. Wolsey had only laughed at this assertion of the lover; yet if Percy could be got to say the words then uttered in his rage were true, they would have a case to bring before the courts. Percy declined to help them. Cromwell cited him before the council, but the Border chief refused to gratify their spite. The Queen, he said, had never pledged to him her troth. Norfolk demanded that the witness should be sworn. Percy was ready to take the Sacrament on what he spake. Norfolk went into the chapel, where, with wafer on his lip, the Earl repeated on his salvation that nothing in his love affairs with Anne had given him any right to call her wife.

6. Baffled by these two failures, the conspirators fell back on the suggestion made by Gardiner, that the best way of ruining the Queen was by a criminal charge. Gardiner detested Anne, not only as a patroness of Cranmer and Latimer, but because, like Cromwell, he was scheming for a marriage in the court of France. Gardiner pretended

he had seen some letters in Paris accusing Anne of adultery. Norfolk and Suffolk snapt at Gardiner's