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CHAPTER II.

Anne in the Tower.

1536.

1. "MR. KINGSTON," the Queen asked the Constable, "do you know wherefore I am here?" "Nay, Madam," said he. The affair was like a dream. "When saw you the King?" she asked. "I saw him not," rejoined the Constable, "since I saw him in the tilt-yard." Anne was thinking of her brother George, that darling of her house, to whom she had been a "little mother" ever since she was herself a child. "Then I pray you, Mr. Kingston, tell me where my Lord Rochford is?" The iron Constable pitied her. "I saw him afore dinner in the court," he said, evasively. "Oh, where is my sweet brother?" Still evading her inquiry, Kingston answered, "I left him at York Place."

2. Then, turning to her own affairs, she said, in evident surprise and wonder, "Mr. Kingston, I hear say I should be accused with three men!" The Constable waited, for his orders were to let her talk, and jot down all she spake. She added, mournfully, "I can say no more but Nay, without I should open my body," and she tore the gown across her breast. "Oh, Norreys, hast thou accused me!" she exclaimed. The tale about Norreys seemed to daze her most of all. That Norreys, her brother's friend,

a man who seemed the soul of honour, should betray her with a lie, was like the crack of doom. If he were false, what man was likely to be true? "Thou art in the Tower with me, and thou and I shall die together!" Many times she thought of that good step-mother whom she loved so dearly. "O my mother," she exclaimed, "thou wilt die for sorrow!" Once she thought of the poor musician who had wrought her so much injury: "Mark, thou art here, too!" As yet she had not heard that Smeaton was the cause of her arrest, and that the fiddler had accused her, on a promise of his life being spared. Turning to the Constable, she cried, "Shall I die without justice, Mr. Kingston?" What was he to say? No man had seen more people die without justice than he. Not many months were passed since More had died without justice. If the King desired to have another woman, Kingston was sure that Anne must die, whatever law and equity might say in her defence. "Madam," he answered, "the poorest subject of the King has justice." She is reported to have laughed-surely a bitter and derisive laugh!

3. A great and curious change came on the court. The King was merry, if not mad. He told the peers and ladies of his household to enjoy their lives. He ran about from house to house. He dined, he diced, he romped with every one. Taking his verses in his hands, he read them everywhere, and put his critics in the Tower to`shame. He sat up late of nights, and came home from his revels in the early hours, attended by his pipers

and singing-men, and startling honest citizens from their sleep.

4. "The King is in the highest spirits since the harlot's arrest," wrote Chapuys, "gadding from place to place, supping with various women, staying out till after midnight, and returning by the river with his bands of music and his chorus from the privy chamber." Chapuys could not veil his scorn for such proceedings. "The King," he wrote, a few days afterwards, "lately supped with several ladies at the house of Kite, Bishop of Carlisle. Next day this prelate came to tell me of his doings. Henry, he said, was wild with merriment. Among other matters, the King told the Bishop he had foreseen the issue, for he had written a tragedy, which he brought with him, and which he took out of his bosom." It was a small book, copied in his own hand. The Bishop had no time to read it, and escaped the need to praise it. "Possibly," said Chapuys, "it contained some ballads which the King has made, at which the concubine and her brother are gravely accused of having laughed!"

5. Mrs. Cousins had received orders to induce the Queen to talk of Norreys. In her great distress it would be strange if nothing fell from Anne's lips that such a lawyer as Audley could not twist against her. Mrs. Cousins plied her trade, and certain scraps of talk were forwarded by Kingston to York Place. In reading them an honest critic will remember whence they came. These scraps of talk were noted by a spy, labouring for the wages of a spy, who understood what sort of ware was

wanted at her hands. Anne never saw these scraps of papers, nor is any one aware how much the spy suppressed. The sentences are brief and broken, and the letters have been partly burnt. Even where the text remains the sense is hard to guess. Yet, even in these spy's reports, no word appears to touch the Queen. "This morning," Kingston wrote to Cromwell, "the Queen did talk with Mrs. Cousins, and said that Norreys did say, on Sunday last, unto the Queen's almoner, that he would swear for the Queen that she was a good woman. And then said Mrs. Cousins, Why, Madam, should there be any such matters spoken of? Marry, said she, I bade him do so. I asked him why he went not through with his marriage, and he made answer he would tarry a time." If Mrs. Cousins told the truth, Anne had answered Norreys, "You look for dead men's shoes; for if aught came to the King but good, you would look to have me." These were the sort of words that Audley wanted for his conspiracy "to compass and imagine the King's death." It is unlikely that Anne should ever have spoken such words to Norreys. It is ridiculous to suppose she would have repeated them to a spy. Norreys was made to answer, "If I had any such thought, I would my head were off!" The Queen mas made to add, "she could undo him if she would;" on which it was said the Queen and groom "fell out."

6. Kingston was coming from Rochford's chamber when the Queen, hearing his footstep, called him into her apartment. "I hear," she said, inquiringly, "my lord my brother is here?" "It is the truth,”

said Kingston, too much used to scenes of misery to deceive her further. He told her where her brother had been lodged. She merely said, in reference to his lodging, "I am glad we be so nigh together." Kingston then informed her who were in custody besides Rochford, Norreys and Smeaton. When he named Brereton and Weston, she kept "a good countenance." When he mentioned Wyat, she seemed to have no fear. "I shall desire you to bear a letter from me to Master Secretary." "Madam," said Kingston, "tell it me by word of mouth, and I will do it." Finding she was not allowed to write, she thanked the Constable, and said she only wished to say she marvelled the King's council had not come to see her in the Tower. She asked for Latimer, whose plainness of speech had pleased her in her royal moments, and was likely to be more than ever wholesome to her now. "I would to God," she sighed, "I had my bishops, for they would all go to the King for me. I think the most part of England prays for me." She added, in the spirit of her time and sex, "If I die, you will see the greatest punishment for me within these seven years that ever came to England." If the female spies are to be trusted, she also said, "I shall [hope to] be in heaven, for I have done many good deeds in my day."

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