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Every person at court now abandoned the unhappy queen in her distress, except Cranmer, who, though forbidden to come into the king's presence, wrote a letter to him in behalf of the queen; but his intercession had no effect. When Norris and the other prisoners were tried in Westminster-hall, Smeton was prevailed upon, by the promise of a pardon, to confess a criminal correspondence with the queen; but he was not confronted with her; and his execution with the rest, shortly after, served to acquit her of the charge. Norris, who had been much in the king's favour, had an offer of his life, if he would confess his crime and accuse his mistress; but he rejected the proposal with contempt, and died professing her innocence and his own.

In the mean time the queen, who saw the terrible appearance of her fortunes, attempted to soften the king by every endeavour to spare the lives of the unfor tunate men whose deaths were decreed. But his was a stern jealousy fostered by pride; and nothing but her removal could appease him. Her letter to him, upon this occasion, written from the Tower, is full of the tenderest expostulations, and too remarkable to be omitted here; as its manner serves at once to mark the situation of her mind, and shows to what a pitch of refinement she had even then carried the language. It is as follows:

"Sir,

"Your grace's displeasure, and my imprisonment, are things so strange unto me, as what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send unto me (willing me to confess a truth and so obtain your favour) by such an one, whom you know to be mine ancient professed enemy, I no sooner received this message by him, than I rightly conceived your meaning; and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may

procure my safety, I shall with all willingness and duty perform your command.

"But let not your grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought thereof preceded. And to speak a truth, never prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Anne Boleyn; with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your grace's pleasure had been so pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exaltation, or received queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your grace's fancy, the least alteration I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that fancy to some other object. You have chosen me, from a low estate, to be your queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire. If then you found me worthy of such honour, good your grace, let not any light fancy, or bad counsel of mine enemies, withdraw your princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain, of a disloyal heart towards your good grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife, and the infant princess your daughter. Try me, good king: but let me have a lawful trial, and let not my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and judges; yea, let me receive an open trial, for my truth shall fear no open shame then shall you see either mine innocence cleared, your suspicion and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared: so that whatsoever God or you may determine of me, your grace may be freed from an open censure; and mine offence being so lawfully proved, your grace is at liberty, both before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unlaw.

ful wife, but to follow your affection already settled on that party, for whose sake I am now as I am; whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto, your grace not being ignorant of my suspicion therein.

"But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander, must bring you the enjoying of your desired happiness, then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin therein, and likewise mine enemies, the instruments thereof; and that he will not call you to a strict account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general judgement-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.

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My last and only request shall be, that myself shall 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 ears, then let me obtain this request; and I will so leave to trouble your grace any farther, 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 sixth of May.

Your most loyal

and ever faithful wife,

ANNE BOLEYN."

It was not to be expected that eloquence could prevail on a tyrant, whose passions were to be influenced by none of the nobler motives. The queen and her brother were tried by a jury of peers; but upon what

proof or pretence the crime of incest was urged against them, is unknown; the chief evidence, it is said, amounted to no more than that Rochford had been seen to lean on her bed before some company. Part of the charge against her was, that she had declared to her attendants, that the king never had her heart; which was considered as a slander upon the throne, and strained into a breach of a late statute, by which it was declared criminal to throw any slander upon the king, queen, or their issue. The unhappy queen, though unassisted by counsel, defended herself with great judgement and presence of mind; and the spectators could not forbear declaring her entirely innocent. She answered distinctly to all the charges brought against her: but the king's authority was not to be controlled; she was declared guilty, and her sentence ran, that she should be burned or beheaded, at the king's pleasure. When this terrible sentence was pronounced against her, she could not help offering up a prayer to Heaven, vindicating her innocence; and, in a most pathetic speech to her judges, averred the injustice of her condemnation. But the tyrant, not satisfied with this vengeance, was desirous also of having her daughter declared illegitimate; and, remembering the report of a contract between her and Percy earl of Northumberland, prevailed upon the queen, either by promise of life, or not executing the sentence in all its rigour, to confess such a contract. The afflicted primate, who sat as judge, thought himself obliged, by this confession, to pronounce the marriage null; and Henry, in the transports of his malignant prosecution, did not see that if her marriage had been invalid from the beginning, the sentence of adultery must have been invalid also.

She who had been once the envied object of royal favour, was now going to give a melancholy instance of

the capriciousness of fortune: upon her returning to prison, she once more sent protestations of her innocence to the king. "You have raised me," said she, "from privacy to make me a lady; from a lady you made me a countess; from a countess a queen; and from a queen I shall shortly become a saint in heaven." On the morning of her execution she sent for Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, to whom, upon entering the prison, she said, "Mr. Kingston, I hear I am not to die till noon, and I am sorry for it; for I thought to be dead before this time, and free from a life of pain." The keeper attempting to comfort her, by assuring her the pain would be very little; she replied, "I have heard the executioner is very expert; and (clasping her neck with her hands, laughing), I have but a little neck." When brought to the scaffold, from a consideration of her child Elizabeth's welfare, she would not inflame the minds of the spectators against her prosecutors, but contented herself with saying "that she was come to die as she was sentenced by the law." She would accuse none, nor say any thing of the ground upon which she was judged; she prayed heartily for the king, called him “a most merciful and gentle prince;" declared that he had always been to her a good and gracious sovereign; and, if any one should think proper to canvass her cause, she desired him to judge the best. She was beheaded by the executioner of Calais, who was brought over as much more expert than any in England. Her body was negligently thrown into a common chest of elm-tree, made to hold arrows, and was buried in the Tower. Anne Boleyn seemed to be guilty of no other crime than that of having survived the king's affections; and although many crowned heads had already been put to death in England, she was the first who underwent all the forms of law, and was beheaded on a scaffold.

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