A NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF

JANE SEYMOUR,

THIRD QUEEN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.

If the ascent of Anne Boleyn to the throne of Henry the Eighth met with well-merited censure, as being purchased at the heavy cost of misery to that good and virtuous queen, Catherine of Arragon, whose repudiation, and the ingratitude, insults, and cruelties that preceded and followed it, broke the proud and loyal heart of the noble Spaniard, what can be said of the successor of the hapless Anne, Jane Seymour, who mounted the steps of the throne still ensanguined with the warm life-blood of her predecessor? That blood-shed only the previous day, and which might never have been shed had not the selfish and cruel Henry sought to remove the only obstacle to the gratification of his passion for Jane Seymour-was hardly cold, when, forgetting all womanly feeling and decency, Jane plighted her troth to the widower of a day-the self-made widower, too!-who had condemned his wife's head to the block. As Anne Boleyn betrayed her mistress Queen Catherine, and wiled away from her the affection of the king, so did Jane Seymour win from Anne the fickle heart of Henry, and, indifferent to the anguish she

"Deux passions s'étoient en un même temps emparées de l'esprit du roi: un amour violent pour Jeanne Seymour, l'une des filles d'honneur de la reine, et une extrême jalousie pour la reine sa femme. Il y a beaucoup d'apparence que celle-ci fut une suite ou une dépendence de l'autre."-Rapin, livre xv. page 376.