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 unlawful 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 judgmentseat, 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 my

self may only bear the burden 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."

This address, so pathetic and eloquent, failed to touch the heart of a tyrant, which licentious and selfish gratification had steeled. Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeton, were brought to trial; but no legal evidence was produced against them. A hearsay report from a lady Wingfield, since dead, was the principal proof of their guilt. By a vain hope of life, Smeton was at length induced to confess a criminal correspondence with the queen; a confession which little availed him, and from which even her enemies despaired of gaining any advantage: he was never confronted with Anne,

but immediately executed; as were also Weston and Brereton. To Norris, who had been a favourite with the king, an offer was made of life, on condition that he would criminate the queen. Magnanimously disdaining the baseness proposed to him, he declared, that in his conscience he believed her wholly guiltless; that he would accuse her of nothing; and that rather than calumniate an innocent person, he would die a thousand 'deaths.

The queen and her brother were tried by a jury of peers; their uncle, the duke of Norfolk, presiding as lord high-steward. The evidence of incest amounted to no more, than that Rocheford had been seen, in company, to lean on the bed of his sister. Anne also, it was said, had affirmed. to her favourites, that the king had never possess ed her heart, and that to each of them apart she had declared that he only was the object of her attachment. This strained interpretation of guilt was brought under the statute of the twenty-fifth of the king's reign, by which it was declared criminal to throw any slander upon the king, queen, or their issue. Such absurdities were, in those times, admitted, as a justification

for sacrificing an innocent woman and a queen to the caprice of a cruel and arbitrary tyrant.

Anne, though unassisted by counsel, defended herself with so much clearness and presence of mind, that the spectators unanimously believed her to be guiltless. Judgment was, however, passed by the court both against her and her brother: she was sentenced by the verdict to be beheaded or burned, according to the king's' plea sure. Oh! Father,' said she, lifting up her eyes when this dreadful sentence was pronounced-O Creator, thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, thou knowest that I have not deserved this death!' Then, turning to the judges, she pathetically declared her innocence.

Not satisfied with this barbarous tyranny, Henry resolved wholly to annul his marriage with Anne Boleyn, and to pronounce her issue illegitimate. He called to remembrance, that, soon after the appearance of Anne in the court of England, there were some rumours of an attachment between her and the earl of Northumberland, then lord Percy, whom he now questioned respecting this engagement. Northumberland took an oath, before two archbishops, that no contract or promise of marriage, whatever had passed between them upon this asseveration he received the sa-i crament, before the duke of Norfolk, and others. of the privy-council, accompanying the ceremony

with the most solemn protestations of the truth of his information. But the unhappy Anne, threatened with the execution of the utmost rigor of her sentence, was prevailed on to calumniate herself, and to confess some impediments to her marriage with the king. The primate, who sat as judge, thought himself obliged by this avowal, with whatever pain and reluctance, to pronounce the marriage null and invalid. Henry, in his rage against the innocent victim of his levity, perceived not the inconsistency of his proceeds ings if the marriage had been illegal, no adultery could exist.

The queen, hopeless of redress, and resigned to her fate, prepared herself to submit without repining. In her last message to the king, she acknowledged obligation to him, for having advanced her from a private gentlewoman, first to the dignity of a marchioness, and afterwards to the throne; and now, since he could raise her no higher in this world, he was sending her to be a saint in heaven. She earnestly recommended her daughter to his care, and renewed her protesta tions of innocence and fidelity. She made the same declarations before the lieutenant of the Tower, and to every person who approached her; while she continued to behave, not only with sere