At

King requested that he might see his daughter Mary. last Hertford brought the Princess to the bedside of the dying monarch. Henry is described as weeping and sobbing, requesting that they might be alone. Cranmer and Hertford retired with reluctance, but, upon second thought, at the King's desire, his faithful servant, Sir Anthony Brown, remained in the royal chamber. The King then addressed his daughter in a very affectionate manner; and, taking her by the hand, he said :

66

Mary, my dear child, I know very well that fortune has been most adverse to you, that I have caused you infinite sorrow. I have not given you in marriage, as I desired to do. This was, however, according to the Will of God, or to the unhappy state of my affairs, or to your own ill luck; but I pray you take it all in good part, and promise me to remain as a kind and loving mother to your brother Edward, whom I shall leave a helpless little child."*

The princess was not permitted to see her brother. Lord Hertford and Dr. Cranmer had made it impossible for such meetings to take place. King Henry's object in "requesting the motherly care" of Mary for her brother was, presumably, in his condition of mind, to look after the boy's religious training. This inference may very fairly be drawn from the "Catholic spirit" of Henry's last testament.

* Polino, p. 172; Harpsfield's correspondence with Gardyner. It is possible that Polino's information was derived from Harpsfield, or Sir Anthony Brown, both of whom were the secret agents of the Princess Mary, about the time of her father's death.

CHAPTER XII.

DEATH OF HENRY VIII.

THE reign of Henry VIII. extended to thirty-seven years, nine months, and fifteen days. Of the closing scenes of his life little is known, but that he was confined to his bed for several weeks at the old Palace of Westminster, where he died on the 31st of January, 1547. The day before his death the King held a long conversation with Lord Hertford, Sir William Paget, and Maister Denny. There is no official record of what took place, for if such documents had been penned they were destroyed by Paget. Edward Denny, Dr. Whyte, and some domestics closely connected with the King, affirm that his Highness expressed the most terrible anxiety about the altered condition of religion; he wished the new heresy to be crushed out of the State; that he closely questioned the members of his Council as to their attachment to the Catholic Church; "that they all swore, on bended knees, that they would never desert the faith of their fathers." Yet Dean Hook assures his readers that all the religious changes which took place in Edward's reign, were privately arranged and agreed upon during the lifetime of Henry. Hertford and Paget attended Mass in the dying monarch's room the morning before his death. "Their presence that morning, and the fact of both receiving Holy Communion with the King," gave him some comfort as to their sincerity in those terrible intervals of remorse with

which he was visited that last day of his existence. Cranmer, however, was absent on that day. Was his absence caused by scruples as to making fresh oaths and new protestations as to the maintenance of the old faith of England? Or did he shrink from the scene in which Lord Hertford performed so characteristically the primal part in deception and falsehood? Never was human being so deceived as Henry Tudor at this closing point of his existence. Let the reader ponder on the words of Dean Hook, and then contemplate the conduct of Lord Hertford-the predetermined maker of the Reformation on his knees at the couch of his dying brother-in-law, swearing eternal feally to the principles of the Catholic Church, with the said Henry Tudor as its Pontiff.

The last day of Henry Tudor had now passed, and the night of dying agony commenced. It was a condition of fearful bodily suffering to the King, broken by intervals of remorse and prayer. Had human pride vanished? Had mercy returned to the Royal breast? Was the King at peace with all the world? No; another act of vengeance was to be consummated. death the warrants for executions were signed by Commission, in consequence of the King's health. But, in this case, the moribund tyrant expressed his determination and pleasure to sign Norfolk's death-warrant with his own hand.* Dean Hook justly remarks that nothing more terrible than this scene can be imagined. "At ten of the clock, when the cold sweat of death covered his face, the prostrated monarch was making a faint effort to sign

For a year or so before Henry's

* Domestic State Papers of Henry VIII.'s reign.

the fatal document."

The action manifested the mastery of a ruthless spirit, and evinced the domination of a final impenitence. In the very arms of death he would destroy the living; on the threshold of the grave he would turn from the presence of his God to make one more sacrifice to the Enemy of Mankind. Yet even that thirst for the blood of an illustrious subject, whose age he had left nearly childless, might not have been the worst, if it had not been the last of the crimes of this unforgiving prince. A few hours more elapsed, and the shadow of death was casting a deep and solemn gloom upon the royal chamber. The end now came! The final contest was brief; and, in a pulse's throb, the spirit of the dreaded King Henry was wafted to the presence of that Omnipotent Tribunal where so many of his iniquitous judgments deserved to be reversed. A deathbed has been described as the altar of forgiveness, where charity and tears commingle as the spirit of prayer comThese attributes were absent from the dying couch of Henry Tudor, whose last despairing words, chronicled by Anthony Denny, "All is lost!" express an awful consciousness of the retribution due to a wicked and truculent

munes.

For three days the King's death was concealed from the public, to enable the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Hertford to make their arrangements. It was agreed by the Council that all the religious ceremonies of the olden creed of England should be strictly adhered to. Churchbells tolled, and Mass was celebrated daily throughout London for the "health of the late King's soul."

* Leti, Thenet, Harpsfield, Godwin, Burnet, Rapin, Macintosh, Tytler and Lingard.

The funereal biers wherein the royal corpse was laid, stood in the midst of the Privy Chamber surrounded with lights; and the various Offices for the dead were repeated again and again. A continual watch was made by the chaplains and gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, in their "course and order, night and day, for five days," till the chapel was ready, "wherein was a goodly hearse, with eighty square tapers, every light containing two feet in length, in the whole 1,800 or 2,000 weight in wax, garnished with pensils, escutcheons, banners, and bannerets of descents; and at the four corners, banners of saints, beaten out in fine gold upon damask, with a majesty (i.e., canopy) over a rich cloth of tissue, and valance of black silk, and fringe of black silk and gold. The barriers without the hearse, and the sides and floor of the chapel were covered with black cloth to the high altar, and the sides and ceiling set with the banners and standards of St. George and others."*

On the 2nd of February the corpse was removed and brought into the chapel, by the Lord Chamberlain and officers of the household, and then placed within the hearse, under a pall of rich cloth of tissue, garnished with escutcheons, and a cloth of gold set with precious stones.

The body continued in the chapel for twelve days, "with Masses and dirges sung and said every day," Norray each day standing at the choir door, and beginning with these words, in a loud voice:-"Of your charity pray for the soul of the high and mighty prince, our late Sovereign and King, Henry VIII."

The royal remains being carried to Windsor to be buried,

* MS. in the College of Arms.