looked pale and worn. "When she appeared on the scaffold," writes a spectator, "the people cried and murmured at beholding one so young and so beautiful, about to die such a death." There were nearly forty matrons present. Coming to the front of the scaffold, Lady Jane addressed the Lords Commissioners and the populace in these words :

"My Lords, and you good Christian people, who have come to see me die, let me tell you that I am under a law, and by that law, as a never-erring judge, I am condemned to die, not for anything I have offended the Queen's Majesty, for I will wash my hands guiltless thereof, and deliver to my God a soul as pure from such trespasses as innocence from injustice; but only for that I consented to the thing which I was enforced unto, constraint making the law believe I did that which I never understood. Notwithstanding, I have offended Almighty God in that I have followed over much the lust of mine own flesh, and the pleasures of this wretched world. Neither have I lived according to the knowledge that God hath given me, for which cause God hath appointed unto me this kind of death, and that most worthily, according to my deserts. Howbeit, I thank the Almighty God most heartily that He hath given me time to repent of my past sins, and neglect of doing good, as much as I could perform, in this wicked world. I humbly beg for mercy from my dear Redeemer, whom my former vanity and forgetfulness of Him have displeased. May the Great Creator of Heaven and earth have mercy on me, and blot out the record of my errors.

"And now, good people-men and women-I earnestly ask from you a small favour. Will you pray for me, whilst I am still alive, that the Almighty God of His infinite goodness and mercy will forgive me my sins, how numberless and grievous soever against Him? And I beseech you all to bear me witness that I here die a true Christian woman, professing and avouching from my soul that I trust to be saved by the blood, passion, and merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour only, and by none other means, casting far behind me all the works and merits of mine own actions, as things so far short of the true duty I owe, that I tremble to think how much they may

stand in judgment against me. I wish our good Queen to forgive me for my unintentional disloyalty to her; and may God protect her from her enemies, and give her a long and a happy reign. A few words more: Husbands and wives love one another, and bring up your children in the fear of God."

After an affecting pause, Lady Dudley continued:

"Now, good people, Jane Dudley bids you all a long farewell. And may the Almighty preserve you from ever meeting the terrible death which awaits her in a few minutes. Farewell, farewell, for ever more.

The narrator of this address describes Lady Dudley as "immensely affected, resting her head upon the neck of her old nurse, who clung to her to the death-scene."

Lady Dudley's maids having advanced to the place in which she stood, she prepared to meet her sad and early doom. Elizabeth Tyluey, her devoted friend, stood beside

her until the last moment of the tragedy.

"Lady Dudley was very brave of heart," observes Maister Radcliffe, " considering the condition she was in."+

Farlow affirms "that Lady Jane maintained her Protestant principles to the death, which was very unlike her relatives, who all ran back to superstition and Popery again."

We now approach the closing scene. Lady Jane tied the handkerchief before her own eyes, and then felt for the block, observing, What shall I do? Where is it?" One of the gentlemen on the scaffold guided her to the spot, when

*The above is translated from an original report taken down by Philippa de Clifford, a kinswoman of Lady Jane and the Earl of Cumberland.

+ Fuller states that it was "strongly bruited" at the time of the execution tbat Lady Jane Dudley was pregnant. Challoner seems to believe this report; and Pomeroy says "there can be no doubt but she was with child." Sir Harris Nicolas, and other historical authorities of high repute, give no credit to this

statement.

she knelt down and laid her head on the fatal pillow. Stretching forth her body she exclaimed in a firm voice, Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The usual five minutes for "royal mercy," appeared like an age to those present; it was one of breathless suspense; but no "white wand bearing mercy appeared "-none whatever— every hope had fled! It would appear as if Queen Mary and her Council had disregarded the words which are said to be emblazoned on the seal of the Recording Angel— Mercy, Mercy! " The minutes and seconds might now be counted. A tall and powerful headsman next approached and made his fearful obeisance to the Royal victim. Jane spoke her last words—" I die in peace with all people ; God bless the Queen."*

In a few moments the executioner raised the glittering steel, and the career of Jane Dudley finished on earth.

Noailles, the French Ambassador, who was present, observes, "there was a great effusion of blood."

"The headless body," writes Pierre Derenzie, "lay for some hours half naked on the scaffold, where the blood ran down in a stream.' The most inhuman of beings cannot defend such barbarity.

What an awful spectacle this judicial murder presented, for Lady Jane was the victim of a party-domestic and political! The brief splendour of her royalty was but as the passing sunbeam lighting up a grave. She was unhappy throughout life; unblest in her parents—a fine humane and comprehensive mind, driven and narrowed into

* The Ende of the Ladie Jane Dudlie on the Scaffulde, printed at Antwerp A.D. 1560.

a belief which was but simulated in those on whom she naturally placed reliance; infelicitous in her compelled espousals, yet, with conscientious dutifulness, loving at the death more than in the life. If ambition ever had a martyr who deserved the name, it was the pure-minded and high-souled Jane Dudley. Her fate is one of the saddest episodes on the roll of England's history.*

John Foxe has printed some letters said to be the composition of Jane Dudley about the time of her condemnation. Those documents, of whose authorship Foxe may not be accused, breathe a philosophic contempt of death, sublime sentiments of piety, and a profound scorn for the creed of her fathers. Yet it is difficult to imagine that the grand-daughter of Mary Tudor, not seventeen years of age, could have written those (for the time) wonderful letters. Are they not evidently the careful composition of some man of middle age, fired by intense hostility to the religion he had recently abandoned? One of One of Maister Foxe's special talents was that of " dressing up," and placing in what Oldmixon styled "historical form," the ready and malign concoctions of contemporaneous fanatics or fools.

It appears strange, even in a period of such "mutable mentality," that the mother of Jane Dudley, in a few weeks subsequent to her daughter's execution, became a lady-in

*There is a beautiful little illuminated Prayer Book in Latin, enclosed in a well-preserved morocco case, in the British Museum, which book Lady Jane had with her on the scaffold. On the flyleaf is some writing of Lady Dudley's, in a fine bold hand: "Lord I trust in Thee: let me never be confounded." The writing concludes: "Yours as the Lord knoweth, JANE DUDLEY." Close by this interesting memorial is a "Book of Prayers," in the handwriting of the Princess Elizabeth, executed in 1545, when the writer was scarcely twelve years old.

+ Foxe's Memorials, vol. iii.

On

waiting to Queen Mary; and "her confidential attendant at Mass."* If the mother of Jane Dudley believed that Queen Mary had of her own will sacrificed her daughter, she must have been an unnatural parent to appear at Court under the circumstances. Catharine and Mary Gray acted in a manner similar to that of their mother. the other hand, if Queen Mary had, of her own will and motion, sent Lady Jane to the scaffold, would she, in a few weeks afterwards have brought her mother to Court, and even enrolled her amongst her bosom friends? Does not this fact go very far to prove that the fate of Jane Dudley had been decided, not by the Sovereign, but by her Ministers? Again, let the reader remember that the men who condemned Lady Jane, and who impressed upon the Queen the necessity of her death, had been previously Jane's sworn supporters, whilst swearing to Mary that they had been all along her own true and faithful subjects; and that on the death of Mary, the majority of her Ministers became members of Elizabeth's Council, and aided and abetted that unforgiving woman in persecuting to the death the female members of the unfortunate House of Dorset ? Versatile reprobates like these would shroud in darkness the character of any Sovereign, and it is no marvel, then, that the memory of Mary has been overcast by the evil shadows of her councillors, who were at once the parasites and the tyrants of their Queen.

In the reign of Elizabeth, Lady Jane's mother "descended from her station " to marry one of her domestics—a young man named Adrian Stoke. There is an old Norfolk tradi

Miss Strickland's Queens of England, vol. iii.; Pomeroy's Chronicle ; Letters of Roger Ascham on the Misfortunes of the House of Dorset.