the nation. His constitution ever was delicate; in the spring of the previous year, he was attacked by the measles and small-pox, and being ill for a long time, his frame was very much enfeebled, and it seemed impossible for him to regain even his accustomed robustness. In the spring of 1553, he caught a violent cold, which was aggravated by injudicious treatment, and a disease of the lungs was the consequence. Some declared that he was under the influence of slow but subtle poisons, administered to him by persons at court, but there is not the slightest foundation for a belief in any such story. Undoubtedly, that slow but terrible disease, the consumption, was fastened upon the young, but wise and pious king, and the Duke of Northumberland saw that he probably had not long to live. It was this state of things which aroused the fiery ambition of his nature, and led him to project schemes which were destined to prove the ruin of not only himself, but of many others, among whom, stands first and fairest, the gentle Lady Jane Grey. The duke saw that the young king was warmly devoted to Protestantism, knew that Edward was well aware of the Princess Mary's half-concealed love for the Catholic religion, and

he trusted that he could persuade him to overturn the will of Henry VIII., and leave the crown to Lady Jane Grey. It was a wild and unrighteous project, which was probably entirely concealed from the duke's best friends until ripe for execution, and kept carefully away from Lady Jane until after the death of the king. Northumberland proposed that his son, Lord Lord Guildford Dudley, should marry Lady Jane, and thus he would be father to the Queen. of England, provided his plan should succeed.

CHAPTER VII.

LADY JANE GREY.-DESCRIPTION OF HER PERSON.-HER LEARNING AND VIRTUES.-NORTHUMBERLAND'S PROJECTS.-IMAGINARY CONVERSATION BETWEEN ROGER ASCHAM AND LADY JANE. HER MARRIAGE WITH LORD GUILDFORD DUDLEY.-EDWARD VI. A VICTIM TO NORTHUMBERLAND.MAKES HIS WILL IN FAVOR OF LADY JANE GREY. TROUBLES WITH THE COUNCIL.-INNOCENCE OF LADY JANE.

LADY JANE GREY was now sixteen years old, and, perhaps, one of the most beautiful women in England. Her beauty was of a style somewhat rare in that age. She was not commanding, imperious and passionately beautiful. Her beauty was surmounted by the most exquisite loveliness of character. She was gentle, kind and affectionate; though a learned scholar, she was no mere "blue-stocking." A painting of her at this time, which is still preserved, represents her as having a very fair, broad and beautiful brow, eyebrows of jet, a small and exquisite mouth, and a face on which sits the very spirit of meekness and subdued beauty. She wears a

very large head-dress, which almost entirely covers her hair from sight. A few locks are seen upon the temple. Around her neck there is a high collar or partlet, as it was called, standing upright, and very richly embroidered. The neck and a slight glimpse of the bosom are to be seen in the latter, there is a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Gowns at this time were generally cut square in the neck, and were often splendidly enriched by costly sleeves and a habit-shirt, the collar of which standing upright was ingeniously and handsomely embroidered.

A Holbein painting of Lady Jane represents her without her partlet, her neck and bosom almost bare, with the exception of necklaces and jewels. Her hair in this painting is surmounted by a low head-dress, and falls down upon the back of her neck. In both pictures, the face is very sweet and beautiful, and in the latter, there is a pensiveness which would almost make one suppose that, when it was taken, she anticipated, by presentiment, her sorrowful fate.

Burton, an ancient writer, says of Lady Jane : "That most admired Princess, Jane Grey, who being but young, attained to such excellent learning, both in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues,

and also in the study of divinity, by the instruction of Mr. Aylmer, as appeareth by her many writings, letters, etc., that as Mr. Fox saith of her, had her fortune been answerable to her bringing up, undoubtedly she might have been compared to the house of Vespasiaus, Lemproniaus, and Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, in Rome; and, in these days, the chiefest men in the universities."

Fox says:

"She hath the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, the gravity of old age, and all at sixteen; the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint, yet the death of a malefactor for her parents' offences. I confess I never read of any canonized saint of her name; a thing whereof some papists are so scrupulous, that they count it an unclean and unhallowed thing to be of a name whereof never any saint was-but let this worthy lady pass for a saint; and let all great ladies which bear her name imitate her virtues; to whom I wish her inward holiness, but far more outward happiness."

Still another writer says:

"She had a perfection noble and holy, a