her intellect, she was, at the age of thirty-eight, an unpleasant woman, to say the least, for an intimate companion, and well fitted to act the part of a persecutor. Yet Mary must not be made responsible for all the terrible deeds which occurred during her reign. In many, perhaps the majority of instances, she was persuaded by cruel ministers to destroy life, and often she may be said scarcely to have known anything of the diabolical tortures to which some of the Protestants were put. There were occasions, too, in which she exhibited signs of the most tender feeling, proving that the heart which in her youth was filled with the gentlest attributes, could not ever quite lose its original character. But we must hurry on to the course of our narrative.

H

CHAPTER IX.

DEATH OF EDWARD VI.-LADY JANE GREY APPRIZED OF HIS DEATH AND WILL.-REFUSES TO ACCEPT THE CROWN.-WEEPS AND FAINTS. IS FORCED TO ACCEPT IT.-GOES TO THE TOWER-MARY IS SURROUNDED IN THE COUNTRY BY FRIENDS.-PROCLAMATION OF LADY JANE.-ADVANCE OF MARY UPON LONDON. THE NOBILITY AND COUNCIL FLOCK TO HER STANDARD.-LADY JANE GLADLY GIVES UP THE CROWN.--ARREST OF LADY JANE AND HER HUSBAND.

THE first thing which Northumberland attempted to do after the death of the king, was to conceal that fact from the nation for a few days, to enable him the more surely to establish Lady Jane Grey upon the throne, and to take possession of the Princess Mary, who had been summoned to attend the death-bed of the king. As soon as Edward had expired, the Duke of Northumberland, accompanied by the Duke of Suffolk, Earl of Pembroke, and other noblemen, proceeded to Sion House, and acknowledged Lady Jane Grey to be their queen. This seems to have been the first time that Lady

Jane had any definite idea in reference to the bestowment of the crown upon herself. Until now, she had been kept in perfect ignorance of the ambitious designs of Northumberland and her father, the Duke of Suffolk. True to her conscientious nature, she refused to take the crown thus offered to her! To her there was no pleasure in the contemplation of a brilliant career as Queen of England. She was too gentle, too pious for a courtly life. And when they came to press upon her that crown, which was to her a crown of thorns, she was with her young lord, enjoying his caresses amid the retired but beautiful lands of Sion House. Her father explained to her that Edward VI., who had just expired, had bequeathed the crown to her, that the privy council were unanimously of opinion that she was the lawful heir to the throne, and that the people of London were of the same opinion. The young bride was at first astonished by their representations, and when Northumberland, her father, and other distinguished noblemen fell at her feet, was almost bewildered. But she soon calmly answered them in nearly the following words :

"The laws of the kingdom and natural right

stand for the king's sisters, and I will beware of burthening a weak conscience with a yoke which belongeth to them; I understand the infamy of those who permit the violation of right, to gain a sceptre; and it is mocking God and deriding justice, to scruple at the stealing of a shilling, and not at the usurpation of a crown. Besides, I am not so young, nor so little read in the guiles of fortune, to suffer myself to be taken by them. If she enrich any, it is but to make them the subject of her spoil; if she raise others, it is but to pleasure herself with their ruins; what she adorned but yesterday, is to-day her pastime; and if I now permit her to adorn and crown me, I must to-morrow suffer her to crush and tear me to pieces. Nay, with what crown doth she present me? A crown which hath been violently and shamefully wrested from Katharine of Arragon, made more unfortunate by the punishment of Anne Boleyn, and others that wore it after her; and why, then, would you have me add my blood to theirs, and be the third victim from whom this fatal crown may be ravished, with the head that wears it? But even in case that it should not prove fatal unto me, and that all its venom were consumed, if

fortune should give me warranties of her constancy, should I be well advised to take upon me these thorns, which would not fail to torment me, though I were assured not to be strangled with it? (My liberty is better than the chain you offer me, with what precious stones soever it be adorned, or of what gold soever framed.) I will not exchange my peace for hon)I orable and precious jealousies, for magnificent and glorious fetters, and if you love me sincerely and in good earnest, you will rather wish me a secure and quiet fortune, though mean, than an exalted condition exposed to the wind, and followed by some dismal fall."

We are sure that the reader will coincide with us in the opinion that a more touching and eloquent reply could not have been made by Lady Jane. Her prophetic words in reference to her "dismal fall" were remembered long after her mistake had been expiated upon the scaffold.

Northumberland and the Duke of Suffolk again represented to Lady Jane, with vehement earnestness, that the crown was of right hers, and also laid fully before her the dreadful consequences which would result to the Protestant party if she refused to accept it, and thus con