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divine influences she may have received, even as a child, so filling her heart with a love for heavenly things, that there was no room left there for the world. She had had the advantage of good instruction, apart from her parents. Before the time above-mentioned of her living at Broadgate, she had resided for a while at Hatfield, near London, and been acquainted with, and taught by, a learned and wise man, Roger Ascham, who was the teacher also of the Princess Elizabeth, who afterwards became Queen of England. When she returned home to her parents at Broadgate, she was placed under the tuition of an excellent clergyman, named Aylmer; and it would be hard and unjust to think that this good man took no pains to strengthen and encourage in her soul those better principles which were first implanted there by God's gracious Spirit. We know that he was very kind and gentle to his young and very interesting pupil, and that she profited by his instruction in all kinds of ordinary learning.

It must be added, that while her teacher was so gentle with her as to gain her respect and child-like affection, the young lady experienced much unkindness and severity from her parents, who were, to say the least of it, very exacting, and harsh, and tyrannical, as all their conduct afterwards proved. The following is an interesting account given by Roger Ascham of a visit he paid to his former young friend and pupil, and to her parents:

Before I went to Germany," he wrote, "I came to Broadgate, in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble lady, Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much

beholden. Her parents, the duke and the duchess,1 with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I found her in her apartment, reading Plato, in Greek; and that with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale.

"After salutation and respects paid, with some other talk, I asked her why she would lose such pastime in the park? Smiling, she answered me, 'I wis all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! they never felt what true plea

sure meant.'

"And how came you, madam,' quoth I, 'to this deep knowledge of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing that not many women, and but very few men, have attained thereunto?'

"I will tell you,' quoth she; 'and tell you a truth which perchance you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me is, that he sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence, either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, or number, even so perfectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which I will not name, for the honour I bear them), so without measure misordered, that I think myself in torment till time come that I must go to

The parents of Lady Jane Grey had recently been raised in rank and dignity, and were now the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk.

Master Aylmer, who teaches me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing, while I am with him. And, when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatever I do else but learning is full of grief,

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trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that, in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deed, be but trifles and troubles unto me.""

This is the first scene, and it shows that the young lady had not a very happy home. To be sure, those were times in which severity and harshness towards

children were considered to be the duty of parents, and when a great show of parental affectionate tenderness would have been looked upon as absurd.

THE

CHAPTER II.

SCENE THE SECOND.

HERE was a large new mansion in the Strand, near the city of London, called Durham House, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland. It was a fine morning in May, 1553, and the whole of the mansion was full of activity and bustle. Scores of servants, in grand liveries, were passing to and fro, engaged in their various duties. In the great kitchen were enormous fires lighted for the preparation of a grand dinner which, later in the day, was to be spread in the magnificent dining-hall. Cooks and their assistants, in snow-white jackets and caps, were making ready the food that was to be eaten. The housesteward, and butler, and controller, and master-cook, and treasurer, and all the high and important servants. of the household, had their heads busily employed that morning in directing what was to be done, and what left undone, and were probably wishing already that the business of this grand day were well over.

The principal apartments of the mansion were crowded with guests, and profusely decorated as for some extraordinary event. Everywhere were fine. ladies and gentlemen in silks, velvets, and satins, of

rich, not to say gaudy, colours, and blazing with gold and jewels. Diamond rings, ruby ear-pendants, pearl necklaces, brooches, bracelets, clasps of every curious device and pattern, studded with precious stones. All this finery glittered in the sunshine of that May morning as the wearers moved from place to place, and intermingled with each other, exchanging greetings and congratulations until summoned to form the bridal procession down the grand stair-case to the private chapel of Durham House.

The bridal procession. There were three brides and three bridegrooms, with their accompanying escorts; and some little time elapsed before all could be settled in their several places in the chapel. But presently the service began, and, one after another, each happy pair was solemnly united, and had pledged to one another, “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish," till death did them part. Then the benediction was pronounced on all present by the officiating clergyman; and then, when all other legal forms were complied with, the bridegrooms and brides, now husbands and wives, returned with their trains to the grand apartments which they had so short a time before left as young men and maidens.

Who were these happy young husbands, and whom did they marry?

First, was the Lord Hastings, eldest son of the Earl of Huntingdon, whose privilege it was to have for his wife the Lady Catherine Dudley, daughter of the host, the proud Duke of Northumberland.

N

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