When Edward expired, the Princess Mary was nearly thirty-eight years of age, and unmarried. At the early age of six years she had been betrothed, and at eight was cast off by her royal lover. Thus it will be seen that she scarcely entered upon life before she was doomed to mortification. By the injudicious treatment of her teachers, she was at eight led to love a man much her senior in years, so that his breach of engagement actually had a bad effect upon her health! Doomed next to be separated from her mother, and still later to be accused of illegitimacy, and forced-she, the proud daughter of a king-to acknowledge her shameful condition, and, through her whole life, to negotiations for marriage with an indefinite number of persons, all of which projects fell short of successis it any wonder that now we behold her a broken-hearted, crushed, almost ruined woman? The father of Lady Jane Grey had used his talents and influence to crush Katharine of Arragon, mother to the Princess Mary. He had favored the divorce, favored the degradation of that pious queen and her innocent daughter and Mary hated him, and hated his children. Northumberland, too, had taken every sure

method of rousing her vindictiveness, whenever she could exercise it with safety. He had arrested her chaplains, interfered in her style of worship, and in short rendered himself odious to her. Lady Jane Grey was his daughter-in-law -that alone were enough to decide her fate, in case she fell into Mary's power on a charge of treason, especially if on a charge of usurpation of the crown, which was a right now belonging to Mary.

It is impossible to excuse the conduct which characterized the whole of Queen Mary's reign, and the present chapter is not an apology for her blood-thirsty persecutions, but merely an attempt to show the reader how Mary had become hardened how she had lost that loveliness of character which was in reality hers when she was young. She was now, it cannot be denied, a cold-hearted, bigoted woman. Insulted, spurned, trodden under foot all her life, she felt willing to revenge herself upon the world for its cruel treatment of herself. That she was a pious woman we believe, but she was astonishingly bigoted and fanatical, and consequently a most dangerous person to sit upon the throne of England. More precocious in her passions than

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 ΤΟ 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