The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-22 00:00:00

NOVEL. new work of the author of Windsor Castle is
named

The Constable of the Tower. By W. Harrison
Ainsworth. illustrated by John Gilbert. Now
publishing in Bentley'.; Atiscellany,
As the advertisements have now for some time
past been notifying to the public, would be the
case.'very temptingly, the New Year's number of
Bentley's Miscellany opens with the initial
chapters of another grand historical romance
from that master - hand to which the
lovers of romance are already indebted for
"Rookwood"—for " Old St. Paul's"-for "Windsor
Castle"—for " St. James's"—for "The Tower of
London"—for " The Miser's Daughter"—and for so
many other brilliant, popular, and far-famed works
of imagination.
Thrice welcome to gifted tale-teller, upon whose
words of witchery our breathless curiosity has so
often hung suspended—hung, as it were upon the
suspension of a hair, meaning, of course, upon the de-
licately attenuated and intricately winding thread of
his narrative ! It is not now the romance writer
pur et simple, it is not now the "Anther of Book-
wood' who takes pen in han3, thereby, with that
magic pen of his, to—
" 'Witch the world with noble horsemanship I"
It is Harrison Ainsworth in his later and more
ambitious character and capacity as a historical
romance writer, it is the " Author 'of Windsor
Castle and of the Tower of London," who opens
another illuminated scroll before his readers, the
scroll of another story in which the great person-
ages of our English History, live and move, love
and hate, intrigue and die in the midst of the clus-
tering throng of the creatures born of novelist's
own abounding imagination.
There is a scarcely resistible attraction in the
mere title of this the latebt, and what evidently
aspires to be—and what if only it be continued and
completed as it has been commenced gives already
fair promise of being—the greatest of these his •
torical romances of Harrison Ainsworth—" TIDE
CONSTABLE OF THE TOWER." Stalwart old Sir
John Gage—appointed Constable of the Tower of
London during the reign of King Henry VIII
being in truth the dignitary so designated.
The January number of. Bentley's Miscellany
leads off the new story with its Prologue. This Pro-
logue, entitlcel "The Will of Henry the Eighth,"
consisting of half-a-dozen chapters. The period
chosen for the opening of the romance, it will be
at once by consequence inferred, is immediately prior
to the termination of the terrible reign of our Eng-
lish Bluebeard. As evidence of the daring character
of Mr. Ainsworth's advebture in this narrative, as
a historical romancist—let us now mention the
. somewhat extraordinary fact that already through
the loophole of this one division of his story he
has allowed his readers to see passing before them,
as it were, in gorgeous procession the following
far-famed historic personages :
King Henry VIII., at the close of his thirty-five
years' reign, sinking into the grave, already, while
yet alive, a bloated mass of corruption.
Queen Catherine Parr, his sixth wife, and of
them all (though so many of them were divorced) the
sole survivor.
Edward VI., when Prince of Wales, and scarcely
yet entered on his teens.
Mary, his elder sister, the Future Queen at
thirty-two years of age, when Princess Royal of
England.
1/4 Elizabeth, the Great Queen of the Hereafter—
here, however, but a blooming Princess of thirteen.
Archbishop Crannzer, the Primate—robed in fall
canonicals.
Sir Thomas Seymour, later on the wily Pro-
tector of the pious stripling Sovereign.
The Earl of Hertford, brother of the destined
Protector, aspiring himself to that perilous and
responsible dignity.
The Earl of Surrey—heroic knight, exquisite
poet, celebrant of the Lady Geraldine.
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.
Wriothesely, the Lord High Chancellor.
Dudley, Viscount Leslie, High Admiral of Eng-
land. _ _

These and a crowd of other noble and notable
personages have already thronged upon the scene
at the very threshold'of this elaborate structure
of Mr. Ainsworth's new historical romance.
—conspicuous among them, towering loftily even
beside the once magnificent presence of King
Henry the Eighth, the noble form of Sir John
Gage, the Constable of the Tower.
Nothing could well be finer than the opening
chapter of the Prologue, descriptive of " How the
Right High and renowned King Henry the Eighth
waxed grievously sick and was like to die." It is a
most eloquent and strikin g epitome of a terrible, reign
at the moment of its drawing towards its, conclu-
sion. Referring to its ruthlessness, Mr. Ainsworth

writes:—
" The wisest, the noblest, the bravest, the best of Henry's
subjects were sacrificed to his resentment and caprice.
Uprightness could not save More and Fisher, nor long
services and blind obedience Wolsey and Cromwell. Age
offered no protection to the octogenarian Lord . Darcy, and
piety failed to preserve the abbots of Fountains, Riven',
and Gervaux.
" Bat not alone did men perish by the stern behests of
this ruthless tyrant, this worse than Oriental despot, but
women I—women of incomparable beauty, who bad shared
his couch, and had every claim upon bis tenderness and
compassion. But pity was not in his nature. When love
was gone, 'dislike and hate succeeded. Startling and
almost incredible is the history of his six marriages.
The following is our Romancist's startling record
in a very few words of the fearful sequence of those
Six Marriages :
" Katherine of Aragon, faultless and loving, was divorced
to make way for,the lovely Anne Boleyn, who, in her turn,
was decapitated to give place to the resistless Jane Sey-
mour. The latter lived not long enough to weary her
capricious consort, but was succeeded by Catherine of
Cleves, whose want of personal attraction caused the an-
nulment of her marriage and Cromwell's destruction.
Next came the bewitching Catherine Howard, who was
butchered like Anne Boleyn ; and lastly, Catherine Parr,
saved only from the block by her own spirit and prudence,
as will be presently related. Twice was the nupsial knot
forcibly untied—twice was it sundered by the axe."
We must present to our readers, however, now
in rapid succession a few of the Historical Portraits
sketched in, upon his ample canvass, by Harrison
Ainsworth's master hand—portraits it will be seen
(even through these fragmentary excerpts)—
mingling vividly and of resplendent colouring.
Foremost among these in merit and importance is
the one here immediately subjoined :
HENRY VIII.
"Accounted, when young, one of the handsomest princes
in Europe, possessing at that time a magnificent person,
a proud and majestic bearing, and all that could become a
sovereign, he was nowan unwieldy, unshapely, and bloated
mass. The extraordinary vigour of his early days gave
promise of long life, but the premise was fallacious. For.
merly he had been accustomed to take prodigious exercise,
and to engage in all manly sports ; but of late, owing to
increasing obesity, these wholesome habits were neglected,
and could never be resumed, his infirmities offering an
effectual bar to their continuance. Though not positively
intemperate, Henry placed little restraint upon himself in
regard to wine, and none whatever as to food. He ate
prodigiously. Nor when his life depended upon the ob-
servance of some rules of diet would he refrain.
"Engendered in his frame by want of exercise, and
nourishedby gross self-indulgence, disease made rapid and
fearful progress. Ere long he had become so corpulent,
and his limbs were so much swollen, that he was almost
incapable of movement. Such was his weight, that ma-
chinery
had to be employed to raise him or place him in a
chair. Doors were widened to allow him passage. He
could not repose in a couch from fear of suffocation; and
unceasing anguish was occasioned by a deep and incurable
ulcer in the leg. Terrible was he to behold at this period.
Terrible to hear were his cries of rage and pain, which
resembled the roaring of a wild beast. His attendants
came nigh him with reluctance and affright, for the slightest
inadvertence drew down dreadful imprecations and menaces
on their heads.
" . . Henry was seated in his cumbrous chair. Ever
fond of rich habiliments, even when labouring under mortal
disease, his predilections did not desert him. A gown of
purple calla damask, furred with sables, and having a
border embroidered and fringed with Venice gold, was
thrown over his shoulders. His overgrown trunk was en-
veloped in a doublet of purple satin, embroidered all over
with pearls, and his lower limbs were wrapped in a mantle
of black cloth of gold upon bawdkin. On his head he wore
a velvet skull-cap, richly set with pearls and other precious
stones. But these trappings and ensigns of royalty only
served to make the sickmonarch's appearance more hideous.
It was dreadful to look upon him as he sat there, with his
features so bloated as scarcely to retain a vestige of humisd-
nity, and his enormously bulky person. No one wo
have recognised in this appalling object the once handsome
-
and majestic Henry the Eighth. The only
changed in the king was the eye.eaow deep
Though
sunken in their orbits, his eyes were keen and
n
terrible as
ever, proving that his faculties had lost none of their
force."
Here follows, not inappropriately., the delicately__
pencilled limning Mr. Ainsworth gives us of
HENRY VIM'S SIXTH WIFX.
"Catherine Parr's charms were of a kind which is more
fully developed in the summer of life than
in the spring.
At 35 she was far handsomer than when.teshelwas
eyes were
younger. Her complexion washr foafceexqwuarasiovacleianrnfoerrass,
her ialemo as satin; e
eyelids
princip feature beiug
.slightly aquiline ; her
large, dark, and languid in expression, with heavy
over-arched by well-defined jetty brows. Her raven locks
were banded over her marble forehead, and partly con-
cealed by her rich head-dress. Her figure was tall and
perfectly proportioned, full, but not over much. Her de-
portment was majestic and queenly, her manner calm, col-
lected, almost cold ; but, notwithstanding her gravity of
aspect ane staidness of demeanour, there was something in
Catherine's looks that seemed to intimate that she could
smile, ay, and indulge in innocent tneniment, when alone
among her women, or unawed by her imperious spouse.
On the present occasion she was richly attired, as was her
wont. A circle of gold, ornamented with diamonds, rubie,
and small pearls, encompassed her brows. Attached to this
coronet was a coif of golden wire, while an embroidered
couvre-chief depending from it, completed her hes 6
Her gown was of gold damask, raised with
p mask silver, with a long close-fitting stomacher,
tight at the shoulder, but having loose hangirg ids of fur,
fled under
eaarrilds
beneath which could be discerned slashed and Pa sleeves
rota adorned
sleeves of crimson satin. A necklace of .isein
her throat, and her waist was surroun by
black. A
a girdle of
drecdelled
goldsmith's work, with friar's knots, he girdle, which
pomander box terminated the chain of
en the
reached almost to the feet."
Room now for Sir John GeV/ after whom the

THE CONSTABLE OF THE TOWER.

" Sir John Gage—for he was the stalwart personage
on the king's right—had a soldier-like air and deportment,
and that he had seen service was evident from the scars on
his cheek and brow. His features were handsome, but of
an iron cast, and singularly stern in expression. His beard
was coal-black, and cut like a spade. He was attired in a,
doublet of tawny-coloured satin, a furred velvet cassock of
the same hue, and orange-tawny hose. He was armed
with rapier and dagger, and below the left knee wore the
Garter. Appointed master of the wards and Constable of
the Tower in 1540, soon after the fall of Cromwell, Sir
John Gage was likewise made, at a later date, comptroller
of the household, and filled these important offices to the
king's entire satisfaction. His rough, blunt manner, and
fearlessness of speech, contrasting forcibly with the ser-
vility and obsequiousness of his other courtiers, pleased
Henry, who would brook some difference of opinion from
his own, provided he was firmly, convinced, as in this in-
stance, a the speaker's honesty, "
Enough, however, in the way of extracts, if to the
foregoing we now venture to add the portraitures
our gifted Rumaucist here introduced in the man-
ner following—.portraitures of. Henry VIII.'s three
Royal children, each in turn Ruler of this fair
realm of England.

QUEEN MART.
" Her stomacher was fastened by two brooches of agates
set with emeralds, from the lower of which a large orient
Pearl depended. Her slender waist was encircled by a
girdle of goldsmith's work, with roses of rubies, having
friars' knots, and hanging down in front. Her dress was
of gold bawdkin, and fitting tight to the body, betrayed her
extreme thinness, and gave her a very rigid look. Her
dark auburn locks (for we care not to call them red) were
gathered becomingly enough beneath her head-gear. Mary
had few charms of person. She was thin to meagreness,
and her features possessed little beauty ; but they were in-
telligent in expression."

_
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
"The younger princess, however, was a very well_gro
om
girl, quite as tall her sister, and infinitely more attractive
in personal appearance. Elizabeth's charms, indeed, ore
almost precocious. Few who beheld her would have deemed
her so young as she was in reality, but would have given
her a year or two in advance. She had a finely formed
figure, already well developed, a complexion of dazzling
whiteness, bright golden locks of great abundance, charm:
ing features, eyes blue and tender, and teeth like pearls.
Her hands were of remarkable beauty, with taper fingers and
rosy nails. Her profuse locks were confined by a band of
gold and a net of gold wire, scarcely distinguishable from,
the bright tresses it restrained ; a long white satin couvre-
chief fell behind her neck, and a dress of black taffetta dis-
played her figure to advantage, and at the same time set
off the lovely whiteness of her skin."