Year: 1870

gentlemen and their condemnation on
the 18th, for it will be remembered, the
examination was unsatisfactory.


We have the verdict of twenty seven
peers of the realm, which certainly has
an imposing sound, and might be con-
elusive, if peers of the realm had never
been known to act from interested mo-
tives. But these gentlemen well under.
stood that to oppose Henry was to risk
their own lives. They had not forgot.
ten More and Fisher, and many others,
who had tried the dangerous experiment
to the cost, A story in point is else.
where told of the King. On an occa-
sion when there was some delay in pass
ing bill of his, he sent for one of the
most prominent members of the House of
Commons, who came into his presence
and knelt before him. "Ho. man I"
said King Henry, laying his hand on
the mans head, "and will they not suf-
fer my bill to pass? Get my bill passed
tomorrow, or else by tomorrow this head
of yours shall be off,"


The bill was passed accordingly.


That there may have been still other
motives for finding Anne guilty, we in
fer from the following. In 1854, per-
haps sooner, both she herself, he brother
and her relations had made themselves
odious by their insolence- her over
bearing manners had caused decline in
the Kings affection for her, and on one
side it was represented that he was likely
to return to Catherine, on the other that
he had transferred his affections to some
other lady, and that the court encourage
ed his Inconsistency, to separate him from
Anne's influence"


For fair and open trial, which the
meanest citizen of America claims as a
right, the Queen of England appealed
in vain.


In that pathetic letter, written from
her doleful prison in the Tower" she
says, "Try me, good King, but let me
have lawful trial and let not my
sworn enemies sit as my accusers andmy
judges: yea, let me receive an open trial
for my truth shall fear no open shame" ;"


That the Duke of Richmond was not
among the twenty-seven peers, was own
ing to the fact that he was under age
King Henry's natural son, to sit in judg-
ment on King Henry's wife Truly the
idea has something of the serio-comic
in it, and suggests the fable of the pot
and the kettle, if one may allude to such
vulgar utensils when speaking of majes-
ty. Besides the verdict, there is the con-
fession of Mark Smeton. The word of
court musician against that of the
Queen. Whatever her testimony may
have been worth, his was evidently
worth nothing, for at first he resolutely
denied the charge against him, and con-
tradicted his own statement when cross
examined.


And after all, guilty or not guilty,
the execution of Anne was a murder,
for the noble gentlemen of the jury"
anxious to make thorough work, declar-
ed her marriage with the King null
and void" before the execution took
place. If she was not King Henry's
wife, she could not be guilty Of unfaith-
fulness to him, and hence she was not
executed according to the Indictment
Who would have thought that twenty
seven peers of the realm" would fall in
to such a trap as that !


The ground on which the marriage
was declared null, was some previous en-
tanglement with the Earl of Northum-
berland. He denied on oath that any
such connection ever existed, but his
oath went for nothing. 1t is also brought
against Anne that her reputation had
long been unquestionable. If SO, no
one had better opportunity to become
aware of it than Henry, for besides be-
ing GATHERINGS maid of honor, she for
years occupied an anomalous position in
his household.


Anne's marriage having been pro-
nounced null, of course Elizabeth, her
daughter, was illegitimate, SO the ques-
tion of an heir to the throne was still un-
settled. The obliging parliament there
fore "cut the knot, by granting Henry
the power to bequeath the crown by will"


JANE SEYMOUR.


Immediately after Anne's execution,
Henry was married to Jane Seymour.


Says Mary of Hungary, referring to
it in letter, "I suppose, if one may
speak SO lightly of such things, that
when he is tired of his new wife, he will
find some occasion to quit himself of her
also" He was spared the necessity, for
on the 18th of October, 1887, she gave
birth to a son, Edward, Prince of Wales
and on the oath she died.


Rumors there were, even in this case,