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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 406



est subject in the realm you would have justice." She made no reply, but burst into a fit of convulsive laughter, occasioned, probably, by the utter hopelessness of her causi. The poor Queen was in a sad condition, sometimes she smiled and said, " 1 am cruelly handled, but I think the King does it only to prove me at others she gave earnest attention to devotional exercises, and whilst drowned in tears, would suddenly burst into immoderatefits of laughter. The severity of her woe occasionally drove reason from its throne, when she gave utterance to wild fantasies, which were all registered against her. Tho day after her commitment, she requested to have the sacrament in an adjoining closet. To, if possible, ensnare her into owning her guilt, she was insulted by the presence of her bitter enemies—Lady Bolcyn and Mrs, Cosyns—who dined and slept in the same room with her, and continually annoyed her with artful and insolent questions, and to further her condemnation, reported her delirious ravings to the council, as the deliberate expression of a calm, collected mind. Mrs. Cosyns asked her why Norris had said to her almoner, on Saturday last, that he could swear for her that she was α good woman ? Anne replied : " Marry, I bad him do so ; for I asked him why he did not go through with his marriage, and he made answer that he would tarry a time. Then, said I, you look for dead men's shoes ; for if aught but good shall come to the King (Henry was afflicted with a dangerous ulcer in the thigh), you would look to have me. He denied it ; and I told him I could undo him if I would ; and thereupon I fell out with him." When told that Smeaton was in irons, she said : " That is becauso he is not a gentleman by birth ; and I assure you," she continued, " he has never been in my chamber but once, and that was to play on the virginals, when the King was last at Winchester. Since then, I have not spoken to him, except on the Saturday before May-day, when, seeing him at the window, I asked him why he appeared so sad ? He said, it was no matter. 'You must not,' said I, 'expect me to address you as if you were a nobleman, sinco you are an inferior person.' 'No, no, madam !' he replied ; ' a look from you sufficeth me,' " But she appeared most apprehensive of Weston, because he had told her that Norris frequented her chamber more for her sake than, as was pretended, to court Madge, one of her maids : and afterwards, when she reproached Weston with loving her kinswoman, Mrs. Skelton, better than his wife, he assured her that he loved her better than them both; upon which, said she, I defied him. At times, she was cheerful, laughed heartily, and ate her meals with a good appetite. She greatly complained of the insulting conduct of those who arrested her at Greenwich ; and bewailed that her treasurer (her father) was all the while in the forest of Windsor. " However, Mr. Kingston," she said, with an air of triumph, " if any man accuse me, I can but say ' Ν ay and they can bring no witnesses." At her second examination, before Norfolk, she received new indignities, of which she loudly complained, protesting that by Cromwell alone she had been treated with kindness. This kindness, however, was only affected. The ungrateful secretary was deeply interested in her fall : his eldest son was husband to Jane Seymour's sister, and, as such, he willingly abandoned Anne to the King's vengeance. Indeed, of tho many prelates and nobles whom she had obliged in the hour of her prosperity, not one had tbe will or the courage to interpose between her and the King's fury. Cranmer, who still retained his friendship for her, and from whom she expected so much, only addressed a feeble epistle to Henry in her favour, or rather in favour of the reformation and himself; for, when he penned it, he had reason to apprehend that he had incurred the royal displeasure. After many earnest protestations of loyalty, the cautious prelate thus proceeds : " And if it be true that is openly reported of the Queen's grace, if men had a right estimation of things they should not esteem any part of your Grace's ho.


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