to inform them that the Pope proposed to summon a general council, and to inform the King of England also of this. He was then to fix his residence in Flanders, to have quick communication with England, unless the way appeared to open for proceeding thither. No sooner did the cardinal enter France, than the English ambassador there, by virtue of a clause in the treaty betwixt the two crowns, demanded that he should be delivered up to him, and sent prisoner to England. Francis rejected the proposition with scorn; but he felt compelled to intimate to the cardinal that he had better pursue his journey to the Netherlands without visiting the French Court. Pole, therefore, went on and reached Cambray, where he found an order from the Court at Brussels, prohibiting his crossing the frontiers, that no offence might be given to England. Pole, thus chased, as it were, from place to place by the ire of the British monarch, went under escort to Liege in June, and solicited his recall to Rome, which was granted him; and in August he retraced his stops, pursued by the wrath of Henry, who proclaimed him a traitor, fixed a price of 50,000 crowns on his head, and offered the emperor an auxiliary force, for his campaign against France, of 4,000 men, for the delivery of his person. The cardinal had been most successfully driven from his mission by Henry and his minister Cromwell, and that was no trivial achievement: for Pole's business was to keep near England, and especially the northern counties, where he might encourage the ancient faith, and furnish its advocates with money, as well as to procure them, as much as possible, the countenance of the neighbouring continental princes. Henry could never forget either the lacerating writings of the English cardinal, nor his attempt to foment insurrection in his kingdom, and he would have made short work with him, had he fallen into his hands. We shall soon see that he did not over-look his relations who were within his power.
On the 12th of October, 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to the long desired prince, so well known afterwards as King Edward VI. This great event took place at the palace of Hampton Court, and the infant was immediately proclaimed Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester. The joy on so greatly desired an occurrence may be imagined, though it was somewhat dashed by the death of the queen, which took place only twelve days afterwards. During the accouchement there was some question whether the life of the mother or the child should be sacrificed, and on the question being put to the king, which should be spared, he replied, most characteristically, "The child by all means, for other wives can be easily found." The queen's death, however, was occasioned by the absurd exposure which the pompous christening necessitated. Henry appeared to be grieved when her death really took place, and put on mourning, which he had never done for his wives before, and never did again. He wore it three months.
Queen Jane was laid in the Royal vault, in the midst of the choir, in St. George's Chapel, where her coffin was observed in 1813, close beside the gigantic skeleton of Henry VIII. which by some accident was exposed to view. Her reign, purchased by the destruction of her mistress, Queen Anne, had extended to less than fifteen months. Little, therefore, is recorded of her character or acts, except that she seemed to have the fear of the executioner—by whoso skill she had made her way to the throne—before her eyes, and was most submissive to her awful husband. Lord Herbert declared that "Jane Seymour was the fairest, the discreetest, and the most meritorious of all Henry VIII.'s wives." But Miss Strickland, the historian of our queens, with a woman's true feeling, has boldly called in question this verdict, which had been echoed mechanically by all subsequent historians. "Customs," she says truly, "may vary at various eras, but the laws of moral justice are unalterable: difficult would it be to reconcile them with the first actions known of this discreet lady. It has been shown in the preceding biography, that Jane Seymour's shameless conduct, in receiving the courtship of Henry VIII., was the commencement of the severe calamities that befell her mistress, Anne Boleyn. Scripture points out as an especial odium, the circumstance of a handmaid taking the place of her mistress. Odious enough was the case when Anne Boleyn supplanted the right royal Catherine of Arragon; but a sickening sensation of horror must pervade every right-feeling mind when the proceedings of the discreet Jane Seymour are considered. She received the addresses of her mistress's husband, knowing him to be such; she passively beheld the mental anguish of Anne Boleyn, when that unhappy queen was in a state which peculiarly demanded feminine sympathy; she knew the discovery of Henry's inconstancy had nearly destroyed her, whilst the shock actually destroyed her infant. She saw a series of murderous accusations got up against the queen, which finally brought her to the scaffold; yet she gave her hand to the regal rullian before his wife's corpse was cold. Yes, four-and-twenty hours had not elapsed since the sword was reddened with the blood of her mistress, when Jane Seymour became the wife of Henry VIII. And let it be remembered that a Royal marriage could not have been celebrated without previous preparation, which must have proceeded simultaneously with the heart-rending events of Anne Boleyn's last agonised hours. The wedding cakes must have been baking, the wedding dinner providing, the wedding clothes preparing, while the life-blood was yet running warm in the veins of the victim, whose place was to be rendered vacant by a violent death. The picture is repulsive enough, but it becomes tenfold more abhorrent when the woman who caused the whole tragedy is loaded with panegyric."
Miss Strickland also points out the fact that the dispensation which Cranmer gave for this foul wedding was dated on the very day of Anne Boleyn's death, and observes that "the abhorrent conduct of Henry, in wedding Jane so soon after the sacrifice of her hapless predecessor, has left its foul traces on a page where truly Christian reformers must have viewed it with grief and disgust;" that is, in the dedication of Coverdale's Bible, which, being printed, but not published, before Anne died, had the letter "J." for Jane, printed over the letters which composed the name of the unfortunate Anne.
By the accession of Queen Jane a new family, greedy and insatiable of advancement, was brought forward, whom we shall soon find figuring on the scene. The queen's brothers, sisters, uncles, and cousins presently filled every great and lucrative office at Court; closely
