BOOK III — PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT
Of the Arrangement Made by the Admiral with the Master of the Mint at Bristol
Sudley Castle
How the Lord Admiral Became a Widower
How the Admiral Proposed a Secret Marriage to the Princess Elizabeth
How the Admiral Sought to Gain Possession of the Tower
In which Ugo Harrington Appears in his True Colors
How Sir William Sharington was Examined by the Council and Put to the Torture
The Counterplot
How the King was Taken to the Tower by the Admiral, and What Happened There
How the Admiral was Arrested
BOOK IV — THE BOWYER TOWER
How Sir William Sharington was Confronted with the Admiral
By whose Aid the Admiral Sent a Letter to the Princess Elizabeth
How the Princess Elizabeth Visited the Admiral in his Cell
How the Princess Elizabeth Interceded for the Admiral with the King; and How the Death-Warrant was Signed
The Night Before the Execution
Tower-Hill
List of Engravings
Henry VIII Blessing his Daughters
Edward VI
Elizabeth and Seymour Discovered by Catherine
Ugo Putting Poison in the Potion
Prologue
The Will of Henry VIII
Chapter I
HOW THE RIGHT HIGH AND RENOWNED KING HENRY THE EIGHTH WAXED GRIEVOUSLY SICK, AND WAS LIKE TO DIE
The terrible reign of Henry the Eighth drew to a close. The curtain was about to descend upon one of the most tremendous dramas ever enacted in real life—a drama which those who witnessed it beheld with wonder and awe. The sun of royalty, which had scorched all it fell upon by the fierceness of its mid-day beams, was fast sinking into seas lighted up by lurid fires, and deeply stained by blood.
For five-and-thirty years of Henry’s tyrant sway, no man in England, however high his rank, could count his life secure. Nay, rather, the higher the rank, the greater was the insecurity. Royal descent, wealth, power, popularity, could not save the Duke of Buckingham from Henry’s jealous. fears. Truly spake the dying Wolsey of his dread and inexorable master—”Rather than miss or want any part of his will or appetite, he will endanger the loss of half his realm. Therefore, be well advised what matter ye put in his head, for you shall never put it out again.” Henry was prone to suspicion, and to be suspected by him was to be doomed, for he was unforgiving as mistrustful. His favor was fatal; his promises a snare; his love destruction. Rapacious as cruel, and lavish as rapacious, his greediness was insatiable. He confiscated the possessions of the Church, and taxed the laity to the uttermost. The marvel is, that the iron yoke he placed upon his subjects was endured. But he had a firm hand, as well as a strong will. Crafty as well as resolute, he framed laws merely to deride them and break them. He threw off the Pope’s authority in order to make himself supreme head of the Church. Some were executed by him for maintaining the Papal supremacy, others put to death for denying certain Catholic tenets. To prove his even-handed justice, Romanists and Lutherans were linked together, and conducted in pairs to the stake. At one moment he upheld the new doctrines; on the next, he supported the old religion. Thus he used the contending parties for his own purposes, and made each contribute to his strength. The discord in the Church pleased him, though he feigned to reprove it. His counsellors trembled at his slightest frown, and dared not for their heads give him honest advice. His parliaments were basely subservient, and confirmed his lawless decrees without an effort at resistance. A merciless system of religious persecution was commenced and carried out according to his changeful opinions. ‘The fires at Smithfield were continually burning. The scaffold on Tower Hill reeked with the blood of the noble and the worthy. The state dungeons were crowded. Torture was applied. Secret examinations were allowed. Defence was denied the accused; and a bill of attainder smote the unfortunate person against whom it was procured as surely as the axe.
The wisest, the noblest, the bravest, the best of Henry’s subjects were sacrificed to his resentments 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, Rivaux, and Gervaux.
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