Finding London Bridge an obstacle not | roadway of the Strand in hot pursuit. to be surmounted, Wyatt marched his man What course was he to adopt? He re up Kent Street, and so by St. George's solved upon beating a retreat and cutting Church, entered Southwark without en- his way through the calvary of Pembroke, countering any resistance. Here he was in the hope that he might reach the open joined by several of the volunteers of fields at Knightsbridge. It was a terrible Lord William Howard, who deserting the alternative, and before his men had fought royal cause went over to the side of the their way back to Temple Bar he saw that Kentish men. After three days spent in escape was useless. He was surrounded considering how to effect his entrance by cavalry, and behind the troopers were into London, Wyatt resolved to march the infantry that had marched up from towards Kingston Bridge, there cross the Charing Cross. William Harvey, the river, then retrace his steps and make his herald at arms, came up to him and said: attack upon the capital. Before quitting "Master Wyatt, you were best by my Southwark he paid his soldiers their counsel to yield. You see this day has wages and issued a proclamation that if gone against you, and in resisting you can any of his men owed anything to any per- get no good, but be the death of all these son in the borough he would see that it your soldiers, to your great peril of soul. was paid. "But," we are told, "there Perchance you may find the queen merci. was none complained; the inhabitants ful, and the rather if you stint so great a Isaid that there was never men behaved bloodshed as is like here to be." "If I themselves so honestly as his company shall needs yield," cried Wyatt, almost did there for the time of their abode."* cowed by the situation in which he found himself - though his men were ready to fight to the death "I will yield me to a gentleman." But before the remark had well-nigh issued from his lips he was seized by Sir Maurice Berkeley and taken prisoner. The capture of their chief led to a brief resistance by the Kentish men, but the rebels were soon overpowered and their ringleaders fell an easy prey to the captains of the royal forces. "Thus," wrote Renard to his master, "the Lord gave the victory to her Majesty, with only the loss of two men and three wounded, which is evidently a miracle." On the side of the rebels some forty men were killed.

By nightfall Kingston Bridge was reached. The bridge had been broken by the queen's party, and the timbers were blocking up the river. Several soldiers plunged into the stream, and by the aid of the floating rafters swam to the opposite side, loosened the boats that were moored there, and before morning Wyatt and his troops had been safely rowed across. Lacking victuals the rebel leader | pressed forward the same day and reached Knightsbridge, where he halted for the night. His arrival was anticipated and defensive measures had at once been adopt ed. The cavalry were drawn up at St. James's, the infantry were under arms at Charing Cross, at Westminster there was At five o'clock in the evening of the a strong guard, whilst St. Paul's Church-day which had been so fatal to his interyard was stored with armory ready to be despatched, if wanted, either to the Tower or Charing Cross. Upon the first onset success favored the arms of Wyatt. At Charing Cross the royal troops were forced to fall back before the vigor of his charge, and the rebels passed Temple Bar and Fleet Street without opposition, until they were checked by the barriers at Ludgate. Here for the first time matters looked serious. Lord William Howard refused the rebels admittance, the citizens, on whom the Kentish men had so fondly relied, showed no signs of rising, and Wyatt, mortified and disheartened, sat him down at the Belle Sauvage gate to consider his position. He could not advance, yet ih his rear were the royal troops now galloping along the narrow, uneven

• Ibid.

ests, Wyatt, with several of his companions, was brought by water to the Tower. As he passed under the frowning portals of Traitor's Gate he was greeted by Sir Philip Deny, who helped the prisoners to alight, with the words, "Go, traitor! there was never such a traitor in England! Wyatt fiercely turned upon his accuser. "I am no traitor," he said; "I would thou should well know thou art more traitor than I; and it is not the part of an honest man to call me so." Then he walked up the steps and was received by Sir John Bridges, the lieutenant of the Tower. His reception foreshadowed the treatment that was to follow. "Oh, thou villain and unhappy traitor!" cried Sir John, shaking his prisoner by the collar, and alluding to the fact that Wyatt had been implicated in the conspiracy to place Jane Grey on the throne but had been

pardoned, "how couldst thou find in thy heart to work such detestable. treason to the Queen's Majesty, who, being thy most gracious sovereign lady, gave thee thy life and living once already, although thou didst before this time bear arms in the field against her? And now to make such a great and most traitorous stir, giv-hanging men." Wyatt had his execution ing her battle to her marvellous trouble and fright. And if it was not that the law must justly pass upon thee, I would strike thee through with my dagger." To whom Wyatt, looking grimly upon the lieutenant, thus curtly made answer, "It is no mystery now.' He was then conducted to the dungeons below the Tower, and was confined, if report speaks correctly, in the cell called "Little Ease," there to await the masked executioner and the heading-block.

With the leading rebels safely imprisoned the dangers of the revolt were passed, and Mary was more firmly placed upon her throne than ever. She at once wrote to the father of her future husband, the emperor Charles, who had always taken a keen interest in her af fairs, regretting the hasty departure of those envoys who had come purposely to treat of her marriage.

Monseigneur [she wrote],* I am exceedingly displeased that the rebels of my kingdom should have caused the departure of your ambassadors accredited to my court in such haste, and fear that they can give you but little news of what has lately passed. But as it has pleased God that the rebels were compelled to discover their traitorous designs before being ripe, and that now most of them are in prison or have fled the kingdom, I hope my affairs will be placed on a firmer footing, and that the alliance entered into with his Highness the Prince, my cousin, may be concluded. The swift punishment which has attended upon this rebellion will purge the realm of all such foes, as your Majesty will hear from my loyal and well-loved Lord Fitzwater, the bearer of this letter, who will inform you of the victory God has granted me, and why, owing to the hasty departure of your ambassadors, no reply has been returned to the letters they delivered me. He is also instructed to inform your Majesty with what pleasure your correspondence is received by me, and how great is my gratitude for the service and friendship displayed to me by you. To your ambassador resident here I am under deep obligations; his presence and counsel have been a great consolation to me in my late troubles. Praying the Creator to grant your Majesty a long life and perfect health,

Your very humble daughter, sister, and cousin, MARY.

Transcripts. London. Feb. 11, 1554

And now, during the next few weeks, the axe of the headsman and the ropes of the gibbets were busy, launching all who were in any way connected with the late rebellion into eternity. "At every corner," said the French ambassador, "the eye meets nothing but the vile sight of deferred in the hope that certain precious State secrets might be drawn from his lips by the promise of pardon. Renard had throughout the rebellion been doing his utmost to poison the mind of Mary against her sister. He had assured the queen that, so long as the princess Elizabeth was at large, agitation and revolt would ever be making themselves felt. Certain suspicious circumstances had, too, supported his arguments. Elizabeth, during the recent rebellion, had been discovered to be in close communication with France

no friend to the cause of Mary. A letter written by Wyatt to her had also fallen into the hands of the Council; nay, more, the rebel leader himself, unmanned by the terrors of the scaffold, had sought to purchase dear life by implicating the princess in the late conspiracy. He had revealed nothing very definite, it is true, in his forced confessions, but still enough to induce a jealous sovereign to issue orders for the confinement of the suspected person. Elizabeth was then at Ashbridge, and Sir Henry Bedingfield was instructed to bring her to Whitehall. On her arrival at the palace Mary refused to see her, and the unhappy girl underwent a rigorous examination at the hands of the Council. She admitted having entered into a private correspondence with France, but expressed the utmost abhorrence of Wyatt's proceedings, and vowed she knew nothing of them. She was ordered to be committed to the Tower. The day before that dread sentence was to be carried out for a cell in the Tower was often the halfway house to that Tower Green upon which but three weeks since the lady Jane Grey had met her doom - Elizabeth lantly watched apartment, and wrote to sat down before her guards, in her vigiher obdurate sister. The letter lies before me, penned in a round, bold, boyish hand, every stroke firm and distinct-a letter written without hesitation or alteration. However humble and piteous are its contents, there is no sign of timidity in the drawing up of this pleading epistle.

|

another man's othe [oath] I most humbly be-
seche your Majestie to verefie it in me, and to
remember your last promis, and my last de-
maunde, that I be not condemned without
answer and due proof; wiche it semes that now
I am.
For that without cause provid, I am,
by your counsel, from you commanded to go
unto the Tower, a place more wonted for a
false traitor than a tru subject, wiche thogth
[though] I knowe I deserve it not, yet in the
face of al this realme aperes that it is provid;
wiche I pray God I may dy the shamefullist
dethe that ever any died, afore I may mene
[mean] any suche thinge. And to this present
hower I protest afor God (who shal juge my
trueth) whatsoever malice shal devis, that I
never practised, conciled [concealed] nor con-
sented to any thinge that migth [might] be
prejudicial to your parson [person] any way,
or daungerous to the State by any mene. And
therefor I humbly beseche your Majestie to let
me answer afore your selfe and not suffer me
to trust your counselors; yea, and that afore I
go to the Tower (if it be possible), if not, afor
I be further condemned. Howbeit I trust
assuredly your Highness wyl give me leve to
do it afore I go; for that thus shamfully I may
not be cried out on as now I shal be, yea, and
without cause. Let consciens move your High-
ness to take some bettar way with me than to
make me be condemned in all men's sigth
[sight] afor my desert knowen. Also I must
humbly beseche your Highness to pardon this
my boldnes wiche innocencey procures me to
do, together with hope of your natural kindnis,
wiche I trust wyl not se [see] me cast away
without desert, wiche, what it is, I wold desier
no more of God but that you truly knewe;
wiche thinge I thinke and beleve you shal never
by report knowe unles by yourself you hire
[hear]. I have harde [heard] in my time of
many cast away for want of comminge to the
presence of ther Prince; and in late days I
harde my lord of Somerset say that if his
brother had bin sufferd to speke with him he
had never sufferd; but the perswasions wer
made to him so gret [great] that he was brogth
[brought] in belefe that he coulde not live
safely if the Admiral lived, and that made him
give his consent to his dethe.* Thoght
[though] thes parsons ar not to be compared
to your Majestie yet I pray God as ivel [evil]
perswasions perswade not one sistar again the
other, and al for that she have harde false re-
port and not harkene [hearkened] to the trueth
knowen. Therefor ons [once] again kniling
[kneeling] with humblenes of my hart, bicause
I am not sufferd to bow the knees of my body,
I humbly crave to speke with your Highness,

[Indorsed by Lord Coke, "Queen Elizabeth, my dear
Sovereign's, letter to Queen Mary in vinculis." The
letter is written without any stops, but, to assist the
reader, I have punctuated it.

My lord of Somerset was protector and lord treasurer in the reign of Edward VI., to whom he was maternal uncle; the Admiral" was Lord Seymour of Sudleye, his younger brother, who was beheaded for aiming at the protectorate and for aspiring to the hand of Elizabeth.

wiche I wolde not be so bold to desier if I knewe not my selfe most clere as I knowe my selfe most tru. And as for the traitor Wiat, he migth [might] paraventur [peradventure] writ me a lettar, but on my faithe I never receved any from him; and as for the copie of my lettar sent to the Frenche kinge I pray God confound me eternally if ever I sent him word, message, token, or lettar by any menes, and to this my truith I wil stande in to my dethe.

I humbly crave but only one worde of answer from your selfe.

Your Highness most faithful subject that hath bine from the beginninge and wyl be to my end, ELIZABETH,

take my

To this letter no answer was vouchsafed. The next morning Elizabeth was lodged in the Tower. As the barge rested against the steps of Traitor's Gate for its unhappy passenger to alight, she cried to the soldiers who were on guard at the entrance of the Tower, "Good people, bear me witness! I come in as no traitor, but as true a woman to the queen's majesty as any is now living; and thereon will I death." Her imprisonment was but of a few weeks' duration. The evidence proffered by Wyatt against her had been withdrawn by the terrified rebel as soon as his manhood had been restored him, and he fully acquitted her of any participation in the late insurrection. It was in vain that Renard, who was ever assuring Mary that as long as the head of Elizabeth was spared, treason and heresy would be rife within the kingdom, himself visited the dungeons of the Tower and promised the rebel that if he confessed matters sufficiently compromising to the princess his life would be spared. Wyatt surlily replied that he had nothing to reveal, and that the lady Elizabeth was guiltless of all connection with his rising. His life had been spared by the Council so long as it had been hoped that damaging statements might be wrung from him; now that he had nothing to disclose, or was resolved upon disclosing nothing, there was no reason, ministers said, why the wretch should not be sent to share the same fate as his followers. The lieutenant of the Tower was ordered to have him carried to the Tower Hill, and there to see him beheaded on the ensuing Wednesday, April 11, 1554. Romance has asserted that Wyatt was put to the rack, and when in the Tower was confronted with Elizabeth, before whom, awed by her majestic air of indignation, he withdrew all his damaging charges. History possesses no evidence for either of these assertions.

Then, without more talk he turned him and put off his doublet and untrussed his points. Stripped to his shirt he knelt down on the straw, prayed silently for a brief space, then with his own hands doubled the handkerchief around his eyes and placed his head on the block. He gave the signal by lifting up his hands, and at one stroke his head was severed from his body. "Then," writes chronicler, "was he forthwith quartered upon the scaffold, and the next day his quarters set at divers places, and his head upon a stake upon the gallows beyond St. James's. Which his head, as is reported, remained not there ten days unstolen away."

our

At the appointed day Wyatt was led up like. And whereas it is said abroad that the steps of his dungeon and, for the first I should accuse my lady Elizabeth's time since his capture at Temple Bar, grace, it is not so. Good people, I assure breathed the fresh air of heaven. He you I have confessed before the queen's was dressed in the same clothes which he majesty's honorable Council all those that wore on his first passing under the spokes took part with me and were privy of the of Traitor's Gate 66 - a shirt with sleeves conspiracy; but as for my lady Elizavery fair, and thereon a velvet cassock beth, here I take it upon my death that and a yellow lace, with the windlass of she never knew of the conspiracy nor of his dag hanging thereon, and a pair of my first rising; and, as touching any fault boots on his legs: on his head he had a that is laid to her charge, I cannot accuse fair hat of velvet with broad lace about her. God I take in witness, and this is it." In his hands he held a book. At most true." the garden pale, hard by the lieutenant's lodgings, which separated Tower Green from the ominous hill, he took leave of the secretary, one Master Bourne. "I pray you, sir," said the condemned, "pray for me, and be a mean to the queen for my poor wife and children; and if it might have pleased her grace to have granted me my life, I would have trusted to have done her such good service as should have well recompensed mine of fence: but since not, I beseech God have mercy on me." To the which Bourne made no answer. Supported by two attendants, Wyatt then walked towards the hill, which, save the guarded place where stood the heading-block and the upright form of the masked executioner, was thronged with spectators. Not a cheer or a prayer, such is the fickleness of mob popularity, in his behalf rent the air; the only cry that arose was "Long live Queen Mary!" Six weeks ago it was "A Wy att! a Wyatt!" "Down with the bas tard!" "Away with the foreigner!" and the rest of it. But treason to be popular must at least be successful; at the first sign of failure, loyalty, or in other words self-interest, revives. On ascending the scaffold Wyatt faced the crowd and spoke as follows: "Good people, I am come presently here to die, being thereunto lawfully and worthily condemned, for I have sorely offended against God and the queen's majesty, and am sorry therefore. I trust God hath forgiven and taken his mercy upon me. I beseech the queen's majesty also of forgiveness." "She hath forgiven you already," said Weston, the priest appointed to attend upon the prisoner at his last hour. "Glad I am of it," said Wyatt. "And now," he continued, "let every man beware how he taketh anything in hand against the higher powers. Unless God be prosperable to his purpose it will never take good effect or success, and thereof ye may now learn of

me.

And I pray God I may be the last example in this place for that or any other

A few weeks after this execution Elizabeth was released from the Tower, and placed under the surveillance of Sir Henry Bedingfield at Woodstock.

A. C. Ewald.

From Temple Bar.

GENERAL CHANZY.

THE premature death of the one great soldier produced by France, in 1870-1, induces us briefly to review his exploits. From the moment when he attained command, intelligent observers of the fierce contest which was being waged in the region of the Loire, perceived that Chanzy was no ordinary man; and as the strife deepened, the magnificent stand he made against the huge German hosts, gained the respect, nay, the admiration of Europe. The knowledge acquired since the war ended has elevated him even more in opinion, and it is now acknowledged that this eminent man had many of the gifts of a great commander. It is not only, though that is much, that Chanzy thoroughly understood his profession, and comprehended in its various details the difficult practice of modern war; in these respects he was perhaps equalled by the

S

skilful Faidherbe, and the well-read Tro- | shall not affirm that his resistance would chu. Nor was it only that he possessed not have worn the invaders out and have at least gained better terms for France than those imposed on her by the Peace of Frankfort.