ter to his care, and renewed her protestations of innocence and fidelity. She made the same declarations to the lieutenant of the Tower, and to every person who approached her while she continued to behave not only with serenity, but with her usual cheerfulness. "The executioner," said she to the lieutenant," is, I hear, very expert; and my neck (grasping it with her hand, and laughing beartily) is very slender."

When brought to the scaffold, she assumed a tone less high, recollecting probably the obstinacy of her predecessor, queen Catherine, and its effects upon Mary, her daughter maternal love triumphed at this solemn moment over the just indignation of the sufferer. She said she came to die, as she was sentenced by the lawsshe would accuse no one, nor advert to the ground upon which she was judged. She prayed fervently for the king, calling him a most merciful and gentle prince, acknowledging that he had been to her a good and gracious sovereign. She added that if any one should think proper to canvass her cause, she desired him to judge

the best.

She was beheaded by the executioner of Calais, who was brought over for the purpose, as being particularly expert in his horrible profession. Her body was thrown into a common elm chest, made to hold arrows, and was buried in the Tower.

The innocence of Anne Boleyn of the charges alleged against her, can scarcely be questioned. The tyrant himself knew not whom to accuse as her lover: no proof was brought against any of the persons named. Irregularities so atrocious as those implied by the accusations against her, could not have been concealed. But the king made for her an effectual apology, by marrying Jane Seymour the very day succeeding to that on which Anne had been immolated: in his impatience to gratify his new caprice, humanity, policy and decency, were violated without remorse. The terrible catastrophe of a woman whom he had once tenderly loved, was incapable of affecting his sensual and callous heart.

The servile parliament equally as complacent in deeds as in words, to the passions of a cruel despot, ratified his divorce from Anne Boleyn, who, with all her accomplices, were attainted: both the former marriages of the king were declared to be illegitimate; and it was made treason to assert their legality, or to throw slander on the present queen, on whose issue the crown settled.

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