of the coronation of Anne Boleyn, Katharine's cousin, and the christening of the infant Princess Elizabeth, which took place A. D. 1533. There Katharine commenced another acquaintance equally derogatory to her high birth and dignity, with Francis Derham, a gentleman employed in the service of her uncle the Duke of Norfolk. Derham, being a favourite with the aged duchess, aspired to the hand of the lovely girl thus unhappily thrown in his way, and to whose society he found no difficulty in gaining access, surrounded, as she still was, by her grandmother's household.

He

The artful Derham contrived to insinuate himself so far into Katharine's regard as to obtain an exchange of love-tokens. effected this by aiding her in her necessity for money to purchase various articles of female finery, which, though coveted by the young and rising beauty, were beyond her reach. So grateful was Katharine for his attention, that she actually yielded her consent to become his affianced wife. Such an acknowledgment was then considered binding, and even now would in Scotland be esteemed a lawful marriage. Katharine consented that Derham should address her as his "wife," and agreed to give to him the name of "husband." After this Derham was privately admitted into the society of his betrothed; his presents to her continued to be received, and, on his departure on a distant expedition, all his money was entrusted to her care! Alas! how tangled a web was fast weaving round the footsteps of England's future queen!

When the aged grandmother of Katharine, who had blindly been the cause of all this injury to her young relative by her own utter neglect, was made at last acquainted with what had been going on under her roof, such was her indignation that she is said to have vented it in "blows" on Katharine, but Derham was beyond her power.

The matter was concealed from scrutiny for the sake of the illustrious house, on which a member had brought shame and sorrow. The wretches who had led their young charge into so perilous a path were discharged from the service of the old duchess, and Katharine herself was placed under a severe personal restraint. The salutary effect of this change of treatment soon became obvious by an alteration in her own conduct; for from that time, in her progress towards maturity, she improved in every feminine grace, accompanied by that modest reserve which should be woman's natural inheritance. When, therefore, Derham privately sought to renew his intercourse with her, he found that an insurmountable barrier existed in the altered feelings of the

young lady herself. Ireland.

For the present, therefore, he returned into

Henry the Eighth is supposed to have first met Katharine Howard at a banquet, soon after his union with Anne of Cleves. The contrast with the phlegmatic queen he had selected made the loveliness of the opening beauty yet more conspicuous, and the conquest was complete. Katharine was speedily appointed maid of honour to Queen Anne, and is said to have attracted notice for her propriety of conduct in this new office, in which capacity she certainly acted more conscientiously than either Anne Boleyn or Jane Seymour had done towards their royal mistress of that day. As a matter of course, the divorce of Henry followed this new attachment, and within a few days or hours after that event was publicly announced, the king was privately united to Katharine Howard, who in the following month was publicly introduced at Hampton Court as his queen. After this she accompanied her husband to Windsor, and was his companion in a royal progress through the country.

Nothing could exceed the fondness of Henry for his new consort, whom historians describe as beautiful in person and graceful in demeanour, while her exceedingly youthful and childish manners added fresh charms in the eyes of her royal spouse. She acquired the king's entire confidence, which was extended to her whole family; and, so desirous was Henry to exhibit his private happiness to the nation, that he gave orders that a solemn public thanksgiving should be offered up to Heaven, for the blessing bestowed on him in such a wife! The blissful dream of his love was not, however, destined to be of long endurance. The very day following that ceremony, Cranmer forwarded to him the particulars of Katharine's early life, which have already been disclosed to the reader. These had been communicated to the prelate during the late royal progress into the North, and had the effect of drawing tears from the eyes of the hitherto enraptured and happy Henry!

The dreadful discovery of Katharine's guilt was brought about by the persons who had early implicated her in crime. The women who had been her first associates, and were acquainted with every particular of her infancy, finding her elevated to the regal dignity, made use of this information to secure their own advancement. Thus Katharine, entirely at their mercy, was forced to receive their communications; and herself, ignorant of the art of writing, was compelled to admit Francis Derham into her household as her own private secretary,

to prevent exposure of the letters they addressed to her. Lady Rochford, the very person whose intrigues had been the ruin of her cousin, Queen Anne Boleyn, was moreover Katharine's principal lady in waiting through her intervention Katharine had a long interview with her relative Thomas Culpepper, whose object seems to have been to expostulate with her on her imprudence in admitting Derham again. into her confidence, but who from the lateness of the hour selected became involved in the suspicions attached to Katharine.

After the first burst of passion and indignation, Henry summoned his council, and caused the persons from whom the information which implicated Katharine had been received, to be strictly questioned. After this, the criminal parties were apprehended, when Derham confessed boldly "that a promise of marriage had been exchanged between himself and the queen, many years previous to her union with the king; that they had lived as man and wife while he was in the service of her grandmother, the Duchess of Norfolk; that they were regarded in that light among the servants in the family; that he was accustomed to call her wife, and that she had often called him husband, before witnesses; that they had exchanged gifts and love-tokens frequently, in those days; and that he had given her money whenever he had it." Since Katharine's marriage with the king, he solemnly denied that any familiarity had taken place. between them.

The king's feelings may be imagined, at finding that the idolised Katharine was so entirely unworthy of his affection. He would not encounter an interview with her, nor send any message; but the council in a body waited on her, to inform her of what had occurred. Katharine vehemently asserted her innocence; but, on being left to herself, fell into fits, which were so violent as to endanger her life. Afterwards, when she found the testimony of others had made it fruitless to deny her guilt, she signed a full confession, upon which she was attainted, together with Lady Rochford, of high treason, by an act of Parliament, which also declared most of her family guilty of misprision of treason. This act contained the extraordinary clause, that if in future the king, or any of his successors, should marry a lady in whose character any flaw existed, any person knowing such to be the case, should incur the same penalty; while the lady herself, for concealing her fault, would likewise be declared guilty of high treason. This law was, however, repealed in the following year.

The degraded queen had been removed from Hampton Court to

Sion House, and thence was afterwards conveyed to the Tower, where she passed one night, that which preceded her execution.

Derham, Manox, and Culpepper had been executed immediately after their confession, and their heads were placed over London Bridge. During the interval between the discovery of the queen's guilt and her punishment, the aged Duchess of Norfolk was committed to prison, where grief and terror caused her to be seized by a dangerous illness. She was, however, as well as the other members of her family, finally pardoned after the death of her grandchild. Katharine learnt in succession all these sad particulars, during the brief interval that preceded her own fate. The Duke of Norfolk, her uncle, was her only surviving friend who could have averted her doom by exertions in her behalf, but she had offended him, and he abandoned her in the hour of anguish, as he had done his other niece, Anne Boleyn, and various other of his relatives.

The royal assent to the attainder of Katharine Howard having been obtained, the queen was conducted to the scaffold on the 13th of February; that same scaffold on which Anne Boleyn, no less beautiful than herself, had recently suffered death. Lady Rochford was the companion of Katharine, and suffered with her; a just retribution for her conduct towards Anne. The queen received the fatal stroke with a composure which in the minds of some of the witnesses led to the belief of her innocence, and Lady Rochford imitated the demeanour of her mistress. As soon as the execution of the sentence was over, the mangled body of Katharine was removed without any funereal honours, and deposited near the remains of her equally unfortunate predecessor in the affections of Henry-Queen Anne Boleyn, within the walls of the Tower.

Thus died King Henry's fifth wife, who, notwithstanding her early failings, appears clearly to have been guiltless of any of the crimes against the king which were laid to her charge. She was put to death without trial, and in violation of all the constitutional safeguards of human life which had been raised by the laws of England against the evil passions of tyrants. But no such tyrant as Henry the Eighth ever polluted any throne. His character has been admirably drawn by Sir Walter Raleigh,-"If all the patterns of a merciless tyrant," he observes, "had been lost to the world, they might have been found in this prince."

KATHARINE PARR,

SIXTH QUEEN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

KATHARINE PARR, although not of a noble, was of a very ancient descent, connected by both her parents with some of the noblest families in England, and even with royalty itself. She inherited the blood of the Saxon kings, as well as that of the great houses of Neville, Earls of Westmoreland, the Marmions, Champions of England, and others of nearly equal dignity. Her relationship was, therefore, much clearer than that of Henry the Eighth with some of his former queens for whom he claimed the distinction, although in this instance he did not deem a dispensation from the pope necessary, on the ground of consanguinity. Katharine Parr, who is said to have been born in 1513, lost her father when not more than five years old; but this loss was little injurious to her future welfare, for her mother, a domestic and sensible woman, bestowed such pains on her education as to fully cultivate her abilities, which, even while yet in childhood, gave proof that they were of no ordinary stamp. It is pleasing to look back on the domestic picture of the fair and youthful widow Lady Parr, surrounded by her three children, two daughters and a son, to whom she devoted all her thoughts and time in the tranquil solitude of the country-seat bequeathed to her by her husband, while yet young enough—being only in her twenty-second year when her husband died-to entertain projects of forming another marriage.

Under the care of this excellent lady, and with the tuition of those capable of instructing her, Katharine Parr acquired a knowledge, not only of the usual rudiments of female education, but of ancient and modern languages. Far from considering her studies as a wearisome task, she applied to them with a diligence which proved her pleasure in them, and her maturity bore plentiful fruits of her industry and love of learning.