head, and whilst forcibly held there and butchered—for the executioner made several ineffectual blows at her before he effected his purpose—exclaimed aloud : " Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake !" The insurrection in the north induced Henry to make a progress thither, for the double purpose of restoring those parts to loyalty and order, and, if possible, cementing a close and indissoluble union with Scotland. A mistrust of tbe Catholics induced him to leave the administration of affairs in the hands of the reform party, with Cranmer and Lord Chancellor Audley at their head. Taking Katherine with him, he set out from Loudon about the middle of July, and every county and town in any way implicated in the late uprising, received him with unbounded demonstrations of loyalty, presented him with large sums of money, and with lowly reverence and humble submission returned him grateful thanks for his gracious mercy. The King and Queen reached York on the fourteenth of September; but as the King of Scots, upon after-consideration, declined to meet his uncle there, as he had agreed to, the royal pair quitted York on the twenty-sixth of September, slept at Holme the same night, arrived at Hull on the first of October, five days afterwards crossed the Ή umber, and proceeding southward through Lincolnshire, reached Windsor on the twentysixth of October, and Hampton Court on the thirtieth. Luring this progress the Queen's influence with the King so increased, that she appeared to be his greatest and almost his sole object of regard. But whilst the reformers were already busy plotting her fall, she, on the twentyseventh of August, when at Pontefract Castle, had the indiscretion to take Francis Derham into her service as her private secretary ; and a few days afterwards, she, at Lincoln, admitted her kinsman, Thomas Culpepper, to a secret conference with her in her privy chamber—no one being present but Lady Rochford. Culpepper was ushered into her presence at the suspicious hour of eleven at night, remained with her til] two the next morning, and, at departing, received from her a present of a superb cap and a gold chain. Afterwards, Culpepper was accused of having a criminal intimacy with the Queen at this meeting : but although he was condemned, the accusation could not be substantiated, and it is now generally believed that his real purpose was to warn her of the danger of retaining her seducer, Derham, and to urge her to instantly dismiss him from her service. Matters were in this state when John Lascellcs — at whose instigation, or through what motive, is unknown—disclosed, in confidence, to Cranmer the immoral doings of Katherine previous to her marriage with the King. " This charge," said Cranmer, "is a serious one," addressing Lascelles; "how obtained you the information r" " My sister Mary," replied Lascelles, " now married, and in Essex, but who had been one of Katherine's companions under the Duchess of Norfolk's roof, told it me, as her reason for not endeavouring to obtain a place in the Queen's household." Satisfied with this answer, Cranmer imparted the extraordinary tale to his friends, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Hertford; and after a consultation, they all three determined to secure the person of Lascelles, and keep the matter secret till the return of the royal party.