position to the old faith, been driven from her house by her ruthless husband, one Kyme, of Lincolnshire, when she resumed her maiden name, and devoted herself with enthusiastic zeal to the promulgation of the new learning ; and such was her piety and earnestness of purpose, that she speedily won the patronage and friendship of Lady Herbert, Lady Jane Grey, the Duchess of Suffolk, and the Queen herself, who, in the presence of others, had received prohibited books from her; a fact which led Wriothesley and his friend to procure her imprisonment, in the hope of obtaining from her evidence, on which to found a charge of treason or heresy against the Queen ; but her firmness baffled their design : not even the tortures of the rack ; and, according to Fox, the inhuman monsters, Wriothesley and Rich, themselves worked the barbarous instrument, till they almost tore her joints asunder; but not then even would she violate her fidelity to her friends, or confess anything inimical to the Queen or the ladies at court. Foiled in their base purpose, the unworthy ministers of the tyrannical sovereign procured the condemnation of their already half deathracked victim. On the sixteenth of July, 1546, the heroic Anne Askew, and her fellow-sufferers, Adlam, a tailor, Ottcrden, a priest, and Lascelles, a gentleman at court, who were not party victims, but all three condemned as incorrigible heretics, were chained by her side to the stake, in Smithfteld ; faggots and tar-barrels were piled around them, when Wriothesley and Russel offered them the royal pardon if they would recant, but they preferred the crown of martyrdom; and the calm courage of Anne strengthened the resolution of the men, who all three perished with her in the consuming flames. This was a trying period for the Queen. Disease rendered the, at all times haughty, self-willed King, too petulant to be reasoned with, a circumstance which prevented her from endeavouring to avert the fate of Anne Askew and the other reformers ; and, what was more alarming, which embol dened the council to aim a home-thrust at her and her friends at court. The chancellor and his clique, however, overshot the mark in their first efforts. Sir George lilagge, a courtier, and Uvonrite of the King's, who facetiously called him his " pig," was one of the victims condemned with Anne Askew ; but when Henry heard of his imprisonment and conviction, he severely reprimanded Wriothesley, and asked him how he dared to come so near him without his permission, and ordered lilagge to be instantly set at liberty. When released, the royal favourite flew to thank the King, who, on seeing him, exclaimed, "Ah, my pig ! are you here safe again ?" " Yes, your Grace," he replied; "but, had your majesty been so merciless as your bishops, your pig would have been dead and roasted long ere this." This miscarriage did not shake the resolution of Wriothesley and Gardiner to compass the ruin of the Queen. They had long waited for an opportunity to attempt this daring project, and that opportunity was now at hand. The King and the Queen took delight in discussing together on theological subjects. Henry's illness at this period confining him to his chamber, these discussions were frequently protracted ; and Katherine having, for the most part, reason and common sense on her side, and withal, being witty, eloquent, fluent in speech, and more cool in temper than her husband, she frequently had the best of the argument ; and the King, being not many stages removed from the grave, she felt, there is no doubt, a willingness to incur a certain amount of royal displeasure, in order to open the eyes of her lord to the enormity of his unrepentant crimes, and prevail upon him to pass the last brief days of his existence in repentance and piety. These good intentions being viewed by the brutal King in a bad light, he evinced marked coolness towards her; and, one day, when she, in the presence of Gardiner, ventured, perhaps imprudently, to call his attention to the impropriety of the late proclamation, prohibiting, what had before been granted, tho use of the Bible in English ; he ο ο