and a few other genial spirits, who both pitied and respected her. As to the King, he muttered against her such terrible threats, that his obsequious council secretly meditated bringing her to the block; and his treasurer, Fitz William, had the revolting boldness to openly declare, that if her obstinacy continued, he hoped to see her head struck from her shoulders, that he might kick it about as a foot-hall ; indeed, several historians assure us, that it was only the kindly intercession of Cranmer that saved her from so ignoble an end. As it was, her coffers were ransacked, her papers and writings seized and sent to Cromwell, and several of her friends examined and imprisoned, for communicating with her and calling her Princess, after she had been deprived of that title. The death of her mother in 1536, without her being permitted to bid an oral farewell to that best-beloved and tendcrest of parents, in itself an agonizing affliction, led to her being treated with such gross indignity, that the Emperor Charles the Fifth loudly complained to tho English court of the " mt'sentreaty of the Princess Mary ;" and all Europe feared for her safety. Edward Harwell, the English ambassador at Venice, in a letter adressed to Thomas Starkey, February, 1536, says: The news of the old Queen's death hath been here divulged more than ten days past, and taken sorrowfully, not without grievous lamentation, for she was increrlibly dear to all men for her good fame, which is in great glory amongst all exterior nations. Her deatli has occasioned great oblique, and all fear that the royal girl Mary will briefly follow her mother. I assure you men speaketh here tragic, of these matters, which are not to be touched by letter." Matters, however, remained in this state but for a brief period. Within four months after the death of Queen Katherine, Anne Boleyn was brought to the block, The last evening of lier existence the unfortunate Anne implored Lady Kingston to go in her name to the Princess Mary, and beg of her to forgive the many wrongs which she had done her. Lady Kingston complied with the Queen's dying request, and Mary, heartsick at the seclusion and degradation she had so long suffered, took advantage of her visit to write to Cromwell, imploring him to obtain for her the blessing and favour of her father the King's grace. In this letter, dated Hunsdon, May the twenty-sixth, she says : " I perceive that nobody durst speak for me as long as that woman [meaning Anne Boleyn] lived who is now gone ; whom I pray our Lord of His great mercy to forgive. Wherefore, now she is gone, I desire you, for the love of God, to be a suitor for me to the King's grace. Moreover, I desire you to accept mine evil writing, for I have not done so much this two year or more ; nor could have found the means to do it at this time, but by my Lady Kingston's being here." This letter—an evidence that Mary had for two years been deprived of writing materials, and precisely the instrument the scheming Cromwell desired at this time to receive from the degraded Princess ; his wish being to impress her with a belief that her ill-treatment was to be attributed solely to the ill offices of Anno Boleyn—was followed hy an intimation that she might write to her royal sire, provided she did so with becoming respect. She accordingly addressed to the King the following epistle, which, allowing for the slavish servility demanded by the Sovereign, so abounds with flattery and supplication, that M ury, to have penned it, must have resolved, now that her mother was dead, to, at almost any sacrifice, win back her father's lost affections. She thus pro ceeds :— " Most humbly prostrate before the feet of your most excellent Majesty, your most humble, faithful, and obedient subject, which hath so extremely offended your most Gracious Highness, that mine heavy and fearful heart dare not presume to call you father; nor your Majesty hath any cause by my deserts, saving the benignity of your most blessed nature doth surmount all evils, offences, and trespasses ; and is ever merciful and ready to accept the penitent calling for grace in any convenient time. Having received this Thursday, at night, certain