woman, and was continually making indiscreet allusions to the past.
Within three weeks of her marriage with the king, reports were abroad to her discredit. A priest at Windsor, with some of his associates, was arrested for speaking scandalously of the queen. He was put into the custody of Wriothesley, the king's secretary, and his companions confined in the keep of Windsor Castle. Henry was contented—being then in the honeymoon of his fifth marriage—to menace the priest, and let him go; but such a clue could not have been put into the hands of the ruthless Wriothesley, who was attached to the Protestant party, without leaving serious results. From that moment, there is every reason to believe that that party worked unceasingly, till they had sufficient evidence to effect their purpose.
Accordingly, on the day following the king's remarkable public testimony of his joy in so good a wife, and before the form of public thanksgiving could be announced, Cranmer took the opportunity, whilst the king was at mass, and the queen was not present, of putting a paper into his hand, requesting him to peruse it when in entire privacy. This paper contained the story of Catherine's early failings by one John Lassells, the brother of the Mary Lassells already mentioned, from whom he had received it. At first Henry was inclined to believe it a calumny, got up for the ruin of the queen; but on Lassells and his sister being closely interrogated, and standing firm to their story, Henry appeared completely confounded, and burst into a passion of tears. He waited the result of the first examination, and then quitted Hampton Court, without taking any leave of Catherine, retiring to the neighbouring palace of Oatlands, whither the news of further proceedings could soon reach him. Derham, his friend Damport, and Thomas Culpepper, were forthwith arrested.
Derham confessed to the freedom of his intercourse with Catherine when they lived together in the house of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, and pleaded that they were engaged to be married, and were looked upon, and called each other husband and wife. He solemnly protested that no familiarity of any kind had ever passed between them since Catherine's marriage with the king. To this evidence he adhered, in spite of excruciating torture employed to wring more from him. But this was not enough for the king or his ministers; they were now resolved to convict the queen of adultery, so as to bring her to the block. Had she pleaded a pre-contract with Derham, it would suffice to annul the marriage, but Henry would never consent to let his late model of perfection off so lightly. Finding that they could not fix that crime upon her with Derham, they looked about for some other person to accuse; but so circumspect had the conduct of Catherine been, not only since her marriage, but for some years before, that they could only find one person, her cousin, Thomas Culpepper, to whom she had shown the smallest condescension.
To obtain evidence on this point, the queen's female attendants were strictly examined. There is strong suspicion that these women were also subjected to the torture to extract the requisite evidence, for Wriothesley and Rich were the chief agents in this examination, and they were notoriously men without feeling and without principle. We shall find them afterwards flinging off their coats and working the rack themselves, when they could not compel the beautiful and admirable martyr, Anne Askew, to criminate herself and friends. Catherine Tylney and Margaret Morton, attendants of the queen, were closely examined, but related only vague and gossiping facts, which proved nothing at all; though the brutal Wriothesley exults to Sadler on the prospect of "pyking out something that is likely to secure the purpose of our business"—that is, their business of condemning the queen, if possible. They talked of the queen having gone twice by night into Lady Rochford's chamber, and of her sending strange messages to Lady Rochford, and the like; but these were no crimes.
The old Dowager-Duchess of Norfolk was next brought into trouble. On hearing of the arrest of the queen, Derham, and Culpepper, the old lady taking alarm lost some boxes of Derham's, remaining in her house, should contain any papers which might implicate herself or the queen, instantly broke them open, and carried off and destroyed the contents. The Duke of Norfolk was dispatched by the king to the house of his step-mother, in Lambeth, to search for papers and effects belonging to Derham; and on arriving, and finding what the old duchess-dowager had done, he arrested her and all her servants, and brought them before the council. The evidence thus obtained amounted to this:—That the duchess had sent her confidential servant, Pewson, to Hampton Court, to learn what had taken place,—who returned, bringing word that the queen had played the king false with Derham, and that Catherine Tylney was privy to her guilt; that on hearing this the old lady said she could not believe it, but if it were true, they ought all to be hanged. She had also questioned Damport, the friend of Derham, expressing great alarm lest some mischief should befall the queen in consequence of evil reports, and gave him £10, as if to purchase his discretion.
The old lady confessed to having broken open the coffers, and taken away the papers in the presence of Ashby, her comptroller, and Dunn, the yeoman of her collar; and Ashby said that she had remarked, "That if there were no offence since the marriage, the queen ought not to die for what was done before;" and had asked whether the pardon—but what pardon is not explained—would not secure other persons who knew of her conduct before marriage.
On the 31st of November, Culpepper and Derham were arraigned for high treason in Guildhall, contrary to all previous form or usage of law. Probably the case was taken out of the boundaries of the court, and tried before the City magistrate, to give it an air of impartiality; but with the Lord Mayor sat, as judges, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Suffolk, the Lord Privy Seal, the Earls of Sussex and Hertford, and others of the council. Some of these great officers of state had already examined the prisoners by torture, and they now condemned them, as guilty of high treason, to die with all the cruelties attached to the punishment of that crime. Instead of immediately suffering, however, they were preserved for fresh examinations by torture, in order, if possible, to criminate the queen. But no tortures, however terrible, could draw from these men any confession criminating the queen since her marriage. Damport, the friend of
