cian had thus looked forward to an examination, and had he really entertained suspicions he would certainly have made an effort to attend. If he was prohibited, or if the operation had been hurried through without his knowledge, it is not conceivable that, after he had left England and returned to his own country, he would not have made known a charge so serious to the world. This he never did. It is equally remarkable that on removing from Kimbolton he was allowed to attend upon the Princess Mary—a thing impossible to understand if he had any mystery of the kind to communicate to her, or if the Government had any fear of what he might say. When the operation was over, however, one of the men went to the Father Ateca and told him in confession, as if in fear of his life, that the body and intestines were natural and healthy, but that the heart was black. They had washed it, he said; they had divided it, but it remained black and was black throughout. On this evidence the physician concluded that the Queen, beyond doubt, had died of poison.[1]
A reader who has not predetermined to believe the worst of Henry VIII. will probably conclude differently. The world did not believe Catherine to have been murdered, for among the many slanders which the embittered Catholics then and afterwards heaped upon Henry, they did not charge him with this. Chapuys, however, believed, or affected to believe, that by some one or other murdered she had been. It was a terrible business, he wrote. The Princess would die
- ↑ Chapuys to Charles V., Jan. and Jan. 21, 1536.—MS. Vienna; Spanish Calendar, vol. v. part 2, pp. 2–10.
avoit beu d'une cervise de Galles elle n'avoit fait bien; et qu'il failloit que ne fust poison terminé et artificeux, car il ne veoit les signes de simple et pur venin." Chapuys à l'Empereur, Jan. 9, 1536.—MS. Vienna; Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. x. p. 22.
