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CHAPTER XI.
TRIAL AND DEATH OF ANNE BOLEYN.[1]
THE first act of the great drama appeared to have closed. No further changes were for the present in contemplation. The Church was re-established under its altered constitution; and the Parliament had been dissolved under the impression that it would be unnecessary to summon another for an indefinite time.[2] Within four weeks of the dissolution, writs were issued for a fresh election, under the pressure of a misfortune which is alike calamitous, under whatever aspect we regard it; and which blotted the Reformation with a black and frightful stain. The guilt must rest where it is due; but under any hypothesis, guilt there was, dark, mysterious, and most miserable.
The fate of Queen Catherine had by this time completed itself. She had taken her leave of a world
- ↑ The letters of Eustace Chapuys which I have discovered at Vienna throw fresh light upon the story of Anne Boleyn's fall, and almost wholly clear up the mystery attaching to it. I leave the text of this chapter unaltered, but refer the reader to Chapuys's account, Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, cap. 21.
- ↑ Speech of the Lord Chancellor: Lords' Journals, p. 84.
