long since come to a decision on the great questions which divided Popery and the Reformation. Her confidence in the truth of the reformed principles, unshaken in the prospect of death, was the only foundation of her hope in looking to another world. She therefore wished now to be spared the intrusion of admonitions from which she expected neither security nor peace in death. De Courcelles addressed her in a different strain from that of the Popish prelate. He spoke to her of the Saviour, of the all-sufficiency of his divine righteousness, of the cordial welcome given to all to trust in this righteousness, of the exceeding great and precious promises by which God engages to be present with his people, to support and comfort them in the hour of death. On these and kindred topics he dwelt, and she listened to his words like one who felt that these were the truths which, apprehended by a living faith, dissipate all anxiety, and afford a well-grounded hope of eternal life. She died on the 9th of October, 1620, in the sixty-seventh year of her age.1 The body of the princess was embalmed and carried to the Hague, whence it was conducted to Delft, and interred on the 24th of May, the following year, in the magnificent tomb which had been erected in honour of the prince. This lady was not without enemies; but the candid of all parties, and especially such as best knew her, have united in paying a tribute of respect to her virtue and piety. The ambassador De Boissise speaks of her as "an incomparable princess, and one who very much loved both France and the United Provinces." Baudart, a strong Contra-Remonstrant, testifies "that her piety, good nature, and civility, together with her other virtues, were such that all who knew her were compelled to love and honour her." Philip Duplessis Mornay, in a letter which he wrote to the ambassador Buzenval, says "that he could never speak to her, nor concerning her, without being struck to the heart by the remembrance of her father and of her husband, to whom France, in his estimation, lay under the deepest debt of gratitude; but that he was yet more parti 1 Brandt, vol. iv., pp. 198, 199.-Le Clerc, tom. ii., pp. 68, 69. cularly affected with the observation of her own virtues, which were so great that that wretched age was unworthy of her. "This lady," says Maurier, “had very excellent virtues, without having the least mixture of any weakness incident to her sex, through the course of her whole life, though it was very long. . . . She gained every body's heart and affection by her way of conversation, which was easy, graceful; and had a universal respect, as well for her true sense as her extraordinary good nature. There never was one of a more noble soul, or a truer lover of justice than this princess."? In testimony of her zeal for the advancement of the cause of Christ in the world, she adopted for her motto, "Adveniat regnum tuum""Thy kingdom come;" a motto inscribed on some of her portraits. Louise de Colligny had no children by her first husband. By her second she had only one child, the illustrious Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. He was famous as a military leader, and was held in such high esteem by the army, that he was called "the father of the soldiers." By his wife, Amelia de Solmes, he had one son, William, born in 1626, and four daughters. His son William married the Princess Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., King of Great Britain, and by her he had Prince William Henry of Nassau, who, upon the expulsion of James II., ascended the British throne, under the title of William III. Thus Louise de Colligny was the great-grandmother of William, Prince of Orange, who delivered Britain and Ireland from tyranny and Popery at the memorable revolution.3 APPENDIX. No. I. (p. 111.) Anne Boleyn's Letter to Henry VIII., from the Tower. "SIR, -Your grace's displeasure and my imprisonment, are things so strange unto me, as what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send unto me (willing me to confess a truth, and so to obtain your favour) by such, and whom you know to be mine ancient professed enemy, I no sooner received this message by him than I rightly conceived your meaning and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall, with all willingness and duty, perform your command. But let not your grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought ever proceeded. And, to speak a truth, never a prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Anne Boleyn, with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your grace's pleasure had so been pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exaltation or received queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as now I find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your grace's fancy, the least alteration was fit and sufficient (I know) to draw that fancy to some other subject. You have chosen me from a low estate to be your queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire. If, then, you found me worthy of such honour, good your grace, let not any light fancy, or bad counsel of my enemies, withdraw your princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife, and the infant princess, your daughter. Try me, good king, but let me have a lawful trial, and let not my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and judges; yea, let me receive an open trial, for my truth shall fear no open shame. Then shall you see either mine innocency cleared, your suspicion and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared. So that whatsover God or you may determine of, your grace may be freed from an open censure; and mine Probably the Duke of Norfolk, or Sir William Fitzwilliam, treasurer of the household. offence being so lawfully proved, your grace is at liberty, both before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unfaithful wife, but to follow your affection, already settled on that party for whose sake I am now as I am, whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto, your grace not being ignorant of my suspicion therein. "But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander, must bring you the enjoying of your desired hap piness, then I desire of God that He will pardon your great sin herein, and likewise my enemies, the instruments thereof; and that He will not call you to a strait account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me, at His general judgment-seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear; and in whose just judgment, I doubt not, whatsoever the world may think of me, mine innocency shall be openly known, and sufficiently cleared. My last and only request shall be, that myself may only bear the burden of your grace's displeasure; and that it may not touch the innocent souls of these poor gentlemen, who, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If I have ever found favour in your sight-if ever the name of Anne Boleyn have been pleasing in your ears-then let me obtain this request; and so I will leave to trouble your grace any farther. With mine earnest prayer to the Trinity, to have your grace in His good keeping, and to direct you in all your actions, from my doleful prison in the Tower, the 6th of May. Your most loyal and ever faithful wife, "ANN BULEN." No. II.-(p. 134.) Popish Plots against Anne Boleyn. WYATT, in his Memoirs of Queen Anne Boleyn, not only ascribes her downfall to the plots of her Popish enemies in England, who inspired Henry's mind with jealousy by slanderous accusations against her, but he asserts that these Popish evil instruments were in league with Popish emissaries abroad, and even with the Pope himself. "She waxing great again," says he, "and not so fit for dalliance, the time was taken to steal the king's affections from her when most of all she was to have been cherished. Having thus so many, so great factions at home and abroad set loose by the distorned favour of the king, and so few to show themselves for her, what could be the issue? What was otherlike but that all these gusts lighting on her at once should prevail to overthrow her, and with her those that stood under her fall? Her very accusations speak and even plead for her; all of them, so far as I can find, carrying in themselves open proof to all men's consciences of mere matter of quarrel, and indeed of a very preparation to some hoped alteration; the most and chief of them showing to have come from 1 The original of this beautiful letter is not now known to exist; but there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. "The copy of it," says Ellis, "preserved among Lord Cromwell's papers, is certainly in the handwriting of the time of Henry VIII."-Original Letters, first series, vol. ii., p. 53. Rome, that Popish forge of cunning and treachery, as Petrarch long since termed it: 'Nest of treasons, in which is hatch'd and bred That Anne was the object of the intensest hatred of the Pope, as she was of the whole Papal hierarchy, is undoubted. Her marriage with Henry having occasioned the separation of this kingdom from the Roman see; her support of the reformed party; her protection of the importers and circulators of the English Bible; her promotion of Shaxton and Latimer, two individuals particularly obnoxious to the Popish party, to bishoprics made vacant by the deprivation of two Italian cardinals; in short, all the steps taken in opposition to the Papacy in England, from the time of her union with Henry; these were the unpardonable sins which called forth against her Rome's deepest enmity. How far the Pope and the Papists abroad were concerned in the plot for her overthrow, it may be impossible now to ascertain, but that they were early in the secret is placed beyond all doubt, from manuscript documents of indisputable authority still in existence. In a despatch to Henry, dated Rome, 27th May, 1536, Sir Gregory Cassalis says, “Ten days have elapsed since I went to the Pope, and narrated to him the tidings that the queen had been thrown into prison, with her relations, for concurring in her adultery. He then said that he had been beseeching God to enlighten the mind of your majesty with his own light in this affair; that indeed he always had something of this sort in his eye, because he regarded your majesty as adorned with such virtues, and as having merited so well for your services towards Christendom, that God would not desert you, but would rather exalt your mind by the grace of his illumination, that in times when certainly it is especially necessary, your majesty, like as in other respects you have acted, may perform an excellent work for Christendom, being released from a marriage which was truly too unequal for you." From this report, given by Cassalis of his interview with the Pope, it is evident-1, That the Pope knew the conspiracy formed against Anne previously to his being told of her imprisonment by Cassalis; for, on hearing Cassalis's communication, he says that he had been beseeching God to enlighten Henry's mind on that matter. 2, That he had been long thinking of a similar plan for the destruction of Anne; and contemplating her destruction as an event very likely to be realized. And, 3, That he saw with undoubted certainty how her trial would terminate. He seems almost ambitious of claiming the merit of originating the plot. But whether it originated with him or no, it is certain that the evil instruments engaged in it put themselves at an early period in communication with him. The precise date of his becoming acquainted with it is uncertain. From a letter written by Cassalis to Henry, dated Rome, February 20, 1535–6, Anderson, in his Annals of the English Bible, concludes that the Pope and his agents at Rome were in the secret of the conspiracy at that period, when Anne had not yet recovered from a premature and dangerous childbirth. The letter, which is in the British Museum, is so mutilated by fire that it Cotton MS. Vitellius, B. xiv., folio, pp. 215-218, in British Museum.-Turner's Hist. of Henry VIII., p. 478. ? Vol. i., p. 480. 3 Cotton MS. Vitellius, B. xiv., folio, p. 162. |