A Queen of Nine Days

by Unknown

I could not help thinking that Northumberland's ambition was in reality his religion, but could not say so after those words of Lady Jane's.

'He was beheaded on Tower Hill,' she continued, 'and oh! God grant that the same fate may not befall my dear lord!'

The days passed slowly and quietly for me and my dear lady in her prison in the Tower. Queen Mary did not send for me to come and sing to her any more. She went to stay for a while at Richmond Palace, and, then again, we heard that she was at Whitehall, and sometimes she was in her palace in the Tower, but that made no difference to us. Certain privileges were accorded by her to Lady Jane, and of course I shared them. For instance, we were allowed to walk across the green to St. Peter's Church occasionally, where Lady Jane much enjoyed the fine music, and liked to join in the services. On these occasions she would look up at the Beauchamp Tower, as we passed it, wondering how her husband was and what he was doing. My heart ached for her many a time, when I saw her wistful face upturned to the windows of the Tower, as she vainly tried to see the face she loved. At least Mary might have permitted them to meet occasionally, if she could not permit them to enjoy each other's constant society. But a day was coming, though I knew it not then, when they would be allowed to be together, at least for a short time. Lady Jane was also permitted to walk in the queen's garden—this was a pleasure to her, who so dearly loved fresh air and flowers. Sometimes she would talk about the gardens at Sion House, and the Thames flowing by them, and wonder if we should ever go there again. At other times she would tell me about Bradgate, where she had been brought up and where her tutor, Mr. Roger Ascham, used to marvel because she preferred to sit reading Plato to joining her young companions in the sport of hunting. It was well that she preferred books, as they were now her solace when it would not have been possible for her to have had the other pastime.

In the beginning of October Lady Jane was allowed to meet her husband once more, but the occasion was most melancholy, for they were both being conducted to the Guildhall, together with Archbishop Cranmer and Lord Ambrose Dudley, Lord Guildford Dudley's brother, to be tried on the charge of high treason. Lady Jane pleaded guilty, and they were all convicted of high treason and condemned to death as traitors. Lady Jane's sentence was that she was to be beheaded or burnt to death, at the queen's pleasure, and Judge Morgan, who pronounced it, was afterwards so deeply afflicted in his mind at the remembrance that he died, raving.

Many people were exceedingly grieved for the poor young creature, who had been made a tool of by her ambitious relatives, sorely against her will, and the touching grace and meekness of her demeanour, as well as her misfortunes, caused them to follow her weeping and lamenting her hard fate, as she was being reconducted to the Tower.

The queen, however, appears to have had no intention at that time of carrying out Lady Jane's sentence, nor indeed that of the others who were condemned with her, but thought it better to please her partisans by keeping them in prison under sentence of death. To Lady Jane, indeed, Mary granted more indulgences, such as permitting her to walk on Tower Hill, where I always accompanied her.

The autumn passed slowly into winter. I often thought of my beloved, wondering what he was doing and dreading inexpressibly to hear of his one day being brought into the Tower, through the Traitors' Gate. I wrote to him two or three letters, sending them off as I found opportunity, in which I told him guardedly, lest they should fall into the wrong hands, that Lady Jane, above all things, desired that no effort should be made to replace her in what she felt had been a false position. But I received no sign that my dear knight ever got my poor little epistles, and indeed it would not have been strange if they had never reached his hands.

At length, however, I heard of him. One day there was a great commotion in the Tower, armed men springing up everywhere, guns bristling on all sides, the defences of the whole fortress being looked to, and military commands being called out in all directions.

'What is it, warder? What is happening?' Lady Jane inquired, in her gentle way.

Then the warder informed us that they were expecting that the Tower would be assailed by a large force, which was coming to attack it, under a leader who had begun to carry all before him.