Lady Jane's friends and partisans mourned that she was a fallen queen, but we, she and I, knew that, far from falling, she had risen in all that went to make her life more truly happy, beneficent and noble.
CHAPTER XV
At Sion House Again
Lady Jane returned to Sion House the next day, and her manner of doing so was as humble and lowly as her leaving for the Tower had been grand and ostentatious. She who had been a queen nine days—which, by the way, is said to have given rise to the saying, 'A nine days' wonder'—laid down her royalty, as we have seen, without a sigh, and returned to Isleworth in a hired litter, attended only by myself and Mistress Ellen, and escorted by a few of the Duke of Suffolk's followers and Sir William Wood, whom nothing would hinder from paying his last token of respect and ready service to her vanished queendom. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk followed to Sheen House, Richmond, later on, the former well nigh distraught with grief and vexation, and the latter in a state of peevishness and anger, which boded ill for her daughter when once she was within reach of her tongue.
But Lady Jane and I rejoiced that, at length, the right was prevailing and the lawful queen was coming to her own, though I think if we had known of the misery and bloodshed which she would bring upon the Protestants in this country, our joy would have been turned into sorrow.
Isleworth, where Sion House is situated, is about twelve miles from London City, in a sweet country of green trees and verdant meadows. It is two miles from Richmond, where the magnificent palace—a favourite seat of royalty[[1]]—faces the river and imparts grandeur to the scene.
[[1]] This was in 1553. The palace has been pulled down now.—ED.
The country looked fresh and beautiful to us after the stone walls and roofs and chimneys of the city, and the air was sweet and pleasant after the closer atmosphere of the metropolis; though certainly in the Tower we got breezes from the river as well as the ill odours of the town. We thought that now we could return to the quiet, studious life we led before, and my lady spoke of teaching me Greek and Latin that I might share her studies—but, alas, such things were not to be.
Lord Guildford Dudley, though bitterly disappointed at the turn of events, and anxious for the safety of his father, of whom we had no certain tidings, became reconciled to Lady Jane, and they spent more time together than before, which necessarily deprived me of the society of my dear mistress and threw much idle time upon my hands.
After the stirring events through which we had been passing, and whilst they were still happening in the great city we had turned our backs upon, I could not settle down to sewing and embroidering, as Mistress Ellen would fain have made me, but took to wandering about the grounds of Sion House and especially down by the river, with vague yearnings which I scarcely put into clear thoughts; but seeing that they had their root in witnessing the happiness my mistress felt in being once more the cherished companion of her lord, and that my gaze was ever fixed upon the river up which Sir Hubert Blair once came to me in his boat, it was evident that he was the loved object of my every thought and wish. Where was he in the great and exciting events that were taking place? I had never seen him since the day of the preaching at St. Paul's Cross, when he rescued me from Sir Claudius Crossley's hands. It seemed strange to me afterwards that he had not joined his friend, Sir William Wood, in escorting Lady Jane back to Sion House, but I had not an opportunity of inquiring of Sir William about him. And now he stayed away. What did it mean? I spent hours in vague conjectures and in wondering what course he was pursuing in the present state of affairs. Of one thing I was certain. He would not, like the Council, have gone over to Mary's side, now that the Duke of Northumberland was away and people were acknowledging her on all sides. He was too true a man to forsake the weaker cause, and too valiant to give in because others were succumbing, and yet if he did the opposite and kept his standard raised for Queen Jane, what danger he would be in! Imprisonment and even death might befall my prince of men.