Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/371

which she had small cause to thank for the entertainment which it had provided for her; and she died, as she had lived, resolute, haughty, and unbending. In the preceding October (1535), she was in bad health; her house, she imagined, disagreed with her, and at her own desire she was removed to Kimbolton. But there were no symptoms of immediate danger. She revived under the change, and was in better spirits than she had shown for many previous months, especially after she heard of the new Pope's resolution to maintain her cause. 'Much resort of people came daily to her.'^[1] The vexatious dispute upon her title had been dropped, from an inability to press it; and it seemed as if life had become at least endurable to her, if it never could be more. But the repose was but the stillness of evening as night is hastening down. The royal officers of the household were not admitted into her presence; the Queen lived wholly among her own friends and her own people; she sank unperceived; and so effectually had she withdrawn from the observation of those whom she desired to exclude, that the King was left to learn from the Spanish ambassador that she was at the point of death, before her chamberlain was aware that she was more than indisposed.^[2] In the last week of December Henry learnt that she was in danger. On the 2nd of January the ambassador went down from London to Kimbolton, and spent the day with her.^[3] On the 5th Sir Edmund Bedingfield wrote that she was very ill, and that the

1. Strype's Mem.,vol. i. p. 370.
2. Sir Edmund Bedingfield to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. i. p. 451. For particulars of Catherine's death, see Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, p. 424 et seq.
3. Strype's Memorials, vol. i., and see Appendix, p. 241 et seq.