Some concluded that there was a defect in her constitution; others whispered that she had been irritated at attentions which the King had been paying to Jane Seymour, who in earlier days had been a lady-in-waiting to Catherine. Anne herself, according to a not very credible story of Chapuys's, was little disturbed; her ladies were lamenting; she consoled them by saying that it was all for the best; the child that had been lost had been conceived in the Queen's lifetime, and the legitimacy of it might have been doubtful; no uncertainty would attach to the next.[1] It is not likely that Anne felt uncertain on such a point, or would have avowed it if she had. She might have reasons of her own for her hopes of another chance. Henry seemed to have no hope at all; he sent Chapuys a message through Cromwell that Mary's situation was now changed; her train should be increased, and her treatment improved—subject, however, of course, to her submission.
Mary had made up her mind, under Chapuys's advice, that if a prince was born, she would acknowledge the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Succession with a secret protest, as the Emperor had recommended her. She had no intention, however, of parting with her pretensions, and alienating her friends, as long as there was no brother whose claims she could not dispute. Chapuys had imagined, and Mary had believed, that the Emperor would have resented the alleged poisoning of Catherine; that, instead of her death removing the danger of war, as Henry sup-
- ↑ "L'on m'a dicte que la Concubine consoloit ses demoiselles qui pleuroient, leur disant que c'estoit pour le mieulx, car elle en seroit tant plus tost enceinte, et que le fils qu'elle pourterait ne seroit dubieulx comme fust este icelle, estant conceu du vivant de la Royne." Chapuys to Granvelle, Feb. 25, 1536.—MS. Vienna; Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. x. p. 135.
