Page:The Queens of England.djvu/345

ANNE BOLEYN. 305 shall be, that myself may only bear the burthen of your grace's dis- pleasure, and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, who, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If ever I have found favor in your sight — if ever the name of Anne Boleyn hath been pleasing in your ears — then let me obtain this request ; and I will so leave to trouble your grace any farther, with mine earnest prayers 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, this sixth of May, "Your most loyal and ever faithful wife, "Anne Boleyn/'* If Anne had any legal advisers, which is doubted, she was allowed no advocate, and was denied any intercourse with her friends or parents. Every exertion was used, by the king's desire, to obtain additional evidence against her, Smeaton alone having admitted the crime of which he was accused, and the belief of his perjury was general. Anne's women were tempted by promises of large reward if they would prove against her, and threatened with heavy punishment if they concealed her guilt ; but neither rewards nor menances could extort any proof of her culpability from them, and even the hateful Lady Rochford could bring no real evidence against her. On the 1 8th of May the queen and her brother, Lord Roch- ford, were brought to trial, in a hall within the Tower ; the Duke of Norfolk presided, with the Lord Chancellor on his right, and the Duke of Suffolk on his left. The Earl of Surrey, as Earl Marshal of England, was present, and the Duke of Richmond, and twenty-four other peers. The queen entered simply attired, and with no vestige of regal state. A hood shaded, but did not conceal her face, the expression of which was said to have never been more attractive than on this trying occasion, when a mingled sentiment of calm but deep sadness, increased rather than diminished, the mild dignity of her aspect. She was attended by Lady Edward Boleyn and Lady Kinston, neither of whom experienced the least sympathy for her. The queen bowed to the court, not with the shame or fear of a criminal before her judges, but with the modest confidence of a persecuted woman, certain of her own innocence, and in her secret soul appealing to. a higher tribunal— that of God. It was a terrible scene, and N Harleian Miscellany, vol i. p. 201.