After describing the circumstances of the death of the King, which left no doubt of poison, the secrecy observed during his illness, and the suspicious haste of his funeral, our writer, who, it must be remembered, was an eye-witness of the scenes he describes, proceeds thus:—
"The King being now removed from among the living, the Duke of Northumberland convoked a council of the leading men; he set forth the magnitude of the dangers that usually attended a protracted interregnum, and proved that after Mary and Eliza, royal daughters indeed, but born in marriages doubtful, suspected, and prohibited, the succession tot he crown reverted to his daughter-in-law Jane, as well by right of legitimate birth as by the laws of the kingdom. There were not wanting some (for the wits of the English are very acute) who sufficiently understood what the advice and endeavours of the Duke tended to, namely, that his son, who had married Jane, being raised to the regal eminence, the whole government of England might be easily transferred to the Dudleys; nor was it to be concealed that the event would lead, not only to a nefarious massacre of the royal children, but also to the oppression of many others. Indeed, the Duke had already sometimes

given vent to words full of threatening and terror, as of expelling foreigners out of every part of Britain and cruelly slaughtering many. Thus Jane was declared Queen, and publicly proclaimed forthwith on the 10th day of July, not indeed without contumely towards the royal daughters, but without the applause of the nobles or of any individual among the people. It is the custom in England for the people to approve the solemn proclamation of a new King or Queen by he acclamation, 'God save the King or Queen.' As nothing of the kind was to be heard here, and men's countenances were sorrowful and averted, it was easily conjectured that what was passing was little approved by the people. Jane was now in the London palace called the Tower, attended indeed by no great retinue, but was introduced by a certain solemn pomp, her mother Frances holding up the train of her robe. In the meantime Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII, perceiving what was going on in London, had removed from that place and retired into the interior parts of the kingdom. Here so great a multitude of people suddenly flocked about her, that in a short space of time it grew to the amplitude of a complete army. But the Duke of