"The fascination of Anne appears not to have resided in her features, though the loveliness of these is almost universally acknowledged; but in her eloquent eyes, the symmetry of her form, the mingled airiness and elegance of her carriage; above all, in those indefinable charms of grace and expression which lend interest to every glance, and intelligence to every movement."

With this agrees the lines of Wyatt, who is thought to allude to her :

"A face that should content me well,
Should not be fair-but lovely to behold,
With gladsome cheer all grief for to expel;
With sober looks; so would I that it should

Speak without words, such words as none can tell."

CHAPTER II.

"The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their blossoms be disclosed;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent."

ING Henry the Eighth had, as

K

is already well known to all our readers, married Katharine of Arragon, the youthful widow of

his brother, young Prince Arthur. Henry was betrothed to her when she was eighteen

and he thirteen years

of age.

The repug

nance to this strange and certainly objection

able marriage appears to have been chiefly on her side. Shortly after Henry's accession to the throne, in the year 1509, they were married, when he was in his eighteenth and his bride in her twenty-third year: at which period Anne Boleyn could only have been at the most about eight years old; and at the time of her presentation at court, when perhaps about fourteen, Queen Katharine would be twenty-nine and the King twenty-four years of age.

The Princess Mary, King Henry's sister, was one of the loveliest creatures ever beheld: she was at this time betrothed to the old King of France, who was dying of age and infirmity. Mary was devotedly attached to a young English nobleman, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk her story has afforded a theme for many romances; but there are often darker shades in the conclusion of real love stories than are ever brought into the romances that are founded upon them; and

the conclusion of the story of Mary and Suffolk would shew this.

This lovely girl was a make-peace gift from the court of England to that of France. The war between Henry VIII. and Louis XII. of France was concluded by this ill-assorted union. The beautiful young Princess was included in the treaty of peace, and having been married by proxy in England, was despatched to the old King by her loving brother, who, having accompanied her to Dover, tenderly committed her "to the care of God, the fortune of the sea, and the governance of the French King, her husband."

This marriage had a great effect on the subsequent fortunes and possibly on the character of the youthful Anne Boleyn. An establishment was to be formed for the fair and sorrowing bride, and young Anne was appointed to be one of her maids of honour: the graces of her manner, and her perfect acquaintance with the French language, ren

dered her a suitable attendant for the lovely Queen of France.

Thus was Anne Boleyn, at the early age of fourteen, launched at once into the world, and placed in a situation most perilous to youth and beauty.

After suffering severely from a terrible storm, the royal party landed at Boulogne, where they were met by a large company of the princes, knights, and nobility of France, and escorted, with great pomp, towards Abbeville, at which place the King awaited his bride. When they approached the town, a stately procession was formed. The beautiful Queen mounted a snow-white palfrey with gorgeous trappings and covered in cloth of gold: her robes were bright and glittering, but her secret heart, which she alone could know, was sad. Thirty-six ladies, clothed in robes of crimson velvet, and richly adorned, mounted also on white palfreys, formed her train; and a fairer sight could