notorious, and in which, to please him, she

took her part.

The Ladies of Queen Katharine's court, one of whom Anne Boleyn had become, lived together much after the style of a modern regimental mess. When we read a description of the elegant and brilliant Anne, it is rather difficult to imagine her sitting down to breakfast on a chine of beef, a manchet, a loaf, and a gallon of ale. But such was the allowance or rations, served out for the breakfast of six maids of honour in the sixteenth century, who were allowed also, for personal attendants, a waiting woman and a spaniel !

Of course the dinner, of which likewise they partook together, was proportionately substantial.

It is one of the misfortunes and errors of genius to be discontented in what is familiarly termed home-spun society. Amidst the needle-work labourers of Queen Katharine

the brilliant Maid of Honour might experience somewhat of this ennui.

At this time was established there her early acquaintance, and still constant admirer, young Wyatt, now Sir Thomas Wyatt, a much admired poet, courtier, and statesman. His grandson wrote a short and interesting memoir of poor Anne. "There was," he says, "at this time presented to the eye of the court, the rare and admirable beauty of the fresh and young Lady Anne Boleyn, to be attending on the Queen. In this noble imp* the graces of nature adorned by gracious education seemed even at the first (i. e. in childhood) to have promised bliss unto her in after times. She was taken at that time to have a beauty not so whitely (that is fair) as clear and fresh above all we may esteem,

* The term is a curious one; but used in the earlier ages to signify a child or young person, as "Here lieth the noble Imp Robert Dudley" on Earl Warwick's tomb in the Lady's Chapel at Warwick.

which appeared much more excellent by her favour, passing sweet and cheerful, and was enhanced by her noble presence (or carriage) of shape and fashion, representing both mildness and majesty more than can be expressed."

Even her very defects this truly poetical admirer regards as a means of displaying her perfections. It has been already said that one of her fingers was rather deformed. "But," says Wyatt," that which in others might be a defect was to her an occasion of additional grace, by the skilful manner in which she concealed it."

How often is it that fashion renders a defect a beauty, and even the deformities of humanity, if gilded over by its tinsel glare, are eagerly imitated by its slaves :-Anne Boleyn's throat, though small and beautiful, was marked by a large mole, the size of a strawberry; to conceal this, she wore a rich band like a collar, which though generally by

no means a becoming article of female costume, was imitated when she became the "star" of the English court by all the maids of honour.

Anne was now in the court of the gross and tyrannical Henry the Eighth, her lovely sister, Mary, had been there before her, and had attracted the admiration and attentions of the vicious and inconstant monarch. Court scandal had been busy, and her character still suffers reproach: but she married a simple gentleman of the bed-chamber, William Carey, from affection, not ambition, and lived in poverty, which might not have been the case if she had descended to improper means of gaining the royal patronage. Mary, Anne, and George Boleyn were now re-united at the Court of England; and with them was their accomplished cousin Lord Surrey, whose verses are well known, and their early friend Wyatt: it might have been well for poor Anne had she married the Poet;

but another admirer came in the

way, whom ambition, independent of better feelings, would lead her to prefer. This was Lord Percy, the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland. Anne won his affections, and soon gave him hers: she was, it is believed, really and deeply attached to him, so that a person who had means of judging, said afterwards, that she would rather have been "Percy's Countess than Henry's Queen." Percy had been by his father engaged in marriage from an early age to another lady, for whom he had no regard: but in this engagement the heart and will had no share; and Lord Percy and Anne plighted their troth to each other: a solemn act in those days, much more important than it is now considered, and one only exceeded by what in the Roman Catholic Church is termed the 'Sacrament of marriage.'

The great object of Anne Boleyn was to advance herself by marriage, and on this fatal