several to his sovereign, procure him his restoration to liberty.

Against the Earl of Surry he alleged his having quartered in his scutcheon the arms of Edward the Confessor, king of the realm of England. The bearing was justified by the opinion of the heralds, but still the Earl was not released. His destruction having been predetermined, scandalous and false witnesses appeared against him, on other charges of treason, and he was condemned to lose his head; which sentence was put into effect on the day of his condemnation.

And it is probable, that had not the king himself been called upon to pay the debt of nature, in little more than a week after the Earl's execution, that the Duke would have shared his untimely fate. He was left in prison, not to mourn any action which concerned his own conduct; for he had been faithful, in word and deed, to a monarch who had not known how to value his services; but to lament the hard fate of a noble and excellent son, whose prin

ciples

ciples of honour had been the same as his own to his king, and whose merits had met even a more severe requital.

In consequence of the Duke's attainder, for a special bill was passed to that effect in the parliament then sitting, the castle and manor of Framlingham became forfeited to the king, who regulated its future disposal, by a codicil in his own handwriting to his testament. In the first instance, he devised it in the regular line of inheritance to his son Edward, and in the event of his decease without male heirs, to his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy.

The royal Edward died at the youthful age of sixteen; and Lord Henry Fitzroy became the possessor of Framlingham Castle and its domains.

We have already said that the mother of Lord Fitzroy was Lady Elizabeth Talboyse; but it here becomes us to add a few particulars relative to them both, as they are intimately connected with the events contained in the future pages of this history. The disposition of Henry the Eighth was

gay

gay and licentious.

Every woman of beauty had attractions for his heart, in his pursuit of which he seldom suffered the' voice of reason to regulate his conduct.

In a visit to the continent, the king had learnt the trick of masquerading, and was become so enamoured of the diversion, that, on his return to England, it was his most favourite amusement to enter assemblies, held at the houses of any of the nobility, clad in a fantastic garb, to disguise his person, and with his face masked, attended by a few of his select courtiers, habited in a similar manner-a fashion of dress which gave him the advantage of hearing such females as pleased his eye, and with whom he entered into conversation, express themselves with less restraint than they would have done had they known his quality.

At an entertainment of this nature, to which the greater part of the guests had been invited to come dressed in masking habits, out of compliment to the taste of

the

the king, Henry became at the same moment acquainted and enamoured with a lovely shepherdess, whom he learnt to be a lady named Elizabeth Talboyse, the widow of Sir Gilbert Talboyse, a Kentish knight.

Lady Talboyse, although a widow, was only in her twenty-third year, and was universally allowed to be one of the finest women of the age. She was tall, and her symmetry was of the most excellent and graceful kind. Her eyes were of the darkest black; and, sparkling with the lustre of a diamond, gave animation to a countenance composed of the most harmonious features. Her mind was equally accomplished by education, as was her person by the ornamenting hand of nature; and she was, beyond dispute, on every account, one of the most fascinating females in the kingdom.

The passion with which she had inspired the king was quickly revealed, to her, and she received the first knowledge of it with the scorn and repugnance which every

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H

woman

woman who is raised above a certain degree in society, feels for the idea of an illicit affection, even if the professor of such a passion be seated on a throne.

To these just principles Lady Elizabeth for a long time continued firm, but at length the attentions, the presents, and the flatteries of the king, intoxicated her senses, and she fell into the snare of greatness which her paramour had prepared for her undoing. She was tempted to take possession of an elegant mansion at Blackamor in Essex, prepared with the utmost splendor for her reception; and here she was beguiled of that most valuable treasure which the female heart can nourish-the consciousness of its own innocence.

Her fall being once accomplished, her thoughts rested solely on her seducer, and she apprehended nothing so much as the loss of his affection-a period which the known inconstant temper of Henry caused her to dread.

In the course of a few months after her acquaintance