Page:The Queens of England.djvu/318

 278 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. Feeling the hand of death fast approaching, Katharine en- treated to behold her daughter once more, that she might bless her before she died; but this last request was denied, and an- other drop was added to the cup of bitterness already nearly filled to overflowing, which she had been doomed by her brutal husband to drain. Yet she had the satisfaction of one true friend by her bedside during her last hours. This was Lady Willoughby d'Eresby. This lady was one of the maids of honor who had accompanied her from Spain, and had married Lord Willoughby. Hearing of the approaching end of her beloved mistress and countrywoman, she made her way to Kimbolton, and reaching it at nightfall on New Year's day, half-famished with cold, she had the address to make her way to the queen, in spite of the opposition of the Keepers Chamberlayne and Bed- ingfield, and never quitted her till she expired. A few hours before death had ended her sorrows, and when her dying hand could no longer hold a pen, she dictated the following farewell to Henry : "My most dear lord, king, and husband — The hour of my death now approaching, I cannot choose, but out of the love I bear you, to advise you of your soul's health, which you ought to prefer before all considerations of the world or flesh whatso- ever. For which yet you have cast me into calamities, and your- self into many troubles. But I forgive you all, and pray God to do likewise. For the rest I commend unto you Mary, our daughter, beseeching you to be a good father to her as I have hitherto desired. I must entreat you also to respect my maids, and give them in marriage, which is not much, they being but three ; and to all my other servants a year's pay besides their due, lest otherwise they should be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things. Farewell." Henry is said to have wept when he perused this letter. Katharine expired on the 18th of January, 1536, in the fiftieth year of her age, and was interred in the monastry at Peter- borough, which, in honor of her memory, Henry caused to be preserved when he doomed others to destruction, and erected it into a bishop's see. The chamber in Kimbolton Castle where Katharine expired is still shown. It is hung with tapestry, which covers the door leading to the closet. One of her traveling trunks, also covered with scarlet velvet, and bearing on its lid the initials "K. R.," with the crown, is still there.