Page:The Queens of England.djvu/363

 KATHARINE HOWARD. 323 When, therefore, Derham privately sought to renew his inter- course with her, he found that an insurmountable barrier existed in the altered feelings of the young lady herself. For the present, therefore, he returnd to Ireland. Henry the Eighth is supposed to have first me°t Katharine Howard at a banquet soon after his union with Anne of Cleves. The contrast with the phlegmatic queen he had selected made the loveliness of the opening beauty yet more conspicuous, and the conquest was complete. Katharine was speedily appointed maid of honor to Queen Anne, and is said to have attracted notice for her propriety of conduct in this new office, in which capacity she certainly acted more conscientiously than either Anne Boleyn or Jane Seymour had done toward their royal mistress of that day. As a matter of course, the divorce of Henry followed this new attachment, and within a few days or hours after that event was publicly announced, the king was privately united to Katharine Howard, who in the following month was publicly introduced at Hamp- ton Court as his queen. After this she accompanied her hus- band to Windsor, and was his companion in a royal progress through the country. Nothing could exceed the fondness of Henry for his new consort, whom historians describe as beautiful in person and graceful in demeanor, while her exceedingly youthful and childish manners added fresh charms in the eyes of her royal spouse. She acquired the king's entire confidence, which was extended to her whole family ; and, so desirous was Henry to exhibit his private happiness to the nation, that he gave orders that a solemn public thanksgiving should be offered up to heaven, for the blessing bestowed on him in such a wife ! The blissful dream of his love was not, however, destined to be of long endurance. The very day following that ceremony, Cranmer forwarded to him the particulars of Katharine's early life, which have already been disclosed to the reader. These had been communicated to the prelate during the late royal progress into the North, and had the effect of drawing tears from the eyes of the hitherto enraptured and happy Henry ! The dreadful discovery of Katharine's guilt was brought about by the persons who had early implicated her in crime. The women who had been her first associates, and were acquainted with every particular of her infancy, finding her elevated to the regal dignity, made use of this information to secure