Page:The Queens of England.djvu/365

 KATHARINE HOWARD. 3^5 successors, should marry a lady in whose character any flaw- existed, any person knowing such to be the case, should incur the same penalty; while the lady herself, for concealing her fault, would likewise be declared guilty of high treason. This law, was, however, repealed in the following year. The degraded queen had been removed from Hampton Court to Sion House, and thence was afterward conveyed to the Tower, where she passed one night, that which preceded her execution. Derham, Manox and Culpepper had been executed imme- diately after their confession, and their heads were placed over London Bridge. During the interval between the dis- covery of the queen's guilt and her punishment, the aged Duchess of Norfolk was committed to prison, where grief and terror caused her to be seized by a dangerous illness. She was, however, as well as the other members of her family, finally pardoned after the death of her grandchild. Katharine learnt in succession all these sad particulars, during the brief interval that preceded her own fate. The Duke of Norfolk, her uncle, was her only surviving friend who could have averted her doom by exertions in her behalf, but she had offended him, and he abandoned her in the hour of anguish, as he had done his other niece, Anne Boleyn, and various others of his relatives. The royal assent to the attainder of Katharine Howard having been obtained, the queen was conducted to the scaffold on the 13th of February; that same scaffold on which Anne Boleyn, no less beautiful than herself, had recently suffered death. Lady Rochford was the companion of Katharine, and suffered with her ; a just retribution for her conduct towards Anne. The queen received the fatal stroke with a composure which in the minds of some of the witnesses led to the belief of her innocence, and Lady Rochford imitated the demeanor of her mistress. As soon as the execution of the sentence was over the mangled body of Katharine was removed without funereal honors, and deposited near the remains of her equally unfortunate predecessor in the affections of Henry — Queen Anne Boleyn — within the walls of the Tower. Thus died King Henry's fifth wife, who, notwithstanding her early failings, appears clearly to have been guiltless of any of the crimes against the king which were laid to her charge. She was put to death without trial, and in violation of all