Page:The Queens of England.djvu/377

 KATHARINE PARR. 337 fluenoed his mind on this occasion is for those to reflect on who are disposed to find an excuse for his indomitable tyranny, which, not content with governing the lives of his subjects in this world, sought to interfere with their hopes of another and a better. To attack the queen openly would have been too bold a measure for the wily men who sought her destruction ; they therefore first turned their attention to a person in whom she was supposed to feel a strong interest, and from whom they an- ticipated that the blow aimed might rebound to the queen. Anne Askew, a youthful and fair matron of gentle blood and of no inconsiderable erudition, had adopted the tenets which Kath- arine was more than suspected of favoring, if not maintaining, and had been in consequence expelled from the conjugal roof by her bigoted husband. Repudiated by him, she devoted her- self to the extension of the religion she had professed, and by so doing had attracted the notice and increased the displeasure of those opposed to it. It became known that the queen had accepted books written in support of the new faith from this lady, and on this circumstance it was hoped that a charge could be grounded against her for the reading of prohibited works, the penalties for which were then very severe. Anne Askew, the unfortunate victim of these persecutions, underwent many species of torture to extort from her some acknowledgment that might implicate the queen ; but her firm- ness of character defeated the hope of Katharine's enemies, and none of the cruelties practiced on her could wring from her a single admission that could injure the queen. Even to the last act of the tragedy — her terrible death, when the flames encircled her tortured frame — the heroic victim maintained her constancy ; and those who beheld her martyrdom were so struck by the seraphic expression of her countenance that they proclaimed that she had already begun to reap the reward of her virtue by her triumph over physical agony, owing to her thoughts being elevated to that Heaven in which she had won a place. Secret information had been given to the king that the Lady Herbert, sister of the queen, was much addicted to the study of prohibited works on religion, and this information, joined to the sole imprudence of which Katharine could be charged, awakened the enmity of the cruel and moody tyrant. The im- prudence to which we refer is, the queen's having occasionally entered upon controversial subjects, which, although main-