Page:The Queens of England.djvu/408

 366 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. unmoved. He indignantly reproached Henry for his treat- ment of Katharine and her daughter, a step which his near relationship to them entitled him to take, and, perhaps, had he not interfered, the tyrant Henry might have resorted to the last extremity towards his injured wife and daughter. The health of Mary now began to fail, and Katharine, who felt her own end approaching, vainly, as we have seen, solicited to be permitted to see her daughter, or, if this boon were denied, to be allowed to draw nearer to her. Anne Boleyn did not long survive her predecessor. The death of Katharine, so long desired by her as the sole object to complete her felicity, bestowed but a short- lived triumph, for she soon after learned to commiserate, by her own sad experience, the pangs which Katharine must have felt, when she saw the affections of her husband transferred to another. The degradation and death of Anne, followed by the declaration of the illegitimacy of her daughter Elizabeth, produced little change in the position of Mary, until the influence of Anne's successor, Jane Seymour, was exercised in her favor. The letter of congratulation addressed by Mary to the king, on bis marriage, is so full of humility and promises of "hence- forth avoiding all causes of offense," and "submitting herself in all things to his goodness and pleasure, to do with her what- soever shall please his grace," that we may conclude her firm- ness hitherto in refusing to acknowledge herself illegitimate originated in her respect to the feelings of her mother, rather than in any pride or obstinacy in upholding her own right, and gives her a strong claim to our respect. But this humility and repentance did not, for a considerable time, make any im- pression on the stubborn heart of Henry, and he allowed some weeks to elapse, after she had consented to own her illegitimacy, before he condescended to vouchsafe his pardon for her offenses. And now Mary and Elizabeth, branded with the stigma of illegitimacy, were placed in a similar position. A private establishment was formed for both, and Mary became the pro- tectress of her sister, as the following passage in one of her letters to the king testifies : "My sister Elizabeth is in good health (thanks to our Lord), and such a child toward, as I doubt not, but your highness shall have cause to rejoice of in time coming (as knoweth Almighty God), who send your grace, time with the queen, my good mother, health, with the accom- plishment of your desires."