382 OBSERVATIONS ON BISHOP BURNETT'S 
our Shakespeare, we have the authority of Cavendish and Hall.+° 
Burnett, however, in his supplemental volume, discredits their 
statements on the authority of the original register of the trial, show- 
ing that the queen never came into court but once, June 18th, 1589, 
to read a paper, protesting against the jurisdiction ; and that the 
king did not appear at all. But our historian here has fallen into 
an important oversight ; by forgetting that he has printed a letter in 
his first volume, in which Henry says, ‘on that day we and the 
queen appeared in person,” and he adds “ after her departure was 
thrice preconisate, and called eftsoons to return ; and on her refusal, 
a citation was decerned for her appearance on Friday next.” 
A broader mark for censure Burnett set up for himself by passing 
over in silence the inhuman denial of Henry to his divorced wife, 
to see their daughter before she breathed her last ;+* from whose 
society she had been separated, that Mary might not become infected 
with the errors of popery. Well might the blameless Catharine ex- 
claim, in one of her letters to Mary, “that we never come to the 
kingdom of God but by troubles.” 
The assertion that Mary Boleyn, the elder sister of Anne, was 
one of Henry’s mistresses, is stoutly denied by Burnett. He un- 
ceremoniously designates it “as a forgery of Cardinal Pole’s, which 
Sanders catched to dress up the scene.” Now, the assertion is such 
an enormity that, before it be admitted, the presumption for it 
ought to be most conclusive. Mr. Hallam and Sir James Mackin- 
tosh both concur in procuring a verdict in favour of the king: but 
we have the misfortune to differ from these high authorities. 
40 When Henry perceived the powerful impression which she had made 
on her auditors, we are told by Hall, who was present, and who declares that 
“he gives the king’s words as near as his writ could bear them away,” that 
this was his reply. “I assure you all she is a woman of most gentleness, of 
most humility, and of buxomness, yea, and of all good qualities appertaining 
to nobility, she is without comparison, as I this twenty years almost have 
had the truest experiment. So that if I were to marry again, if the mar- 
riage might be good, I would surely chuse her above all other women.” 
This last sentence must have cost a very severe effort to the Legatine 
judges, to restrain their countenances from mutual expressions of incredulity. 
41 “Cum hoc idem filia cum lachrymis postularet, mater vix extremum 
spiritum ducens flagitaret, quod hostis nisi crudelissimus nunquam negas- 
set, conjunx a viro mater pro filia, impetrare non potuit nec hanc quidem 
consolationem, in extremo spiritu dare voluit.”—Poli. Apol. at Carol. Yet 
could that miracle of conjugal meckness and attachment thus address a note 
on her death-bed, to the destroyer of her health and happiness: “To her 
most dear lord and king.” 
ee 
