312 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



not, resist flirting, was the undoing of handsome 

 young Francis Weston, as well as herself. His- 

 tory, apparently, is unable to solve the mystery 

 connected with the whole of the story. Each 

 account varies some even leaving Francis Wes- 

 ton's name out of the list of Anne's lovers. Poor 

 Anne, with her short-lived triumph ! Whatever 

 truth there may have been in the accusations made 

 against the unhappy woman, the reason of her 

 condemnation is not far to seek Henry was tired 

 of his second wife, and could devise no means of 

 getting rid of her, though he had already chosen 

 her successor in Jane Seymour demure, placid, 

 and false. 



Cromwell stepped into the breach, and in his 

 Machiavelian way suggested a means of compass- 

 ing the Queen's downfall. So one day he left 

 Henry's Council Chamber with a "signed secret 

 commission authorising certain persons named and 

 nine judges to enquire into every kind of treason 

 and to try the offenders." It was a commission to 

 find some flaw in Anne's conduct, to prove her 

 guilty of a crime worthy of death. 



Anne's fatal fascination, her overwhelming love 

 of admiration, which was readily gratified by her 

 many friends, gave ample scope to scandal-loving 

 tongues, only too eager to eclipse the waning star. 

 The first person Cromwell turned upon was Anne's 

 unfortunate favourite and musician, Mark Smeaton, 



