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bers, with cawed windows and stone mullions. There 

 are also state apartments, of which the walls are covered 

 with richly carved oak ; an organ-room, and the abbot's 

 grand reception-room, with its Gothic window of painted 

 glass, but with such we have no concern. 



May, sweet May is come, and the hearth-stone is 

 decked with green branches and bright flowers ; the birth 

 of the young day, but withering before its close. 

 Emblems of the failing hopes of her who sits all desolate 

 beside them, and with her are two beautiful and serious- 

 looking maidens, the princesses Elizabeth and Mary, 

 and four young children, from three to eleven years of 

 age; Richard, Duke of York, Anne, Catherine, and 

 Bridget. At one time the terrified children hide in the 

 folds of their mother's robe ; at another, their cheerful 

 voices are heard, calling to each other as they run from 

 room to room; now in the state apartment, and now in 

 some winding passage, or asking leave to wander forth 

 among the bees and flowers in the quiet garden of the 

 abbey. Poor children, your grief is light, and it passes 

 soon, like an April shower ; bur darker clouds are gather- 

 ing, and their crushing rain will fall heavily even upon you. 



An aged man is seen advancing towards the abbey, and 

 with him a deputation, apparently of no mean rank. His 

 robes and crosier denote his dignity, for it is the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, who is about to pay a visit to the 

 queen, with a message from the Lord Protector^ who has 

 placed the young king in the Tower, under the pretence 



