After this you cannot be surprised that the king was easily persuaded that Somerset might deserve to be beheaded as much as the admiral. So Lord Warwick, who had become a great favourite, got him to sign an order to behead the Protector.

Although he was a king, the poor boy must have been very unhappy. He had been persuaded to order his own two uncles to be beheaded; and although he had two sisters, he could not make friends with them, because they were brought up to think all he did was wrong.

The eldest was the daughter of Henry VIII.'s first wife, Catherine of Arragon. She was almost thirty years older than the king, and she was a Papist, and hated all the Protestants, and the king most of all.

The king's second sister was the daughter of poor Queen Anne Boleyn. Her name was Elizabeth; she was a Protestant, and was only five years older than her brother, who loved her, and used to call her his "sweet sister Temperance."

He had one cousin, whom he saw often, and who was very beautiful and good, and loved learning; her name was Lady Jane Grey. I shall have a good deal to tell you about her, and how she used to read and learn as well as the little king.

But I must now tell you what happened when the Protector was beheaded. Although he had offended the great lords, and they had persuaded the king that he deserved to die, the people loved him. He had always been kind to them, and the laws made while he was Protector were all good for England. On the day when his head was cut off on Tower-hill-it was early in the morning-a great many people were collected to see him die. Suddenly one of the king's messengers rode up to the scaffold where Somerset

stood ready for the executioner; the people hoped the king had sent a pardon for his uncle, and shouted out, "A pardon! a pardon! God save the king!" But it was not true; there was no pardon. Somerset was a little moved when the people shouted, but he soon became quite quiet. He spoke kindly and thankfully to some of his friends who were shedding tears near him, and then laid his head upon the block, and was beheaded.

After this time the Earl of Warwick managed the country for the king. But the poor young prince did not live long. Soon after his uncle's death he began to cough and look very ill, and everybody saw that he was likely to die.

Now the person who was to reign over England after Edward's death was his eldest sister, the Princess Mary, and, as I told you, she was a Papist, or, as we now call it, a Roman Catholic.

The Earl of Warwick, who had been made Duke of Northumberland, had a son named Lord Guilford Dudley, who married the king's good and beautiful cousin, Lady Jane Grey. These young people were both Protestants, and Northumberland hoped that the people would like to have Lady Jane for their queen, in case the young king should die, better than the Roman Catholic Princess Mary; and then he thought that as he was the father of Jane's husband, he might rule the kingdom in her name, and get all the power for himself.

Poor King Edward now grew weaker and weaker: he was taken to Greenwich for change of air, and seemed at first a little better, so that the people, who really loved their gentle and sweet-tempered young king, began to hope he might live.

But Northumberland knew that Edward was dying,

and he never left him, that he might persuade him to make a will, leaving the kingdom to his dear cousin, Lady Jane Grey, after his death.

This was very wrong, because the king is only placed at the head of the kingdom, to do justice and to exercise mercy. He cannot buy or sell the kingdom, or any part of it. He cannot change the owner of the smallest bit of land without the authority of the whole parliament, made up of the king himself, and the lords and gentlemen of the commons along with him. Of course, therefore, Northumberland was wrong, in persuading the young king to make such a will without the advice of parliament. You will read presently how Northumberland was punished.

Soon after this will was made poor Edward VI. died. He was not quite sixteen years old. He was He so mild and gentle, that everybody loved him. took such pains to learn, and do what was right, that the people were in hopes of having a really good and wise king. But it pleased God that he should die. His last prayer as he lay a-dying was, “O Lord, save thy chosen people of England. Defend this realm from papistry, and maintain thy true religion."

CHAPTER XLII.

LADY JANE GREY.-Ten days of 1553.

How Lady Jane Grey was Queen for ten days, and was afterwards imprisoned; how she was fond of learning; how she was persuaded to become Queen against her will; and how she and her husband were put to death by Queen Mary.

Two days after King Edward died, Northumberland had Lady Jane Grey proclaimed, or called queen, in London.

On the same day the Princess Mary's friends had her proclaimed at Norwich.

The people would have liked Lady Jane best, first, because their dear young King Edward had wished her to be queen; and next, because she was beautiful, virtuous, and wise, and, above all, a Protestant. But then they feared and hated her father-in-law, Northumberland. They remembered that he had persuaded King Edward to order the Protector Somerset to be beheaded. They knew that he was cruel, and jealous, and revengeful; they thought that he only pretended to be a Protestant, and because he was such a bad man, they were afraid to let his son's wife be queen.

One by one all Northumberland's friends left him, and joined the Princess Mary, who really became queen; and after Lady Jane Grey had been called queen for ten days, she went to her private home at Sion, a great deal happier than the day when they took her away to make her a queen.

It would have been well if Queen Mary had left her cousin there. But she was of a cruel and revenge

ful temper, and not content with sending Northumberland to prison in the Tower of London, for setting up her cousin as queen, she sent Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, also to the Tower.

But I must tell you a great deal more about Lady Jane Grey, and I will begin her story at the time when she was very young indeed.

As she was only a few months older than her cousin Edward VI., she had the same teachers in every thing, and she was like him in gentleness, goodness, and kindness. Her masters found that she was still cleverer than the little king, and that she learned Latin and Greek too more readily than he did. She knew French, and Spanish, and Italian perfectly, and loved music and painting.

She was married when very young to Lord Guilford Dudley, who loved to read and study with her, and for a year after they were married no persons could be more happy.

Then King Edward died. And Lady Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, and her husband's father, the Duke of Northumberland, went to Lady Jane, and fell upon their knees before her, and offered her the crown of England, at the same time telling her that her cousin the king, whom she loved very much, was dead. On hearing this she fainted, and then refused the crown, saying, that while the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were alive, nobody else could have a right to it.

At last, however, though the two dukes could not prevail upon her to allow herself to be called queen of England, her husband and her mother begged her so hard to be queen, that she consented.

I have already told you that she was only queen