gnified step to the frowning
battlements of her destination. "Alas!" said Elizabeth, "what do you
mean? I took you to comfort, not to dismay me; for my truth is such,
that no one shall have cause to weep for me."

The next step of her enemies was to procure evidence by means which, in
the present day, are accounted detestable. Many poor prisoners were
racked, to extract, if possible, any matters of accusation which might
affect her life, and thereby gratify Gardiner's sanguinary disposition.
He himself came to examine her, respecting her removal from her house at
Ashbridge to Dunnington castle a long while before. The princess had
quite forgotten this trivial circumstance, and lord Arundel, after the
investigation, kneeling down, apologized for having troubled her in such
a frivolous matter. "You sift me narrowly," replied the princess, "but
of this I am assured, that God has appointed a limit to your
proceedings; and so God forgive you all."

Her own gentlemen, who ought to have been her purveyors, and served her
provision, were compelled to give place to the common soldiers, at the
command of the constable of the Tower, who was in every respect a
servile tool of Gardiner,--her grace's friends, however, procured an
order of council which regulated this petty tyranny more to her
satisfaction.

After having been a whole month in close confinement, she sent for the
lord Chamberlain and lord Chandois, to whom she represented the ill
state of her health from a want of proper air and exercise. Application
being made to the council, Elizabeth was with some difficulty admitted
to walk in the queen's lodgings, and afterwards in the garden, at which
time the prisoners on that side were attended by their keepers, and not
suffered to look down upon her. Their jealousy was excited by a child of
four years old, who daily brought flowers to the princess. The child was
threatened with a whipping, and the father ordered to keep him from the
princess' chambers.

On the 5th of May the constable was discharged from his office, and Sir
Henry Benifield appointed in his room, accompanied by a hundred
ruffian-looking soldiers in blue. This measure created considerable
alarm in the mind of the princess, who imagined it was preparatory to
her undergoing the same fate as lady Jane Gray, upon the same block.
Assured that this project was not in agitation, she entertained an idea
that the new keeper of the Tower was commissioned to make away w