But all in vain; and at last even Sir Robert gave
up the attempt, and wrote to the council that "the Lady Elizabeth hath a
good wit, and nothing is gotten of her but by great policy."

Lord Seymour of Sudleye, was beheaded for treason on Tower Hill, and
others, implicated in his plots, were variously punished; but even
"great policy" cannot squeeze a lie out of the truth, and Elizabeth was
finally declared free of the stain of treason.

Experience, which is a hard teacher, often brings to light the best that
is in us. It was so in this case. For, as one writer says: "The long and
harassing ordeal disclosed the splendid courage, the reticence, the rare
discretion, which were to carry the Princess through many an awful peril
in the years to come. Probably no event of her early girlhood went so
far toward making a woman of Elizabeth as did this miserable affair."

Within ten years thereafter the Lady Elizabeth ascended the throne
of England. Those ten years covered many strange events, many varying
fortunes--the death of her brother, the boy King Edward, the sad tragedy
of Lady Jane Grey, Wyatt's rebellion, the tanner's revolt, and all the
long horror of the reign of "Bloody Mary." You may read of all this in
history, and may see how, through it all, the young princess grew still
more firm of will, more self-reliant, wise, and strong, developing all
those peculiar qualities that helped to make her England's greatest
queen, and one of the most wonderful women in history. But through
all her long and most historic life,--a life of over seventy years,
forty-five of which were passed as England's queen,--scarce any incident
made so lasting an impression upon her as when, in Hatfield House, the
first shock of the false charge of treason fell upon the thoughtless
girl of fifteen in the midst of the Christmas revels.

CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN: THE GIRL OF THE NORTHERN FIORDS.

A.D. 1636.

There were tears and trouble in Stockholm; there was sorrow in
every house and hamlet in Sweden; there was consternation throughout
Protestant Europe. Gustavus Adolphus was dead! The "Lion of the North"
had fallen on the bloody and victorious field of Lutzen, and only a very
small girl of six stood as the representative of Sweden's royalty.

The States of Sweden--that is, the representatives of the different
sections and peoples of the kingdom--gathered in haste within the
Riddarhaus, or Hall of Assembly, in Stockholm. There was much anxi