on his fellow-man.

This worst and most terrible injury is to burn the living victim in a
fire. That a woman could ever order this to be done would seem to be
incredible. Queen Mary, however, and her government, were so determined
to put down, at all hazards, all open disaffection to the Catholic
cause, that they did not give up the contest until they had burned
nearly three hundred persons by fire, of whom more than fifty were
women, and _four were children_! This horrible persecution was, however,
of no avail. Dissentients increased faster than they could be burned;
and such dreadful punishments became at last so intolerably odious to
the nation that they were obliged to desist, and then the various
ministers of state concerned in them attempted to throw off the blame
upon each other. The English nation have never forgiven Mary for these
atrocities. They gave her the name of Bloody Mary at the time, and she
has retained it to the present day. In one of the ancient histories of
the realm, at the head of the chapter devoted to Mary, there is placed,
as an appropriate emblem of the character of her reign, the picture of a
man writhing helplessly at a stake, with the flames curling around him,
and a ferocious-looking soldier standing by, stirring up the fire.

The various disappointments, vexations, and trials which Mary endured
toward the close of her life, had one good effect; they softened the
animosity which she had felt toward Elizabeth, and in the end something
like a friendship seemed to spring up between the sisters. Abandoned by
her husband, and looked upon with dislike or hatred by her subjects, and
disappointed in all her plans, she seemed to turn at last to Elizabeth
for companionship and comfort. The sisters visited each other. First
Elizabeth went to London to visit the queen, and was received with great
ceremony and parade. Then the queen went to Hatfield to visit the
princess, attended by a large company of ladies and gentlemen of the
court, and several days were spent there in festivities and rejoicings.
There were plays in the palace, and a bear-baiting in the court-yard,
and hunting in the park, and many other schemes of pleasure. This
renewal of friendly intercourse between the queen and the princess
brought the latter gradually out of her retirement. Now that the queen
began to evince a friendly spirit toward her, it was safe for others to
show her kindness and to pay her attention. The disposition to