ng line that Henry himself should be put out of the way, and, on
the very night of Margaret's arrival at the Tower, her husband was
assassinated in the room which had so long been his prison.

[Sidenote: Terrible reverse of fortune.]

Thus all Queen Margaret's bright hopes of happiness were, in two short
months, completely and forever destroyed. At the close of the month of
March she was the proud and happy queen of a monarch ruling over one
of the most wealthy and powerful kingdoms on the globe, and the mother
of a prince who was endowed with every personal grace and noble
accomplishment, affianced to a high-born, beautiful, and immensely
wealthy bride, and just entering what promised to be a long and
glorious career. In May, just two months later, she was childless and
a widow. Both her husband and her son were lying in bloody graves, and
she herself, fallen from her throne, was shut up, a helpless captive,
in a gloomy dungeon, with no prospect of deliverance before her to the
end of her days. The annals even of royalty, filled as they are with
examples of overwhelming calamity, can perhaps furnish no other
instance of so total and terrible reverse of fortune as this.

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION.

[Sidenote: The body of King Henry.]

On the day following the assassination of Henry, the body was taken
from the Tower and conveyed through the streets of London, with a
strong escort of armed men to guard it, to the Church of St. Paul's,
there to be publicly exhibited, as was customary on such occasions.
Such an exhibition was more necessary than usual in this case, as the
fact of Henry's death might, perhaps, have afterward been called in
question, and designing men might have continued to agitate the
country in his name, if there had not been the most positive proof
furnished to the public that he was no more.

[Illustration: View of Chertsey.]

[Sidenote: Borne away on the river to Chertsey.]

The body remained lying thus during the day. When night came, it was
taken away and carried down to Blackfriar's--a landing upon the river
nearly opposite Saint Paul's. Here there was a boat lying ready to
receive the hearse. It was lighted with torches, and the watermen were
at their oars. The hearse was put on board, and the body was thus
borne away, over the dark waters of the river, to the lonely
village of Chertsey, where it had been decided that he should be
interred.

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