ld by no means be buried in silence;
and the archbishop himself seemed the most proper person to disclose it
to the king. Cranmer, unwilling to speak on so delicate a subject, wrote
a narrative of the whole, and conveyed it to Henry, who was infinitely
astonished at the intelligence. So confident was he of the fidelity of
his consort, that at first he gave no credit to the information; and he
said to the privy-seal, to Lord Russel, high admiral, Sir Anthony Brown,
and Wriothesley, that he regarded the whole as a falsehood. Cranmer was
now in a very perilous situation; and had not full proof been found,
certain and inevitable destruction hung over him. The king's impatience,
however, and jealousy prompted him to search the matter to the bottom;
the privy-seal was ordered to examine Lascelles, who persisted in the
information he had given; and still appealed to his sister's testimony.
That nobleman next made a journey, under pretence of hunting, and went
to Sussex, where the woman at that time resided: he found her both
constant in her former intelligence, and particular as to the facts; and
the whole bore but too much the face of probability. Mannoc and Derham,
who were arrested at the same time, and examined by the chancellor, made
the queen's guilt entirely certain by their confession; and discovered
other particulars, which redounded still more to her dishonor. Three
maids of the family were admitted into her secrets; and some of them
had even passed the night in bed with her and her lovers. All the
examinations were laid before the king, who was so deeply affected, that
he remained a long time speechless, and at last burst into tears. He
found to his surprise, that his great skill in distinguishing a true
maid, of which he boasted in the case of Anne of Cleves, had failed him
in that of his present consort. The queen, being next questioned,
denied her guilt; but when informed that a full discovery was made, she
confessed that she had been criminal before marriage; and only insisted
that she had never been false to the king's bed. But as there was
evidence that one Colepepper had passed the night with her alone since
her marriage; and as it appeared that she had taken Derham, her old
paramour, into her service, she seemed to deserve little credit in this
asseveration; and the king, besides, was not of a humor to make any
difference between these degrees of guilt.

{1542.} Henry found that he could not by any means so f