commanding them to assist her in the defence of her crown and person.
And she despatched a message to the council; by which she notified to
them, that her brother's death was no longer a secret to her, promised
them pardon for past offences, and required them immediately to give
orders for proclaiming her in London.[***]

* Heylin, p. 154.

** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 233.

*** Fox, vol. iii, p. 14.

Northumberland found that further dissimulation was fruitless: he
went to Sion House,[*] accompanied by the duke of Suffolk, the earl of
Pembroke, and others of the nobility; and he approached the lady Jane,
who resided there, with all the respect usually paid to the sovereign.
Jane was in a great measure ignorant of these transactions; and it
was with equal grief and surprise that she received intelligence of
them.[**] She was a lady of an amiable person, an engaging disposition,
accomplished parts; and being of an equal age with the late king, she
had received all her education with him, and seemed even to possess
greater facility in acquiring every part of manly and polite literature.
She had attained a familiar knowledge of the Roman and Greek languages,
besides modern tongues; had passed most of her time in an application to
learning; and expressed a great indifference for other occupations and
amusements usual with her sex and station. Roger Ascham, tutor to the
lady Elizabeth, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in
reading Plato, while the rest of the family were engaged in a party of
hunting in the park; and on his admiring the singularity of her choice,
she told him, that she received more pleasure from that author than the
others could reap from all their sport and gayety.[***] Her heart, full
of this passion for literature and the elegant arts, and of tenderness
towards her husband, who was deserving of her affections, had never
opened itself to the flattering allurements of ambition; and the
intelligence of her elevation to the throne was nowise agreeable to her.
She even refused to accept of the present; pleaded the preferable title
of the two princesses; expressed her dread of the consequences attending
an enterprise so dangerous, not to say so criminal; and desired to
remain in the private station in which she was born.

* Thuanus, lib. xiii. c. 10.

** Godwin in Kennet, p. 329. Heylin, p. 149. Burnet, vol.
ii. p. 234.

*** Ascham's Works, p. 222, 223.