rmined to so influence the young King that he would break his
father's will, and leave the crown to Lady Jane Grey. He also determined
that, during the time necessary to ripen his scheme, he would marry his
son, Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, in which event he would be the
father to a Queen of England, and if she did as he wished, to a Prince
Consort as well, which would exactly suit his ambition. So in different
ways the tangled threads of cruel circumstance were fast winding around
an innocent young victim, who was ignorant of them all as yet.

Several months after the death of King Henry, Thomas Seymour, whose ward
Lady Jane Grey now was, won the Dowager Queen Katherine's
affections--having been her lover before she married King Henry--and
they were privately wedded, after which Lady Jane Grey went to live with
them at Hanworth, in Middlesex, and it was her great joy to be once more
with the friend whom she so dearly loved, and to resume lessons under
her care. Princess Elizabeth was living there too, and the contrast
between these two young women was indeed striking. Both were fond of
books and were staunch Protestants and both were very young, Elizabeth
being then sixteen, and Jane four years younger, but while Elizabeth was
bold and free in her behaviour, Jane was the exact reverse, being so
modestly reserved in manner and pure in thought that she won golden
praise from all who knew her well.

In a short time Katherine died, Lady Jane having been with her through
hours and days entirely too sad for such a young girl to have witnessed,
but as Katherine clung to Jane, the loving girl gave no heed to her own
grief or pain. The loss of his wife seemed a terrible blow to Thomas
Seymour who at once decided to break up his household, and to send Lady
Jane back to her father, but suddenly reconsidering, he wrote, begging
that after all he might keep her with him, saying, "My lady, my mother
shall and will, I doubt not, be as dear unto her as though she were her
own daughter, and for my own part, I shall continue her half-father, or
more. . . ."

But the Marquis was unwilling to agree to this proposition, and Lady
Jane who was now extremely pretty, went with her parents to Dorset
House, their London residence. Here Seymour visited the Marquis and
urged that Lady Jane be left in his care, repeating that he would try to
make a brilliant marriage for her with the King, but when he found that
her father would not consen