grown almost mad in the ardour of
this pursuit; for he declared Thomas a Becket a traitor, though he had
been dead so many years, and had his body dug up out of his grave. He
must have been as miraculous as the monks pretended, if they had told the
truth, for he was found with one head on his shoulders, and they had
shown another as his undoubted and genuine head ever since his death; it
had brought them vast sums of money, too. The gold and jewels on his
shrine filled two great chests, and eight men tottered as they carried
them away. How rich the monasteries were you may infer from the fact
that, when they were all suppressed, one hundred and thirty thousand
pounds a year--in those days an immense sum--came to the Crown.

These things were not done without causing great discontent among the
people. The monks had been good landlords and hospitable entertainers of
all travellers, and had been accustomed to give away a great deal of
corn, and fruit, and meat, and other things. In those days it was
difficult to change goods into money, in consequence of the roads being
very few and very bad, and the carts, and waggons of the worst
description; and they must either have given away some of the good things
they possessed in enormous quantities, or have suffered them to spoil and
moulder. So, many of the people missed what it was more agreeable to get
idly than to work for; and the monks who were driven out of their homes
and wandered about encouraged their discontent; and there were,
consequently, great risings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. These were
put down by terrific executions, from which the monks themselves did not
escape, and the King went on grunting and growling in his own fat way,
like a Royal pig.

I have told all this story of the religious houses at one time, to make
it plainer, and to get back to the King's domestic affairs.

The unfortunate Queen Catherine was by this time dead; and the King was
by this time as tired of his second Queen as he had been of his first. As
he had fallen in love with Anne when she was in the service of Catherine,
so he now fell in love with another lady in the service of Anne. See how
wicked deeds are punished, and how bitterly and self-reproachfully the
Queen must now have thought of her own rise to the throne! The new fancy
was a LADY JANE SEYMOUR; and the King no sooner set his mind on her, than
he resolved to have Anne Boleyn's head. So, he brought a number of
ch