aid, in a harsh tone. 'Lady Jane Grey--no! Guildford
Dudley has this day expiated his crimes on Tower Hill. His headless
trunk is already buried beneath the pavement where traitors lie.'

"'Oh no, no; in mercy unsay the word!' shrieked the Lady Jane, and
with one quick sob she sank lifeless to the earth, while Margaret sank
beside her. We won't really sink, I think, Bessie, because the grass
stains our clothes so, and they get so mussed up. Wealthy says she
can't imagine what I do to my things; there was so much grass-green in
them that it greened all the water in the tub last wash, she told
mother; that was when we played the Coramantic Captive, you know, and
I had to keep fainting all the time. We'll just make believe we sank,
I guess.

"'Rouse yourself, Lady,' went on the stern warrior 'I have more to
communicate. You are my prisoner. Here is the warrant to arrest you,
and the soldiers wait outside.'

"One dizzy moment, and Lady Jane rallied the spirit of her race. Her
face was deadly pale, but she never looked more lovely.

"'I am ready,' she said, with calm dignity; 'only give me time to
breathe one prayer,' and, sinking at the foot of her crucifix, she
breathed an Ave Maria in such melodious tones that all present
refrained from tears.

"'Lead on,' she murmured.

"We now pass to the scene of execution," proceeded Eyebright, whose
greatest gift as a storyteller was her power of getting over difficult
parts of the narrative in a sort of inspired, rapid way. "I guess we
won't have any trial, Bessie, because trials are so hard, and I don't
know exactly how to do them. It was a chill morning in early spring.
The sun had hid his face from the awful spectacle. The bell was
tolling, the crowd assembled, and the executioner stood leaning on the
handle of his dreadful axe. The block was ready!--"

"Oh, Eyebright, it is awful!" interposed Bessie, on the point of
tears.

"At last the door of the Tower opened," went on the relentless
Eyebright, "and the slender form of the Lady Jane appeared, led by the
captain of the guard, and followed by a long procession of monks and
soldiers. Her faithful Margaret was by her side, drowned in tears. She
was so young, so fair and so sweet that all hearts pitied her, and
when she turned to the priest and said, 'Fa-ther, do not we-ep'--"

Eyebright here broke down and began to cry. As for Bessie, she had
been sobbing hard, with her handkerchief over her eyes for nearly two
minutes