e path, an old man kneeling beside the body of a female, which
he had partly dragged out of the lake. It was Tristram Lyndwood, and the
body was that of Mabel. Her tresses were dishevelled, and dripping with
wet, as were her garments; and her features white as marble. The old man
was weeping bitterly.

With Wyat, to dismount and grasp the cold hand of the hapless maiden was
the work of a moment.

"She is dead!" he cried, in a despairing voice, removing the dank
tresses from her brow, and imprinting a reverent kiss upon it.
"Dead!--lost to me for ever!"

"I found her entangled among those water-weeds," said Tristram, in tones
broken by emotion, "and had just dragged her to shore when you came up.
As you hope to prosper, now and hereafter, give her a decent burial. For
me all is over."

And, with a lamentable cry, he plunged into the lake, struck out to a
short distance, and then sank to rise no more.

THUS ENDS THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE CHRONICLE OF WINDSOR CASTLE

BOOK VI. JANE SEYMOUR

I.

Of Henry's Attachment to Jane Seymour.

ON the anniversary of Saint George, 1536, and exactly seven years from
the opening of this chronicle, Henry assembled the knights-companions
within Windsor Castle to hold the grand feast of the most noble Order of
the Garter.

Many important events had occurred in the wide interval thus suffered
to elapse. Wolsey had long since sunk under his reverses--for he never
regained the royal favour after his dismissal--and had expired at
Leicester Abbey, on the 26th November 1530.

But the sufferings of Catherine of Arragon were prolonged up to the
commencement of the year under consideration. After the divorce and the
elevation of Anne Boleyn to the throne in her stead, she withdrew to
Kimbolten Castle, where she dwelt in the greatest retirement, under the
style of the Princess Dowager. Finding her end approaching, she sent
a humble message to the king, imploring him to allow her one last
interview with her daughter, that she might bestow her blessing upon
her; but the request was refused.

A touching letter, however, which she wrote to the king on her
death-bed, moved him to tears; and having ejaculated a few expressions
of his sense of her many noble qualities, he retired to his closet
to indulge his grief in secret. Solemn obsequies were ordered to be
performed at Windsor and Greenwich on the day of her interment, and the
king and the whole of his retinue put on m