r peace, and was placed under arrest until
her barge was ready and the tide served to bear her up stream to the
Tower. With her went a large guard of halberdiers and the Duke of Norfolk.
Thinking that she was being carried to her husband at Westminster, she was
composed and tranquil on the way; but when she found that the Traitors'
Gate of the Tower was her destination, her presence of mind deserted her.
Sir William Kingston, one of the chief conspirators in Mary's favour, and
governor of the fortress, stood upon the steps under the gloomy archway to
receive her, and in sign of custody took her by the arm as she ascended.
"I was received with greater ceremony the last time I entered here," she
cried indignantly; and as the heavy gates clanged behind her and the
portcullis dropped, she fell upon her knees and burst into a storm of
hysterical tears. Kingston and his wife did their best to tranquillise
her; but her passionate protestations of innocence made no impression upon
them.

Her brother, Lord Rochford, had, unknown to her, been a few hours before
lodged in the same fortress on the hideous and utterly unsupported charge
of incest with his sister; and Cromwell's drag-net was cast awide to bring
in all those whose names were connected, however loosely, with that of the
Queen by her servants, all of whom were tumbling over each other in their
haste to denounce their fallen mistress. Sir Thomas Weston and William
Brereton, with both of whom Anne had been fond of bandying questionable
compliments, were arrested on the 4th May; and on the 5th Sir Thomas
Wyatt, the poet, and a great friend of the King, was put under guard on
similar accusations. With regard to Wyatt there seems to have been no
doubt, as has been shown in an earlier chapter, that some love passages
had passed between him and Anne before her marriage; and there is
contemporary assertion to support the belief that their connection had not
been an innocent one;[155] but the case against him was finally dropped
and he was again taken into Henry's favour; a proof that there was no
evidence of any guilt on his part since Anne was Queen. He is asserted to
have begged Henry not to contract the marriage, and subsequently to have
reminded him that he had done so, confessing after her arrest that Anne
had been his mistress before she married the King.

The wretched woman babbled hysterically without cessation in her chamber
in the Tower; all her distraught ravings bei