merry with her." "We will have her here, darling, if
that will make thee merry," said the King. And before many days had gone,
Mary, with a full train of ladies, was brought from Hunsdon, magnificently
dressed, to Whitehall, where, in the great presence chamber, Henry and his
wife stood before the fire. The poor girl was almost overcome at the
tenderness of her reception, and fell upon her knees before her father and
his wife. Henry, as usual anxious to throw upon others the responsibility
of his ill-treatment of his daughter, turned to his Councillors, who stood
around, and said, "Some of you were desirous that I should put this jewel
to death." "That were a pity," quoth the Queen, "to have lost your
chiefest jewel of England."[180] The hint was too much for Mary, who
changed colour and fell into a swoon, greatly to her father's concern.

At length the day long yearned and prayed for by Henry came. Jane had for
some months lived in the strictest quietude, and prayers and masses for
her safe delivery were offered in the churches for weeks before. In
September she had travelled slowly to Hampton Court, and on the 12th
October 1537 a healthy son was born to her and Henry. The joy of the King
was great beyond words. The gross sensualist, old beyond his years, had in
vain hoped through all his sturdy youth for a boy, who, beyond reproach,
might bear his regal name. He had flouted Christendom and defied the
greatest powers on earth in order to marry a woman who might bear him a
man child. When she failed to do so, he had coldly stood aside whilst his
instruments defamed her and did her to death; and now, at last, in his
declining years, his prayer was answered, and the House of Tudor was
secure upon the future throne of England. Bonfires blazed and joy bells
rang throughout the land; feasts of unexampled bounteousness coarsely
brought home to the lieges the blessing that had come to save the country
from the calamity of a disputed succession. The Seymour brothers at once
became, next the King and his son, the most important personages in
England, the elder, Edward, being created Earl of Hertford, and both
receiving great additional grants of monastic lands. In the general
jubilation at the birth, the interests of the mother were forgotten. No
attempt appears to have been made to save her from the excitement that
surrounded her; and on the very day of her delivery she signed an
official letter "Jane the Quene" to Cromwell, dire