apers after his arrest. The genuineness of the
document being so questionable, I have not thought well to reproduce it
here.

[158] Strype's _Cranmer_. Cranmer was at Croydon when Cromwell sent him
news of Anne's arrest, with the King's command that he should go to
Lambeth and stay there till further orders reached him. This letter was
written as soon as he arrived there.

[159] Much appears to have been made of a certain alleged death-bed
deposition of Lady Wingfield recently dead, who had been one of Anne's
attendants, and as it was asserted, the conniver of her amours. Exactly
what Lady Wingfield had confessed is not now known, nor the amount of
credence to be given to her declarations. They appear, however, to have
principally incriminated Anne with Smeaton, and, on the whole, the balance
of probability is that if Anne was guilty at all, which certainly was not
proved, as she had no fair trial or defence, it was with Smeaton. The
charge that she and Norreys had "imagined" the death of the King is
fantastically improbable.

[160] Godwin.

[161] "Je ne veux pas omettre qu'entre autres choses luy fust objecte pour
crime que sa soeur la putain avait dit a sa femme (_i.e._ Lady Rochford)
que le Roy n'estait habile en cas de soy copuler avec femme, et qu'il
navait ni vertu ni puissance." This accusation was handed to Rochford in
writing to answer, but to the dismay of the Court he read it out before
denying it. (Chapuys to the Emperor, 19th May. _Spanish Calendar._)

[162] Chapuys to Granvelle, 18th May 1536. See also Camden.

[163] Froude says Smeaton was hanged; but the evidence that he was
beheaded like the rest is the stronger.

[164] The whole question is exhaustively discussed by Mr. Friedmann in his
_Anne Boleyn_, to which I am indebted for several references on the
subject.

[165] Lady Kingston, who was present, hastened to send this news secretly
to Chapuys, who, bitter enemy as he was to Anne, to do him justice seems
to have been shocked at the disregard of legality in the procedure against
her.

[166] The curious gossip, Antonio de Guaras, a Spaniard, says that he got
into the fortress overnight. Constantine gives also a good account of the
execution, varying little from that of Guaras. The Portuguese account used
by Lingard and Froude confirms them.

[167] Chapuys to the Emperor, 19th May 1536. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[168] This was Cromwell's version as sent to the English agents in foreign
Court