after the
many injuries which he had received, opinion at Rome would not permit the
Pope to make advances until he was assured that they would be well
received; but some one would be sent in Casalis's name bringing
credentials from his Holiness.

Never since the world began was a dastardly assassination, if Anne Boleyn
was an innocent woman, rewarded with so universal a solicitation for the
friendship of the assassin. In England the effect was the same. Except by
the Lutherans, Anne had been universally hated, and the king was regarded
with the respectful compassion due to a man who had been cruelly injured.
The late marriage had been tolerated out of hope for the birth of the
Prince who was so passionately longed for. Even before the discovery of
Anne's conduct, a considerable party, with the Princess Mary among them,
had desired to see the King separated from her and married to some other
respectable woman. Jane Seymour had been talked about as a steady friend
of Catherine, and, when Catherine was gone, of the Princess. The King had
paid her attentions which, if Chapuys's stories were literally true--as
probably they were not--had been of a marked kind. In all respects she was
the opposite of Anne. She had plain features, pale complexion, a low
figure--in short, had no personal beauty, or any pretensions to it, with
nothing in her appearance to recommend her, except her youth. She was
about twenty-five years of age. She was not witty either, or brilliant;
but she was modest, quiet, with a strong understanding and rectitude of
principle, and, so far as her age and her opportunities allowed, she had
taken Mary's part at the court. Perhaps this had recommended her to Henry.
Whether he had himself ever seriously thought of dismissing Anne and
inviting Jane Seymour to take her place is very dubious; nor has anyone a
right to suppose that under such conditions Jane Seymour would have
regarded such a proposal as anything but an insult. How soon after the
detection of Anne's crime the intention was formed is equally
uncertain.[436] Every person at home and abroad regarded it as obvious
that he must marry some one, and marry at once. He himself professed to be
unwilling, "unless he was constrained by his subjects."

In Chapuys's letters, truth and lies are so intermixed that all his
personal stories must be received with distrust. Invariably, however, he
believed and reported the most scandalous rumours which he could hear.
E