d to them. The depositions before the council were
declared sufficient ground for his condemnation; and in spite of the
opposition of some spirited and upright members of the house of commons,
a sentence was pronounced, in obedience to which, in March 1549, he was
conducted to the scaffold.

The timely removal of this bad and dangerous man, however illegal and
unwarrantable the means by which it was accomplished, deserves to be
regarded as the first of those signal escapes with which the life of
Elizabeth so remarkably abounds. Her attachment for Seymour, certainly
the earliest, was perhaps also the strongest, impression of the tender
kind which her heart was destined to receive; and though there may be a
probability that in this, as in subsequent instances, where her
inclinations seemed most to favor the wishes of her suitors, her
characteristic caution would have interfered to withhold her from an
irrevocable engagement, it might not much longer have been in her power
to recede with honor, or even, if the designs of Seymour had prospered,
with safety.

The original pieces relative to this affair have fortunately been
preserved, and furnish some very remarkable traits of the early
character of Elizabeth, and of the behaviour of those about her.

The confessions of Mrs. Ashley and of Parry before the privy-council,
contain all that is known of the conduct of the admiral towards their
lady during the lifetime of the queen. They seem to cast upon Mrs.
Ashley the double imputation of having suffered such behaviour to pass
before her eyes as she ought not to have endured for a moment, and of
having needlessly disclosed to Parry particulars respecting it which
reflected the utmost disgrace both on herself, the admiral, and her
pupil. Yet we know that Elizabeth, so far from resenting any thing that
Mrs. Ashley had either done or confessed, continued to love and favor
her in the highest degree, and after her accession promoted her husband
to a considerable office:--a circumstance which affords ground for
suspicion that some important secrets were in her possession respecting
later transactions between the princess and Seymour which she had
faithfully kept. It should also be observed in palliation of the
liberties which she accused the admiral of allowing to himself, and the
princess of enduring, that the period of Elizabeth's life to which these
particulars relate was only her fourteenth year.

We are told that she refused