part of the plot for aggrandisement of the Howards which began with the unscrupulous securing by Surrey of the son of Henry VIII at the cost of his sister’s honour; and ended with the death of Surrey as a traitor--a doom which his father only escaped by the King dying whilst the Act of Attainder was lying ready for his signature. If this reasoning be correct--though the data on which it is founded be meagre and without actual proof--as yet--the risk of Duchess Mary’s child born before her marriage must have been a terrible hazard. On one side perhaps the most powerful sceptre in the world as guerdon; on the other death and ruin of the child on which such hopes were built. No wonder then that Duchess Mary “almost fainted” when in the early dawn the King’s Commissioners conveyed to her the broad object of their coming. No wonder that freed by larger knowledge from the worst apprehension which could be for her, she announced her willingness to conceal nothing that she knew. That promise could not and would not have been made had the whole range of possibilities, which as yet no one suspected, been opened to their investigation. For even beyond the concern which she felt from the arbitrary power of the King and at the remorseless grip of the law, she had reason to doubt her own kin--the nearest of them--in such a struggle as was going on around them when the whole of the Empire, the Kingdom of England, France and Spain, and the Papacy were close to the melting-pot. It would have been but a poor look-out for a youth of a little more than a dozen years of age had fate made him the shuttlecock of such strenuous players who did not hold “fair play” as a primary rule of the game in which they were engaged. In his _Life of Elizabeth_, Gregario Leti concludes a panegyric on the Queen’s beauty with the following: “This was accompanied by such inward qualities that those who knew her were accustomed to say that heaven had given her such rare qualities that she was doubtless reserved for some great work in the world.” The Italian historian perhaps “builded better than he knew,” for whether the phrase applies to the one who is supposed to have occupied the throne or one who did so occupy it, it is equally true. The world at that crisis wanted just such an one as Elizabeth. All honour to her whosoever she may have been, boy or girl matters not. INDEX Ahasuerus, 111-114. Alcaçer-el-Kebir, battle of, 20-22, 25. Alvares, Matheus, 23. Althotas, 82. Ascham, Roger, letters of concerning Elizabeth, 316-318. Ashley, Mrs. Catherine, 284, 285, 298, 315, 321, 323, 324. Austin, “Beau,” murder of by John Law, 124, 134. Balsamo, Joseph, early life of, 80-82. Bank of England, early history of, 140-142. Banque Générale, founding of by John Law, 126. Banque Royale, control of by John Law, 127, 130. Berners Street Hoax, 252-254. Beugnot, Comte de, description of Cagliostro by, 86, 87. Bingham, Jinny, Mother Red-Cap, 186-189.