Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
History
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Women heroes
The scaffold on which the girl-queen was to close her stainless career
had been erected on the green opposite the White Tower. As soon as her
husband was dead the officers announced that the sheriffs waited to
attend her thither. And when she had gone down and been delivered into
their hands, the bystanders noted in her "a countenance so gravely
settled and with all modest and comely resolution, that not the least
symptom either of fear or grief could be perceived either in her
speech or motions; she was like one going to be united to her heart's
best and longest beloved."
So, like a martyr, crowned with glory, she went unto her death. Her
serene composure was scarcely shaken when, through an unfortunate
misunderstanding of the officer in command, she met on her way her
husband's headless trunk being borne to its last resting-place.
"Oh Guilford! Guilford!" she exclaimed; "the antepast is not so bitter
that you have tasted, and that I shall soon taste, as to make my flesh
tremble; it is nothing compared to the feast that you and I shall this
day partake of in heaven." This thought renewed her strength and
sustained and consoled, we might almost believe, by ministering
angels, she proceeded to the scaffold with as much grace and dignity
as if it were a wedding banquet that awaited her.
She was conducted by Sir John Brydges, the Lieutenant of the Tower,
and attended by her two waiting-women, Mrs. Elizabeth Tylney and Mrs.
Ellen. While these wept and sobbed bitterly, her eyes were dry, and
her countenance shone with the light of a sure and certain hope. She
read earnestly her manual of prayers. On reaching the place of
execution she saluted the lords and gentlemen present with unshaken
composure and infinite grace. No minister of her own Church had been
allowed to attend her, and she did not care to accept the services of
Feckenham, Queen Mary's confessor. She was not indifferent, however,
to his respectful sympathy and when bidding him farewell, she said:
"Go now; God grant you all your desires, and accept my own warm thanks
for your attentions to me; although, indeed, those attentions have
tried me more than death could now terrify me."
To the spectators she addressed a few gentle words, in admirable
keeping with the gentle tenor of her life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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