I should tell you that the last king of Scotland, James the Fifth, was dead, and that his widow was a French lady, and ruled the kingdom, with the help of the Scottish nobles, for her little daughter, who was five years old. She and the nobles at that time were Papists, and would not allow Mary to marry the Protestant King Edward of England, but sent her to France, where she married a French prince, and was Queen of France for a little while. When the Protector Somerset came back from Scotland, the great Lords at first seemed glad to see him; but by degrees they made the young king think very ill of him. Besides, many hated Somerset for his pride. He pulled down several churches and bishops’ palaces, to make room for his own palace in the Strand. The great building that now stands in the same place is still called _Somerset House_. I am sorry to tell you that one of the Protector’s enemies was his own brother, Lord Seymour of Sudely, a very brave but bad man, who was the High Admiral of England. Now the Admiral wished to be the king’s guardian instead of Somerset; and he was trying to do this by force. So he was seized and tried; and his own brother, the Protector, signed the order for him to be beheaded. Somerset did this to save his own life; but soon after this his enemies grew too strong for him, and Lord Warwick, who had become the chief ruler, got the king to sign an order to behead Somerset. Although he was a king, the poor boy must have been very unhappy. He had been persuaded to order his own two uncles to be beheaded; and although he had two sisters, he could not make friends with them, because they were brought up to think all he did was wrong. [Illustration: The Protector Somerset accusing his Brother before King Edward VI.] The eldest was the daughter of Henry the Eighth’s first wife, Catherine of Arragon. She was twenty-one years older than the king, and she was a Papist, and hated all the Protestants, and the king most of all. The king’s second sister was the daughter of poor Queen Anne Boleyn. Her name was Elizabeth; she was a Protestant, and was only four years older than her brother, who loved her, and used to call her his “sweet sister Temperance.” He had one cousin, whom he saw often, and who was very beautiful and good, and loved learning; her name was Lady Jane Grey. I shall have a good deal to tell you about her, and how she used to read and learn as well as the little king.