The rest of her sad story is quickly told. Owing to the ambition of her own father, and her husband's father, after the death of King Edward, she was, sorely against her own will, induced to claim the English crown. It was long before she yielded to the persuasion of Archbishop Cranmer, and, when she did so, it was with many tears, and these words, "If this right be truly mine, O gracious God, give me strength so to rule as to promote Thy honour, and my country's good!" Queen Mary, the right heir, was duly crowned, and, after ten days, Lady Jane Grey was informed by her own father that she was not, in reality, Queen. She was subsequently sent to the Tower, and after six months' imprisonment, the sentence of death was carried out on February 12th, 1554. Three short days were allowed for immediate preparation, during which Lady Jane calmly wrote to her father, and conversed with Dr. Feckenham, who tried to induce her to become a Romanist. This she firmly declined, though she did so with the greatest sweetness. Her last words are evidence of her hope and trust; as she laid her head upon the block, she said, in trembling tones, "Lord Jesus! receive my spirit!" and the short life of earth was merged in the eternal life of Heaven! IV. SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. Not very far from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, there is now a fine Gothic building, where the old mansion of the Hastings family formerly, and for centuries, had stood. The situation is lovely, for Donnington-park, with its large forest trees and magnificent old oaks, forms a more than usually beautiful surrounding to the extensive and immediate grounds. Those, to the north, were precipitous, and the broken craggy ground, with hanging woods, give additional charm to the sweeping valleys and alternating hills. To this venerable old English home, Lady Selina Shirley came, as the bride of Theophilus Hastings, ninth Earl of Huntingdon, when she was nearly twenty-one, from her own adjacent home, Stanton Harold, which lay between Donnington-park and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The two homes thus near, were singularly similar. For the home of Lady Selina's childhood was also a fine old edifice, very massive, with noble and spacious apartments, standing in the midst of an extensive park, with soft, swelling hills, and still softer green-clad vales. The tasteful grounds, too, were rendered more attractive by a large ornamental lake, which clearly mirrored a handsome stone bridge, as it lay peacefully resting against the sloping lawn. The church, with its pretty tower, adjoined the house, and Sunday after Sunday, the child, as she sat or stood in the old family pew, became familiar with the long inscriptions that were on the monuments of her own ancestors, and which plainly indicated that all, whatever the rank and station, must pass from the present to a future state.